Holistic Medicine

Beyond the Physical

Carol Head

• Publisher: Carol Head
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780994233516
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Medical Theory, Practice & Reference

In Holistic Medicine Dr Carol Head looks beyond the physical realms to explain how both spiritual and physical aspects make up the whole person. She explains in easy to understand language how the parts of each person influence the way their life unfolds and the illnesses they experience. Learn how our thinking and emotions affect our health and wellbeing. Discover how our physical symptoms can have a deeper meaning. Explore how our intuition can help us solve our problems. Understand how the process of chaos in our lives can be approached in healthier ways. Learn what holistic medicine is and discover how knowledge of holism can transform the way you look at life and illness.

PART ONE: The Human System

The soul is its own source of unfolding

Heraclitus

One - Who am I?

The human system is so immensely complex that to simplify it into an understandable model is impossible. Nevertheless, I am going to try. I will begin with the simplest ideas and gradually enlarge them and build on the basics. However, it is important to understand that the more you think about it the more confused you can sometimes become. So do not think too much, do not try to grasp the concepts too hard or they will slip away. Much of what we need to understand about ourselves we understand through experiencing it.

The simplest concept to begin with is that we are like the point zero symbol.

We are made up of two basic parts. The inner self – the point, and the outer self – the circle (zero).

The inner self, the point, is our essential nature, our soul. This is the part of us that at its very essence is unchanging and that makes us a unique individual. This deep self is also connected to everything else in ways we don’t fully understand. The connection is to other people but also to the whole system. Some people consider this part of our self to be our spiritual self. Others might call it the observing self.

The circle is, in simple terms, our outer persona, the face we show the world. It is also the connections we have with other people and things in the physical world. The circle also signifies the process of life that we continually undergo, the cycles of life that make it so hard to pin any of this down, because it is always changing form; life is always moving.

As humans we understand things in two main ways. We understand something by first breaking it down into its parts (reductionism) and then gaining an understanding of the whole thing. Or we accept or know that something is whole and we understand how it works through experiencing it. I will discuss this concept further when I look at how our minds work.

Inner self and outer self cannot be separated in real life because they are part of each other. However, to understand how we work as humans we need to delve into these parts. It is as if our whole self is made up of the inner self and the outer self but the two selves are involved in an intricate dance with each other. Outer self is always pulling away from the centre and expanding and inner self is always trying to contract. Outer self desires growth and expansion and inner self desires contraction and consolidation.1 We are like a plant growing towards the sun but if we don’t also grow into the earth, we will topple over.

Part of us is always looking for growth opportunities, changing in response to the external environment, and part of us is looking for safety and stability. This is like yin and yang. Yang is light, and expansive; yin is dark and contracting. We are made up of both these parts. Because we have these two parts, we sometimes feel as if we are being pulled in two directions.

Plants don’t look at it like that. Plants just live – they send parts of themselves up into the light, to grow and expand, and they send other parts deep into the earth, also to grow and expand but invisibly. Which part is the real plant?

Humans, unlike other species, have consciousness. We are conscious that we are, that we exist. The other side of this is that we are also partly unconscious. So while we believe we have control over our lives and over ourselves, this is only partly true. Our unconscious is also partly in charge, but it works in the dark, anchoring us, stopping us from toppling over. We don’t understand this side of ourselves and it scares the hell out of us. We fear this part of ourselves because we don’t understand it.

This unconscious earthing of the human system underpins the theory of holistic medicine. Holistic medicine is about helping people learn how to heal themselves. The unconscious processes that happen to us, that we believe are caused by external factors, are actually trying to bring about our healing. Healing is about becoming whole. We become whole (in the simplest of terms) when we balance the needs of our inner and outer selves. We balance the expansion and the contraction. We balance the growth and the consolidation. We grow towards the light and into the earth. We are pulled by a physical desire to be separate and individual, and a spiritual desire to be one with everything else.

Our balance is best served by allowing the expansion and contraction to occur naturally. It is like breathing in and out. But we have all forgotten how to do this naturally. Western society teaches us how to expand but not how to contract. We breathe in and in and in and then we can’t get the air out. We are full of good ideas and brilliant plans but we run ourselves into the ground because we have forgotten how to ground ourselves in the earth.

The human system is very similar to the sphere that is the planet earth. Take a look at the front cover and pay attention to what the earth looks like from space.

One half is light and one half is dark. This is what we are like. We are half light and half dark.

Most Western culture has classified the light and dark as opposing forces. It has divided life into a series of lines. In this way, Western society classifies everything – good and bad, right and wrong, god and devil, heaven and earth.

Much of Eastern culture in contrast (and remember this is contrast for the sake of contrast) takes the view that life on earth is not real, that our physical life is an illusion of the spirit. This view sees humans as spiritual beings whose only job is to reach enlightenment, and the way to enlightenment is to follow the light. It seeks to transcend the physical and become pure spirit.

The West aligns itself with the physical dimensions; the physical body and logical thinking. The East aligns itself with the spiritual dimensions; feelings and intuition.

Who is right?

Neither and both.

Neither is absolutely right and both are partially right.

Take another look at the earth.

Both Eastern and Western traditions seek to shed light on the dark side. In the west, we do this by adding more light. We shine our light on everything trying to find greater understanding. Similarly, in the east the task is enlightenment; bringing our conscious awareness to every part of our lives. So our whole lives become a struggle.

The earth does not need to be all light. In fact, if it were it would die, as it would if it were all dark. But we humans have convinced ourselves that dark is bad and light is good so we are always seeking more light.

The earth as a system has only one task. To stay alive. To do this it must try to stay in balance. As long as it can stay in balance it can stay alive. If it falls out of balance it will die. Of course, dying is not all that bad because it is part of the great cycle of life but for each person on earth, for each animal, for each plant, the whole aim of being here is to live. This may be self-evident but it seems we have forgotten it.

Living is not good enough any more. We think we have to live a certain way. Well, this model of holistic medicine says differently. All we have to do is live our life.

We are here to live.

We are here to live our cycle. The cycle is birth, life, death, birth, life, death. And no matter whether we believe this or not, this is the cycle. We can rage against this and convince ourselves that we do not have to die or that we do not have to live, but the reality of this world is that we will all die. This is part of the nature of the world we live in. We do not know what is beyond the three physical dimensions and we will not know until we die. But that is not the point of life. The point of life is to live so we can know and experience what life is all about.

This is the meaning of life – to live. To enter into the process of our very own life and see where it goes. To embrace our whole self and use our parts in the way they were intended.

Who am I?

I am human.

To be human is to embrace the whole self – the dark and the light, the physical and the spiritual, the conscious and the unconscious, the expansion and the contraction.

The inner and the outer self (dark and light, physical and spiritual, conscious and unconscious) are connected to each other. They are connected in two ways, and again we consider the earth.

Picture the earth again – it is half light, half dark. The light half is the conscious half. On this side, people are awake and active. The sun is fuelling physical growth and helping maintain the balance, but there are shadows where the sun does not reach. The dark half is the unconscious half. Here, people are asleep and refuelling themselves. The moon and stars are providing some light so it is never completely dark. Each half is mostly either light or dark with some of its opposite. This is the mix; this is the content of life.

Now picture the earth turning and see the edge of light taking over the dark. On the other side of the earth we would see the edge of dark taking over the light. As light recedes, dark expands, as dark recedes, light expands. This is part of the dance; this is the process of life.

Now picture the earth stopping still. Imagine what happens when the earth stops. Pretty soon – nothing. Life is as much about the movement and process as it is about the content and the parts. Process is the movement of our lives that occurs over time. There are no constants in life, it is always moving, always in process.

The Taoist symbol of yin and yang illustrates these concepts as well.

Yang is the light and yin is the dark. Some call yang physical and yin spiritual but for each of us this is different. For some of us our yang is more physical and for some it is more spiritual. This is dependent upon our individual makeup. For the moment, let’s just look at yang as light and yin as dark.

In yang there is a small bit of yin, and in yin there is also some yang. Each of us is made up of our unique mix of light and dark. Th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• PART ONE: The Human System
• PART TWO : The elements and the processes
• PART THREE: Holistic Theory
• PART FOUR: Holistic Medicine
• Bibliography