The Power of Self Healing

Our search for natural health and other related matters started with the birth of our son. Actually, it started a little before that, when we were looking for a sympathetic gynecologist. And despite all the trouble we took to find a doctor who did not have a record of C-Sections, I ended up having one! It was later that we realised that whichever doctor we chose, the vision on health matters was more or less the same. The system makes them this way, for they do not really study health; they study medicine.

That was only the beginning. Twenty years ago, my mother and mother-in-law were badly brainwashed into believing whatever was written on a doctorÔÇÖs prescription was sanctum santorum. The ads that appeared on milk food add-ons and substitutes had a huge impact on them. My mother thought I was depriving my son of Bournvita which she believed was vital for his growth. My mother-in-law also had her own views: that women of my generation no longer produced enough milk to feed their babies and that I was starving mine. I had by this time found out that any woman who had given birth could breast-feed as long as the child demanded it. One does not have to consume milk to produce milk but consume a lot of fruits and vegetables. Anyway, nature makes you feel thirsty while feeding a baby. I remember always having a glass of water next to me while feeding.

One decision we had to take (for which we did not find any support from anyone in the family) was whether to vaccinate or not. I think this was the turning point for me. On this issue, I was initially undecided. Bharat was quite clear that it was only a large business aided by the government. He wrote to several groups to get at the truth. The reports that arrived were divided in their opinion. The ones that supported vaccination came from the medical fraternity, and the ones that did not were from outside India where people had started questioning it as more cases of iatrogenic illnesses started emerging.

With such a split vote, I was still undecided. And then Bebu got diarrhea. The family physician prescribed some medicine which I was wary of putting into his little body. I had discovered that on the corner of the bottle was written in very small print that an overdose was detrimental to children. I did not give him any medication and found that the diarrhea petered out on its own. After about a month, he got diarrhea again, and I merely waited for it to peter out. At this point, I realised that the body follows its own logic of assimilation, digestion and excretion and anything else is interference in the natural process of the body from finding its equilibrium.

For the last nineteen years, we have been letting the illnesses that afflict us run their course. At such times, we do a water fast or at the most consume only fruit or juice. We avoid grains or any such food during this time as we believe the energy should go towards detoxifying and not digestion.

When Zui was born, I merely implemented what I had learnt while raising Bebu. She was born eight years after him, in our home, with the help of an efficient mid-wife, after a thirty-six hour labour. Perhaps I should mention here that Zui, at the age of two, had what is conventionally called whooping cough. She coughed for about a month violently. The cough was accompanied by mucus. Once the mucus was eliminated, the coughing stopped. Imagine had she been given some medication, the mucus might still be stuck in her body!

The children have had the usual chicken-pox, mumps and measles. Bebu during his measles had a craving for watermelon, so we gave him only that. Children often know what they want and intuitively reject what is unsuitable for them at that time. On normal days, we have not been too strict with their diet, as they then crave to eat what other children eat. Just a few rules: eat your fruit in the morning, coconut water everyday, salads as much as possible and do not suppress any symptom.

We see that symptoms are in actuality the cure of the disease. Nowadays, ÔÇÿhealthÔÇÖ is seen as the absence of symptoms, and ÔÇÿdiseaseÔÇÖ as the presence of such symptoms. Many of the diseases we suffer from are classified in terms of their symptoms. Medicines aim at eliminating symptoms, but do not remove the root cause of the disease. The root cause of disease lies in the host of changes brought to our lifestyle and environment. To just treat the symptoms, does not fully heal a person. Symptoms exist for our protective benefit. They are the healing and detoxifying reaction of our bodies. This is why the symptoms should never be interfered with.

Modern medicines have been developed on the basis of the experience of people in the last 150-200 years while human beings are on this planet for several million years. I quote from Natural Hygiene practitioner, Dr. Bernarr: ÔÇ£Since life began on earth, our inherent intelligence within each cell of our bodies has learned to make the optimum adaptation and resolution, to any problem to which our bodies are subjected. Whatever stresses our bodies presently have, every cell of our bodies has successfully learned how to cope with such, previously. It is already built into our genes, our chromosomes and our DNA.ÔÇØ It is in terms of this total experience that we must look at the issue of health and disease.