Books: Nature Cure

H >> Henry Lindlahr >> Nature Cure

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The effect of violation of Nature's Laws on the physical human
organism are:

Lowered vitality. Abnormal composition of blood and lymph.
Accumulation of waste matter, morbid materials and poisons.

These conditions are identical with disease, because they tend to
lower, hinder or inhibit normal function (harmonious vibration) and
because they engender and promote destruction of living tissues.

(9) What Is Acute Disease?

What is commonly called acute disease is in reality the result of
Nature's efforts to eliminate from the organism waste matter,
foreign matter and poisons, and to repair injury to living tissues.
In other words, every so-called acute disease is the result of a
cleansing and healing effort of Nature. The real disease is lowered
vitality, abnormal composition of the vital fluids (blood and lymph)
and the resulting accumulation of waste materials and poisons.

(10) What Is Chronic Disease?

Chronic disease is a condition of the organism in which lowered
vibration (lowered vitality), due to the accumulation of waste
matter and poisons, with the consequent destruction of vital parts
and organs, has progressed to such an extent that Nature's
constructive and healing forces are no longer able to react against
the disease conditions by acute corrective efforts (healing crises).
Chronic disease is a condition of the organismin which the morbid
encumbrances have gained the ascendancy and prevent acute reaction
(healing crises) on the part of the constructive forces of Nature.
Chronic disease is the inability of the organism to react by acute
efforts or healing crises against constitutional disease conditions.

(11) What Is a Healing Crisis?

A healing crisis is an acute reaction, resulting from the ascendancy
of Nature's healing forces over disease conditions. Its tendency is
toward recovery, and it is, therefore, in conformity with Nature's
constructive principle.

(12) Are All Acute Reactions Healing Crises?

No, there are healing crises and disease crises.

(13) What Is a Disease Crisis?

A disease crisis is an acute reaction resulting from the ascendancy
of disease conditions over the healing forces of the organism. Its
tendency is toward fatal termination, and it is, therefore, in
conformity with Nature's destructive principle

(14) What Is Cure?

Cure is the readjustment of the human organism from abnormal to
normal conditions and functions.

(15) What Methods of Cure Are in Conformity with the Constructive
Principle in Nature?

Those methods which:

Establish normal surroundings and natural habits of life in accord
with Nature's Laws. Economize vital force. Build up the blood on a
natural basis, that is, supply the blood with its natural
constituents in right proportions. Promote the elimination of waste
matter and poisons without in any way injuring the human body.
Arouse the individual in the highest possible degree to the
consciousness of personal accountability and the necessity of
intelligent personal effort and self-help.

(16) Are Medicines in Conformity with the Constructive Principle in
Nature?

Medicines are in conformity with the constructive principle in
Nature insofar as they, in themselves, are not injurious and
destructive to the human organism and insofar as they act as tissue
foods and promote the neutralization and elimination of morbid
matter and poisons.

(17) Are Poisonous Drugs and Promiscuous Surgical Operations in
Conformity with the Constructive Principle in Nature?

Poisonous drugs and promiscuous operations are not usually in
conformity with the constructive principle in Nature, because:

They suppress acute diseases or reactions (crises), the cleaning and
healing efforts of Nature. They are in themselves harmful and
destructive to human life. Such treatment fosters the belief that
drugs and surgical operations can be substituted for obedience to
Nature's Laws and for personal effort and self-help.

(18) Is Metaphysical Healing in Conformity with the Constructive
Principle in Nature?

Metaphysical systems of healing are in conformity with the
constructive principle in Nature insofar as:

They do not interfere with or suppress Nature's healing efforts.
They awaken hope and confidence (therapeutic faith) and increase the
inflow of vital force into the organism.

They are not in conformity with the constructive principle in Nature
in so far as:

They fail to assist Nature's healing efforts. They ignore, obscure
and deny the laws of Nature and defy the dictates of reason and
common sense. They substitute, in the treatment of disease, a blind,
dogmatic belief in the wonder-working power of metaphysical formulas
and prayer for intelligent cooperation with Nature's constructive
forces for personal effort and self-help. They weaken the
consciousness of personal responsibility.

(19) Is Nature Cure in Conformity with the Constructive Principle in
Nature?

Nature Cure is in conformity with the constructive principle in
Nature because:

It teaches that the primary cause of weakness and disease is
disobedience to the laws of Nature. It arouses the individual to the
study of natural laws and demonstrates the necessity of strict
compliance with these laws. It strengthens the consciousness of
personal responsibility of the individual for his own status of
health and for the hereditary conditions, traits and tendencies of
his off-spring. It encourages personal effort and self-help. It
adapts surroundings and habits of life to natural laws. It assists
Nature's cleansing and healing efforts by simple natural means and
methods of treatment which are in no wise harmful or destructive to
health and life, and which are within the reach of everyone.

(20) What Are the Natural Methods of Living and of Treatment?

Return to Nature by the regulation of eating, drinking, breathing,
bathing, dressing, working, resting, thinking, the moral life,
sexual and social activities, etc., on a normal and natural basis.
Elementary remedies, such as water, air, light, earth cures,
magnetism, electricity, etc. Chemical remedies, such as scientific
food selection and combination, specific nutritional augmentation
with natural food concentrates, homeopathic medicines, simple herb
extracts and the vitochemical remedies. Mechanical remedies, such as
corrective gymnastics, massage, magnetic treatment, chiropractic or
osteopathic manipulation and, when indicated, surgery. Mental and
spiritual remedies, such as scientific relaxation, normal
suggestion, constructive thought, the prayer of faith, etc.

Chapter III

What Is Life?

In our study of the cause and character of disease we must endeavor
to begin at the beginning, and that is with LIFE itself, for the
processes of health, disease and cure are manifestations of that
which we call life, vitality, life elements, etc.

While endeavoring to fathom the mystery of life we soon realize,
however, that we are dealing with an ultimate which no human mind is
capable of solving or explaining. We can study and understand life
only in its manifestations, not in its origin and real essence.

There are two prevalent, but widely differing, conceptions of the
nature of life or vital force: the material and the vital.

The former looks upon life or vital force with all its physical,
mental and psychical phenomena as manifestations of the electric,
magnetic and chemical activities of the physical-material elements
composing the human organism. From this viewpoint, life is a sort of
spontaneous combustion, or, as one scientist expressed it, a
succession of fermentations.

This materialistic conception of life, however, has already become
obsolete among the more advanced biologists as a result of the
wonderful discoveries of modern science, which are fast bridging the
chasm between the material and the spiritual realms of being.

But medical science, as taught in the regular schools, is still
dominated by the old, crude, mechanical conception of vital force
and this, as we shall see, accounts for some of its gravest errors
of theory and of practice.

The vital conception of life, on the other hand, regards it as the
primary force of all forces, coming from the great central source of
all power.

This force, which permeates, heats and animates the entire created
universe, is the expression of the divine will, the "logos," the
"word" of the great creative intelligence. It is this divine energy
which sets in motion the whirls in the ether, the electric
corpuscles and ions that make up the different atoms and elements of
matter.

These corpuscles and ions are positive and negative forms of
electricity. Electricity is a form of energy. It is intelligent
energy; otherwise it could not move with that same wonderful
precision in the electrons of the atoms as in the suns and planets
of the sidereal universe.

This intelligent energy can have but one source: the will and the
intelligence of the Creator; as Swedenborg expresses it, "the great
central sun of the universe."

If this supreme intelligence should withdraw its energy, the
electrical charges (forms of energy) and with it the atoms,
elements, and the entire material universe would disappear in the
flash of a moment.

From this it appears that crude matter, instead of being the source
of life and of all its complicated mental and spiritual phenomena
(which assumption, on the face of it, is absurd), is only an
expression of the Life Force, itself a manifestation of the great
creative intelligence which some call God, others Nature, the
Oversoul, Brahma, Prana, etc., each one according to his best
understanding.

It is this supreme power and intelligence, acting in and through
every atom, molecule and cell in the human body, which is the true
healer, the vis medicatrix nature, which always endeavors to
repair, to heal and to restore the perfect type. All that the
physician can do is to remove obstructions and to establish normal
conditions within and around the patient, so that the healer within
can do his work to the best advantage.

Here the Christian Scientist will say: "That is exactly what we
claim. All is God, all is mind! There is no matter! Our attitude
toward disease is based on these facts."

Well, what of it, Brother Scientist? Suppose, in the final analysis,
matter is nothing but vibration, an expression of Divine Mind and
Will. That, for all practical purposes, does not justify me to deny
and to ignore its reality. Because I have an "all-mind" body, is it
advisable for me to place myself in the way of an "all-mind"
locomotive moving at the rate of sixty miles an hour?

The question is not what matter is in the final analysis, but how
matter affects us. We have to take it and treat it as we find it. We
must be as obedient to the laws of matter as to those of the higher
planes of being.

Life Is Vibratory

In the final analysis, all things in Nature, from a fleeti g thought
or emotion to the hardest piece of diamond or platinum, are modes of
motion or vibration. A few years ago physical science assumed that
an atom was the smallest imaginable part of a given element of
matter; that although infinitesimally small, it still represented
solid matter. Now, in the light of better evidence, we have good
reason to believe that there is no such thing as solid matter: that
every atom is made up of charges of negative and positive
electricity acting in and upon an omnipresent ether; that the
difference between an atom of iron and of hydrogen or any other
element consists solely in the number of electrical charges or
corpuscles it contains, and on the velocity with which these vibrate
around one another.

Thus the atom, which was thought to be the ultimate particle of
solid matter, is found to be a little universe in itself in which
corpuscles of electricity rotate or vibrate around one another like
the suns and planets in the sidereal universe. This explains what we
mean when we say life and matter are vibratory.

As early as 1863 John Newlands discovered that when he arranged the
elements of matter in the order of their atomic weight, they
displayed the same relationship to one another as do the tones in
the musical scale. Thus modern chemistry demonstrates the verity of
the music of the spheres--another visionary concept of ancient
mysticism. The individual atoms in themselves, as well as all the
atoms of matter in their relationship to one another, are
constructed and arranged in exact correspondence with the laws of
harmony. Therefore the entire sidereal universe is built on the laws
of music.

That which is orderly, lawful, good, beautiful, natural, healthy,
vibrates in unison with the harmonics of this great "Diapason of
Nature"; in other words, it is in alignment with the constructive
principle in Nature.

That which is disorderly, abnormal, ugly, unnatural, unhealthy,
vibrates in discord with Nature's harmonics. It is in alignment with
the destructive principle in Nature.

What we call "Inanimate Nature" is beautiful and orderly because it
plays in tune with the score of the Symphony of Life. Man alone can
play out of tune. This is his privilege, if he so chooses, by virtue
of his freedom of choice and action.

We can now better understand the definitions of health and of
disease, given in Chapter Two, "Catechism of Nature Cure" as
follows:

"Health is normal and harmonious vibration of the elements and
forces composing the human entity on the physical, mental, moral and
spiritual planes of being, in conformity with the constructive
principle of Nature applied to individual life."

"Disease is abnormal or inharmonious vibration of the elements and
forces composing the human entity on one or more planes of being, in
conformity with the destructive principle of Nature applied to
individual life."

The question naturally arising here is, "Normal or abnormal
vibration with what?" The answer is that the vibratory conditions of
the organism must be in harmony with Nature's established harmonic
relations in the physical, mental, moral, spiritual and psychical
realms of human life and action.

What Is an Established Harmonic Relation?

Let us see whether we cannot make this clear by a simile. If a watch
is in good condition, in harmonious vibration, its movement is so
adjusted that it coincides exactly, in point of time, with the
rotations of our earth around its axis. The established, regular
movement of the earth forms the basis of the established harmonic
relationship between the vibrations of a normal, healthy timepiece
and the revolutions of our planet. The watch has to vibrate in
unison with the harmonics of the planetary universe in order to be
normal, or in harmony.

In like manner, everything that is normal, natural, healthy, good,
beautiful must vibrate in unison with its correlated harmonics in
Nature.

Obedience the Only Salvation

Orthodox medical science attributes disease largely to accidental
causes: to chance infection by disease taints, germs or parasites;
to drafts, chills, wet feet, etc.

The religiously inclined frequently attribute disease and other
tribulations to the arbitrary rulings of an inscrutable Providence.

Christian Scientists tell us that sin, suffering, disease and all
other kinds of evil are only errors of mortal mind, or the products
of diseased imagination (though this in itself admits the existence
of something abnormal or diseased).

Nature Cure philosophy presents a rational concept of evil, its
cause and purpose, namely: that it is brought on by violation of
Nature's Laws; that it is corrective in its purpose; that it can be
overcome only by compliance with the law. There is no suffering,
disease or evil of any kind anywhere unless the law has been
transgressed somewhere by someone.

These transgressions of the law may be due to ignorance, to
indifference or to wilfulness and viciousness. The effects will
always be commensurate with the causes.

The science of natural living and healing shows clearly that what we
call disease is primarily Nature's effort to eliminate morbid matter
and to restore the normal functions of the body; that the processes
of disease are just as orderly in their way as everything else in
Nature; that we must not check or suppress them, but cooperate with
them. Thus we learn, slowly and laboriously, the all-important
lesson that "obedience to the law" is the only means of prevention
of disease, and the only cure.

The Fundamental Law of Cure, the Law of Action and Reaction, and the
Law of Crises, as revealed by the Nature Cure philosophy, impress
upon us the truth that there is nothing accidental or arbitrary in
the processes of health, disease and cure; that every changing
condition is either in harmony or in discord with the laws of our
being; that only by complete surrender and obedience to the law can
we attain and maintain perfect physical health.

Self-Control, the Master's Key

Thus Nature Cure brings home to us constantly and forcibly the
inexorable facts of natural law and the necessity of compliance with
the law. Herein lies its great educational value to the individual
and to the race. The man who has learned to master his habits and
his appetites so as to conform to Nature's Laws on the physical
plane, and who has thereby regained his bodily health, realizes that
personal effort and self-control are the Master's Key to all further
development on the mental and spiritual planes of being as well;
that self-mastery and unremitting and unselfish personal effort are
the only means of self-completion, of individual and social
salvation.

The naturist who has regained health and strength through obedience
to the laws of his being, enjoys a measure of self-content, gladness
of soul and enthusiasm which cannot be explained by the mere
possession of physical health. These highest and purest attainments
of the human soul are not the results of mere physical well-being,
but of the peace and harmony which come only from obedience to the
law. Such is the peace which passeth understanding.

Chapter IV

The Unity of Disease and Treatment

There exists a close resemblance between the mechanism and the
functions of a watch and of the human body. Their well-being is
subject to similar underlying laws and principles. Both a watch and
a human body may function abnormally as a result of accidental
injury or unfavorable external conditions, such as extreme heat or
cold, etc. However, in our present study of the causes of disease we
shall not consider accidental injury and hostile environment, but
confine ourselves to causes arising within the organism itself.

The watch may cease to vibrate in accord with the harmonics of our
planetary universe for several reasons. It may lose time or stand
still because (1) the wound spring has spent its force, or (2) its
parts are not made up of the right constituents, or (3) foreign
matter clogs or corrodes its mechanism.

Similarly, there exist three primary causes of disease and of
premature death of the physical body. These are:

Lowered vitality. Abnormal composition of blood and lymph.
Accumulation of morbid matter and poisons.

In the ultimate, disease and everything else that we designate as
evil are the result of transgressions of natural laws in thinking,
breathing, eating, dressing, working, resting, as well as in moral,
sexual and social conduct.

In Tables I and II, I have endeavored to present in concise and
comprehensive form the primary and the secondary causes or
manifestations of disease and the corresponding natural methods of
treatment.

TABLE I

~THE UNITY OF DISEASE AND TREATMENT~

Barring trauma (injury), advancing age and surroundings uncongenial
to human life, all causes of disease may be classified as given
below.

Violations of Nature's Laws in thinking, breathing, eating,
drinking, dressing, working, resting and in moral, sexual and social
conduct result in the following:

Primary and Secondary Causes of Disease

Primary Causes

Lowered vitality due to overwork, nightwork, excesses,
overstimulation, poisonous drugs and ill-advised surgical
operations. Abnormal composition of blood and lymph due to the
improper selection and combination of food, and especially the lack
of organic mineral salts and other essential nutritional elements.
Accumulation of waste matter, morbid matter and poisons due to the
first two causes, as well as to faulty diet, overeating, the use of
alcoholic and narcotic stimulants, drugs [both street and
prescription], vaccines, accidental poisoning and, last but not
least, to the suppression of acute diseases (Nature's cleansing and
healing efforts) by poisonous drugs and surgical operations.

Secondary Causes

Hereditary and constitutional taints of sycosis, scrofula, psora,
syphilis; mercurianism, cinchonism, iodism and many other forms of
chronic poisoning. Fevers, inflammations, skin eruptions, chronic
sinus discharges, ulcers, abscesses, germs, bacteria, parasites,
etc. Mechanical subluxations, distortions and displacements of bony
structures, muscles and ligaments; weakening and loss of reason,
will, and self-control resulting in negative, sensitive and
subjective conditions which open the way to nervous prostration,
control by other personalities (hypnotic influence, obsession,
possession); the different forms of insanity, epilepsy, petit mal,
etc.

Table II

~THE UNITY OF DISEASE AND TREATMENT~

In correspondence with the three primary causes of disease, Nature
Cure recognizes the following:

Natural Methods of Treatment

1. Return to Nature, or the establishment of normal habits and
surroundings, which necessitates:

Extension of consciousness by popular general and individual
education. The constant exercise of reason, will and self-control. A
return to natural habits of life in thinking, breathing, eating,
dressing, working, resting and in moral, sexual and social conduct.
Correction of mechanical defects and injuries by means of massage,
chiropractic or osteopathy, surgery and other mechanical methods of
treatment.

2. Economy of Vital Force, which necessitates:

Prevention of waste of vital force by the stoppage of all leaks.
Scientific relaxation, proper rest and sleep. Proper food selection,
magnetic treatment, etc. The right mental attitude.

3. Elimination, which necessitates:

Scientific selection and combination of food and drink. Judicious
fasting. Hydrotherapy (water cure). Light and air baths, friction.
Chiropratic or osteopathy, massage, and other manipulative
treatment. Correct breathing, curative gymnastics. Such medicinal
remedies as will build up the blood on a normal basis and supply the
system with the all-important mineral salts in organic form.

In the following chapters I shall endeavor to show that all the
different forms, phases and phenomena of disease arising within the
human organism, provided they are not caused by accident or external
conditions unfavorable to the existence of human life, can be
attributed to one or more of three primary causes (as outlined in
Tables I and II). When we succeed in proving that all disease
originates from a few simple causes, it will not seem so strange and
improbable that all disease can be cured by a few simple, natural
methods of living and of treatment. If Nature Cure can accomplish
this, it establishes its right to be classed with the exact
sciences.

The Three Primary Causes of Disease

We shall now consider the three primary causes of disease one by
one.

Lowered Vitality

There is a well-defined limit to the running of a watch. When the
wound spring has spent its force, the mechanism stops.

So also the living forms of vegetable, animal and human life seem to
be wound by Nature to run a certain length of time, in accordance
with the laws governing their growth and development. Even the
healthiest of animals living in the most congenial surroundings in
the freedom of Nature do not much exceed their allotted span of
life, nor do they fall much below it. As a rule, the longer the
period between birth and maturity, the longer the life of the
animal.

All the different families of mammalia, when living in freedom, live
closely up to the life period allotted to them by Nature. Man is the
only exception. It is claimed that according to the laws of
longevity his average length of life should be considerably over one
hundred years, while according to life insurance statistics, the
average is at present [1913] thirty-seven years. This shows an
immense discrepancy between the possible and the actual longevity of
man.

Even this brief span of life means little else than weakness,
physical and mental suffering and degeneracy for the majority of
mankind. Visiting physicians of the public schools in our large
cities report that seventy-five percent of all school children show
defective health in some way. Diagnosis from the Eye proves that the
remaining twenty-five percent are also more or less affected by
hereditary and acquired disease conditions. Christian Science says,
"There is no disease." Nature's records in the iris of the eye say
there is no perfect health.

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