6. The Six Steps To Perfection

1. The Problem

The client must now begin his personal transition to better living. The first step entails a clear recognition by him and the practitioner of the PROBLEM, its extent and its intensiveness. Various tools are pertinent here: the medical history, the diet profile, conversational give and take.

The client must realize that acknowledging the problem and/or the vulnerability to a particular condition is the first step to solving it and that, whatever this may be, it is capable of solution through the systematic application of proven Hygienic (truthful) practices and principles, all the concepts gained in this Life Science course. We must reach the subconscious mind and establish a BELIEF, perhaps not complete at this early stage, but beginning to emerge, the belief that, "YES! I CAN DO IT! I can make this transition!" The Master Plan Chart which follows can be used to good advantage as an explanatory tool.

2. The Plan

The second "P" toward Perfection is the formulation of the client's personal PLAN OF ACTION. In order to formulate such a plan the practitioner working with the client's cooperation must first examine the four categories of possible causes of illness (Poison Habits, Deficiencies in eating and living, Excesses in eating and living, and Emotional Causes) and then ferret out those considered most responsible for the client's present impairment. The Master Plan can prove useful here.

For example, clients will see that exercise is an organic requisite, part of the MASTER PLAN OF LIFE. If clients have heretofore lived rather sedentary lives, they will more readily accept the fact that now, if they desire to live better, in the full meaning of that term, then they MUST exercise. As part of their plan, a suitable exercise program should be included, this being one of their first "baby steps" to Perfection.

The Diet Profile must be studied and changes in the dietary regimen made as may be indicated. Each organic requisite in the Master Plan can be considered in turn until the client's own PLAN is complete.

As we were writing this section, the gentleman whom we met early in this lesson, Fred, telephoned. He is eating and enjoying his meals and, what is more, he is sleeping throughout the entire night now, something he has not been able to do since his wife's death. Additionally, the terrible gas pains that seemed to grab at his heart are completely gone. He confessed that be had been gripped by a fear that he, too, would die of cancer and, remembering his wife's years of torture, he had, at one time, even contemplated suicide. He called because he wanted his next appointment to be scheduled earlier, if possible. Fred is now in a hurry. He sees perfection now as a real possibility! And for him, too!

Clients must be brought to realize that they can no longer live in the "World of If." IF I had only eaten correctly! IF I had kept up with my tennis. IF I had only rested more and partied less! IF only I had accepted the responsibilities of being human. IF only I had not eaten all those horrible foodless junk foods! The World of IF must be laid aside. It is time to weed out all the causes of ill health, one by one, perhaps; or even all at once if that is so indicated.

Specific errors in lifestyle will be revealed by the client from time to time as confidence in the practitioner, and in Hygienic practices and philosophy, grows. Each should be addressed at the time.

The most difficult of all poison habits to identify are, without a doubt, those of emotional origin. The importance of the psyche upon physical wellness is also one of the most difficult to bring to the conscious attention of the client. Clients hesitate generally to advance to public view their private fears and to weigh the deadly effects of such imprinting.

Joan provides us an excellent example of how one client coped with a devastating emotional web of fears and sorrow. In her late 60s, Joan was a widow. She had recently buried her husband, a victim of cancer. She went through some of the early steps of transition hesitatingly because she had mental reservations. We had been working with her for well over a year before we found out that she harbored deep fears about her future. Alone, without close family ties, she wondered about her economic well-being, her health future, about her ending up her days in a nursing home like so many of her peers, or even perhaps in the agony of terror she had witnessed in her husband's last days. Fears and sorrow pervaded her very soul and limited her progress.

We encouraged this woman to join a bereavement group. There she found companionship. As she grew in health, she began to make plans. She sold her home, the upkeep of which cost her heavily, and subsequently moved into an apartment complex where she was constantly with people of all age groups, particularly at the little recreation center maintained by the owners. She began slowly to put her fears aside and the first thing we knew Joan was laughing again. And, as her joy in living increased, so did her wellness. Joan now looks for solutions, instead of suffering defeats.

Most of us have been brainwashed in the past and by current medical teachings to separate the cerebral centers from the rest of the body. In reality, however, this cannot be done, for our cerebral centers consist not only of isolated nervous matter but also of fluids which bathe the cells. By virtue of human design, these fluids have their composition regulated by the blood serum which, in turn, contains all the secretion emanating from all the cells of all the glands and tissues, these permeating and diffusing throughout the entire body.

Every organ contributes to the chemistry of the brain, as does every cell; and the brain imprinted thusly sends out its constant messages. There is not a square centimeter within the entire community of body cells that will not be imprinted by the distress of cerebral cells exhausted by emotional upheavals or by toxins contained in the fluids which sustain them.

An ever-present fear of what the future may bring can cause that future to materialize and become the present. Worry can impair and even paralyze the digestive organs. So it is, that hidden fears must be found and the client led into a deeper understanding of the importance of mind control. Positive action must replace the "If s" and concerns of the past.

The client and the practitioner both must comprehend that there is no such thing as suspended forward motion. For health to happen, we must change into health. This is why formulating a workable PLAN—one deemed so by clients themselves—is essential to future progress. If clients are ever to break the toxemia connection and begin a transition into better living, they must identify and recognize their problems, develop an understanding of possible causes of their problems, and then, with the practitioner's help and guidance, develop a sound, workable plan to solve the problems.

The practitioner must further impart to the client the concept that NOW is the time for him/her to take control of his/her own life, to learn intelligent self management, this to be based on sound physiologically-, biologically-, and anatomically-proven facts; that s/he can no longer afford to base wellness on demographic ally-controlled news releases, or on medical therapeutics which have failed in the past. S/he must now learn to manage the body and mind  intelligently according to the capabilities and limitations established by personal design.

All the familiar patterns of self-abuse must be penetrated, identified and corrected. This is why the PLAN can never be static. It must be subject to on-going change and modified from time to time to meet all specific needs as best they can be determined. It should be made quite clear that if the clients manage themselves well and supply adequately the needs of life (the Master Plan) they will begin to enjoy an ever-higher level of health. I they do not, of a certainty, the converse will rear its ugly head.

The Client Reports

Upon introduction of the initial changes, we ask the client to report back in seven days or, at least, within two weeks. S/he is encouraged to respond to such questions as: How did the stomach react to the dietary changes? Was the client able to sleep better? How many pounds were lost, if any? We encourage and note all positive responses. These serve to inspire both the client and the practitioner!

The holidays are always difficult times for newcomers to Natural Hygiene. Last Christmas we hosted a Christmas day party. We all enjoyed a Hygienic meal and the fellowship. No one missed the health-destroying practices so prevalent at this time of the year and it is interesting to report that few of our guests suffered from spring cold and not a one "enjoyed" having the flu. We will repeat this kind of party from time to time.

Unfortunately, some clients may meet with resistance from family members or from their peers, and so may begin to falter. It is essential for such as these to "psych" themselves into following their plan exactly. They must learn not to feel guilty about not eating or acting exactly as the other members of the family do, or as the masses. They can be helped over these difficult times by teaching them to reaffirm, over and over again, if need be, both silently and aloud, "I NEED to become healthier than I am. I NEED to eat this way. I MUST eat this way. I WANT to live better and the ONLY way I can enjoy life is to DO WHAT I MUST DO. Therefore, I WILL DO IT! PERIOD!"

Clients must reach, early on, an understanding that everything they may now hope to become depends on how well they meet their basic nutritive needs now. Students of this course have much knowledge to impart to those who seek their counsel. They know how to set up eating formats, about food quality, where to go to purchase organically-grown foods. They know which foods are best adapted to humans by virtue of their structural design and biological requirements. This must be imparted to the clients, else they will forever be dependent on other; Included in the PLAN must always be specific instruction on the subjects of air and water quality, the amount of food to be eaten at any one meal or throughout the day, a well as information on how and when to eat. There is much for clients to learn and so little time to share all the knowledge.

The time of transition is a learning experience. It is period that requires much change, both in thought an practice. Clients must learn the practices, the foods, the substances and forces that are anti-vital, destructive of body cells, of the life force. They must also learn how best to manage themselves into a new and better dimension of life. Ideally, it will progress from the simple initial physiological, physical and sensory, almost resting, phase to the first strange ways of assembling and eating foods; and then the coupling together of a host of helpful changes in the total lifestyle. At the conclusion of the transition, ideally, there should be full acceptance by the client of the Hygienic manner of eating and living, this having been encouraged by the positive results obtained.

The Story of Bess

The PROBLEM possessed by any one individual can be present in actuality, it can be of the here and now; as, for example, a painful arthritic condition; or it can exist in a VULNERABILITY, a predisposition by virtue of an inherited systemic weakness to some condition, either known or unknown. Erroneous cultural habits often lie at the root of such problems of "vulnerability." We inherit the cultural errors of our childhood teachers; not, in actuality, the tendency to a disease!

Bess, age 34, presents a classic example of the latter. When she first consulted us, she was beginning to experience some shaking in her hands which, under stress, became quite annoying. She recalled that her mother, toward the end of her days, had suffered from Parkinson's disease, the "shaking" sickness. Bess was terrified.

We worked out a plan for Bess which was new and strange to her but she followed it successfully for about six months. The shakiness disappeared, even when she found herself under stress. So, Bess became somewhat careless about working her plan and, being single, she began to go out with the girls now and then for a pizza, and then more and more frequently. She failed to keep an appointment, so we dismissed her from our client list.

After about a year, a penitent Bess was back in the fold, this time perhaps even more frightened than before. The shakiness had returned, so much so that she was no longer able to meet adequately the demands of her very responsible position. Her "vulnerability" had finally penetrated Bess' conscious mind. She knew now, with a far deeper understanding, that she was vulnerable in that her nervous system could not withstand the careless assaults she had been making upon it. All doubt about the need for her to live Hygienically was removed. She knew with a certainty that, from now on, she would have to invest in herself. She decided that she wanted to "let all of life in" and would invest her all in making this new life. This time she decided to take the important THIRD STEP toward Perfection.

3. Priority

Yes! Bess decided to make the attainment of superb health her FIRST PRIORITY. This is what psychologists refer to as "GETTING TO THE YES POINT." After reaping a sick harvest from following the ways of the masses, Bess found herself haunted by the sick shadows that walked beside her, ghosts of the past. Thus it was that reality brought her to the YES point. The attainment of superb health, by necessity, became her FIRST PRIORITY.

Previous to this point, of course, Bess had passed through a series of emotional storms wherein she resented the demands of her own Self. Thus, for a time, as many clients try to do, she attempted to fantasize herself into a higher state of wellness and so took the detour which led to many emotional, physical and mental skirmishes which put her back in touch with the realities of organic existence. She found that, like all humans, she was subject to organic laws. She had become submerged and actually enmeshed by FEELINGS instead of in touch with her real self. The results of her fantasizing feelings, instead of keeping in touch with her real self, and her completely unrealistic expectations, finally caused her to become aware, probably for the first time in her 34 years, of the systemic needs of self. This period of storm and uncertainty is often called the period of "Low Think." Bess survived it and has since adapted fairly well to her new way of life.

Clients can be helped to pass through the period of "Low Think," and then on to the establishment of superior health as their personal FIRST PRIORITY once they begin to see their own small successes as they follow a series of planned sequences. Printed, well-chosen study materials often can help a client to reach the extremely important understanding that the Hygienist has a larger view of nutrition than the simplistic views espoused by most dietitians and medicos. To the Hygienist, nutrition is not only a mechanical-chemical process vital to life, but also one that is intimately personal, involving, as is always true, emotional, cultural and psychological factors, mores, etc. To the Hygienist, nutrition includes everything that happens to food once it is introduced into the mouth: mastication, digestion, absorption, transportation, assimilation and, finally, elimination; and all the factors, influences and substances that can affect each or the whole. The Hygienist and the client must comprehend all these manifold aspects of the nutrition scene and also that all must be made as nearly perfect as possible, if full health is ever to be achieved.

If the clients decide that they now wish to break the toxemia connection and remove their burdensome toxic overloads, they must give active consideration to this most important aspect of self-management and follow through with intelligent implementation.

The transition period is, first and foremost, a learning experience of major proportions, one contrary, in most instances, to all previous training. It includes necessarily the development of an understanding that the client's previous heterogeneous manner of eating, drinking and living created systemic frenzy and failed to meet systemic needs. The client must learn that food is used by his/her body solely for replacement purposes. Additionally, s/he must acquire the knowledge that certain common practices, foods, substances and forces are anti-vital, and actually destructive of body cells and the life force. It must also include discovering how best to manage himself, often against considerable societal and personal odds, into a new and better dimension of life. Ideally, it will progress from the initial physiological, physical and sensory simple changes to the full acceptance of the Hygienic way of life. The practitioner should not forget that this is no mean feat!

But, it is this experience which can finally put clients back in ouch with themselves. They begin to love themselves so much that they no longer have any doubt that the attainment and maintenance of full health must become and remain their FIRST PRIORITY because upon their doing so, all else depends. This is when the client begins to reach an understanding of the practical value of expectations based on organic reality instead of on myths which lack life substance. This is when clients begin to take hold of conviction, and establish as their main purpose in life, the need to build as high a standard of wellness for themselves as it is possible for them to achieve. They will do this not only for themselves but also for the benefit of those they may happen to love and for society at large. Once the windows of the mind have been opened up, the clients can then enter into a new and hitherto untravelled dimension of their lives, one filled with undreamed-of opportunities.

4. Performance

The clients have their problems. With the practitioner's help, they have devised a plan. After a certain amount of accommodation and soul-searching, they have decided that they love themselves enough to make health-building the First Priority. Now they must work the plan, they must PERFORM.

As practicing Hygienists, we cannot accompany our clients home and supervise their performance. THEY must work their own plan.

Once the plan is instigated and in force, with the needs of the body now being adequately met, the cerebral powers begin to take a new direction according to the following organic law:

"When the quality of the food coming into the body is of higher quality than the tissues of which the body is made, the body immediately begins to discard all lower-grade cells and tissues which are then recycled. All usable materials are incorporated along with the incoming top-grade nutrients, and used to formulate and construct new and healthier tissues, this being accomplished in an ongoing, biological evolutionary process with each generation of cells being healthier than the preceding generation."

The client, for this reason and according to this law, must expect certain salubrious changes to become operational because his/her own body intelligence will, by due process, recognize immediately that certain improvements, both in lifestyle and in eating, are now forthcoming. Curative, health-building changes will begin which may prove disconcerting at times. It is at such times that the client necessarily becomes acquainted with the power of the only healing ability s/he has, a healing force resident wholly within. S/he has it ALL! And it is a powerful force that will always guide in the direction of perfection so long the Plan is followed. Having a workable plan and working the plan—PERSONAL PERFORMANCE—will inspire the required constructive INNER PERFORMANCE. Personal performance brings positive inner performance and its twin, Positive progress, not only physically, but also mentally and spiritually.

The client soon realizes that nature's efforts, unlike the drug response, are not due to simple chemical actions and reactions, but are, rather, vital changes, changes which have been designed with exactitude by the body's own intelligence to correct that which was incorrect, and that all such will be brought to a successful conclusion, in due course and as may be required, by cell destruction (catabolism) followed by cell multiplication (replication and cell formulation (anabolism). The quality of the performance will, as a certainty, determine the quality o the correcting vital work—and all will be under direction of the sympathetic nervous system.

To state our thesis simply, the client must discover to best to manage self (the Plan), reach the grand decision the First Priority; and then perform in order to realize this potential that lies sleeping within. Perfection awaits the willing performer and in the performing lies a world filled with creative processes intended to write a new life script one which increasingly witnesses the fulfillment of potential. All that is required of the client is that s/he bear faithful witness to organic authority.

Rubber-Banding

But being a faithful witness to organic authority is sometimes difficult for some clients. Often newcomers to Natural Hygiene have a tendency to revert, to go back to the old, palate-pleasing foods and their tantalizing former lifestyles, even though they may comprehend, at least at the surface of their minds, that these incorrect foods and habits are the very same ones that damaged them.

This very common tendency of people to revert to the more familiar past is called by some psychologists "RUBBER-BANDING," a snapping back into old habits that please instead of following new directions that challenge and even, at times, become painful. Adaptation and accommodation are required, both mentally and physically, if such snapping back is to be simply a momentary happening.

The practitioner should help clients to recognize the cause of this rubber-banding: receiving false instruction; which come either from a damaged body and mind OR from habitual happenings of the past, many of which were written in childhood memories and are illustrative of the child mind. As health-seekers, clients must now enter into their own new worlds, in which they will constantly receive new instructions of a much higher value instructions programmed by an awesome inner wisdom each designed to transport them into an ever-growing wellness of being.

Clients will make an easier transition if they accept the fact that they are not being deprived of something desirable but, rather, are being offered a splendid opportunity for ENRICHMENT! Once this awareness takes over, they are usually ready to adopt the new pattern for living and begin, too, to set forth their own goals, small reachable goals at first. The wise practitioner permits these easily-attainable goals and then goes on to encourage clients to take the necessary baby steps to reach Goal Number One. At that point, rubber-banding can often be avoided, if a period of adjustment taking a varying amount of time according to individual differences if allowed. This permits a time for body balancing.

When full accommodation has been reached, then Goal Number Two becomes a new challenge. This procedure is then followed until the desired level of wellness the achieved reality; the challenge has been met.

Such helpful guidance encourages clients because the) experience a rewarding pattern rather than feeling they an being deprived of something of value. In this way, the client is helped to assume the: "I AM IN CONTROL!" position instead of being locked in the "Low Think" jail of past imperfection and failure.

5. Patience

In working his/her plan, the client may not always progress in a straight line; indeed, few will. Many clients become beset with societal concerns that can have severe emotional impact. For example, clients may become worried that other people won't like them, that they may consider them "odd," or "different" from themselves.

Let us share a part of a letter we received just this morning from a young man who is beset with just this kind of emotional concern. A salesman, handsome, talented, witty, a man of many talents, had the early signs of rheumatoid arthritis. He was in considerable pain.

This young man, let's call him Kurt, began his program in a suicidal frame of mind. Because of his youth and willingness to perform, he made rapid progress and soon forgot about his former aches and pains. In their place, however, came a new worry, "I am getting too thin! I look like a skeleton," he complained. So, he reverted, at least partially, to his past. He became a rubber-band.

In his letter he dismisses us saying, "You have been a great help and inspiration in my life. ... I am not a true vegetarian. It didn't agree with me or my hectic lifestyle. (He has failed to understand that it may well have been his hectic lifestyle that led to his rheumatic ailment.) I just became too thin, felt weak and started feeling upset. Therefore, I have compromised. No hamburgers, steak, chops, etc. I just eat lots of chicken, fruit, vegetables, but still love mashed potatoes, etc. God bless you." and he signs his name.

This young man will return to Natural Hygiene. How do we know? Because his symptoms will return! As Dr. Shelton so well said, "We cannot disobey the laws of life with impunity."

We must encourage our clients to have the PATIENCE to let their bodies fully accomplish the necessary work. Otherwise, they fail and perhaps we ourselves fail to some extent. But, if we do our best, then, of course, we must learn to "let go." New Hygienists have a choice: to endure a hurting body, or to be content to let other people "do their own thing," to go their own way while they live into a new and higher level of health such that these others will never be privileged to experience.

Novices in the science of life must develop conviction of the correctness of their plan. This, of course, will come only as the fruit of knowledge, knowledge about themselves and how they fit in with the life process. They must get into life and realize just how important life really is, that it is worth their very best efforts. To make this adjustment can be difficult because all of us are so bombarded by herd mania, but patience will make it happen.

Knowledge can help to build a kind of security system around clients, one that will serve to protect them from outside negative comments, thoughts and forces. A security system based on knowledge coupled with a sense of the worthiness of self will often survive throughout the transition to perfection. Clients must not close the door of their mind to truth but rather they should learn to open it to organic reality.

Kurt, unfortunately perhaps, made too much progress and made it too rapidly, within a very few weeks. His pains left too quickly! He is now thinking, not about his future, but rather about all the pretty young girls he would like to date. We must expect this behavior, from time to time. Those who lack intelligence or who, like Kurt, possess false standards, may not complete their on-going journey toward perfection. They lack patience.

But, the vast majority will! They will come into a full realization that the body will do its own metabolic balancing, that it will somehow and in some manner discard all that needs to be discarded: all the putrid, messy, decaying filth that accumulated in the days before self became important. Kurt mistakenly believes he now has Perfection! Instead, he has been inspired by FIRST IMPROVEMENT to become a rubber-band. His lack of patience will prevent his reaching, at least for now, the ultimate goal of euphoric wellness.

Elderly persons can better appreciate the fact that they must get control of their mind and of themselves. They must have a full measure of patience, sufficient to get on with the involved work of health building.

We must do our best to teach clients to flow with the certainty of the life process, with conviction that there is no other way to have their desire, that perfectly functioning and peaceful body. We must exert our best efforts to develop the understanding that every mistake, every error, will leave a lasting imprint, that it will damage the body. Our clients must be led to appreciate the fact that, upon the patience they now manifest, will depend the quality of all their future life.

Learning about Natural Hygiene means learning about cooperation: all persons with themselves, and themselves and all others. We must do our best to teach our clients to look at life, to anticipate life, knowing that a full, enriched life will surely come to them, if they but have the necessary patience and will to let it happen.

6. Perseverance

The twin of patience is, of course, PERSEVERANCE. We humans can't put ourselves on "hold." We can't say "maybe" or "perhaps," or "next week." The body never remains in a static position. It will move either forward or backwards depending on whether or not we answer systemic needs, these varying from individual to individual.

As the energy level rises, or falls, this movement, whatever the direction, will begin to accelerate. So, once we embark on this transition to better living, we must persevere in the doing, knowing that our plan, our performance, our patience and our perseverance will reward us with gifts, enormous dividends, if you will; to name but a few, in the form of:

1. Improved health and peace of body and mind.
   
2. Economic dividends of immeasurable value.
   
3. Internal cleansing to set free formerly-wasted reserves of vitality, these providing an enlarged capacity to live always in health.
   
4. Reduction or total elimination of internal handicaps that restrain and limit functional excellence.
   
5. Provide new spiritual insight into life's meaning and one's purpose for living; a statement of "Why was I born? Why was I chosen to receive this precious gift of life?"
   
6. Remove our former dependence on manmade pseudo foods, drugs, potions, and all false stimulants.
   
7. Provide us with a new beginning, a new dimension of life that can be exciting, provocative, promising and immensely rewarding both to ourselves and to others.
8. Establish a permanent euphoric joy in living.
   
9. Provide a worthy example to others of what living Hygienically might possibly accomplish in the lives of those we meet as we travel our own life course.
10. A rare opportunity, known to but few, to write our own challenging life script and this, too, regardless of our chronological or physiological age.