The Law Of Stimulation

Article #2: The Law of Stimulation

The body “sounds an alarm,” in times of danger and immediately accelerates body action. Such is the effect whenever any toxic or irritating substance or influence is introduced into or upon the body. The system, under the controlled guidance of the brain and via the autonomic nervous network, then evaluates the situation and reacts with a suitable increased action, this action being impaired to an extent appropriate to the obstruction which is present. In other words, the amount of the impairment will be in direct proportion to the degree to which the action is accelerated.

All such increased action occasions an extra expenditure of the energy reserves ordinarily maintained by the body to cope with undue stress of any kind; for example, such increased action might be an extraordinarily high pulse rate. The result of this unusual expenditure, of course, is to lessen the availability of reserve power and, hence, of the ability of the individual adequately to meet challenges and stresses as they may arise at some future time.

We call anything which causes this increased action on the part of the body, a “stimulant.” Of course, the immediate effect of the stimulant is that which is most, evident, that the stimulant is working and doing “good”. This feeling of well-being is only temporary, however, since while the stimulant appears to do good, it is actually doing harm, the extent of the harm done being dependent upon, and in a precise ratio to, the amount of power called into play to produce the accelerated response, the feeling of well-being, of euphoria.

This is the Law of Stimulation. It reveals the physiological consequences of false deception. It pertains to all stimulants: drugs (vitamins, etc.), coffee, tea, cocoa, alcohol, nicotine, even to snake venom which is currently being extolled as a “miracle” treatment in the care of victims of muscular dystrophy, the effect of many of these stimulants being extremely exciting; and also to lesser ones such as the various herbs, onions, garlic and the like. All appear to do good, but all perform a disservice to the body in that they do lasting harm, the harm being due to the fact that they reach into the body’s energy reserves to accomplish the good they appear to do and offer nothing in return which is of lasting value. Their efforts are cumulative and remain with the person who employs them. The sense of euphoria occasioned by their use is always followed, in time, by a depression due to the expenditure of power required, as we have seen, to bring about the exhilaration in the first instance.

Certain stimulants are said to “act” on certain parts of the body as, for example, digitalis is said to “act” on the heart. The exact opposite is true. In this case, the heart is already weak and the digitalis only serves to weaken it further. All stimulants are useless to the body. They cannot become a part of the body; they cannot be turned into blood, flesh, or bone. They present an encumbrance to body action and, for this reason, a threat to efficiency and a hindrance to perfection.

The human body is designed for efficiency and for perfect performance. Accordingly, whenever it is threatened even in a miniscule way, it makes operational its defensive measures in an effort to eradicate from the system the threatening substance or influence. Thus, it will expend power beyond the norm to cleanse the body of the offensive substance and to prevent the resulting raid on the banked energy reserves.

Let us emphasize also that stimulants do far more than speed up the vital organs and related parts. They do far more than waste the vital reserves. In addition, and most importantly, stimulants such as tea, coffee, horseradish, alcohol, mustard and the like actually inflict an injury of some magnitude upon the very tissues with which they come in contact. In other words, their use wounds and hardens the cells and it is because of this wounding and the necessity thus imposed upon them by the danger to protect themselves from further injury, that the cells begin their defensive action, whatever it may be.

This defense may take place in degrees, the first amounting to little more than a mild exaltation, or increase, of cellular function. The milder the stimulant, the milder the irritation and the less the speeding up of cellular activity. This kind of stimulation, the kind that threatens cellular integrity, must always be differentiated from the stimulation and revitalization which are observed following proper nutrition which serves to renew body reserves. (Compensatory Stimulation.)

No tonic or drug will have an effect on a single tissue or on a single organ of the body, nor on just a few isolated tissues, organs or cells. The very physiology of the body, the fact that the blood flows freely to every unit of life within the total physical structure underscores the reality that such is impossible. The effects of any drug, of any tonic, of any other irritant are wholly systemic; that is, they are unlimited insofar as their area of involvement is concerned. The extent of systemic undermining, the damage done, is an individual affair, some persons being affected more, others less; but all being reduced to an extent in keeping with their individual strengths and weaknesses, simply because, for an immediate effect, they have sacrificed some unknown amount of the essentials of life: perhaps and surely, some irretrievable loss of energy plus an undeterminable amount of tissue damage which will remain as a handicap throughout life to efficiency of function, even though it be only in the form of weak scar tissue.

There is, of course, always the danger of pushing beyond the powers of life, as many a drug user has found out, too late. It is now simple for us to understand how and why this can occur when we realize that any stimulant which is uncompensated brings about the expenditure for the vital living power of the body, the force that sustains life. Stimulants do not and cannot supply this power. Once the power has been used, the person so depleted has lost it forever, and this is why the feeling of exhilaration induced by drugs is always followed by increased weakness. With the constant use of uncompensated stimulants, the force of life is gradually tapped and drained away. The lesson should be plain. The constant use of coffee, drugs, vitamins, even herbs, will slowly, or rapidly, destroy the essence of life as they are used and according to the inherited constitution of the user.

Let us make a further point. The action by the body is always forthcoming, always there, the extent to which it is exhibited being wholly dependent upon the power which is available. In other words, loss of vital power will be experienced by every person; the stronger the person, the stronger the response; the weaker the individual, the weaker will be the response.

We, of course, cannot see this expenditure of the body’s life immediately. We cannot  watch  an alcoholic, for example, and say, “Ah! Ha! There it goes!” Certainly not, but we do notice it as we are using it because in the using lies the stimulated euphoria. One moment the alcoholic’s hand may be trembling but give him a drink and he will soon be “on top of the world,” as we say, with all trembling gone. His euphoric state came from increased vital action which yielded up part of his “bank account.”

We only become conscious of our lack of energy after the bank account has been raided too often—when our power supply is too low. We can observe a similar circumstance in our car battery. When it has power in reserve, we are pleased with its performance but the very use of that power depletes its reserves and the time comes when the source of energy fails us to the extent, perhaps, that the lights no longer glow and the car will not start. We are not able to see the energy stored within the battery, we could only observe it at work—when the lights glowed and the motor hummed. The same is true of the human body. In sleep, we display no sign of the power gathering in the slumbering body. The stimulant causes the power to be used and brings no power with it to replace that which is expanded. Sound nutrition, on the other hand, always replaces the reserves which are expended in the performance of all of life’s activities. Sleep restores the energy bank.

Herbert M. Shelton states the Law of Stimulation as follows: “Under all circumstances, vitality or energy of any character whatever is invariably manifested or noticed by us, as energy, in its expenditure, never in its accumulation.” Herein, of course, lies the fallacy of modern medical practice as it pertains to the use of drugs to “cure.” We seem stronger when we use drugs (commercial vitamins and minerals are drugs) only by the expenditure of our vital force, but we grow weaker as we steadily draw upon the reserve energy supply of the body. Unfortunately, in today’s medical practice, the weaker the person is, the more it is thought that he must be propped up or goaded into a false sense of well-being by applying some drug or other means of “support” (as, for example, vitamins, mineral and other supplements).

The exact opposite, of course, should be the practice! The weaker the individual, the more he must be left alone to husband his resources, he must be left alone so that the pendulum of energy can swing once more in the opposite direction. Efforts to stimulate, sustain, and invigorate the tired, sick body by the use of any kind of tonic—the whipping effect—always produces an equal and opposite reaction—depression of both vigor and function. This is the Law of Stimulation and it is always in effect under all circumstances, in sickness and in health. False stimulation can produce no fruit of lasting value.

Reprint from: Lesson Four, “Decision for Health,” SUPERIOR LIFE MANAGEMENT by Drs. Robert and Elizabeth McCarter, 1980. Bionomics Health Research Institute, Tucson, Arizona.