A House Divided

Article #3: A House Divided

“A house divided cannot stand!” We are all familiar with this saying. It applies to families, to countries, and to professions. The voices are loud in extolling the advances of mankind, yet does it not seem paradoxical at this time in our history, when so much progress is reported in so many diverse fields, that we are witnessing so much confusion in the field of health science?

We walk on the moon and communicate to the far reaches of space. We explore the innermost depths of land and of sea with equipment and instruments from a never-never land of make-believe. More money, time and effort are probably being spent in research into the realm of disease than ever before in the long history of mankind. The amount of dollars expended in this country alone troubles the mind.

Astronomical sums are gathered each year for the investigation of our modern day scourges: arthritis, diabetes, cancer, multiple sclerosis and heart trouble. Name the disease and there is probably a fund being collected somewhere. Each year, with a regularity that provokes admiration, come the appeals for money, offering ever anew the hope of meaningful progress around some illusive corner. The hunters are on the loose, or so we are told, ready to search out and destroy all the deadly robbers of health—if they can only find them. But, it takes money! and MORE money! and still MORE!

Scientists, nutritionists, dieticians, physicians of all persuasions—all offer “cures,” “treatments,” and opinions, these latter being almost as diverse as the grains of sand on the shore of the sea! There are divisions within divisions. Preventive medicine is also a “Big Thing” but even here there is disagreement as to how to prevent disease in the first instance.

Where are the teachers of health? We do not find them among these. All seem to be concerned with the sick, with disease, few with health! How can we know anything about health when we concentrate solely on disease? Where are those who teach the laws of the body—laws which have always determined our state of being, whether we are healthy or whether we suffer from some degree of diminished health? Where are those who can show people how to build a health bank account and can point out and demonstrate forcefully by their own doing, the exciting and as yet unexplored realms of discovery that may lie ahead for the person whose health account is in good order?

Instead, depending on whom we consult, we may be told that our sickness is just a sign of the times. We probably suffer from acidosis or anemia, either a high or a low blood pressure. Perhaps we take too few calories, or could it be, too many? We no doubt eat “too little” protein. Everybody does, you know! Our metabolism is, without a doubt, sadly disarranged and our body chemistry is surely a mess. We need iron, or iodine, or folic acid, perhaps; and of course, Vitamins C, X, Y, and Z!

In all likelihood, too, we could use a little magnesium, potassium, zinc, or some other mineral right off the chemist’s shelf. And then, it’s easy to see that we must, of necessity, shed that pot-belly, or could it be that we could use just a wee bit more padding to balance us off? To top it all off, of course, our endocrine system is worn to a frazzle giving us severe emotional problems and we definitely need a few shots and a psychiatrist. And, of course, there’s always the possibility, too, that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with us. Of course, that’s it! It’s all in our mind and we’d better get with it, or else! And so, humankind sickens and dies, often prematurely and in great pain.

…Sickness is everywhere about us, but no one sees the message to be found in sickness. Sickness and death give way only to more of the same. The hope of humankind lies in understanding the ways of health—THE HYGIENIC WAY!

We Must Get Involved

A house which is so divided causes confusion and many problems. It gets nowhere. Therefore, we feel it is important for all of us, whether we are actually engaged in this business of teaching health or whether we are just ordinary persons who want to live out our days in joyful health—all of us must become more open-minded, more informed, so that we can get some new ideas. We must trade the consensus of sickness for the consensus of health. We must learn the Vital Laws of Life which are circumscribed for all living creatures, even Man, and we must understand that unless we live in accordance with these laws, that we have no choice but to become a part of the herd; a part of all the sick, the suffering and the diseased, all those who cry out in pain among our midst.

Man is so easily misled. He tends to place his trust in man instead of in Nature, which provides a grand design for man, a design planned to the last detail: the food he should eat and the environment in which he must live. Man has always tried to improve on Nature or to make Nature accommodate herself to his own ideas of the way things should be and the way they should be run.

It might, of course, be very nice indeed if all of our parts and systems would adapt themselves to our wishes and whims but, unfortunately, they just won’t! We are unable to change our physical equipment in any real way; it works in its own sequence and patterns to sustain life. So it appears, that at least for the present, we must learn to accommodate ourselves and our habits of living to our physical self because, if we refuse, the parts will wear out in far too short a time and we simply won’t have a chance to back up and try again for, you see, we will be very, very dead.

Excerpted  from “Superior life  Management”—5  study lessons—by Robert and Elizabeth McCarter.