Outmoded Beliefs And Superstitions

6. Outmoded Beliefs And Superstitions

Most people today are mere puppets dangling at the end of strings, skillfully manipulated by self-serving corporate interests.

For example, there are few Americans today who are not complete and willing serfs to the medico-drug-insurance complex. As we look around at our own friends, relatives and neighbors, we find that every one, almost without exception, goes regularly to a physician for a check-up, even though many physicians openly acknowledge that this is worthless. We recall years ago reading an article in the Long Beach newspaper, an article written by various physicians, which said, in effect, that such trips were a waste of money and meaningless, that nobody was perfect and that they were simply a means to an end, getting people to come on a regular basis to the physician of choice; and it did help to pay the rent!

Most people we know dutifully swallow their prescribed pills, submit to X rays at the slightest suggestion of “their” doctor, would never fail to keep their medical lifeline (their insurance policies) up to date, and grasp at the medical man every time they have the slightest ache or pain. Each one seems to be content with his “allergies” and his pills, having full confidence that somehow, in some way, “the doctors will find a ‘cure’ for whatever happens to ail him and the rest of suffering humankind.”

Just last week a friend sat in our family room and told how he had gladly and willingly volunteered himself as a guinea-pig for a mass experiment to test certain drugs proposed as a possible “cure” for diabetes. The group sponsoring this mass experiment with other people’s lives had apparently just received a multi-million dollar grant.

We gasped in horror at his news. There he sat at least 50 pounds overweight, highly flushed of face, wheezing and coughing as he talked—a prime candidate for a stroke, the mark of the needle plainly visible on his forearm. We inquired as to the nature of the injected drug. He didn’t know, other than that it was some NEW drug that “they” hoped would soon prove its merit.

We asked our friend, “Why?” Why had he let himself be injected by any chemical, to say nothing of permitting an unknown and untried substance, about which he knew nothing, to be introduced into his bloodstream? Did he not realize that introducing any foreign substance into the blood could, almost instantaneously, lead to anaphylactic shock, with instant death a distinct possibility? Our friend nodded his head. He agreed that Yes, all that could happen but, “You see,” he thoughtfully went on to say, “Unless all of us help these doctors, they never will find the cures for all these diseases.” Like a puppet on a string he had responded to the siren call of “Cure!”

Hygienists know that all this is pure hum-bug, anti-health and anti-scientific nonsense. They also know that this trust in the medical community and in their drugs dies hard. In the back of the head of almost every new client who comes to you for help will remain the thought that if THIS (meaning you) fails, he can always hurry back to the known and familiar ways of medicine.

Thus, the Hygienist must point his client in a new direction. He must prove that all drugs are anti-health. He must remind his clients, when the issue arises, as it will, that the medical community has had over 30 centuries to prove that drugs and their methods are instrumental in curing disease and that, in every instance, they have failed. Drugs and surgery cure nothing.

Clients must change their minds and, accordingly, their practices in this respect. All drugs are anti-health and so acknowledged by the very persons who prescribe them. They are known to damage the nervous structure and actually to destroy cells. Drugs suppress symptoms, but remove no cause. Clients must further understand that surgery removes an effect, but not the cause and unless, and until, the cause or causes are removed, the effect, the disease, will not only remain, even though temporarily abated, but will worsen. This, too, is an important change in thinking that every client must make before he can expect to improve his health.

It is true that most of the people who seek the help of a Life Scientist will be somewhat, if not totally, disillusioned about the effectiveness of medicines, at least in their case, even before they seek our help.

But, we should be aware of the fact that most of them know nothing whatsoever, or perhaps only a very little, about natural ways of healing. What you suggest to them is all foreign territory, a vast unknown, and like pioneers setting out for a new land, they have hope, but little else, because they presently lack knowledge.

It is the practitioner’s job, if s/he, can, to drive the nail into the coffin, to bury all faith in medicines and surgery as the way to health. We must get across to our clients the relationship between cause and effect. Our clients must be brought by us into an understanding of the scientific sense of removing cause before they can reasonably expect once again to know health. They must be convinced by your attitude and by how you look and by what you say that YOU, the Hygienic practitioner, possess knowledge of what they must do to accomplish their objective.

Another false belief that grasps the American mind like the tentacles of an octopus holds fast to a tasty morsel is the need for enormous amounts of protein, this belief, of course, having been promoted now for almost a century, as Life Scientist well know, by the meat and dairy and other self-serving interests, particularly and knowingly or unknowingly, by the recipients of large research grants indebted to corporate interests for their research monies.

“But, where do you get your protein?” becomes the plaintive cry of almost every new client when first faced by their new diets, so brainwashed have they been in this regard. One of our students in Sweden recently wrote us that “every adult male needs 250 grams of protein every day!” Where had he gotten this piece of information? Well, he had read it somewhere, he told us!

If a client has this or some similar idea etched in his mind, he must be deprogrammed. One can accomplish the required deprogramming only by substituting knowledge, an understanding of the scientific fact,’ for example, that the primary need of the human body is NOT for protein, but for single molecule carbohydrates, the kind abundantly supplied in fresh raw fruits. He must be instructed in the ways of catalysis and how the body recycles its discarded protein; about how the body, in fact, can change one kind of protein into another kind of protein as may be required for metabolic purposes; (that the body cannot and does not use protein, only amino acids, and that these are contained in fresh fruits which,  when eaten, save the person who eats fruits all the energy wasted in processing concentrated protein and complex carbohydrates, energy which can then be diverted to more constructive tasks. Unless true Hygienic knowledge becomes incorporated into the client’s subconscious, unless full perception on his part becomes a reality, all the doubt—the uneasiness which so limits progress—will remain.

Thousands of people, indeed millions, believe that herbs will restore a sick person to health. Health food stores stock their shelves with a wide variety of herbs. In fact, herb sales represent a major part of their income. Clients will surely ask you about this herb and that herb and why you do not recommend herbs? Or vitamins? Or brewer’s yeast? Or a host of other magic substances. As a student of Life Science, of Natural Hygiene, you have learned about all these things, or will learn about them. This information has all been carefully documented and planned for your enrichment, to arm you well so that you will be enabled to meet the needs of clients for new knowledge to replace the old beliefs and superstitions. Without confidence in your knowledge and in the program proposed to a client by you, that client will make only limited progress, if any.

The horror of fasting is a prime example of beliefs that die hard. The average person, particularly here in America, the land of Surfeit Plus, is firmly convinced that missing a, single meal will cause him extreme anguish. School children MUST be “fortified with a good breakfast!” This is gospel truth, not open to debate. Fasting is what starving people do! He knows from watching the boob tube what starving can do to a person. You can’t talk him into going without food!

Clients, therefore, must be given understanding of what the difference between fasting and starving is. Your new client will not understand that fasting, even for a short time, will allow the body to achieve a higher level of health and that prolonged fasting may well be the single most important way to be restored to a level of health such as s/he has not been privileged to know in an entire lifetime.

Clients must be disabused of their antipathy, even horror, of fasting, and this can only be accomplished when one imparts to the client the known facts about fasting, that it is a biologically well-accepted modality which provides the physiological rest required for healing to happen and to happen with the fastest possible speed.

6.1 Mike’s Story

Mike’s story illustrates just how difficult it can be sometimes to remove from the subconscious mind this fear of fasting. Mike, age 56, has had rheumatoid arthritis for some 15 years. He had been referred to us by a former client. We were told that he would be unable to come to our office because he could not negotiate steps and also, because of his condition, if he did come, he would have to stand during the entire consultation. We agreed, therefore, to make a house call.

We were deeply moved at our first meeting with Mike. There he stood, emaciated, tall, and straight as an arrow, propped up on crutches, his face wreathed in smiles. You see, he had been given hope by his friend.

We immediately know that Mike was in the advanced, final stages of rheumatoid arthritis. He had to be suffering great pain. His fingers were twisted and curved. He could barely move his head, one are was completely motionless. With his one moveable arm, Mike gestured for us to be seated and then he swung over to his chair, one especially designed for arthritics. It lowered him slowly and gently to a sitting position. The smile remained fixed on Mike’s face.

We knew that the only help for this man lay in fasting but Mike knew nothing of Life Science. His housekeeper, herself terribly obese and obviously diseased, provided him for breakfast boxed cereals and milk, sometimes followed by two eggs. Occasionally, he told us, he also had a glass of canned orange juice and always several cups of coffee. Luncheon was a sandwich, usually made of white bread spread with either canned tuna and mayonnaise or with peanut butter and jelly. At this meal he also had coffee. His evening meal was provided by “Meals for Millions” and consisted of some combination of the four basic groups. At this meal, he drank either milk or coffee.

Mike lived alone except for his housekeeper. He was a veteran living on his veteran’s pension. The housekeeper worked for room and board. She did the shopping, kept the premises reasonably clean and prepared two meals. It was obvious that Mike could not afford to go to a fasting institution, if he had been able to get there in his condition. After discussing the matter with him, it was obvious, too, that he wouldn’t have gone if he had been the wealthiest man in the world! Fasting, to Mike, was for those persons abandoned on a raft somewhere in mid-ocean, or for primitives living in some remote corner of far off India or Africa, certainly not for him.

Obviously, here was a crying need for change, so how did we accomplish it? We took baby steps, making small changes count. The first important change we suggested to Mike was to forego his usual breakfast in favor of a fruit breakfast. He agreed that he could do this. Then, we suggested that he reduce his coffee intake. Mike was quite enthusiastic about our suggested changes.

We remained with Mike about an hour and then left, promising to return in two weeks. We left him with the first lesson in our Applied Nutrition Course, the one that recounts the stages in the evolution of pathology. We felt this was probably a good way to begin Mike’s deprogramming and to establish in his mind the concept of change as it might apply to him, the idea that he might be able to retrace his own life script and some day return to health.

Before the two weeks were up, Mike was on the telephone. He had a special telephone hook-up which enabled him to talk into a speaker and thus did not have to hold a telephone. Otherwise he would have had no way to communicate with the outside world. He complained of extreme weakness and said that he had felt it necessary to resume having his two eggs for breakfast, eating them after he finished his fruit.

We felt it was time to go back for another visit. This time we went armed with Lesson Two which explains, in simple terms, some basic information about carbohydrates, fats and proteins. We reviewed again with Mike the biological evolution of pathology and he said he understood about where he was presently in the evolution, that he had some real tough sledding ahead but he was confident he could make it. We felt that Mike had progressed extremely well. He had changed from a man filled with doubts into a possibility thinker; one filled, indeed, with “Positivities.” Now, he was to acquire even more knowledge to fortify his conviction that change was possible. Old ideas and superstitions seem to fade and eventually disappear when replaced by knowledge and truth!

Within four months, Mike was eating two fruit meals a day, no longer ate his eggs every morning and was down to a single cup of coffee per meal. Of course, lacking his former stimulants, he became extremely weak, resting all day for the most part in his elevated bed. His bed was raised just high enough to permit Mike to slide out. You see, he cannot bend his legs, the knee joints have long since been removed surgically.

The housekeeper left to be replaced by a university student from mainland China, a fine young man who sets out sufficient fruit for two meals. He keeps the premises spotless. However, his school schedule leaves Mike alone all day.

By, this time, Mike had also eliminated all his vitamins, the steroids, and reduced his aspirin intake (or Tylenol) to 10 per day. Sometimes he had to grit his teeth to bear the pain, hut he did it. There was no need to suggest hot baths to relieve his agony. He was unable to get down into a tub. Then, Mike made a major decision. He was going to fast for one day. This was a banner day. We felt like firing the cannon and running up the flag of victory. Our man was to be wonderfully surprised. On his fast day, Mike found, to his amazement, that he had very little pain! However he felt dizzy and even weaker, a rather scary experience for someone who had to remain all day in bed and alone.

Several weeks ago, we went on our monthly visit to Mike. As usual, he was in bed and, also as usual, smiling. He recounted for us how well he was doing. He was able now to walk 15 times every day back and forth down the long hall to the living room. He could now move his head more and, perhaps most wonderful of all, he had so much more energy than just a few weeks ago. Mike announced that he had decided to take still another step forward. He would now have his two fruit meals per day and, for his evening meal, a salad plus a baked potato and avocado! Mike would no longer now be dependent on “Meals for Millions,” certainly a most worthy and commendable effort but one, unfortunately, which knows nothing about Natural Hygiene. Mike said he was convinced now that the principles of Natural Hygiene were correct principles which had already proved their worth to him. We encouraged him to go forward, that now his progress would accelerate. Mike’s eyes shone!

Just a few days ago, Mike telephoned. He had made up his mind. On his own, he was planning to fast—this time for 36 hours. He said he felt wonderful and had reduced the pain pills down now to only four pills a day. Mike wants it all now. He has discarded the old ideas, the old superstitions. He is well on the road to better health. He is still studying about Natural Hygiene, the study lessons propped up before him. Knowledge, even though imparted slowly, has wrought the miracle of change in Mike. It has brought conviction. He now knows that there is only one possible way to improve one’s health and that is by living healthfully.

6.2 Other Superstitions

Another superstition that is really hard to remove from the minds of clients is that in our meal planning, we have to adhere to the four basic food groups. My how some clients will argue about this totally erroneous concept. With such clients, it is well to be fortified with some good solid knowledge about how the human digestive system works. We always have ready a quart bottle, some vinegar and some baking soda. We put some water in the bottle and then add a little vinegar followed by a teaspoonful or so of the baking soda and Voila! It fizzes! Most of our clients have experienced this fizzing in their own stomachs often enough to see the connection. They receive a study lesson on the digestive system and they soon become disenchanted with the four basic groups concept, convinced that their own digestive disaster scene has been caused by incorrect food combinations. Understanding the digestive scene makes the idea of simple meals more understandable to them because, perhaps for the first time in their lives, they comprehend that the digestive process is a chemical, mechanical and electrical, very involved, process and that the more we add to the confusion by eating heterogeneous masses of foods, the less real nutrition will result. Why pay out all that money for food that never reaches the REAL you, the world of the cells!

Understanding how the digestive organs work, at least understanding this in gross terms, disabuses most clients of the idea that they can eat anything and everything, as and when they feel like eating, and still enjoy full health. It helps them to appreciate the scientifically-demonstrable fact that fruits are the foods to which we, by virtue of the structure and function of our digestive equipment, are best adapted and from which we humans will receive the finest nourishment. Making this adjustment in their thinking can change sick people into sturdy, strong, miraculously well people.

Clients must also disabuse their minds of the popular delusion, as Dr. Herbert M. Shelton terms it, that eating great quantities of food is necessary to health and strength. We used to believe that ourselves! We used to believe that it was necessary to provide great variety in order to enjoy our meals. Brandy, our collie, disabused us of that idea. Every morning, Brandy gets his dried figs and every  evening his baked corn meal cakes, his pinto beans, lettuce and his egg. Every evening, he starts to drool at the same time. He doesn’t need a clock! Every evening, he eats that same meal and then licks the bowl until it shines. Very rarely is his meal changed. Oh! Occasionally, we will substitute a piece of avocado for the egg, or a bit of cheese, but that is all. You see, Brandy doesn’t even want variety!

We notice that our birds eat certain things at just about the same hour every day, as do the rabbits and the moles and the desert squirrels. The beans fall from the mesquite trees and soon are all gone, hidden in burrows for sustenance during the winter months. Humans don’t require so much variety. They don’t need so much food. They sicken on complex meals. Yes! Sometimes necessity forces change upon us.

Another popular idea that is around these days is the concept that our bodies are crying for protein, for enormous amounts of protein. Clients find that change here is vital. Again knowledge of body happenings is the only way to bring about such change. They must learn that simple molecule carbohydrates are our primary need and that when these are in short supply, as happens on the usual protein-starch-fat-sugar diet of the average person in America today, energy levels fall, nerves become deranged and health fails.

Our clients are victims of their own transgressions, transgressions fostered by superstitions, beliefs and the mores of the times in which all of us live. The list of possible erroneous ideas held by individual clients would probably fill a library. Many are of modern origin, inculcated in the minds of the average person by direct and subliminal advertising; others have their origins in cultural mores which have been handed down from one generation to the next, perhaps for thousands of years. Many false ideas have also been inculcated in the minds of the very teachers who are presently instructing our children today, when they themselves sat as little children in the classrooms of their time. The “need” to be vaccinated against this or that virus or germ is a classic example of this last superstition.

It is the happy task of the informed practitioner to impart the knowledge which will light the lamp of conviction, that will bring about changes in thinking and changes in doing; the kind of changes required to make sick people well again.

Probably the most health-destroying of all superstitions is the one that has been around the longest: the idea that drugs can be instrumental in “curing” this or that ailment. Hygienists marvel that humans can be so stupid as to believe that taking more poisons into an already poisoned body will restore health to a sick person when strong men, in the prime of life, can be felled by the very same poison as surely as if penetrated in a vital organ by a well-aimed bullet!

But, that seems to be the perverseness of mankind. It is one of the great mysteries of the ages. Otherwise highly-intelligent men and women, all over the world, dutifully swallow their pills—Paul Erlich’s “magic bullets!” And all because their “doctor” tells them to!

Our clients do not possess our knowledge. Natural Hygiene is a totally strange concept to them, one about which they have grave doubts. They must be motivated by us to learn that health must be built; that it follows change; that we cannot poison ourselves into health, only into the grave!

To accomplish whatever changes are desirable in a client’s thinking and especially about the effectiveness of drugs in restoring health, we practitioners have to produce results! Our clients have to be shown by whatever means at our command that poisons kill, they do not and cannot become the instrument of health. We must show our clients that, when they continue to indulge the causes of disease, disease will happen; but when they choose to seek after health-promoting ways, then they will be enabled to stand aside in awe and watch their troubling disease replaced by health. This kind of change can only be brought about by education and, as Hygienists, we well know that it must come or health will remain an elusive impossibility.

6.3 The Case of Rev. Kim

The Rev. Kim case illustrates how changing one’s confidence in magic bullets into an understanding of the importance of living healthfully, of obtaining every day a full quota of all the biodynamic requisites of life, can also change sickness into health and even bind married couples together into an even closer relationship.

The Rev. had some kind of obscure disease that had been variously diagnosed. Nobody knew for sure what ailed him but, nevertheless, he had been prescribed numerous drugs, including a tranquilizing mood-altering drug. His condition had forced him to give up his pastoral duties and to go on a disability allowance. His wife had to work to support the two of them. There were several married children who lived out of state, so they were more or less on their own.

The Rev., it seems, was so depressed and frustrated by his inability to continue with his church work that he had actually become physically abusive as well as mentally so. In fact, his behavior and his treatment of his wife had become distinctly non-Christian!

Fortunately, someone called the Rev.’s attention to a course in Natural Hygiene that we were offering and both he and his wife enrolled. To this day, they say they don’t know why they enrolled, just that they must have been “led.”

This couple were both on drugs. In fact, they were swallowing pills “by the carload.” At this time, obviously, the only thing they had going for them was hope.

As they progressed in their learning, studying their lessons together, they began to make some simple changes. It wasn’t too long before they became private students and shortly thereafter the wife, and then the Rev., stopped taking their pills and adopted more Hygienic ways of eating and living. We will never forget how excited the Rev. was when he told us how “super” he felt on his daily breakfast of two bananas and 10 or 12 dates!

Well, to make a long story short, the Rev. now has his church back and his wife is now in an executive position with an important company. She confided to Dr. Elizabeth not too long ago that the Rev. is now more loving than ever. Two of their married children, after observing the transformation wrought in their parents, are now also “into” Natural Hygiene. Change can, indeed, be wonderful—and contagious!