The following four sections are devoted to a discussion of specific illnesses. My underlying theme is medical science and the harm it does by its purely physical approach to the human body and its emphasis on material therapy. Let us take the common cold first, something almost everyone experiences at some time or other. Still unable to identify the origin of the common cold, medical science continues to attribute it to some airborne virus or allergic condition, but as I will explain, such thinking is well off the mark and is certain to he superseded very soon.
We believe that our bodies carry many congenital toxins, which cause smallpox, measles, whooping cough, and so on. There are doubtless many others that are unknown to us. The body tries to excrete the toxins through natural physiological actions – what we call purification. In this process toxins first accumulate in various parts of the body, tending to concentrate in areas where the nerves are more active. The most active nerves are in the upper body, especially in and around the head.
When awake, a person’s arms and legs may be at rest, but their eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, and especially brain, are in constant activity. That’s why toxins accumulate around the shoulders, neck, lymphatic glands in the neck, parotid glands, and in greatest concentration in and around the brain, including the medulla oblonqata. The toxins that gather in different parts of the body gradually coagulate over time until, at a certain point, a natural process of elimination begins.
Hardened toxins obstruct blood circulation and cause various symptoms of illness. Stiff neck and shoulders, headache, heaviness of the head, failing eyesight, impaired hearing and smell, nasal congestion, tooth decay, shortness of breath, slackness of limbs, lumbago, edema, and others are all such common symptoms. They erode the will to work and prevent a person from fulfilling his or her mission as a human being. To enable people to carry on their duties, God provided a means of purifying the body – disease is actually a cleansing of the blood. The outward symptoms may be unpleasant, but it is essential for health. Disease is among the greatest of God’s blessings. If somehow all sickness were obliterated from the face of the earth, the human race might gradually grow weaker and finally perish.
It probably seems contradictory to speak of the hope of a world without sickness, on the one hand, while being thankful for disease, on the other. When we envision a world without sickness, however, we mean a state when people have no more toxins to be purged. For u5, now, the purifying function of disease is what gives it meaning. If people were all free of toxins, there would be no need for purification, and disease would not occur From this it should be clear that disease is vital in the elimination of toxins, for it is purifying activity. In the case of a cold, fever usually develops first. Fever is nature’s method of breaking up and liquefying hardened toxic masses to facilitate their excretion. 45 soon as they are liquefied, the toxins begin moving toward the lungs in a manner that remains mysteriously unclear. With the administration of Johrei, the toxins liquefy and almost instantaneously move through muscle and bone into the lungs. If the dissolution of hardened toxins occurs in one or two places, it causes mild discomfort, but as more solid masses of toxins are affected by the purifying action, the symptoms become increasingly acute. That is how a slight cold can develop into something much worse.
Liquefied toxins enter the lungs quickly. If the fluid is thin, it comes right up and one can spit it out. Toxins in a more viscous state remain in the lungs for a time. They are eliminated by the pumping action of coughing and clearing the throat. Just as coughing produces phlegm, sneezing ejects nasal mucus. A headache, sore throat, tympanitis, inflamed lymphatic glands, and aching joint, groin, or some other are all the pain of nerve abrasion caused by dissolving toxins as they flow toward an outlet from the body. Thick ones are excreted as phlegm, nasal mucus, diarrhea, and so forth; watery ones come out as night sweat, urine, or other substances.
Thus, purification is performed naturally, in a rational way. That the Creator should have given us such functions seems almost miraculous. Seen in this light, illness is quite different from the unsolicited evil it usually appears to be. It is inconceivable that God created us only to torment us with illness and inhibit our activities. People were created to be in good health always. Human misconceptions, however, have caused toxins to form and accumulate; hence, the necessity to eliminate them. That is the essence of illness. In the case of a cold, if nature is allowed to have its way without any medical intervention, purification can progress to completion. Recovery will be smooth and one’s health will improve afterward. It is not necessarily a bad thing, therefore, to catch frequent colds. By letting purification run its course unobstructed each time we have a cold, we actually help to eventually eliminate the truly serious diseases.
Nonetheless, people regard purification in just the opposite way and do all they can to suppress it whenever they get ill, This misinterpretation of the symptoms that accompany purification as a sign of change for the worse has disastrous consequences. Wary of fever, people try to reduce body temperatures that rise above `normal’. By reducing fever, they force suspension of the process that dissolves toxins, which is why coughing and other symptoms also fade. The person seems to recover, but the net result is negative. Just when hardened toxins finally have begun to dissolve, medical treatment suppresses the dissolution activity and they coagulate once more.
Ice-cooling, poultices, medication, injections, and so forth, are all designed to prevent toxic masses from breaking up. They are clearly effective, for the symptoms of illness fade, but that is a sign that the toxins have hardened once more into non-activity. Believing he or she is cured, the patient is completely unaware that these methods tie the hands that are trying to purge the toxins. We often speak of complications of a cold; such developments are the consequence of attempts to suppress the natural purification that the body is trying to carry out. The friction created when anti-purification measures clash with the purification process simply protracts the cold symptoms. Even if the symptoms disappear, this only means that purification has been suppressed. The cold is not cured and will recur later. In summary, medical treatment does not cure illness; it only postpones its recurrence. A genuine cure is possible only when the body can get rid of toxins. When the body is cleansed, the cause of disease is removed. True healing helps the dissolution of toxins so that they are eliminated sooner and in greater volume when purification occurs. There is no other way to achieve true healing. Suppressing purification is like going into debt, The longer repayment is put off, the more interest accumulates. The debtor cannot repay all at once, and so he takes out another interest-bearing loan to help him out for a while. Sooner or later he will probably have to borrow more money.
Finally, the interest alone becomes so burdensome and the demands for repayment so strident that the situation is intolerable. The borrower is unable to repay the money, and the dissatisfied creditors attach both income and property. Finally, unable to meet their demands even then, the person goes bankrupt.
A cold acts the same way. If you clear your debts when payment is due, even if it means some hardship, the matter is closed. By borrowing again, you relieve your difficulties only temporarily. It is like taking medicine for temporary relief. With a cold, each deferment increases the volume of medicinal toxins until at last the body demands full purification all at once. Then such conditions as pneumonia arise. On the other hand, if creditors can count on the debtor’s solvency, they might settle for gradual repayment. A similar principle is at work in conditions like tuberculosis.