When we speak, we use terms that describe certain circumstances. Whether you are standing before a shaman who tells you that the gods or spirits are angry with you and that’s why you are ill, or before a doctor who explains why you have diabetes – there is really only one thing that matters to you: getting healthy. Regardless of whether you attribute the things that happen to you to spirits or genes.
Both the doctor and the shaman know their remedies. One relies on the resources provided by the pharmaceutical industry, while the other goes into the forest to fetch roots, mushrooms, and plant parts, telling you how and when to consume them. Both will tell you that the core of the healing process lies in changing your behavior!
The chemical product may act faster, but the natural remedy acts more gently. Don’t get me wrong – both have their merits. In an acute emergency, I am grateful when a doctor can provide me with painkillers or other medications that offer immediate help, but in the long term, my health is something that lies in my own hands. And that applies to you too!
Thorwald Dethlefsen – a German esotericist – once published a book. “Illness as a Chance, Fate as a Path.” In it, he describes something indigenous peoples, still connected to Mother Earth, have known since childhood: If something does not do me good, perhaps even harms me, then I should stop doing it.
It’s that simple.
Applied to our modern society? You can work eighteen hours a day as a freelancer, snort coke, and pop amphetamines to stay awake and perform – you can. But you will pay a steep price very quickly. And is it worth it? Or would you rather change your life plan – which, per se, seems absolutely idiotic.
You see, you are going to die. When? No idea, but it’s just a fact. But what do you think you will take with you in that most difficult hour? All your money? Your real estate? Your vehicles? No. You will lie there, gasping for every breath, and believe me, time will stretch. Very, very long. Perhaps even an entire lifetime to look back on. And what will you have truly achieved?
If your life includes many moments that make you smile with satisfaction, wonderful. But our civilized society? It is designed for you and me to function. To fit into the system. Which apparently seems necessary. Since we have regulated everything, charted and measured and weighed it all, we are led by great personalities who, in their boundless wisdom, delegate everything for us! We no longer call them kings today; instead, they are politicians and experts.
They tell us, for the good of all, that we cannot sleep everywhere – for example, in forests. They tell us that we can’t do everything – like certain crafts and guilds. They tell us what we’re not allowed to consume – like magic mushrooms and the like. They excel at issuing rules and prohibitions, but please, these same people casually lead us into wars, and when it comes to protecting us, suddenly everything is a question of cost?
No. These people are not wise; they are utterly stupid, shameless, and dangerously reckless! And they are robbing us. Not only by taking 53% of our earned wealth without consulting us. That doesn’t satisfy them. Then there are various other fees, costs, and taxes … and even if they enslaved us, that still wouldn’t satisfy them.
Just look at the current debate about organ donation. Now they’re discussing shifting the definition of death. All patient data in a central database … well, if one of these leaders needs a new organ and you’re compatible? Then a cardiac arrest won’t be treated with resuscitation – instead, you will be processed further. But that fits well into our culture.
You see, don’t get me wrong. I’m not an opponent of science. On the contrary! But I see techniques being suppressed that could allow organs to be regenerated. Instead, people who might still have a chance are being killed. One is morally questionable, and the other is just not fast enough?
Ways of thinking and our primitive ancestors.
How primitive people were back then. They knew nothing of chemical structures, physical laws, or other scientific insights. They lived hand-to-mouth, and when things went wrong, they blamed the gods – some kind of intangible force that helped excuse their own mistakes. They must have done something wrong, perhaps failed to make an offering or planted the wrong crops, or raised the wrong animals?
Today, we’ve advanced. We’ve learned to do things better. Our plants grow protected in greenhouses, and our meat is produced industrially. Yes, we’ve even managed to optimize this life form itself. Less time needed to fatten the animals while, despite the lack of movement, they gain more muscle mass, more meat. And our fruits and vegetables are more resistant to certain pests and diseases – which is completely irrational since, as mentioned, most plants grow in very protected environments!
We don’t need to worry about scarcity because we produce in abundance. It was the same back in the day with grain and other natural foods – granaries have existed since the Stone Age. But grain alone is boring. So, we jar fruits and vegetables, boil them, destroying the essential nutrients that keep us healthy, and end up with products soaked in sugar, acids, and other chemicals, with an artificially consistent flavor thanks to synthetic aromas. But is it still food?
Today, we smile and laugh at our wild ancestors and take pride in our achievements. Especially our knowledge and progress!
Celebrate this when you next think about how, once upon a time, when mushrooms still came from the ground and peppers grew in fields, the taste was different, and so-called widespread diseases were more the exception than the rule.
Perhaps, despite all our overthinking, we are doing many things quite wrong …