Spread the Love

There is a story told about how Mother Theresa was approached by an activist gathering signatures against a war and she refused to sign his petition. “But you’re Mother Theresa and this is about stopping a war; why won’t you sign it?” She responds “Bring me a petition for Peace and I’ll sign it without hesitation”. The story illustrates the concept that you cannot fight for peace; you have to live it. As Ghandi said “Be the change you want to see in the world” - don’t just talk about it. In this period of turmoil in world affairs people of peace need to advocate the peaceful life. That is not to imply that we should ignore the bad things happening around us but rather that we focus our efforts in defusing acrimonious exchanges and to building viable alternatives that illustrate positive and respectful ways to improve life for everyone. This is the simplest demonstration of the adage ‘You get what you think about’. When you remove causes of conflict there is no conflict. The same is true of chronic disease; the vast majority of which self-inflicted. Too readily we accept diagnostic labels and allow them to define us. ‘I’ve got ….itis’ or ‘I’ve got ……Disorder’. Don’t sign that petition! A more positive perspective is to say “I’m currently suffering from ……… and am working to resolve it”. In the former situation you relate as a victim. In the second you are empowered to investigate, take action and cure yourself. Taking responsibility is a fundamental requisite to healing. Very soon you come to realise that the body will heal itself when provided with the right environment. Your responsibility is to create that environment in Body, Mind and Spirit and to extend the same care within your home, your workplace and your community. When you do you’ll find Peace breaking out everywhere. In the metaphysical philosophy described in ‘A Course in Miracles’ we live in a world dominated by Fear. The only requirement necessary to resolve our difficulties is Love. There is no shortage of Love, only our willingness to give it but the fearful, ego-driven attitude is to seek and exploit division with the underlying idea that there is not enough for everyone so it’s every man for himself. In truth, when we realise that Love is inexhaustible, we will spread it more freely. If we sense that there’s not enough love flowing in this world then simply spend the rest of your day, and the rest of your days, making sure that your tap is fully open.

Busy Work

It’s commonly said ‘Nature has no waste’. Dead animals are quickly reabsorbed as is foliage in the forest or plants at the end of their season. Some of nature’s processes are fast, some are slow, but all are efficient. Everything has its purpose, everything has its time. Only since the expansion of humanity has waste started to poison our planet. In the name of efficiency we ‘save time’ with prepacked meals that we eat in front of our TV screens before discarding the wrappers into landfill or into the oceans to drift for eons. Whole industries have been spawned to support this inefficient use of resources and to expand the variety of toxins that we expose ourselves to telling ourselves there’s no link to disease, it’s tomorrow’s problem. Eventually, perhaps tens of thousands of years later, nature will detoxify the planet from our spoilage but humankind probably won’t be here to see it. Instead we have just created unnecessary ‘busy work’ for the forces that govern our environment. Nature will not be mocked. Our rising temperatures are causing rising oceans and rising tempers as Pacific nations are descending beneath the waves and displaced peoples accuse an uncaring world. “Steady as she sinks”. The situation is reflected in our corporate institutions where inefficient use of resources requires ever increasing armies of administrators to satisfy the demands of a pointless bureaucracy. We introduce schemes of busy work that lead to corporate obesity with attendant problems paralleling diabetes in the individual. Just as peripheral neuropathy in the individual can lead to gangrene and amputation, poor communication within an organisation can lead to festering resentment, lack of contribution and ultimately to departmental restructuring if not closure. Busy work in organisations is dangerous. It’s easy to understand how mindless adherence to outdated processes embeds stagnation and stifles creativity. Vigilance is necessary to prevent busy work becoming ingrained in our organisations. Periodic attention to the underlying motive of the work, and regular reorientation toward our organisation’s mission can prevent enslavement to unproductive busy work. It also keeps alive worker’s interest and willing participation. It’s a short step to consider how the political life of our societies can become similarly afflicted. To me the extreme positions of the US Presidential candidates can be likened to the way in which cancer cells develop an ability to mask themselves from the body’s immune system. Everyone knows the system’s rotten but normal processes cannot stop it. Corporations are controlling puppet politicians and the voters’ efforts are relegated to national busy work. Political chemotherapy periodically knocks out union representation under the pretext of restoring democracy leaving decent society weakened. Meanwhile the cancerous growth of corporations continues to suck the life out of economies as society gets polarised into extremes of wealth and poverty. I guess the political equivalent of Gerson Therapy is to get back to first principles and allow a broad field of politicians to truly represent their electorate rather than the profiteering motives of the few. This will require regular inputs of pure green juice – fresh and eager, non-affiliated politicians to provide nourishment to parts of the country that have become neglected. We’ll also need a regular purge of corrupted politicians – a coffee enema, to keep turnover ‘regular’. In a properly functioning society citizens contribute their talents and skills willingly for the common good. There is no need for the distraction of ideological polarisation. There is no need for busy work to mask corruption and greed.

Pink Mist

Last week I joined thousands of others across the UK to support the fundraising efforts of one of our leading cancer charities. We all know someone affected by cancer and we all want to make a difference. What a shame most of our efforts are scandalously misdirected. Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM) is a brand owned by Astra Zenica, the producers of Tamoxifen, which is the most commonly prescribed chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer. When the World Health Organisation describes Tamoxifen as a probable Human Carcinogen what good comes from giving it to people already suffering from cancer? How does one put out a fire by spraying it with gasoline? BCAM supposedly intends to detect cancer early so that it can be more easily treated. Unfortunately, the outcome of mammography testing often results in false positive outcomes which leads to thousands of women undergoing unnecessary treatment. Again, since the use of ionising radiation itself causes cancer, regular mammography screening causes damage to sensitive tissue and over time increases the likelihood of breast cancer developing. Astra Zenica are using BCAM to cynically manipulate public perceptions of cancer and have us dreaming of a cure without addressing the cause. In this way they can continue to feed their profits at the expense of public health. ‘So if you’re so clever, what’s the cause of cancer?’ I don’t need to be particularly clever to read of the work of scientists such as Otto Warburg, who won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the metabolic processes of cancer over 80 years ago, or of today’s researchers like Thomas Seyfried who continue the exploration of cancer as a metabolic disease. Very simply, Warburg discovered that cancer cells use vast amounts of glucose to generate energy. They cannot use oxygen as other more efficient cells do, nor can they switch over to burning fats for fuel. This points to the most obvious treatment for cancer being to remove its fuel supply – restrict dietary glucose, and most especially, avoid all refined sugar. Can you imagine a Cancer Fundraiser Coffee Morning without biscuits and buns? In Irish mythology the warrior Cuchullain used to lose all reason when the angry ‘Red Mist’ descended upon him in battle. Today the term ‘Red Mist’ is more commonly attributed to the view from the sniper’s telescope. In my opinion the term rightly belongs in the arena of cancer research. The public should be incandescently angry at being misled and should target organisations that profit from their exploitation. This week the media has carried stories about the superior effectiveness of exercise over chemotherapy in the treatment of colon cancer. So, if you’re tempted to wear a pink T shirt and set off on a fundraising run, just know that the exercise itself, and the camaraderie in the crowd, provides the biggest benefit to you and your community. Astra Zenica doesn’t need your money; rather they need the Pink Mist of your contempt.