Secrets of the
Human Body and other Confessions
by Cornelis van Dalen
In promoting the 2006-2007 seminar programme of the School of New
Physis, I used the headline "Death Lurks in the Intestines" and as an eye catcher and a point of teaching the drawing
reproduced to the right. [Anatomical depictions from 1503 AD.] It raised several negative responses: some
thought the figure gruesome, others morbid. The title of the first
seminar also met with less enthusiasm. Well then, I certainly cooked
the goose, properly! These things we learn; but at the same time stand
firm, like all stubborn persons, to be correct in the title and the
drawing. And herewith stand to make amends.
“Death
Lurks in the Intestines”
Years ago when at a loose end I signed up to sell insurance. Oh! Ugh! I
was given the drill and also a list of words to use. The words that
people like the most are considered to be very useful for ‘getting the
message across.’ The most tragic word is death. Well, I am not one to
dispute that, but in the context of the seminar title, our intestinal
health is an indication of the state of our aliveness or morbidity,
however one views it. And since it is thought that ninety percent of
all people need intestinal cleansing and are healed and revitalised by
so doing, even those near their supposed end, then the subject is
worthy of pursuing.
In her daily work amongst the mortals in London, the Goddess S one day
confronted a sad and moribund looking individual working as bank
teller. She asked him out loudly: “Are you constipated?”
Those patient individuals queuing in the bank on hearing this smirked,
smiled, groaned, grinned, at the horror or the truth of the question.
He who has a proper bowel movement before breakfast in the morning is
happy and well! What comes of it is clarity of mind and a sense of
vigour. I heard of a legend from Ireland of a curse of madness which
was placed on a soul and the only relief he had of his mental torment,
was when he was evacuating his bowel. Think on it!
Many of the symptoms of mental ill health are tied to the condition of
the bowel. Croton-seed oil (Croton tiglium), a severe laxative, was
used in the lunatic asylums of past centuries to get their inmate’s
bowels moving. Constipation of the bowel is considered the underlying
source of all diseases of the colon. Why constipation occurs is
manifold, though poor diet and lack of water is prime. Worry, anxiety,
fear, sedentary lifestyle, irregular bowel movements from early
childhood, intestinal obstruction, excess use of purgatives
(laxatives), medicinal and recreational drugs, and anal lesions are
some factors. It is noted that these are also present in some forms of
insanity. Hence, croton-seed oil.
It is an axiom in Naturopathy to treat mental symptoms by treating the
bowel, and treat the bowel by treating the mind. This shows the
relationship of the two poles of the human – the upper (mental-nerve)
sphere and the lower (metabolic-limb) sphere. A female patient, age 40
years, suffered with what is termed irritable bowel syndrome, and when
asked this first started she replied: when studying for final school
A-level exams. This illustrates when the upper pole (mental activity)
through severe stress, permeates the lower pole (metabolic) and has for
years affected her digestion and elimination.
Belly
shapes and Belly Aches
Careful observation of patient’s diseases and their bowel shapes gave
the Austrian doctor F X Mayr (1875-1965) the impetus to record the
diagnostic criterion of real health of people’s bodies.[1] Healthy
abdomen means healthy organs and an upright posture. Mayr was able to
identify the shapes which indicated a sluggish bowel, inflammation and
flatulence: excrement bellies, inflammation bellies, gas bellies and
combinations of these three conditions. The perfect and healthy body
can be seen in Greek and Roman sculpture. He devised a treatment
programme which is now known as the Mayr Cure.
With a regimen of health, and inner cleansing through diet, fasting if
appropriate and if necessary herbs and other remedies a healthy body
shape will result. A person, who can walk upright, head held high,
feels that way inwardly.
Heal
the intestines, heal your life
Many people do not realise that the aid to health and to weight loss
and slimming is to heal the intestines. Bloating and the proliferation
of bacteria, intestines full of putrefying faecal matter, the source of
autointoxication; the swelling due to inflammation of the intestine
proper, should first be treated.
But the matter is more complicated than at first look. “Most intestinal
affections are merely reflexes of primary diseases; liver or spleen
affections may cause chronic constipation alternating with chronic
diarrhoea, painful or painless cramps etc. Renal calculus too, may
cause the most varied sorts of intestinal troubles…….” [2] These are
the words of Dr Johann Gottfried Rademacher (1772-1850). In his time he
cured many a desperate case by understanding these reflexes with his
organ remedies.
We live by destroying food through digestion within the abdomen. Life
is removed from the food; it is killed. It dies in order that the body
may live. Simply put, death lurks in the intestines all the time. In
another sense, many of the deaths caused by so-called bacteria, the
germs, come from the intestines. It has been shown that bacteria mutate
into more virulent forms, as we have learned through previous articles.
[3] The putrefaction of the bowel affects the quality of the blood. The
pneumonia, the hospital super bugs, septicaemia and more, come from
within the bowel. Death lurks in the intestine.
Pretiosa
Margarita Novella – a conception of Alchemy [4]
The drawing titled Pretiosa Margarita is dated 1503 and appears in
Alchemy and Mysticism by Alexander Roob, published by Taschen GmbH
2005, in the section Microcosm: Human Form Divine. I used this picture
for the very reasons it seemed to have been created: to illustrate the
concepts of alchemy which came to prominence in Europe in especially
from the 12th to the 17th century. The alchemist’s view of life was
later transformed into the modern scientific method.
The man in our picture [inset] does look a little startled. No, he
hasn’t had his bowels removed! His hands somewhat expressive, eyes wide
open. Within the body there lies an inner world – worlds within worlds.
It was not until the first half of the sixteenth century that
systematic dissections were carried out. It was Andreas Vesalius
(1514-1564) who brought newness to the then accepted understanding of
the fabric of the human body. Up till then all medical knowledge
adhered to was the work of the 3rd Century Roman physician Galen
(Claudius Galenus), who in turn based his understanding on animal
dissections, what he learned by the stitching up of gladiators at the
Coliseum, and the knowledge passed on from Greek perceptions. When
inquisitiveness about dissection arose in Renaissance Man, and was made
permissible by the church, many of Galen’s notions were proved
inaccurate.
Our startled illustration of the human becomes important for us as it
deliberately focuses on the major organs and the division of the body
into two halves by the diaphragm – referred to earlier as the two
poles. The four organs shown correspond to the four elements of
antiquity, as put forward by Greek Empedocles. Fire, Air, Water, and
Earth are represented in the Heart, Kidneys, Liver and Lungs
respectively.
When we glimpse this and can come to some feeling for the forces ever
present in the formation of the world, the body is indeed a wonder of
creation. One could well view the fact of ‘gas’ in the intestines as
the ‘air in the wrong place.’ Air is of the kidneys, based on
alchemical knowledge, and this has implications for the selection of
natural remedies.
New
Physis
The study of health and healing in the course of the eight seminars
conducted by New Physis is about exploring the secrets and myths of
antiquity, which are embodied in our illustration. And with the
addition of modern material knowledge, the human and the world is
exalted. It may be simplistic to come to know the four elements as the
four organs, but they are also expressed in the four temperaments of
the human: the choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic and the melancholic. The
way we are and behave is constitutional; what we are and what you can
become is veiled in the temperaments, which work through the organs.
Thus, when we look at intestinal disorders, the consideration of the
person’s temperament comes into play. Modern medicine is very, very new
in the history of civilisation. Up till the late 19th century humeral
pathology was still practised, meaning any disorder was seen as an
imbalance of the humours: black bile, yellow, bile, phlegm, and blood.
The treatment of any and all disorders was through blood letting and
purging.
A doctor doing the rounds in the wards was happy when he
learned that the patient was constipated for then he could prescribe a
purgative. Today, with all the material knowledge, the antibiotic is
the first panacea to be offered. Which brings us back to the
intestines, for the medically much-abused antibiotic wreaks havoc
there, leading to many modern illnesses and deaths. Hospital acquired
infections as they are called are but one of the many. This is known
and it is no secret; tragically no one seems to be able to stop it.
Only you can – come and learn of the secrets of the human body – New
Physis await you.
© Cornelis van Dalen 2006
Endnotes:
1. Dr Erich Rauch, Die F.X. Mayr-Kur, Karl F. Haug Verlag GmbH
& Co, Heidelberg, 1991
2. AA Ramseyer, Rademacher’s Universal & Organ Remedies, B Jain
Publishers, India, 1999 reprint, p 41.
3. Cornelis van Dalen, Germs
& Pestilence New Physis Newsletter, #3; Germs are
Winning New Physis Newsletter, #3.
4. Pretiosa Margarita
Novella (The New Pearl of Great Price) by Petrus Bonus,
written about 1330-9. It is a work that influenced alchemy
for hundreds of years in which he strongly identified the philosopher’s
stone with the Christ. The title comes from the New Testament Gospel of
Matthew 13:36 – Inventa
autem una pretiosa margarita abiit et vendidit omnia quae habuit et
emit eam. “Who when he had found one pearl of
great price, went his way, and sold all that he had, and bought it.”
King James version.
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