Modern Psychiatry - A Danger to Humanity

The total failure of modern psychiatry


by David Gutierrez, staff writer



(NaturalNews) Modern psychiatry went wrong when it embraced the idea that the mind should be treated with drugs, says Edward Shorter of the University of Toronto, writing in the Wall Street Journal.



Shorter studies the history of psychiatry and medicine.



Modern U.S. psychiatry has adopted a philosophy that psychological diseases arise from chemical imbalances and therefore have a very specific cluster of symptoms, he says, in spite of evidence that the difference between many so-called disorders is minimal or nonexistent. These "disorders" are then treated with expensive drugs that are no more effective than a placebo.



"Psychiatry seems to have lost its way in a forest of poorly verified diagnoses and ineffectual medications," he writes.



Shorter calls for U.S. psychiatry to abandon its emphasis on "psychopathology" and instead adopt the European approach, which focuses on the symptoms and needs of people as individuals. Yet the draft of the latest edition of psychiatric diagnostic "Bible," the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), shows that U.S. psychiatry has no intention of changing course.



"With DSM-V, American psychiatry is headed in exactly the opposite direction: defining ever-widening circles of the population as mentally ill with vague and undifferentiated diagnoses and treating them with powerful drugs," Shorter writes.



U.S. psychiatry was not always obsessed with psychopharmacology, he notes. Its early years were marked by a psychoanalytic approach that categorized mental disorders in broad, fluid categories such as "nerves," "melancholia" or "manic-depressive illness." These categories sufficed because similar treatments would work for people suffering from any version thereof: lithium treated both mania and severe depression, for example, while the specific symptoms experienced by an anxious person had little influence on the therapies needed.



"Our psychopathological lingo today offers little improvement on these sturdy terms," Shorter said. "A patient with the same symptoms today might be told he has 'social anxiety disorder' or 'seasonal affective disorder.' ... The new disorders all respond to the same drugs, so in terms of treatment, the differentiation is meaningless and of benefit mainly to pharmaceutical companies that market drugs for these niches."



In the 1950s and '60s, a new wave of psychiatrists sought to turn away from psychoanalysis -- perceiving it as focusing excessively on "unconscious psychic conflicts" -- and toward a more "scientific" model instead. As a result, the DSM-III introduced the vague new categories of "major depression" and "bipolar disorder," even though evidence suggests that there is no substantial difference between the two conditions. At the same time, "major depression" absorbed what Shorter calls two very different conditions, "neurotic depression" and "melancholia."



"This would be like incorporating tuberculosis and mumps into the same diagnosis, simply because they are both infectious diseases," he writes.



DSM-V only continues the trend of extending the disordered label to more and more normal people, Shorter warns: "To flip through the latest draft of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, in the works for seven years now, is to see the discipline's floundering writ large."



For example, the new disorder of "psychosis risk syndrome" associates a whole new class of people with full-blown schizophrenia, under the logic, Shorter says, that "even if you aren't floridly psychotic with hallucinations and delusions, eccentric behavior can nonetheless awaken the suspicion that you might someday become psychotic." The implication, of course, is that such people should be treated with antipsychotics.



Symptoms of "psychosis risk syndrome" include such vague descriptors as "disorganized speech."



Other new "disorders" include hoarding, mixed anxiety-depression and binge eating. "Minor neurocognitive disorder" describes a reduction in cognitive function over time, such as that normally experienced by people over the age of 50, while "temper dysregulation disorder with dysphoria" refers to children who suffer from outbursts of temper.



"DSM-V accelerates the trend of making variants on the spectrum of everyday behavior into diseases," Shorter says, "turning grief into depression, apprehension into anxiety, and boyishness into hyperactivity."



Sources for this story include: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100....

2010 ROW Lecture Tour - Delhi,India.

This year my first port of call was to Delhi, India. My initial reaction was one of extreme surprise on the lack of beggars that I saw in my wanderings around the city. This was at complete odds with what I had expected. And yes, there is extreme poverty, with people living on the streets, yet not once was I approached by any-one begging. In spite of their lack of wealth, and worldly goods,the people I saw and came into contact with, and I can assure you, I visited areas of the city which were occupied by the poorer people, as well as those which were not lacking in wealth, were basically happy and friendly.

On my journey I had picked up a book written by a Catholic Priest, on his time spent in the slums of Calcutta. In it he describes how the people used every possible occasion for the celebration of life, and inspite of the hardships they were confronted with on a moment to moment, and day to day basis, as they struggled to survive in the harsh environment, were ever assisting one- another whenever possible. And through it all they maintained a level of happiness, and humanity that is almost hard to imagine given the prevailing circumstances.

Nearly everything was carried out on the street, including barbering

Within a short distance in one street I passed three barbers plying their trade.

Each of them having a different modus operandi. From the most simple with just a plastic sheet covering, and squatting on the ground to the more elaborate and sophisticated chair and all the accoutrements to be found in most western establishments. Albeit though, still on the roadside and in the open air.

The bulk of the population live in these high rise apartments separated one from the other by the mostly narrow ,dark, cavern, like laneways.

And some are even wider with much more light.

And the main interconnecting streets are much wider with, on the whole, far less rubbish obstructing the passage of cars and multitudes of people. This photo was taken in the early morning before the bulk of the people were up and about.

Then there are the broader main thouroughfares along which trundle the ancient and rather decrepit buses, which appear to be kept mobile more by gosh and good-luck than regular maintenance and care.

This is another early morning shot, for within a very short time these roadways have become crowed with both foot traffic and motorised vehicles including the ubiquitous tuk-tuk.

These are some of the street scenes which are a true presentation of the ever present derritrus of our societies as occurs when the population is beyond the physical capacities of the infrastructure to cope with.

 

And through it all, the people struggle on in their endeavours to attain at least a minimum of dignity, cleanliness, and self-reliance.

Each day the residents endeavour to maintain a modicum of cleanliness and tidiness in their limited way. The mountain of accumulating rubbish though, is far beyond their ability to do so.

Even the goats live on the street.

In the midst of all this clutter and debris are to be found the flower sellers

Their efforts, as they laboriously weave the flowers into intricate and attractively pleasing displays, assists in offsetting the effects of the continual exposure to the mounds of rubbish on the senses.

One thing I did not do was to smell the flowers to see if they gave off an aroma. Or, as the case in most westernised countries today, the flowers grown are so hybridised that they no longer have any aroma.

The iceman still lays a major role with he cost of refrigeration and refrigerators being beyond the ability of the average person.

 

The delivery is made, as can be observed, on bicycles, right to your front doorstep. And as many people live on the streets, that happens to be the roadside.

The bicycle is still considered, and actively used as a major form of transportation.

In this photo not only can we see this man straining to transport what is obviously a very heavy load as he is unable to move it by pedalling.

We can also observe one of the modern replacements of the rickshaw - the pedal operated tri-shaw.

Although modern transportation methods are available, such as utilities and trucks etc., a large percentage of the goods are transported by these three wheeled bicycles which not only are they cheap to hire, they also can access the very narow streets and lane-ways that are to be found almost everywhere.

In this climate which is invariably warm and hot all the year round, these juice stalls selling freshly made fruit juices are a common sight. My taste buds indicated that the juice was well watered down, refreshing nevertheless.

The street stalls selling fresh fruit and vegetables were always a welcome sight. In the background can be seen the motorised form of transportation which has replaced the rickshaw - known commonly throughout Asia, and even in Cuba, as the tuk-tuk.

The food available is certainly of equal quality and flavour to any I have sampled anywhere in the world. Perhaps even superior in many instances. Much of the food is still grown by the traditional methods without the use of artificial fertilisers and poisonous sprays, the farmers beeing too poor to purchase them. And in those instances where they have been introduced they have often bankrupted the farmers, causing total disruption to the local economy and resulting in the suicides of many of the farmers.

This stall is selling juice made with a hand operated juicer.

And this stall is selling cups of tea, and freshly laid eggs

Here we see the old and the new forms of transport, both actively in use. With in the background the admonition to exercise, which for the tricycle operator appears rather superfluous.

Women still use the traditional method for carrying anything by placing it in a basket on their heads.

In this instance the women are carrying the sand from one side of the street to the cement mixer on the other.

All types of vehicles are utilised as people carriers, such as this LandRover. Stacked in they are.

The rear end of all the trucks, and buses all have this very same sign, or a variation of it, painted on them, which says, "Please sound your Horn". And you may rest assured that every-one does just that, resulting in the senses being continually exposed to this great cacophony of sound, which as you may well imagine results in no-one really taking any notice.

Here is to be seen another very normal street scene. It would appear that the replacement of water pipes and subterranean cables is a never ending process with almost every street being involved.

The street is just as common a place as anywhere for your daily ablutions. All you require is a bowl of water and a cake of soap.

Each street has its roadside temple dedicated to one of the many deities that are worshipped in India.

And in the midst of all this poverty you find these beautifully maintained mausoleums to some past dignity, his wives, and concubines.

Each one is beautifully constructed, with the inticacy of the carved stonework and frieze' rarely, if ever, seen in our buildings today.

Each is unique in its own right, with the acres of surrounding grounds so well cared for and places of peace and quiet, so different from the surroundings, with its wall to wall people, traffic, and inevitable cacophony of sound generated by the people,motor traffic, blaring horns etc.

This brings us to the prime reason for my visit to Delhi. Not only to view the lifestyle of the local inahbitants - also to visit the local so-called Nature Cure Hospital. So why do I refer to it as a so-called Nature Cure Hospital?  My reason for doing so is based upon the fact that, although it subscribes to the use of some of the principles of Nature Cure, such as Hydrotherapy, Heliotherapy, Exercise etc., it also uses Ayurvedic Medicine. And by its very name of Ayurvedic Medicine we are informed that it is the practice of medicine, and not that of Nature Cure. For in the practice of Nature Cure there is no place for medications of any type or description. Medications are used for the treatment of disease. And as Nature Cure subscribes to the principle that disease(acute) is the process by which the body heals itself - any treatment by medication will only result in suppression of the healing process and contribute towards the development of chronic disease.

I was very graciously received by Dr Pradhan the director of the Hospital, and after a viewing of the facilities that they offered, spent the next two hours in discussion of matter of mutual interest, ending with the most kind invitation to visit again any time I wished.

This is the room from which the Ayurvedic medications are dispensed.

These are the various rooms which are used for hydrotherapy with this photo depicting the equipment used for the foot and arm baths.

In this last view we see the room for the teaching of Yoga. I did not enquire as to the capacity of the Hospital, yet from the size of this room it would indicate that it is quite substantial..

John W's Story

Note 5: Clohesy River Health Farm - May 2010


For those of you who have followed my natural healing journey, Note 5 is an update to the previous 4 (emailed at various intervals since I was first diagnosed with prostate cancer, May 30th 2006). All the notes, combined, form a telling 'timeline' of that journey - and the capacity of mind and body to heal itself of its own accord; given the right environment. Interested readers will see, in as much detail as possible, the evolutionary process laid bare.

At this point in time, I am collating all the notes so that there is a coherent and accurate story, both for those who have followed the journey, and those who have perhaps just stumbled across these journal entries. I should have that work completed very shortly and will accordingly advise you. Importantly, I want to tell all who are interested: please, feel free to pass my story along or post it to any blog you may participate in. Doing so will encourage or help others who may be seeking to sustain or regain their own health, naturally. If you have a family member, friend or colleague that might want to contact me, I will certainly respond. There is one note of caution: please, do not publish my personal contact details online - the volume of correspondence that would result would simply not be possible to deal with.

Dear Family, Friend and Colleague

I would dearly like to report, categorically, that my cancer of the prostate has completely healed, but without the precision of a biopsy read-out one simply cannot make such bold statements. What I can say is that my most recent PSA (prostate specific antigen) score has remained steady and significantly below the level it was when I was first diagnosed four years ago.

As some of you know, that diagnosis, not surprisingly, accompanied a range of other acute disease conditions - some serious, all problematic. As a reminder they were:



Overweight

Hypertension (high blood pressure)

Hypothyroidism (an under active thyroid)

Continuous diarrhoea

Various perennial skin ailments

High cholesterol

Regular bouts of Hay Fever and Itchy Eye

Chronic exhaustion







Each of those other conditions is now completely healed as you can see below:

1. Weight: reduced from 83.7kg (184.1lbs) to 60.7kg (133.5lbs); a drop of 23kg (50.6lbs).

2. Blood Pressure: dropped from 135/85 to 110/60 (the blood pressure of a 21 year old, not a 67 year old - at one point sticking around 140/90).

3. Thyroid Function: TSH down from 27.90 to 3.12 (Healthy Range 0.40 – 4.00).

4. Diarrhoea: about 6 months into the raw food program, after initially getting worse, the perennial diarrhoea stopped - normal bowl movements returned and have been sustained.

5. Perennial Skin Ailments: after a very bad eczema attack on my shins, all skin ailments including tinea between my toes and a groin rash I had had since my youth; disappeared; never to return.

6. Cholesterol: reduced from 5.3 to 3.8 (Healthy Range <5.5*).

 LDL Cholesterol (the bad stuff) down from 3.8 to 2.6 (Healthy Range <3.5).

 Coronary Risk Ratio has come down from 5.3 to 3.8 (Healthy Range <5.0).

7. Hay Fever and Itchy Eye: this annual, disabling condition suffered since childhood, has completely cleared.

8. Chronic Exhaustion: three times a week I engage in serious group outdoor personal training: sprinting, endurance running and weight training as well as weekly sessions of Yoga. On my 'off days' I pursue other gentle and not so gentle physical activity - walking, gardening, solo running (6 - 10 kms non-stop) and working out in my home gym with yoga postures and weights. I have reached the point at which my cardiovascular fitness and endurance level compares favourably with people 20, 30 or even 40 years my junior. I feel blessed and very grateful. Blessed, for obvious reasons. Grateful, because it took a life-threatening wake-up call to goad me into action. I feel fit and well...

But after healing these acute conditions, progress plateaued. The chronic condition, the cancer, stubbornly refused to succumb, as the PSA test at that time attested (PSA tests are an unreliable gauge at best but other than a biopsy, they are the only marker currently available as far as I know). My carefully studied lifestyle change had supported my body in its clearing each acute condition, and was sufficient to allow my body to hold the cancer in check, but insufficient to eliminate the cancerous cells. Since that was now my remaining challenge, clearly I needed to take my healing approach to a higher level...

For the curious new reader, I should perhaps outline as briefly as possible what that healing approach is... my philosophical stance on the cause of illness and healing. In this way, my journey will be in context and you will more easily make sense of what follows...

As we Sow So Shall we Reap

Like a lot of people, I used to think I could sustain myself with whatever I wanted to eat and drink, lead a sedentary life, stress myself and assume that my body could handle what I now know, with every sense of my being, to be self-inflicted physical abuse. I passed the buck to my body to deal with the toxic stuff I ingested, the physically inactive life I lead, and the stressful thinking I entertained. And if my body became overwhelmed with the daily intake of lifeless and toxic food, drink and thinking, I could hand-ball my failing health to the medical fraternity who would obligingly prescribe all manner of over-the-counter or prescription drugs. Failing that, I could have the diseased parts replaced, zapped with radiation, sliced away or chemically poisoned...

Yes, I was the quintessential Aussie male. I thought "she'll be right mate" and didn't take care of myself. At gut level (literally, bulging bigger by the month) I didn't grasp that I only had one body and that I was responsible and accountable for its care and maintenance: what I ingested, how I exercised and how I used the power of thought. And more fool me, because I was ignoring knowledge from an earlier study and a significant personal healing experience on achieving and maintaining optimal health. Despite that I was still putting the burden on my body to keep me alive in the face of gross neglect and mistreatment.

But the wake up call was imminent - my urologist presenting the news with a warning that there was limited time to have the tumours cut, drugged, or burnt away; or that they would metastasize, most likely to my bones. "When this happens," she said, "you will die a slow painful death."

I had already been told a short time earlier that I should take medication for my high blood pressure and my rapidly failing thyroid and would need to do so for the rest of my life. I had a range of creams for my skin conditions that gave temporary relief. And I also had undergone blood tests, endoscopies and colonoscopies - all without finding out why I had had 'the runs' for the preceding 5 years. For the onset of each hay fever and itchy eye season, pharmaceuticals were taken to make life bearable. And to make up for my demineralised and devitaminised diet I was taking, on a daily basis, an array of vitamin and mineral supplements in a vain attempt to offset the tiredness and lethargy I felt. I had been taking a variety of supplements religiously for many, many years including saw palmetto (a preparation derived from the berrylike fruit) and selenium; both of which were supposed to deter/prevent cancer of the prostate.

News of the cancer jolted me to my core. I was scared. What to do? Having failed to take care of my health, was I going to continue to pass the buck? Was I going to, like most Westerners, hand the care of my life over to the medical, pharmaceutical, and complementary or alternative medicine fraternity? Or was I going to meet the challenge and allow my body to heal via its own resources? After all, I could now clearly see that the cancer and assorted other conditions were symptoms of neglect and abuse; an irresponsible lifestyle...

Was I ready to take responsibility for my ill state of health? From the deepest recesses of my memory I recalled the books read and lectures attended in my twenties, which spoke to the body's inherent ability to heal. I recalled too, with a mixture of hope and chagrin, a remarkable personal healing experience which had clearly demonstrated that fact: those readings, lectures, and the subsequent natural healing event demonstrated that a 100% raw organic diet, coupled with significantly reduced eating, done in concert with an energetic exercise program and a contented state of mind, would, practiced with daily discipline, enable the body to do what it is designed to do… self-heal.

The decision was made; the recovery path clear. For me, shifting the burden of responsibility for my health to others was neither a viable nor a responsible option. I had faith that, as it had become sick with mistreatment, my body would eventually heal, given the care and consideration it should have received long ago.

Two years six months later aged 67, following a natural-healing regime, my body responded - the cancer test results below showing some improvement:

Biopsy Results 2006 Biopsy results 2008

8 Samples Tumour Lengths *8 Samples Tumour Lengths

a) High-grade dysplasia (PIN) a) High grade dysplasia (PIN)

b) Intermediate-grade dysplasia (PIN) b) Atypical gland focus suggestive of malignancy

c) High-grade dysplasia (PIN) c) Gleason 3+3=6 2 glands <0.1mm

d) High-grade dysplasia d) Gleason 3+3=6 0.5/0.2mm

e) Gleason 3+3=6 0.2mm e) No specific pathologic change

f) Gleason 3+3=6 0.5mm f) High-grade dysplasia (PIN)

g) High-grade dysplasia g) No specific pathologic change

h) Gleason 3+3=6 1.0/1.2mm h) Gleason 3+3=6 0.8mm

*2008 samples, except h), are from different parts of the prostate

My experience is real. It cannot be put down to 'fortune' or 'happenstance'. I now see that passing the buck for our health has become so commonplace that it looks as if it is the reasoned, enlightened, intelligent, right thing to do. Passing the buck has become the norm - a deeply ingrained feature of everyday life promoted by self-interested (though in many cases well-meaning) advocates of every hue. Authority comes in many guises. Does that sound anti-establishment, 'lefty' or 'intellectual'? I put it to you; the degree to which this 'norm' is accepted is frightening...

We smoke. We use drugs. We consume alcohol, caffeine and sugar-laden drinks. Some of us, maybe to salve our conscience, take (or worse, provide our kids with) make-believe health drinks: pasteurised, chemicalised, devitalised fruit and veggie juices and a mind-boggling array of other containerised drinks which, while I'm sure the companies involved haven't deliberately set out to poison us, are by their very nature poisonous and should be considered 'anti' health. -We eat make-believe health foods made with devitalised ingredients. We exist on food that has had the nutrition and nourishment cooked or processed to near extinction. We grow increasingly inactive, fat and unhealthy - or just sickly. We line up in our hundreds of thousands each day across the nation at medical practices and hospitals. We believe pharmaceuticals, operations or other remedies will fix our self-induced (and largely unacknowledged) malaise. We have become a nation of life-time medically dependent consumers. We keep the pharmaceutical companies rich beyond imagination. Others, disillusioned with the politicisation and malfunction of modern medicine, and its clear inability to stem our declining health, turn (in vain) to alternative practitioners, hoping that extracts of this or that tree, bark, root, fruit, shrub, vegetable or herb will do the trick. Or that this vitamin, mineral, enzyme, pro-biotic, anti-oxidant, protein supplement or so called super-food will remedy what Mother Nature has the inherent capacity to provide - if only we bypass the dead-food and drink manufacturers and go direct to the only supplier and manufacturer of good health; Mother Nature.

Unfortunately most of us (including me until four years ago) refuse to take the nature-cure road to vibrant, sustainable health. Instead, we live on a lifeless, denatured (or as some have described it) dead-food diet. In quest of good health, some of us lace our diet with vitamin, mineral or super-food supplements of very questionable value. Who can blame us? Who has the time or endurance to question what we are told? In our blind ignorance, we trust the claims that new wave self-styled gurus and purveyors of these products make - the rejuvenation and repair of our bodies a bridge too far - a pointless adjunct to lousy diets and indulgent lifestyle.

The cumulative affects of diet and lifestyle are axiomatic of the Aged-Care Sector: a juggernaut of immense private and corporate wealth created on our seeming inability to predict a very personal and likely future: a wretched, drug dependent, physically and mentally infirmed old age. And in the main, we teach our children to accept, without question, the dogmas and self-interest of mainstream and alternative medicine. We don't even consider an alternative to medicine. Yes! An alternative to medicine; mainstream or alternative.

I understand only too well what it means to question that which is universally accepted. I see also that the 'alternative' route is now more mainstream than we once might have assumed. Money rules, and for the unwary, there are myriad traps! So perhaps it is not surprising that we prefer the safety and comfort of the status quo - the blind acceptance of a malevolent relationship between modern medicine and global pharmaceutical cartels. In short, a failure to question protects trillion dollar investments and perpetuates the illusion.

Sadly, and perhaps because of, our admiration for medical pioneers, teaching and research universities, GPs and frontline practitioners; the truth is that those otherwise talented individuals work inside a health system that is riddled with self-interest. Most of us are blind ignorant to what is happening.

It is difficult, nigh on impossible, for most of us to grasp just how far we have wandered from healthy living. Multinational food producers and processors create addictive and poisonous fake food with shelf-lives that can outlive all of us… Yes, poisonous! So filled is that lethal fare with chemical additives and preservatives. This, because modern food-embalming techniques are promoted by alluring multimedia and celebrity-driven advertising; making multi-billions of dollars in the process.

Isn’t it insane, when you stop and reflect, that life-sustaining, restorative food - raw, simple and delicious nutrition; barely rates a mention in Advertising circles? Isn't it a complete madness that commercial food producers seem bent on killing off (or at least shortening the life of) the very customers they rely on? Is it really so far 'left of center' to imagine a world in which commercial interests and simple humanity come together? Incomprehensible! What chance has humanity got?

But Change (as we know) comes one person at a time... So hear this: my personal responsibility for living simply and naturally has enabled my body to heal eight out of nine ailments. Given time, with the continuation of nature's natural medicine via a thoughtful combination of raw organic nutrition, exercise and healthy thinking; the cancer, if it has not already, will go the same way as my other lifestyle-induced conditions.

Change is here, and passing the buck for my health has stopped.

2010: TAKING MY HEALING JOURNEY TO A HIGHER LEVEL

I had come some distance from that emotionally distressing but life-transforming meeting with the urologist, but I still instinctively felt that more critical fine-tuning was needed to assist my body in the destruction of the cancerous cells and the regeneration of new, healthy cells. Instinct told me that I was still not living an optimal regime for that outcome (and thus giving my body optimum support)...

I sensed that three meals per day, even without any snacking between, was still too much food, too often, for the body's digestive, assimilation, elimination and regeneration processes. It was still in excess of what Dr Fred Bisci, (my primary adviser) had claimed as optimal for healing. Although 100% raw and 99% organic, 'too much of a good thing' was still counter-productive to the destruction and elimination of diseased cells and the regeneration of healthy ones. And, my penchant for filling life with interesting but non-essential and energy-sapping, emotionally challenging activities was stressful. I was falling short in supporting my body and mind and needed sufficient energy to direct toward eliminating the chronic condition called cancer. Fred Bisci was a critical step in my healing journey, but I had pretty well exhausted his pool of knowledge as it applied to me and my specific condition… and New York, where he is based, was too far away for easy personal access.

I really wanted and needed someone within Australia to consult with - someone who had Fred's level of understanding of our mind and body's capacity to regenerate and heal. As luck and diligent searching would have it, I came across Dr John Fielder, a 78 year old Natural Hygienist, Nature Cure Practitioner, Naturopath, Chiropractor and Osteopath who lives and practices from his property Clohesy River Health Farm just out of Cairns, Queensland. John, president of the UK's Incorporated Society of Registered Naturopaths (ISRN) lectures annually round the world.

Talking with John, it became clear to me that he was the man to point me toward a fresh vantage point: a new view of human healing and regeneration. I determined to visit him, and in the late evening light of 22nd February 2010, my descent into Perth punctuated fifteen days at his farm - fifteen extraordinarily challenging days that were enough to have me once more rethink my entire lifestyle!

About an hour's drive due east from Cairns, John's 330 largely undeveloped acerage is situated just beyond the tropical rain forest at Kuranda and incorporates the Clohesy River in one corner. The property was ravaged by fire 9 years back and is now about two thirds into its re-establishment program, including a tropical and citrus orchard, which before being burnt was 35 years in the making. The property is now, once again, reaping a bountiful harvest.

The 2001 fires destroyed his house but fortunately, the consulting office/ablution block was spared, as were three semi-detached rooms and an undamaged client kitchen and library/communal area (currently used as his temporary home). The story becomes all the more real when we view the office windows with large cracks in each pane - evidence of the fierce heat that came close to destroying that building as well. I'm pleased to report that apart from those windows and some charred tree trunks and fence posts, nature's regeneration has pretty well obliterated sight of that destructive episode.

John works mostly a lone hand at restoring and maintaining his property (a mighty effort for a slightly-built near octogenarian and living example of what he espouses).

While I was there, I met a 73 year old man from Cleveland who was assisting John in exchange for food, board, education and the chance of recovery from adrenal fatigue. Also there was a 22 year old male from Chicago who was seeking to understand nature's cure following a recent period of serious unwellness. At 68 I wanted, even though all but one of my ailments had cured already, to take my health to another level after almost four years on a 100% raw vegan diet...

Clohesy Health Farm was a culture shock. John lives simply. Deeply in tune with and in harmony with his place, he bathes daily in the fast flowing Clohesy River using its sandy bed for soap. He harvests and eats twice daily whatever is in season from his garden and orchard, supplemented primarily from organic suppliers. Drinking water is supplied by nature, and his other water needs are pumped from the river by a watermill he constructed. He has no refrigeration, uses an old-fashioned netted food-safe, and recycles like no other I know. Electricity is supplied via solar panels. He is not entirely 'native'! Broadband access and Skype keep him in touch with family, friends, clients and colleagues around the world and abreast of the current health and healing developments.

My accommodation was a small rectangular timber-framed white painted room, semi-detached from another the same size, with one other identical room attached to that. There were two single beds, a wooden table with cloth and an iron-framed bookcase. That was about it other than one critical concession to luxury, an insect net that hung from the ceiling over my bed to keep the flying bugs and insects at bay (those normally having free access through the room's ample supply of unscreened windows and a large door). The humidity was high. With no fans to provide breeze the large openings were a blessing.

The gas-fired hot water-heater to the communal ablutions failed the day I arrived. No doubt it was good for me to take fifteen cold showers daily, but as I came face to face with the reality of fine-tuning my diet, lifestyle and fasting, I could have done without the additional challenge and enjoyed the comfort of a warm wash!

Apart from that, the most significant shift was exchanging three largish meals per day to two smallish meals - one at noon and the other at 5pm. As John explained in our daily sessions together, a critical part of the human metabolic process starts naturally at sunset and continues till noon the next day - allowing for optimal assimilation of nutrition and elimination of waste and thus limiting the amount of energy used for processing food. In turn, this allows both more time and more energy for the removal of old and damaged cells and the regeneration of new cells. The fact is, most of us use 60 to 70% of our energy simply digesting, assimilating and eliminating food.

With two smaller nutrient-rich meals per day, and no snacking in between at all, we dramatically reduce the percentage of energy used to around 10 - 15%. Thus, we make much more available for healing and most importantly; regeneration. This I think is the key. Reduced calorie intake confined within two meals per day. The other critical aspect being to limit the fat consumed to between ten and fifteen percent of total calories. Whilst this eating regime wasn’t news to me it was the first time the fundamental importance of this approach to daily diet had hit home.

I learned from John just how important working in harmony with our natural metabolic process is to healing. The breaking down of old or diseased tissue and cellular waste is part of what is called Catabolism (destructive metabolism). The process of catabolism releases the energy from this old material for rebuilding new cellular material. Catabolism creates the energy that Anabolism consumes for synthesising hormones, enzymes, sugars and other substances for cell growth, reproduction, and tissue repair. Catabolism creates the energy we need for all physical activity. Another element of Metabolism, and complementary to Catabolism, is Anabolism (constructive metabolism). Anabolism enables the body to maintain existing tissue and importantly, grow new cells. Growth and mineralisation of bone, and increases in muscle mass, are both examples of Anabolism.

If Catabolism is producing more energy than Anabolism requires, there will be excess energy, which the human body stores as fat or glycogen. This is the principle way in which we become overweight. The foregoing was an exciting discovery for me and it explained why, for maintaining optimal health and to heal from illness, I needed to eat only two, highest quality, modestly sized meals at midday and 5pm daily, with no snacking in between.

And as Dr Fielder reiterated, there are several vital considerations to optimal health, healing and regeneration:

1. Our body's inbuilt intelligence knows exactly how to take best care of itself, and we must heed how we feel after we eat each particular food - or better still, while we are eating it. It is a good idea to smell and taste our foods before we eat them. If something does not agree with our chemistry or body needs at a particular time, we will not enjoy the smell or taste and worse still we may feel unwell after eating it.

2. We really must rest when tired or unwell. This is probably the most ignored health and healing requirement. I can’t emphasise this aspect of healthy living enough. We must allow rest time for the body to use its energy for healing.

3. If sick, we also need to fast while resting to recover our health. This gives our body the optimum conditions to heal and regain homeostasis.

4. Don't eat before heavy work or exercise. Whilst this and other ideas taken from John fly in the face of prevailing ideas and norms, I have found that fasting after my evening meal (which is around 5pm or certainly before sunset unless it is a special occasion and I break that health rule), till noon next day, works wonderfully for me. I do strenuous exercise several mornings each week and do so much better on an empty stomach. And I must say I really look forward to breaking my fast around noon.

5. For almost four years, I had been on a vegan diet and prior to that had been a strict vegetarian for 25 years. But I learnt from John (and numerous texts that outline the diets of the healthiest people to have lived since recorded history) that some animal product is necessary for optimal human health. John eats a small amount of deep-sea tuna about twice yearly. On his recommendation, and in pursuit of optimal health, I have started eating some fermented goat kefir on a regular basis. In short, I'm still a strict vegetarian - but no longer vegan.

I have learned a lot from John and been reminded of many things I had forgotten… and I know that there is still much more for me to learn from this amazing man.

Dear reader, if you have made it this far I will, to keep this piece within reasonable bounds, round off this note with a list of both philosophical and pragmatic natural laws of healthy living and healing - some gleaned from John and others which came to me through reflective time at Clohesy River Health Farm:

• There is no curative power in drugs, medicines, herbs, foods, electrical apparatus or anything else outside of our own body.

• Nature has not provided cures for disease. Nature has only provided penalties for breaking natural laws.

• Returning to following natural law is the only valid method of sustainable cure.

• All action by the body is right action. Our body's innate intelligence knows what it is doing. Make no mistake about that.

• Only man makes mistakes.

• Trust in the process of healing.

• Know that this too shall pass.

• Nature has not provided remedies, nature has provided the body with an innate ability to cure by returning to natures laws:

 At least 20 minutes sunlight per day) is essential.

 Get as much fresh air as possible and sleep with the window open

 Drink as clean and as pure water as possible.

 Eat natural whole organic uncooked food grown in mineralised, fertile soil that is free of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides - all chemicals.

 Eschew all processed, canned, packaged, fast and convenience foods.

 Be happy at home, at work and in one's social life.

 Ensure adequate rest to live life fully and abundantly.

 We only need adequate shelter.

 Exercise your body each and every day

 Exercise you mind each and every day

 Exercise your spirit each and every day

I trust that this has been of interest and of value to you; or someone you know. The earlier notes, 1 to 4, fill in much detail that is missing from this note. These are available if you want to email me.

Love… John - May 2010

Alzheimers-Dementia, Protect Yourself & Loved One's

This Common MISDIAGNOSIS

Can Land You In A Nursing Home!

HERE'S HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR LOVED ONES

By Dr. Mark Stengler



It's absolutely heartbreaking. All over Australia, nursing homes are filled with frail, feeble residents suffering from dementia. In many cases, these folks are so far gone they don't even recognize their own children.



But I'm going to let you in on a dark, dirty secret: Many of these patients do not have dementia at all. Their memory loss, confusion, and delirium are caused by prescription drugs!



And so are many of their other problems.



This is not just speculation on my part. It's fully documented in the medical journals. In fact, it's so common that there are even medical terms for it. Like "polypharmacy," which means giving a patient too many different drugs. And "iatrogenic illness," which means any illness caused by doctors.



According to the medical journals, polypharmacy and iatrogenic illness are rampant around the globe.



One study concluded that one of the major causes of falls in nursing homes is the side effects caused by medications.

Another study found that 97% of nursing home patients take at least one drug, with 17% taking 5 or more!

Yet another study found that many drugs can cause Parkinson's-like symptoms and concluded that "drug-induced parkinsonism is frequent."

And still another study listed 22 different categories of drugs that can cause symptoms that mimic Alzheimer's... plus 14 different over-the-counter drugs that can cause those symptoms!

Here's a typical scenario. A healthy person goes to the doctor for a checkup and is told his cholesterol or blood pressure is high. So he starts taking medication, which causes side effects. This leads his doctor to give him a second drug to treat those side effects. But, of course, that second drug causes new side effects. So the doctor prescribes a third drug to treat the side effects of the second one!



Before you know it, the person's health is spiraling downward and he soon needs people to take care of him. And everyone just chalks it up to "old age."



But you can fight back against this system of medicine run amok. First of all, make sure you always try natural remedies first. Pharmaceuticals should be a last resort, not a first option. Secondly, if you have a loved one in a nursing home, talk to a naturally minded physician about possibly weaning them off the drugs. This single step may make a huge difference in their health and well-being.

Synthetic Nitrogen Fertiliser And It's Harmfulness to the Soil

'The Soil is Bleeding'




New research: synthetic nitrogen destroys soil carbon, undermines soil health

Just precisely what does all of that nitrogen ferilizer do to the soil?“Fertilizer is good for the father and bad for the sons.”

—Dutch saying



For all of its ecological baggage, synthetic nitrogen does one good deed for the environment: it helps build carbon in soil. At least, that’s what scientists have assumed for decades.



If that were true, it would count as a major environmental benefit of synthetic N use. At a time of climate chaos and ever-growing global greenhouse gas emissions, anything that helps vast swaths of farmland sponge up carbon would be a stabilizing force. Moreover, carbon-rich soils store nutrients and have the potential to remain fertile over time—a boon for future generations.



The case for synthetic N as a climate stabilizer goes like this. Dousing farm fields with synthetic nitrogen makes plants grow bigger and faster. As plants grow, they pull carbon dioxide from the air. Some of the plant is harvested as crop, but the rest—the residue—stays in the field and ultimately becomes soil. In this way, some of the carbon gobbled up by those N-enhanced plants stays in the ground and out of the atmosphere.



Well, that logic has come under fierce challenge from a team of University of Illinois researchers led by professors Richard Mulvaney, Saeed Khan, and Tim Ellsworth. In two recent papers (see here and here) the trio argues that the net effect of synthetic nitrogen use is to reduce soil’s organic matter content. Why? Because, they posit, nitrogen fertilizer stimulates soil microbes, which feast on organic matter. Over time, the impact of this enhanced microbial appetite outweighs the benefits of more crop residues.



And their analysis gets more alarming. Synthetic nitrogen use, they argue, creates a kind of treadmill effect. As organic matter dissipates, soil’s ability to store organic nitrogen declines. A large amount of nitrogen then leaches away, fouling ground water in the form of nitrates, and entering the atmosphere as nitrous oxide (N2O), a greenhouse gas with some 300 times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide. In turn, with its ability to store organic nitrogen compromised, only one thing can help heavily fertilized farmland keep cranking out monster yields: more additions of synthetic N.



The loss of organic matter has other ill effects, the researchers say. Injured soil becomes prone to compaction, which makes it vulnerable to runoff and erosion and limits the growth of stabilizing plant roots. Worse yet, soil has a harder time holding water, making it ever more reliant on irrigation. As water becomes scarcer, this consequence of widespread synthetic N use will become more and more challenging.



In short, “the soil is bleeding,” Mulvaney told me in an interview.



If the Illinois team is correct, synthetic nitrogen’s effect on carbon sequestration swings from being an important ecological advantage to perhaps its gravest liability. Not only would nitrogen fertilizer be contributing to climate change in a way not previously taken into account, but it would also be undermining the long-term productivity of the soil.







Getting their hands dirty: Saeed Khan, Richard Mulvaney, and Tim Ellsworth (l.-r.), in front of the Morrow Plots, University of Illinois. An Old Idea Germinates Anew

While their research bucks decades of received wisdom, the Illinois researchers know they aren’t breaking new ground here. “The fact is, the message we’re delivering in our papers really is a rediscovery of a message that appeared in the ‘20s and ‘30s,” Mulvaney says. In their latest paper, “Synthetic Nitrogen Fertilizers Deplete Soil Nitrogen: A Global Dilemma for Sustainable Cereal Production,” which appeared last year in the Journal of Environmental Quality, the researchers point to two pre-war academic papers that, according to Mulvaney, “state clearly and simply that synthetic nitrogen fertilizers were promoting the loss of soil carbon and organic nitrogen.”



That idea also appears prominently in The Soil and Health (1947), a founding text of modern organic agriculture. In that book, the British agronomist Sir Albert Howard stated the case clearly:



The use of artificial manure, particularly [synthetic nitrogen] ... does untold harm. The presence of additional combined nitrogen in an easily assimilable form stimulates the growth of fungi and other organisms which, in the search for organic matter needed for energy and for building up microbial tissue, use up first the reserve of soil humus and then the more resistant organic matter which cements soil particles.



In other words, synthetic nitrogen degrades soil.



That conclusion has been current in organic-farming circles since Sir Albert’s time. In an essay in the important 2002 anthology Fatal Harvest Reader, the California organic farmer Jason McKenney puts it like this:



Fertilizer application begins the destruction of soil biodiversity by diminishing the role of nitrogen-fixing bacteria and amplifying the role of everything that feeds on nitrogen. These feeders then speed up the decomposition of organic matter and humus. As organic matter decreases, the physical structure of soil changes. With less pore space and less of their sponge-like qualities, soils are less efficient at storing water and air. More irrigation is needed. Water leeches through soils, draining away nutrients that no longer have an effective substrate on which to cling. With less available oxygen the growth of soil microbiology slows, and the intricate ecosystem of biological exchanges breaks down.



Although those ideas flourished in organic-ag circles, they withered to dust among soil scientists at the big research universities. Mulvaney told me that in his academic training—he holds a PhD in soil fertility and chemistry from the University of Illinois, where he is now a professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences—he was never exposed to the idea that synthetic nitrogen degrades soil. “It was completely overlooked,” he says. “I had never heard of it, personally, until we dug into the literature.”



What sets the Illinois scientists apart from other critics of synthetic nitrogen is their provenance. Sir Albert’s denouncement sits in a dusty old tome that’s pretty obscure even within the organic-agriculture world; Jason McKenney is an organic farmer who operates near Berkeley—considered la-la land by mainstream soil scientists. Both can be—and, indeed have been—ignored by policymakers and large-scale farmers. By contrast, Mulvaney and his colleagues are living, credentialed scientists working at the premier research university in one of the nation’s most prodigious corn-producing—and nitrogen-consuming—states.







Abandon all hope, all fertilizer execs who enter here. The Dirt on Nitrogen, Soil, and Carbon

To come to their conclusions, the researchers studied data from the Morrow plots on the University of Illinois’ Urbana-Champaign campus, which comprise the “the world’s oldest experimental site under continuous corn” cultivation. The Morrow plots were first planted in 1876.



Mulvaney and his collaborators analyzed annual soil-test data in test plots that were planted with three crop rotations: continuous corn, corn-soy, and corn-oats-hay. Some of the plots received moderate amounts of fertilizer application; some received high amounts; and some received no fertilizer at all. The crops in question, particularly corn, generate tremendous amounts of residue. Picture a Midwestern field in high summer, packed with towering corn plants. Only the cobs are harvested; the rest of the plant is left in the field. If synthetic nitrogen use really does promote carbon sequestration, you’d expect these fields to show clear gains in soil organic carbon over time.



Instead, the researchers found, all three systems showed a “net decline occurred in soil [carbon] despite increasingly massive residue [carbon] incorporation.” (They published their findings, “The Myth of Nitrogen Fertilization for Soil Carbon Sequestration,” in the Journal of Environmental Quality in 2007.) In other words, synthetic nitrogen broke down organic matter faster than plant residue could create it.



A particularly stark set of graphs traces soil organic carbon (SOC) in the surface layer of soil in the Morrow plots from 1904 to 2005. SOC rises steadily over the first several decades, when the fields were fertilized with livestock manure. After 1967, when synthetic nitrogen became the fertilizer of choice, SOC steadily drops.



In their other major paper, “Synthetic Nitrogen Fertilizers Deplete Soil Nitrogen: A Global Dilemma for Sustainable Cereal Production” (2009), the authors looked at nitrogen retention in the soil. Given that the test plots received annual lashings of synthetic nitrogen, conventional ag science would predict a buildup of nitrogen. Sure, some nitrogen would be removed with the harvesting of crops, and some would be lost to runoff. But healthy, fertile soil should be capable of storing nitrogen.



In fact, the researchers found just the opposite. “Instead of accumulating,” they wrote, “soil nitrogen declined significantly in every subplot sampled.” The only explanation, they conclude, is that the loss of organic matter depleted the soil’s ability to store nitrogen. The practice of year-after-year fertilization had pushed the Morrow plots onto the chemical treadmill: unable to efficiently store nitrogen, they became reliant on the next fix.



The researchers found similar data from other test plots. “Such evidence is common in the scientific literature but has seldom been acknowledged, perhaps because N fertilizer practices have been predicated largely on short-term economic gain rather than long-term sustainability,” they write, citing some two dozen other studies which mirrored the patterns of the Morrow plots.



The most recent bit of evidence for the Mulvaney team’s nitrogen thesis comes from a team of researchers at Iowa State University and the USDA. In a 2009 paper (PDF), this group looked at data from two long-term experimental sites in Iowa. And they, too, found that soil carbon had declined after decades of synthetic nitrogen applications. They write: “Increases in decay rates with N fertilization apparently offset gains in carbon inputs to the soil in such a way that soil C sequestration was virtually nil in 78% of the systems studied, despite up to 48 years of N additions.”









Fertile ground for research: the Morrow Plots at the University of Illinois.Photo:brianholsclaw Slinging Dirt

Mulvaney and Khan laughed when I asked them what sort of response their work was getting in the soil-science world. “You can bet the fertilizer industry is aware of our work, and they aren’t too pleased,” Mulvaney said. “It’s all about sales, and our conclusions aren’t real good for sales.”



As for the soil-science community, Mulvaney said with a chuckle, “the response is still building.” There has been negative word-of-mouth reaction, he added, but so far, only two responses have been published: a remarkable fact, given that the first paper came out in 2007.



Both published responses fall into the those-data-don’t-say-what-you-say-they-do category. The first, published as a letter to the editor (PDF) in the Journal of Environmental Quality, came from D. Keith Reid, a soil fertility specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Reid writes that the Mulvaney team’s conclusion about synthetic nitrogen and soil carbon is “sensational” and “would be incredibly important if it was true.”



Reid acknowledges the drop in soil organic carbon, but argues that it was caused not by synthetic nitrogen itself, but rather by the difference in composition between manure and synthetic nitrogen. Manure is a mix of slow-release organic nitrogen and organic matter; synthetic nitrogen fertilizer is pure, readily available nitrogen. “It is much more likely that the decline in SOC is due to the change in the form of fertilizer than to the rate of fertilizer applied,” Reid writes.



Then he makes a startling concession:



From the evidence presented in this paper, it would be fair to conclude that modern annual crop management systems are associated with declines in SOC concentrations and that increased residue inputs from high nitrogen applications do not mitigate this decline as much as we might hope.



In other words, modern farming—i.e., the kind practiced on nearly all farmland in the United States—destroys soil carbon. (The Mulvaney team’s response to Reid’s critique can be found in the above-linked document.)



The second second critique (PDF) came from a team led by D.S. Powlson at the Department of Soil Science and Centre for Soils and Ecosystem Function at the Rothamsted Research Station in the United Kingdom. Powlson and colleagues attack the Mulvaney team’s contention that synthetic nitrogen depletes the soil’s ability to store nitrogen.



“We propose that the conclusion drawn by Mulvaney et al. (2009), that inorganic N fertilizer causes a decline in soil organic N concentration, is false and not supported by the data from the Morrow Plots or from numerous studies worldwide,” they write.



Then they, too, make a major concession: “the observation of significant soil C and N declines in subsoil layers is interesting and deserves further consideration.” That is, they don’t challenge Mulvaney team’s contention that synthetic nitrogen destroys organic carbon in the subsoil.



In their response (PDF), Mulvaney and his colleagues mount a vigorous defense of their methodology. And then they conclude:



In the modern era of intensified agriculture, soils are generally managed as a commodity to maximize short-term economic gain. Unfortunately, this concept entirely ignores the consequences for a vast array of biotic and abiotic soil processes that affect air and water quality and most important, the soil itself.



So who’s right? For now, we know that the Illinois team has presented a robust cache of evidence that turns 50 years of conventional soil science on its head—and an analysis that conventional soil scientists acknowledge is “sensational” and “incredibly important” if true. We also know that their analysis is consistent with the founding principles of organic agriculture: that properly applied manure and nitrogen-fixing cover crops, not synthetic nitrogen, are key to long-term soil health and fertility.



The subject demands more study and fierce debate. But if Mulvaney and his team are correct, the future health of our farmland hinges on a dramatic shift away from reliance on synthetic nitrogen fertilizer.



Grist food editor Tom Philpott farms and cooks at Maverick Farms, a sustainable-agriculture nonprofit and small farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Follow my Twitter feed; contact me at tphilpott[at]grist[dot]org.

A Philosophy For Everyday Living by John A Wood(A recent Guest)

A PHILOSOPHY FOR EVERYDAY LIVING


Passing The Buck

(Shifting the Burden of Responsibility)



PREAMBLE

A daydream of mine, destined to be unfulfilled, is to know how my grandfathers saw life - in a sense, what their philosophy for everyday living was. What follows, like the grab-bag of personal musings I've penned over the past 15 years, was put to paper primarily for my grandchildren and their offspring. I trust that my descendents will, as I would have, welcome an insight into (if not agree with) one of their ancestors. I am sending it to you as part of my intermittent mailings to Family, Friends and Colleagues with whom I share my scribbling.

This has been troublesome to write. I suspect it may prove difficult to read. Not because it is badly written - it’s passable, but because it confronts the way in which we fail ourselves, each other and the planet by duck shoving issues. It allows no wriggle room. Rewritten several times, I have failed to make it more palatable.

If after this grim piece you would like me to desist sending further stuff let me know. I mean that. If you find no value I don’t wish to impose further of my reflections.

BEING A VICTIM OF OTHERS AND OF CIRCUMSTANCE

I still feel discomfited, even incompetent around the countless times I’ve passed the buck. That is, shifted the burden of responsibility for my mess, mistakes, misadventures... for life unfolding in ways that didn’t suit me. I blamed him, her or THEM! God and the devil were accused. Luck, or its lack, was another. It was beyond my awareness at those points in time to be accountable for my thinking, feelings and actions (and consequently my life). The weather, seasons, Government, the economy, all were held as the source of my discomfort or difficulty at one time or another. Of course, it was the fault of my first, then second wife, children, step children, blood relatives, in-laws, friends and neighbours. And let’s not forget my employees, customers and suppliers. The censure was indiscriminate; just as long as I wasn’t to blame for my awful actions, critical words or pear-shaped endeavours. He, she, they, them or it, caused me to be the way I was, or made me do what I did… but only if the result was poor. Odd that… I always claimed success as mine. And the grand-daddy of all buck-passing (one that has spawned a global burden-shifting industry: psycho-analysis and its derivatives), my parents. They were my real problem. I enshrined them as the genesis for what went wrong with me and my life. Physical and psychological abuse, being an only child, not having the right physical or intellectual genes, my lack of education, opportunity, timing... all or some combination of the above established that I was not responsible for who and how I was and what befell me. Poor me! I was the genuine victim of circumstance.

Get the Picture?

GETTING A FRESH START

Then what changed? How did I unearth the fact that the buck really did end with me? That I was responsible for my life! Nobody else! No circumstance was at fault!

What enabled me to fully understand that I was the author of my experience… that there was nothing outside my mind creating my reality? What shifted within my consciousness to allow me to see that my life truly is an inside-out experience, not the outside-in reality I had always imagined (and still do when lost in self absorption)?

It was October 1992. I was in picturesque Tiburon across the bay from San Francisco attending a five day Philosophy of Everyday Living Seminar (POEL). It was named differently back then. On day three, although I had read and heard the same thing in numerous ways before, this time it was a revelation: what I think is my reality… the only reality I will ever know. I woke to this fact of life: nothing exists for me except through my thinking. Much later, in another place, again in the tick of a clock, I saw that my thinking was more than my brain at work. Thinking was the continuous expression of the Life energy called Thought; the creative force with which we fashion our lives 24/7. Without which we have no life.

Are you wondering where this is leading? What the point is?

It's this: that split second discovery within my mind, via Thought, freed me from victim-hood. Passing the buck was no longer part of my every day, unless of course I forgot the context of my life. I think my experience, my reality, into being. My experience is not being imposed upon me no matter how it looks and feels to the contrary. My reality is exclusive to me. And it follows that the same holds true for the rest of humanity.

Once awake to the truth that I shifted responsibility as a way of life, I started noticing how common that aspect of human behaviour was in others as well - how pervasive blaming and pointing the finger was in our culture. And more to the point, how that innocently learnt habit, as students of our many teachers, damages or destroys relationships, our health, the environment and (the now topic du jour) the economy. And the biggie: how shifting responsibility frustrates our spiritual relationship with God (or from my reality; Life).

You, like me, may have grown up unaware that a mature human being takes responsibility and is accountable for their thinking, feelings and actions… their entire life. As it has been, is right now, and will be in the future - the cessation of attributing blame to anyone or anything.

PASSING THE BUCK

Let me give you five examples of passing the buck, each making some jarring and/or challenging assertions. And while I acknowledge that there are equally strong views to the contrary in what I am about to express; I ask that you suspend judgement until you have read each one.

Our lives are fabricated by these and many other facets of 21st Century tests of self responsibility. You may think of others. Email me if you do and are willing to share. I could add them to an updated version with due acknowledgement.

THE PLACE WHERE THE HABIT BEGINS: CHILDHOOD – WHERE WE LEARN TO (AND EVENTUALLY EXCEL IN) PASS THE BUCK

Nowhere is duck-shoving more evident, and more invisible to us, than in our personal relationships. And it’s in childhood where we become predominantly responsible or irresponsible (in my view, mostly the latter). Very early on we adopt as our own, not what we are told by our parents and significant others but what we observe; the way we see and hear them live their lives day in, day out. Indelibly imprinted lessons, modelled day after day from our life teachers (some useful and some not so) 'steering' us through life. Once the die is cast it is difficult to transform: from routinely shifting the burden, to an assumption of responsibility for one’s thinking, feelings and actions. Passing the buck, learnt as a youngster, shows up in how we think, feel and behave for the rest of our lives, and is illustrated in the following (that is, unless we experience a new beginning and see life from a clearer vantage point):

• Mother chastises her child: “Daddy will be furious when he finds out." Or: “Wait till Daddy gets home and finds out what a bad boy you have been.” The mother here innocently passes the buck to the father, for whatever reason, rather than being accountable for instilling discipline herself. This particular shifting of responsibility (in various forms) shows up later in life; particularly in organisations...

• A supervisor, rather than taking responsibility for something he needs to achieve, will hide behind an authority figure (who may or may not have been involved in what is to be said and done). He will say something like: “The Boss was very upset…” or “The Directors want you to…” or “The CEO has changed his mind and...” Each time we shift the burden of responsibility by passing the buck upwards, we become weaker as a leader.

• Father, not wanting to speak with a phone caller, foists responsibility onto his child: “Tell the man Daddy is not home." Here we have a double whammy… passing responsibility to the child to deal with the caller and importantly, teaching the child that it is ok to lie. This early lesson shows up in all sorts of avoidance in later life. We habitually get others to do our dirty work rather than face it ourselves. It also manifests in the so-called white lies we live so comfortably with… duck shoving to a lie rather than dealing with the truth. (The latest research shows that 98% of us lie. Is it any wonder?)

• Children learn quickly to flick past responsibility. When confronted over some misdemeanour, for the most part, kids will say that "he, she, they made me do it." Parents, grandparents, assorted 'rellies' and friends all buy into this classic piece of duck shoving - the rationale being that 'children are by definition not mature enough to be responsible' for their actions. After years of collusion you will hear the chorus: “Johnny was such a good boy. It’s a pity he fell in with the wrong crowd. Look how they have led him astray.”

Increasingly, parents (particularly protective mums) find it hard to free their children to take on responsibility for their actions. Instead, they join with their offspring in the buck passing. That irresponsible thinking is so prevalent in Western Society that a myth of giant proportions has developed around the notion that peer pressure is the cause of counterproductive or even illegal behaviour. In fact, many so-called experts support the idea. Psychologist, psychiatrists, sociologists, social workers and a host of other well intentioned individuals perpetuate this myth, aided and abetted by the media.

Rather than coaching our kids in responsibility, we give in to their demands on the one hand or create a protective 'nanny' culture around them on the other. We give in to them when we fail to hold them accountable. We create a nanny culture when we support Government prohibitions rather than educating our child in being responsible. Early unchallenged experiences of buck passing are a primary cause of our inability to accept responsibility. The remaining examples demonstrate the end result.



WISHFUL, WASTEFUL THINKING AROUND GOD

Way back when, I bought into an idea often expressed as: “The Universe will provide”. The theme was: "Have faith, relax, and wait until the Universe delivers what I need or want" (no need for me to strive and work hard). Another was: “If it is meant to be it will work out; if it isn’t it wasn’t meant to be.” Again, in this mindset I am a victim who thinks that a divine being is pulling the strings that determine what will and won’t work out for me. No blood, sweat and tears with this philosophy.

Less new age, more traditional was this one: “I will pray to God for what I want." Health, wealth, love, employment: a spouse, a new bike, a promotion, car, home or cure; all were available on direct request. Here, we pass the buck to an all powerful God to be the provider rather than take the necessary action to earn, seek out, or be worthy of what it is we want or need. Indeed, I held the idea that God was a mystical entity calling the shots over my life and the lives of others. No probleemo! Leave it to God. This of course was a neat abdication of responsibility for my state of health, general welfare or circumstance. Responsibility lay outside me and ultimate responsibility was in the hands of God, the Universe or fate… que sera sera. How juvenile was that?

Today I believe in God… but as Life. I am grateful to and for Life. I don’t say that my viewpoint is the truth… the truth remains a mystery to me, a mystery I am at peace with. I seek not from God but give thanks to Life for what I have – Life; to which I give as wholeheartedly and as energetically as I can. As to the Universe, I am in awe! And I know that I had better get off my backside and take action for what I seek. There are no free lunches.

OUR HEALTH – ‘AS YE SOW SO SHALL YE REAP’

Past actions testify that I thought I could sustain myself with whatever I wanted to eat and drink, lead a sedentary life, stress myself and assume that my body could handle the self inflicted abuse. I passed the buck to my body to deal with the toxic stuff I consumed, the physically inactive life I lead, and my stressful thinking. And if my body became overwhelmed with the daily intake of lifeless food, drink and thinking, I could hand-ball my failing health to the medical fraternity; who would prescribe all manner of remedies to fix me. If their pills and potions failed I could have the diseased parts replaced, zapped with radiation, sliced away or chemically poisoned. No worries mate!

After 64 years of that quality of thinking and behaviour what follows was the end result:

1. Overweight

2. Hypertension (high blood pressure).

3. Hypothyroidism (an under active thyroid).

4. Continuous diarrhoea.

5. Various perennial skin ailments.

6. High cholesterol.

7. Exhausted much of the time… old and worn out.

8. Cancer of the prostate



Like other ‘she'll be right mate’ Aussie males, I didn’t take care of myself. Didn’t grasp at a gut level (bulging bigger by the day) that I only had one body and it needed good care and maintenance. For which I was responsible and accountable. And more fool me, unlike most males, stored in the recesses of my memory was accumulated knowledge from earlier study on achieving and maintaining optimal health. This I ignored. Instead I put the burden on my body to keep me alive in the face of gross neglect and mistreatment. A bad mistake!

In the case of the cancer, the specialist presented the news, warning me that there was limited time to have the tumours cut, drugged, or burnt away - or they would metastasize. “When this happens,” she said, “you will die a slow painful death. “ I had already been told a few years earlier that I should take medication for my high blood pressure and my rapidly failing thyroid and would need to do so for the rest of my life. I had a range of creams for my skin conditions that gave temporary relief. And I also had blood tests, endoscopies and colonoscopies all without finding out why I had had 'the runs' for the preceding 5 years.

The cancer news jolted me to my core. I was scared. What to do? Having failed to take care of my health, was I now about to pass the buck once more? Was I going to leave it all to the medical, pharmaceutical or complementary medicine fraternities? Or was I going to meet the challenge of healing my body, of which the cancer and assorted other conditions were but symptoms of neglect and abuse… an irresponsible lifestyle? Had I really discovered the essence of responsibility back in ’92?

Apparently not quite! But from the deepest recess I remembered that the body, given the right conditions – optimal nutrition, appropriate exercise and a peaceful state of mind, will heal from any malady. I remembered books read in my twenties, and recalled a remarkable personal healing experience in my early thirties. Those readings and the natural healing event demonstrated the following: a 100% raw vegan organic diet, coupled with significantly reduced eating done in concert with fresh juicing, an energetic outdoor exercise program and a contented state of mind would, if practiced with daily discipline, lead to healing.

The decision was made; the path forward clear. For me, shifting the burden of responsibility for my health to others was no longer a viable option. I had faith that, as it had become sick with mistreatment, my body would heal, given time and cared for in the way I knew how to. If in doubt I would dig deeper.

Two years six months later aged 67, following a natural healing regime, my body responded in the following way:

1. Weight reduced from 83.7kg to 61.7kg: a drop of 22kg.

2. Blood pressure down from 135/85 to 110/60

3. Thyroid Function: TSH down from 27.90 to 3.12 (Healthy Range 0.40 – 4.00).

4. Normal bowl movements.

5. Skin conditions healed.

6. Cholesterol has reduced from 5.3 to 3.8 (Healthy Range <5.5*).

o LDL Cholesterol (the bad stuff) down from 3.8 to 2.6 (Healthy Range <3.5).

o Coronary Risk Ratio has come down from 5.3 to 3.8 (Healthy Range <5.0).

7. Feeling stronger, healthier and more energised than I can recall at any point in my life.

8. The test results show steady improvement.

Passing the buck for our health has become so commonplace that it looks as if it is the right thing to do. The norm! Taking next to zero responsibility for our health is part of our culture. It’s frightening!

We smoke; we use drugs. We consume alcohol, caffeine and sugar laden drinks. Some of us, maybe to salve our conscience, take make-believe health drinks; pasteurised, chemicalised, devitalised fruit and veggie juices and a mind boggling array of other containerised anti-health drinks. We eat make believe health foods; made with dead ingredients. We exist on food that has had the nutrition and nourishment cooked or processed to near extinction. We grow increasingly inactive, fat and unhealthy or emaciated and sickly. We line up in our hundreds of thousands each day across the nation at medical practices. Given pharmaceuticals for fixing our self induced failing health; we merely join the club of life time users. Others, disillusioned at the malfunction of modern medicine - and its clear inability to stem our nation's declining health, turn to the naturopath or homeopath, hoping that extracts of this or that tree, bark, root, fruit, shrub, vegetable or herb will do the trick. Or that this vitamin, mineral, enzyme, pro-biotic, anti-oxidant or protein supplement will remedy what Mother Nature has the inherent capacity to provide if only we bypass the dead-food dealers and go direct to the manufacturer; Mother Nature.

Unfortunately most of us (me included til recently) refuse to take the natural road that leads to vibrant, sustainable health. Instead, we live on a lifeless food diet. Some, trying to do the right thing, lace their diet with limited value vitamin and mineral supplements; trusting that these will compensate for a lousy diet. Millions, from babies to old timers, are ending up with serious disease. Hundreds of thousands are hospitalised and more of our aged are living a wretched, drug extended but a physically and mentally infirmed old age (many in soul destroying Care). From cradle to grave, we pass the burden of responsibility to an expanding legion of, dare I say it, make believe health providers (main stream or alternative) to fix the symptoms of an unhealthy lifestyle rather than eating, drinking and living naturally.

Becoming responsible for living very simply and naturally has healed 7 of my 8 ailments. Given time, and continuing to provide my body with nature’s natural medicine: organic nutrition, exercise and healthy thinking, the cancer will go the same way as my other lifestyle induced conditions. Passing the buck for my health has stopped.

ON A GRANDER SCALE - THE HEALTH OF OUR PLANET

Having seen how we shift the burden of responsibility for our health let’s look briefly at how we do the same thing with the wellbeing of our common home… the planet.

Polluting the air; degrading the arable soils; acidifying, contaminating and scraping the life from our oceans floors; heating up the atmosphere; killing the lungs of our planet – the forests; and, embracing the potential destruction of our food chain by genetically modifying it - that is just a headline grabbing few examples of our irresponsibility. And, for a second time, I acknowledge that there are others, infinitely more qualified, who will vehemently disagree with my views. But having listened carefully to both sides of the debate on each preceding point for over 50 years, I am unwilling to sit on the fence and in effect, absolve myself of responsibility. I don’t believe we can risk inflicting further potential harm that may take thousands if not millions of years to heal while in the process we destroy the animal kingdom (a kingdom in which we are clearly the destructive species).

Closer to home however is our misuse of water. For two hundred years Australians have refused to be accountable for undervaluing, wasting, poisoning and in other ways destroying our most precious resource.

In my home town Perth we argue the toss over how to deal with water restrictions. We ask “Is it best to use desalination; build more dams; pipe overland or ship it 2000 kilometres from our North; or plumb the depths of additional ancient and finite aquifers?” More of us should ask: “How do we conserve what we have?” Most cures, as with our personal health, address the symptoms not the cause - our chronically irresponsible use and abuse. Each solution passes the buck. We waste water everywhere we use it. In agriculture, industry, at all levels of government and in our homes and gardens. At present we still don’t have a real water shortage! What we have is a massive waste of water in every nook and cranny of our community.

Rather than take personal responsibility for educating ourselves and stopping the waste, aren't we (individually and collectively) shifting the burden of responsibility to our elected Government to solve the problem? It seems so to me. Our Government in turns shifts it back to the tax payer, us, to pay for what many see as unsustainable solutions. On this merry-go-round, arm in arm with the Government, we form a pact which ultimately shifts the problem onto the environment in one way or another. We build another ecologically damaging dam. Better still; we salt up our local sea while at the same time using massive amounts of CO2 emitting energy to run a desalination plant. We drain another ancient aquifer that takes a thousand years to refill, or we construct an environmentally harmful canal from the north to the south. Passing the buck, the thoughtless way of living, is never better illustrated than when we talk about life sustaining water.

Few of us see to the heart of the problem: our lack of careful and prudent use of this most precious resource, and pricing it in accordance with its economic and environmental cost. Instead, we blame 'climate change' or the lack of infrastructure planning by successive Governments. Most of us habitually look outside ourselves to solve the problem. Incongruous as it sounds, we ignore the fact that we live on the planet's driest continent! We need to respond to that, understand that, and respect that. We need to stop (as with our personal health) treating symptoms (in this case our need to please ourselves how we use water) and address the cause, our lack of adequate conservation.

As with all problems, sustainable solutions are available. There are highly skilled men and women who know exactly what needs to be changed within agriculture, industry, government and in our homes and gardens to conserve this most precious resource. We need to listen to them and to act. The buck can stop with you and me at work or at home for wasting water and for the other ways in which we are destroying our planet. What do you say? Will we, as custodians of our environment, embrace responsibility before it is too late? Being 100% responsible for our personal contribution would be a grand start!

OUR ECONOMIC PROBLEMS – INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE BURDEN SHIFTING

The Australian Government, with the blessing of the Opposition, has committed our taxes by handing out a big chunk of this year’s anticipated surplus, $10+ Billion, to those they think will spend it quickly (and thus stimulate the economy and keep the so-called mindless masses pumping away on the consumption treadmill).

Our Banks, of which the four biggest are in the world’s strongest top twenty, have been underwritten by the Government; excuse me… the tax payer. More Government intervention is promised. Tax payers’ dollars are being pledged by our Prime Minister to prop up sectors of our economy that are finding the going tough. As I see it, we are thus removing the burden of responsibility from poorly managed companies and households and passing it to tax payers as a whole. What a bloody good scheme! Fail and get bailed out. This of course only happens if you are a car manufacturer, car distributer, farmer, bank or part of a politically sensitive sector of our economy. Too bad about the rest of the poor little sods dotted all over the country who will go broke! They don’t have enough political clout to be invited aboard the gravy train. And anyway, the train is nowhere near strong enough to pull additional carriages of freeloaders. The present heavy payload, having convinced each other and most of the population that by papering over the widening cracks in our economic system they can stop the dam bursting; will drown millions of us.

What beggars’ belief is that it was only months ago that successive Reserve Bank Chairmen and Treasurers said that our economy was going gangbusters but overheated, and that demand driven inflation was getting out of control! Things were, on balance, very good! Neither the Reserve Bank nor Treasurers seem to understand what causes inflation, which is an increase in the supply of paper money, not an increase in wages and prices. Those increases are a symptom but not the fundamental cause. So what’s happened? If our economies, Federal, State, Local, Business, Family and Individual, were soundly based and wisely managed, would so many now be facing implied (and in my view widespread) financial annihilation?

Instead of persisting with our Lemming-like rush toward total economic meltdown, might there still be time to take a stand for fiscal prudence? Is not the time right to let the responsibility for poor corporate governance stay where it belongs… with the boards, senior executives and shareholders? Is now the time to return to fundamentals; such as ensuring at all economic levels that incomes exceed expenditure? What a novel idea! You may think me a simpleton to suggest that.

What if the excess created at all levels of the economy, just for once, was saved and invested? Set aside for personal, corporate and national development on badly needed infrastructure, rather than being wasted on trying to sustain an unsustainable consumption-driven, debt fuelled, economic model. A corrupted system, in a drunken stagger, that must eventually implode and when it does cause devastation of the like we may have never seen before.

We are a fleabite population of 22 million with $1 trillion in Household Debt, $620 billion in Foreign Debt, and a Current Account Deficit of $60 billion a year. We cannot continue to shift the burden of responsibility to more and more debt that will become increasingly hard to pay back and eventually cannot be repaid. We will be bankrupted as a nation. We must pull our heads in, be accountable and responsible and start living within our means, as families, as local and state governments, as corporations and as a nation.

We have kidded ourselves in thinking we have been clever. Not so! We’ve just been lucky to live in Australia and be a part of a global commodity bonanza. Before it’s too late, let’s grasp this opportunity and take responsibility to get off the consumer powered treadmill and put our fiscal houses in sustainable order. However painful that might be at this time, it will be but a mild sniffle to the pneumonia we face down the track if we don’t act now. Buck passing has to stop with each of us. A sound economic outlook is forecast for those that apply common sense and accept responsibility for living within their means. Dire consequences await those shifting responsibility to the Government, believing that they have the power to spend our way out of trouble. With that strategy, they will do nothing but delay the inevitable… and in so doing, create even worse economic chaos and greater personal hardship for all but the truly wealthy (and there aren’t many that actually fit that category).

IN SUMMARY

Driving home today I read an outdoor advertising billboard. It said almost everything I’m trying to say in eleven words: “It’s not coz we can’t. It’s coz we can’t be bothered!” Pictured beneath the words was a new toilet roll sitting on top of a dispenser with an empty cardboard roll left on the metal spindle. Below that were the words: “Chill.” Beside that was a picture of a popular brand of iced coffee. Further on I came across another of those ads. The words were the same: “It’s not coz we can’t. It’s coz we can’t be bothered!” This time it pictured a gift that had been wrapped as only a 5 year old could have achieved. In both ads the surface message implies: "Don’t get upset by what others do; just 'chill' with our iced coffee." In fact, it’s cool not to replace the toilet roll or not bother making a neat job of wrapping a gift, and "cool people drink our iced coffee." Trivial, you might say. But at a deeper level, the message is just another reaffirmation that it is cool to be irresponsible. The ad tunes into the growing level of irresponsibility, making it a badge of honour to be uncaring of others and unaccountable to do what is decent.

FINAL WORDS

If you have made it to this point you will know that I have struggled with my own lack of responsibility. I still do. Like everyone, even at 67, I am still work in progress.

Critics of this piece might say that I am just a grumpy old man. That is certainly true on a bad day. Others, who understand the principle of Thought, might say I can only see the world through my thinking and my thinking is jaundiced toward irresponsibility. It is true, each of us can only see through the prism of our own thinking. It is equally true that once we have had a wakeup call we see the obvious… that which we were once blind to.

Australia, at this point, is on balance an irresponsible society. I trust that my grandchildren, great grandchildren (and yours as well) will live in a country where responsibility for one’s life – spiritual, physical, environmental and financial – will be the norm. If that comes to pass we will see people that are psychologically independent, deeply loving and thus interdependent, physically robust and fearless custodians of our planet - men and women who have moved beyond the mental prison of irresponsibility.

For that to materialise we must recognise that the buck ends with each of us. No more shifting the burden of responsibility. The future is up to you and me.

John A Wood

December 11th 2008