Spirituality & Health
The special group of the WHO Executive Board for the review
of the Constitution proposed that the preamble be modified to read (World
Health Organization (1997) Review of the Constitution . . . , EB 10 1/7, p.2)
“Health is a dynamic state of complete physical, mental, spiritual and social
well-being and not merely the
absence of disease or infirmity.”
In January 1998, the Executive Board
endorsed this proposal of the Special Group and adopted resolution EB 10 1.R2
recommending the World Health Assembly to modify the preamble of the
Constitution accordingly (World Health Organization (1998) Executive
Board 101st Session, Resolutions and Decisions, EB101.1998/REC/l, p.52-53)
In 2005, the Bangkok Charter for the Health Promotion in
a Globalized World endorses a “positive and inclusive concept of health as a
determinant of the quality of life and encompassing mental and spiritual
well-being.”
From
the earliest definition of WHO - “Health is the absence of an illness”, we have
come a long way. And this is certainly on time because after a long run for
science and discovery, the world is fast entering into a new era that is
feeling lost for the lack of wholesome answers to many of its questions in its materialistic
domain.
Especially
where health and diseases are concerned, we can only move forward to a certain
extent and then we draw blank. There are breakthrough medicines and super
talented surgeons and yet children die young, babies are born with deformities,
the organs stop functioning before their expiry dates and otherwise healthy
people lose their memory. This is in addition to the multitude of mental
illnesses that are baffling the experts world over while they use trial and
error methods to “fix” things. And we are in the 21st century!!
Can
man really claim to have understood the human body and its process of
reproduction? Some may swear by genetics to have acquired all the knowledge but
I always have one question- You know certain genetic coding leads to certain
features and others decide the placement of organs in the body and other
details, however who did this super intelligent genetic coding in the first
place? I mean it is way beyond the expanse of the word “Amazing”! A human child
is born a human with all the systems and Microsystems in exactly the same place
with exactly the same function for ages together!!! The system that makes it
happen or that made it happen in the first place can’t be a random “Big Bang”!!
No, it was not a random happening that not just humans but thousands of
creatures inhabit this earth with perfect genetic coding and a perfect place in
the ecosystem and each one with a perfect intelligence in the art of survival!!
It
had to be a superpower and Spirituality is the recognition of this superpower
that constructed the tiniest of its creatures with perfection and with a
PURPOSE. This purpose and connection to the superpower makes us all spiritual
beings that have been given a human body to experience challenges and learn the
very essence of life.
Many
diseases are the form of these challenges that come to us with some lessons. Many
studies are currently available where energy healing and faith healing methods
significantly cured or at the least improved the quality of life in patients
with intractable and life threatening diseases. Most of these methods work with
emotional work. Many a diseases have been cured with the release of negative
energy trapped due to long standing unresolved issues sometimes traceable even
to past lives.
Experts
from various scientific fields around the world have experienced the positive
effects of spiritual healing on their patients and that includes American
Psychiatrist Dr. Brian Weiss, who has done ground breaking work in Past life
regression and regression therapy.
This
is no way to dispute the role of medicine, however there is a need to
understand that there are things beyond our physical realm that determine our
health quality and while considering treatment one has to look beyond what is
popularized more.
Today
the medical practitioners all over are over-loaded with work leaving little or
no time to understand the needs of the patient as a person. Patients, especially
with chronic illnesses and terminal illness suffer from a lot more beyond the
physical incapability and pain. There is emotional pain over loss of health,
family disturbances, pain of dependence, financial burden and much more which
needs to be addressed as much as the physical illness.
In
this era of specialization there is hardly any consideration for the patient as
a person…he is a kidney, a heart, a lung… But the sufferer is not the kidney or
heart, it is a person that is also a much more than the organs, he is emotions,
needs and feelings. Plus, illnesses being a call for awakening of self, the
spiritual needs are at its highest. In the absence of no one to cater to these
needs the illnesses spread from physical to mental to emotional to the
spiritual realms.
Man has achieved a lot and science has
given us a lot, however, our truth goes beyond that. The famous need Hierarchy
theory by great philosopher Sir Abraham Maslow talks about the highest need of
man to be ‘transcendental self- actualization’ While Albert Einstein, the man
of science, said, “Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science
becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe-a spirit
vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest
powers must feel humble.”
Unless
we open up to this holistic definition of mankind, our questions and our
efforts would always be half rewarded. We all know what Einstein famously
quoted, “Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is
blind”.
If you are suffering from chronic or recurrent
physical ailments do look for a spiritual counselor. A word of caution here
though, does not confuse religious rituals with the guidance of genuine
spiritual counseling.