Every man and woman has within him or her two kinds of poisonous matter. One of these is inherent and the other is acquired after birth. The inherent poison is, of course, passed on from the person's parents and the other comes from drugs absorbed into the body after birth.

Most people will find this statement surprising, because from the earliest days, medical drugs have been thought of as curing illness and being complementary to good health. People have always believed that if they can find a good drug, they will be able to cure the illness and this search has been the chief end of medical treatment. The USA has been especially notable for its stress on the importance of drugs and has devoted great effort to the discovery and development of new medications as everyone know. In the light of this, we cannot help but think that if illness could be cured by drugs, it would be steadily getting less and less. And yet illness is, in fact, steadily increasing. The situation is one of great illogicality and confusion.

Originally and basically, there is no such thing as 'medicine' on this earth. There is not one single thing which can be so described. So-called 'medicines' are all poisons and it is precisely because they are poisonous that they have an effect. To be exact, the poisons we call medicines act in a toxic way to reduce the symptoms of disease and thus give the superficial appearance of a cure. No real cure takes place.

The reason why medicines are in fact toxic is this. The things which human beings could possibly try to eat were all given life at the same time as the creation of man. These are what we call food. The two types of food - that is, that which man should eat and that which he should not eat - are naturally separated. That is, things which man should eat have a flavour which is pleasurable to the sense of taste of human beings. If people eat those things which they find enjoyable, they will receive adequate nourishment. This shows the comprehensive concern of the Creator of the Universe for all creation.

This means that, rather than saying that we eat in order to live, the truth is that we live by eating. This is similar to the case of reproduction. Men and women do not come together in order to create children. Rather, they are blessed with children as a half-unexpected consequence of the pursuit of another goal. This is a profound and divine mystery.

The internal organs of the body are unable to deal completely with things that are not supposed to be taken as food. As medicine is precisely such a foreign object, although the body absorbs what nutrition there is from it, the remainder stays in the body and is not all voided. This is medicinal poisoning. The worst aspect of this is that the poison accumulates in all parts of the body and it solidifies as time passes.

The places where the toxin gathers are always places of high nervous activity. And when we think where such places are located, we realize that they are, of course, mostly in the upper half of the body, especially from the neck upwards. With the brain as the centre, they also include the eyes, the ears, the nose and the mouth, and it is in these places that the toxin concentrates, once it has solidified around the neck.

When this hardening reaches a certain degree, there occurs a process of natural discharge, that is, a process of purification. In this phase, the solidified toxin is melted by a rise in temperature and becomes a liquid. This liquid is eliminated from the body by means of a cough, phlegm, nasal discharge, perspiration, diarrhea, fever or urine. This is what we term a cold.

A cold, therefore, is a process of elimination of poisons. If you put up with the slight discomfort patiently and trust yourself to Nature, the poison will be discharged with no problems, the inside of your body will be purified and you will arrive at that state of good health which means that you are truly cured. A cold is a very simple form of natural regulation. It is God's Providence. People who do not realize this and don't give heartfelt thanks to God, instead interpret the significance of the discomfort of the purification in a negative way and decide that they should try to end it. This way of thinking brings about medical science, that great source of error.

This process of purification takes place with greater frequency when the cleansing power of the body is stronger and more vigorous. A way of preventing or lessening this frequency is, of course, to weaken the body, and it is towards this end that the poisons called medicines are used. Traditionally, people have taken such things as herbs, roots, barks, minerals and the viscera of animals, have boiled them, made them into powder or taken extracts from them to make liquid medicines, pills, ointments, injections - indeed all sorts and shapes of medicament. They are all, however, designed to halt the natural process of purification. All these medicines are strong and taken in large doses would be lethal and so they are given to people little by little in a dilute form. They are thus given in doses to be taken more than once a day and an 'effective' medicine is one that is toxic to the degree that is only fractionally less than that necessary to bring about noticeable symptoms of poisoning.

Thus medical science uses poison to prevent the liquefaction and discharge of already accumulated poison and in fact to harden it. Once you realize this, it is disturbing to speculate how poisoned the people of today are, and how prone they are to disease. As a result, the need for prophylaxis and hygiene has been stridently proclaimed recently and influenza has become an object of fear and loathing.

Again, people assume that human life should only extend to seventy years and are delighted to attain this age. This is a greatly mistaken view. If a human being is not afflicted with illness, he or she can easily live for a hundred years or more. To die before this is to die an unnatural death brought about by illness. If you do not become ill, you are sure to die a natural death and will inevitably live a long life.

Scientific medical treatment does not cure illness, but only suppresses the symptoms temporarily. All methods of treatment - such as complete rest, poultices, liniments, cold compresses, electrotherapy, phototherapy - are no more than means of hardening the poisons of the body. There are one or two methods which are a little different - for example, moxa cautery and thermotherapy - but these also do little more than use the stimulus of heat to attract poison to the area of treatment, thereby affording temporary relief to the body. As time passes, the person reverts to his previous condition and the treatment has in a real sense, failed.

Again, cancer is sometimes attacked and destroyed using radium. This would be fine if it were only the cancer that is destroyed but in fact the entire cell organisation of the body suffers and the negative effects of the treatment far outweigh the positive ones.

One often hears that people who are careful about their health are prone to illness, whereas those who do not give a thought to it stay healthy. Thus the families of doctors, nurses and such people are noted for their frequent illnesses. Interestingly enough, if one asks one of the rare people who live to be a healthy old age, he or she will say, 'I've never been ill, so I've never seen doctors or taken medicine.' As we see it, such people are healthy because they do not have medical treatment and do not have medical treatment because they are healthy. This point deserves deep consideration.

Informally known as Shumei, Shinji Shumeikai, is a spiritual organisation, dedicated to creating an ideal state of health, happiness and harmony for all humanity by applying the insights of our founder, Mokichi Okada (1882-1955), known to Shumei members as Meishusama. Mokichi Okada taught a world free of sickness, poverty and strife can be achieved through an appreciation of art and beauty, a reverence for nature through natural agriculture and by the healing art of Jyorei.
 

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