Are Illness and Disease What We Think They Are?

If someone said you will catch a cold from being in a cold wind, would you believe them? How do you know you will catch a cold from the cold wind? How do you not know? In the same vain, how do you know what illness and disease are? Do you know because your parents told you? Maybe your Doctor told you? Or was it your school teacher? Whoever it was, ask yourself this question, who told them and how do they know?

Have you ever stopped to think about how you know what you know about something? Do you ever question the things you learn or hear, or do you just go along with the masses and believe whatever is popular at the time? Consider this for a second. Just because the masses believe X causes Y, does it make it true? Does the mere fact that the masses believe a cold wind causes you to get a cold mean that a cold wind causes a cold? If most people believed eating chocolate makes you fat, does that mean chocolate makes you fat?

In case you haven’t noticed, the health industry is constantly changing their tune on what is healthy and what is not, what causes a disease and what doesn’t etc. For example, a few years ago, all forms of chocolate were declared unhealthy and people were told to stay away from it at all costs. Yet, this year, the year 2012, we are now told that dark chocolate is very good for us and we are now being encouraged to eat it. How does that work?

Now, I am not saying this to beat down on the health industry, they are doing the best they can with the beliefs and resources they have. But, for all who have eyes to see and ears to hear, there is more to health and illness than what we hear through the masses. There is a simpler and clearer answer to what causes a cold and to how people get cancer.

Typically, when we think of illness and disease, we imagine something physical as being the cause of our ailment. For example, we traditionally think we can catch a virus from being coughed on or coming into physical contact with someone who is “infected” with it. We ascribe DNA and genes as being the source of our heart problems, weight issues, diseases etc etc. We blame our parents, grandparents, neighbours, pets, microwaves and so on and so forth for our health problems.

You may notice that this paradigm of health is based on one thing, “blame.” In our current society, everything else is responsible for our health and we are the victim. Nothing is our responsibility; it is all because of an “external” thing. Is it any wonder there is so much confusion and fear in the world today?

We act as though our DNA is something separate from us, even though it is part of us and within us. Huh, how does that work? It may seem humorous, but this is how illness and disease is currently viewed. When we develop an ailment or disease we are told, “There is nothing you can do about it”, “it is in your DNA”, “it is the dog’s fault”, “you smoke too much”, “take this pill and hope that it goes away,” and on and on and on it goes.

In our current framework (belief system) of dealing with illness and disease, we treat it as though it is 100% separate from us. The ailment or condition is “out there” and we are told it is trying to harm us, destroy us etc. But is this really so? When we really think about it, does this make any sense at all? Surely there is a piece of the jigsaw puzzle that we are missing?

Thankfully, there are many jigsaw pieces that are missing in mainstream medicine and the masses beliefs around health and well-being. I wrote about three of these in my previous article titled, “3 Misconceptions about Illness and Disease.” The reality is we are not separate from our health issues. They are but outer manifestations of internal causes within us. Instead of us being 100% at the mercy of illness and disease, we have 100% control over it. This may come as a shock at first, but this how it really works.

Although not intentionally, the current health framework promotes fear, hate, anger, sadness, and confusion. It reinforces the “victim” mentality and keeps people disempowered not thinking they have any power or ability to directly influence their health and well-being. As you might expect, the exact opposite of this is true. We are not “victims” to anything, let alone our illnesses and diseases. This new paradigm of looking at health promotes freedom, love, peace, power and clarity.

Have you ever considered this before? Instead of illness and disease being an enemy, it is a friend. Instead of it being separate from us, it is one with us. Instead of it being negative, it is positive. Instead of it being a nuisance, it is a gift. Instead of it being a physical problem, it is a message from our bodies reflecting our unconscious thoughts and emotions within us.

From this perspective, illness and disease is nothing but a tool to help us become conscious of that which we are currently unconscious of. It is a reflection of our internal thoughts and emotions. This is all it is. There is no need to examine DNA or any other physical thing to find the answers and cures. The cause is not physical; therefore the cure is not physical. There is nothing separate from us that we experience. Somewhere along the way, we adopted an incorrect perception of what our health issues really are.

Nevertheless, this is no longer important, as we each now have a choice. It may be a choice you didn’t think you had until now, but, yet, it is a choice available to us all. The choice is this: Will you continue to believe that illness and disease is there to attack and destroy you? Or that it is there to help and support you? One will keep you in a state of fear and confusion, while the other will liberate you and allow you to experience love and freedom. The choice is in front of you, and there is only one question that remains, what will you choose NOW?

3 Misconceptions About Illness and Disease

We are all conditioned from a very young age that illness and dis-ease are random occurrences that are out of our ability to control. From birth we are exposed to thoughts and beliefs such as how frail our bodies are, how susceptible we are to illness, and how we have no cures for many of the so called ‘major illnesses’ prevalent in the world. We are programmed to believe that we are victims to the outside world and that we are powerless little ants walking around not knowing which illness will squash us next.

This article is written for all those who are seeking to break free from the old beliefs about illness and dis-ease. It is for those who are ready to embrace new ideas that promote empowerment and liberation. What follows is a brief list of 3 misconceptions about illness and dis-ease and how we can begin to break free of these old conditioned ways of thinking.

Misconception #1: Illness and Dis-ease Have Physical Causes

Traditional views teach us that these are caused by physical means. For example, if you get a cold, it is because you “caught a cold” from being out in the cold or because someone sneezed on you etc. Another example is in regards to being overweight, as it is commonly thought that people become overweight because they either eat too much or do not exercise enough, or a combination of both. It is based on the belief that there is something external to you, that there is an “out there” separate from you.

To break free of this misconception, we understand that nothing physical can cause anything else that is physical. The physical level is the level of effect, and the level of effect has no power to create anything in and of itself. One of the great universal laws is the law of cause and effect. Very simply, this law states that for every effect there is a cause and to every cause there is an effect. Illness and dis-ease operate on the level of effect, meaning they are only effects and not the cause. The causal levels are the mental, emotional and spiritual levels, these levels are often referred to as “within” a person.

Misconception #2: Illness and Dis-ease is an Enemy

Most of us are taught as children that sickness is bad and that we need to “fight” against or it will destroy us. All forms of sickness are considered as being caused by some type of foreign body that is invading our body in an attempt to harm or hurt us. Resultantly, all attempts are made by current medicine to destroy the physical illness or dis-ease by medication or other such physical treatments. From this point of view, we are not cured until the physical 'invader' is no longer visible or traceable in our bodies, and thus, the so called enemy has been overcome.

This misconception is broken down when we understand and perceive correctly that illness and dis-ease is our friend, rather than our foe. In this way, it is merely seen as a physical effect, i.e. a message from the body, that what is happening within us, on the level of cause, is not in balance with our greatest good or our own best interests. Whenever we are acting out of harmony with love, we receive feedback in our bodies in the form of illness and dis-ease to help us become aware that we are out of balance within ourselves.

Misconception #3: Illness and Dis-ease is Separate from You

This was briefly mentioned in #1, in that we have been conditioned to believe that these are things which are external to us. Because we can see a virus, a bacteria etc., in our bodies, it appears that these foreign bodies are external to us, that they have nothing to do with us. For example, we believe we get the flu as the result of contracting the influenza virus, because it can be seen through a microscope; therefore, it is deemed as being separate or external from us. In the traditional way of thinking, we have contracted this “external” virus via some type of physical contact, either through another person, animal etc.

Consequently, this is one of the hardest misconceptions to let go of, as it is the one that seems the most accurate based on our senses and what we perceive with them. Nonetheless, if we are to fully understand the role of illness & dis-ease in our lives, it is one we must change. Even though it is hard to understand at first, all illness is the result of non-physical causes. In other words, they are simply outward manifestations of thoughts and emotions that are taking place within us. When we experience a physical illness or dis-ease, we have not contracted anything physical, but in reality have contracted the thinking or belief system that causes the physical effect in the form of a specific illness or dis-ease.

In the cases of epidemics, the duration and extent of an epidemic is directly proportional to the particular belief system that maintains it. The people affected by such widespread dis-ease are allowing themselves to be overrun by the way of thinking prevalent at the time.

Conclusion

From this perspective, we begin to understand that all forms of illness, injury and dis-ease are there to help us; not to hinder, hurt or destroy us. This article is merely an introduction to a different way of approaching health & wellbeing. There are many who have been advocating this approach for many years, including Louise Hay, Lise Bourbeau and Deepak Chopra to name a few. You have nothing to lose in considering this approach, although our natural tendency is to resist, as our ego (beliefs) doesn’t like to be challenged and asked to change from the status quo.