When I began my training as a naturopathic physician many years ago, I was excited to be taught to seek the ultimate, root causes of disease not in biochemistry or genetics, but by thinking of the physical body as, in a very real sense, a manifestation of Spirit.
We live in a physical world that seems very real to our physical senses. Yet that’s simply because our senses cannot show us the world that science began to open for our consideration a little over a century ago – namely, that if we could see past our physical perceptions, we would see the physical world as constructed of a highly organized maelstrom of energy.
As I grew in my understanding of naturopathic medicine, I was fortunate to encounter the teachings of a great liberated spiritual master whose worldview was sufficiently deep and penetrating to allow him to see beyond even the world of energy, into a much vaster world that was composed of thought forms – and beyond even that subtle realm to the realm of pure Spirit beyond creation, which permeates and guides all its forms.
In time, I realized that my teacher, Paramhansa Yogananda, had not only merged his consciousness completely and irreversibly with the cosmic Spirit, but that he was a naturopathic physician of the highest order, who in his boundless compassion had come on earth to offer us a form of natural medicine that was in full alignment with the highest spiritual laws.
From him, I learned that beyond our earthly existence there is an entire energetic reality that gives us our life and sustains us, and that wants to help us arrange our existence in harmony with the highest spiritual laws of health and healing.
An unlimited source of pure intelligent healing energy surrounds us and can flow into and through us, if we will learn to align our actions with its ways. The energy that sustains everything is the creative, intelligent, compassionate source of our being and the ultimate source of healing.
In naturopathy, we understand that this energy manifests in our bodies as the Vis Medicatrix Naturae,: “the Healing Power of Nature.” Naturopathic healing is based on understanding the workings of this universal vital force that energizes and balances our physical form.
A great naturopathic healer, Harry Lindlahr, offered us these thoughts for understanding the life energy:
“The vitalistic conception of life …. regards vital force as the primary force of all forces, coming from the great central source of all life. This force, which permeates, heats, and animates the entire created universe, is an expression of divine intelligence and will, the logos – the Word of the great Creative Intelligence. It is the divine energy which sets in motion the whirls in the ether, the electric corpuscles that make up the atoms, and the elements of matter.
“This intelligent energy can have but one source: the will and intelligence of the Creator – or as Swedenborg expresses it, of the great Central Sun of the Universe.”
Harry Lindlahr concluded that it is absurd to believe that the source of the great vibrational cosmos originates in physical matter.
Rather, he asserted, it is the other way around. “Crude matter is an expression of the great Creative Intelligence, God, Nature, Oversoul, Brahma, prana, the Great Spirit. This is the vis medicatrix naturae which is present and acts through every molecule of the human body, that is the healer, and that restores to perfection.
“The question is not what matter is in the final analysis, but how matter affects us. We have to take it and treat it as we find it. We must be as obedient to the laws of matter as to those of the higher planes of being.”
Paramhansa Yogananda spoke of the universal energy as the source of our being. He said that we can feel and draw upon this energy, which he called variously the Conscious Cosmic Energy, Vibratory Life Energy, Intelligent Life Energy, the Conscious Cosmic Life Principle, Prana, and the Word of God.
He taught us to meditate on the inner sound of Aum as our connection to God through the audible manifestation of His Word.
A fundamental practice in naturopathy is the use of techniques and medicines that can free us and our patients from any limitations might be preventing the Conscious Cosmic Energy and the Healing Power of Nature from working effectively to heal us.
- Modalities such as acupuncture attempt to clear energy blockages in the energetic meridians that run through the body.
- Homeopathic remedies and flower essences clear imbalances through resonant vibrations.
- Hot and cold contrast hydrotherapy, soft and hard tissue manipulation, and special exercise protocols work on the musculoskeletal, circulatory, and lymphatic levels to remove blocks and promote a free flow of energy.
- Diet and nutritional therapies foster the healthy functioning of physiologic systems through which energy can flow freely.
- Counseling can help release emotional blockages that may be preventing us from manifesting our full potential for vitality and health.
Paramhansa Yogananda respected all of these methods; but he brought our understanding of them a giant leap further.
He taught methods for attuning ourselves with the vibrations of the cosmic healing energy of Spirit, through affirmations, meditation, devotional attunement, “energization exercises,” and prayer.
He taught practical techniques for drawing cosmic energy into our bodies and directing it to heal ourselves, or others.
Yogananda said that it is through the cosmic energy that supposedly “miraculous” cures occur, and that absolute healing of body, mind, and soul is possible.
Of course, these higher teachings don’t suddenly make all other practical methods irrelevant or obsolete.
Prescriptions of supplements or massage, manipulation, electromagnetic frequencies, poultices, or lifestyle modifications can all play valuable roles in encouraging the body to receive the curing cosmic energy.
We live in a physical world and must respect its laws that operate on the physical level. But without addressing underlying energy imbalances and blockages, we may be simply applying Band-Aids.
The ultimate underlying cause of disease is a lack of attunement with the perfect Spirit that created and sustains us. If we fail to correct our attunement with that Source, our symptoms are sure to return in some form.
My approach to medicine stems not only from the vitalistic tradition of Western medicine, the nature cure movement, naturopathic principles (click here), and ever-evolving scientific understanding, but from Paramhansa Yogananda’s wisdom. I find it exciting to discover, increasingly, in how many ways the higher wisdom is reflected not only in ancient healing traditions but in the latest scientific investigations and methods of healing.
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