WHAT IS DISEASE?
WHAT IS TRUE HEALING?

Besides the obvious -- dis-ease, the opposite of ease -- what really constitutes disease? In the practice of Reiki, we often describe disease as a condition of energy imbalance or blockage, caused by tension, lack of relaxation. Seeing it this way, we can say that Reiki heals by relaxation, which restores the natural and balanced flow of energy throughout the body.

Macrobiotics describes all energies and all things in terms of yin (expansion, centrifugal motion) and yang (contraction, centripetal motion). The two occur together in everything and every event. The ever-changing relationship of yin and yang is what creates everything in our dualistic world. And, like the Reiki perception, Macrobiotics also describes illness as a situation of imbalanced energies. We can also say that imbalanced energy is toxic; therefore, disease is caused by the accumulation of toxins in the body.

We create this imbalance/toxicity in countless ways. We are constantly both taking in and producing yin and yang energies -- by eating, by thinking, by feeling (emotion), by doing anything, by doing nothing. Each of us is a circuit in the giant circuit-board we call the Universe; all connected with each other, all exchanging energy constantly. So, probably, the times that we are truly balanced are few and far between! We are almost always dis-eased, unbalanced to some degree -- and always, whether conscious of it or not, striving toward balance, like a compass needle seeking North.

Hmmmm.....if all diseases are caused by energy imbalance/toxicity, then aren't all diseases really a single disease? The disease is the energy imbalance/toxicity -- though it may present itself in a countless variety of masks: everything from a runny nose to a swollen prostate gland; heart attack; loss of hearing; cuts and bruises (yes, there are no "accidents," everything is a reflection of our degree of imbalance at a particular moment); indigestion; cancer; AIDS; and new combinations of symptoms that are arising as fast as they can be given names.

Modern medicine is very good at naming symptoms, usually by simply describing them in Latin. Naming things can be helpful, but this naming also leads to the mistaken notion that different collections of symptoms = different diseases. Which leads to the notion that each "disease" has a different cause and a different cure. This creates an illusion of overwhelming complexity and focuses our attention at the wrong level. Instead of looking for the one, single, underlying disease, we end up fascinated by the myriad of symptoms that sprout from it. The real disease and its cause are never addressed by modern medicine, and so cannot be cured by it.

More confusion has been caused by what is called the Germ Theory of disease. With the microscopic discovery of a whole world of bacteria and viruses -- and the observation that certain ones are characteristically associated with certain "diseases" (symptoms) -- the microscopic thinkers concluded that a particular "germ" or family of germs was the cause of each particular "disease" (collection of symptoms), and that the way to cure the "disease" was to destroy the germs.

Johrei and Reiki and Macrobiotics all take a more macro-scopic look at the situation. Seeing not only the symptoms but also the underlying cause -- which is always an energy imbalance/toxicity -- they focus on healing it by helping the body attain balance and release the toxins.

Macrobiotics tends to focus more on physical toxins -- emphasis on diet and physical environment -- while Johrei works directly and solely on spiritual toxins, with the understanding that "the spiritual precedes the physical." In other words, everything physical is merely a materialization of something spiritual -- and, in fact, the physical manifestation (symptoms) of disease can be pre-empted if the spiritual toxins are dissolved early enough. Reiki, in a way, combines both these strategies: it brings about healing simultaneously on the spiritual, emotional, mental and physical levels.

All three approaches work by promoting the release of toxins. This is nothing miraculous; releasing toxins and balancing energies is the body's natural work. However, when we reach the point of showing physical symptoms (and sometimes even before), we have become unbalanced enough that the body is not able to function normally. Then Reiki, Johrei and Macrobiotics, together or individually, can bring the body back to its normal functionality of healing itself.

On the other hand, the medical approach is to seal the toxins away where they're no longer noticeable. If we have a cough, for instance: "Here, take this cough syrup, it'll stop you from coughing!" And it does. But what appears to be magic is in fact only sleight of hand. It stops the cough by paralyzing the body's natural cough reflex. Is that a good thing? Would it be better to consider why the body is coughing in the first place? Coughing is a release of toxins. Releasing them allows the body to heal and get back to normal, even though the coughing is unpleasant.

If we take the cough syrup, we feel better not to be coughing.....but what has really happened? The toxins that were causing us to cough have been driven deeper into the body, where they are held prisoner, so to speak, by the "magic" of the cough syrup energy. The medical philosophy, though never stated, being, "We don't care how ugly the monster is, as long as we don't have to see it!"

The problem is, after years and years of driving various toxic monsters down into the dark recesses of our body, just to get them out of sight, there comes a time when we can no longer keep them shackled. All those prisoners -- who, individually, were not really dangerous, not even really ugly -- eventually combine forces and emerge as something truly big and nasty. Eventually, something so nasty that all the medicine in the world won't keep the lid on it! And there's an added bonus: the drugs themselves are severely imbalanced and toxic to the body.

It's only fair to note that we can create a similar condition without medicine, by improper eating, for instance. For each of us there is an optimal balance of yin and yang energies at every moment, and we must learn to sense it. That is what the study and practice of Macrobiotics is all about. However, there has been a tendency among long-time students of Macrobiotics to become excessively yang (too much constrictive, compressive energy), and in recent years the Macrobiotics community has been shocked by the deaths of several of its gurus, from degenerative diseases such as cancer. It seems to me that these are usually cases of excessive constriction trapping imbalances/toxins in the body over a long period, until they cumulatively break free in the form of something lethal.

Now that we see there is really only one disease -- imbalance/toxicity -- what are we to make of the famous Germ Theory? Johrei turns the Germ Theory on its head. Instead of seeing "germs" as the cause of illness, it sees them as toxin-eaters, little crusaders who have come to save us. They come to devour our toxins, and it is in the dead and dying bodies of these germs that the toxins pass out of our own bodies, purifying us and allowing us to heal. In other words, Johrei teaches that the viruses and bacteria that modern medicine devotes itself to killing are, in truth, Hazardous Materials cleanup squads, who sacrifice their own lives for us. Again, the medical approach is to kill off these natural healers and drive the toxins (and our disease) deeper into the body, where they can be ignored for a time.

I accept the Germs-as-toxin-eaters paradigm, because it duplicates perfectly something that has been validated in the outside world. In the realm of gardening, it has long been thought that insects (with few exceptions) were the enemy, and fortunes have been made selling chemical poisons to kill them. Those nasty bugs, eating our crops! But it turns out that the bugs only eat plants that are diseased or out of balance with the environment. It has been demonstrated, in fact, that an insect that mistakenly takes a bite of a healthy plant can actually explode! The sugar content of a healthy plant is so high -- such expansive, yin energy -- it will disintegrate the insect! (It's important to realize that a truly healthy plant is one growing naturally, in healthy soil, without artificial chemicals.) These discoveries and many other fascinating ones are described beautifully in The Secret Life of Plants (Tompkins and Bird).

With macro-scopic vision (instead of microscopic) we see a perfect analogy here. Healthy soil grows healthy plants, which are not bothered by insects. Diseased soil grows diseased plants, which attract insects to eat the toxins. In the same way, when our body is within a certain range of balance, we are "healthy" and free of "germs." When we become sufficiently imbalanced and diseased, we attract viruses and bacteria to eat the toxins. So the best thing we can do is to welcome them gratefully and let them do their job of purifying us, even though it's unpleasant. In Johrei we have a saying: "Ouch, Thank you!"

Johrei and Reiki and Macrobiotics all work by accelerating the body's natural healing process -- and it's important to distinguish between true healing and the removal of symptoms. Treatments such as drugs and surgery merely target the symptoms, masking the disease and leaving it to grow and reappear. Even energy treatments, including Reiki, can be used in a symptomatic way. Mikao Usui taught that Reiki can be both a spiritual healing technique and an energy healing technique, and made a distinction between the two. Spiritual healing aligns us with Divine Intent (the macrocosmic universe) and involves a change of consciousness, while energy healing is directed by the personal will and aims only at removing symptoms from the individual mind and body.

It's important to realize that symptoms of illness are messages along our path of spiritual awakening. Many kinds of treatment can remove or hide the symptoms, but true healing occurs only with a change of consciousness at the spirit level. Without such a change, we eventually replay the same symptoms or create different ones with the same message. Used properly, Reiki and Johrei and Macrobiotics are tools not only for balancing our personal energies, but also to harmonize our vibration with that of the greater universe, bringing fundamental changes of consciousness and true, natural healing.