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INTRODUCTION

It as well to offer a word to the wise here at the beginning of The Alchemycal Pages. The intent of a macrobiotic way of eating and lifestyle is to become a free, independent human being. In the endeavor to fulfill this intent it is considered a necessity that one knows how to take care of oneself, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. These four aspects of human existence begin with the physical body, the central fact of existence for those creatures which live in the physical plane. Therefore physical health is considered to be the 'bedrock', which, when built upon sound and stable principles and practices will form the healthy foundation for emotional stability, mental clarity and acuity, and spiritual development. The fact that macrobiotic principles and practices have become limited to merely addressing diseases is lamentable, for it is not a medicine, and neither does it cure cancer or any other disease. The fact is that macrobiotic principles and practices offer the physical, practical tools with which the human individual can extricate him or herself from the current craven slavishness this culture shows toward modern scientific medicine and its extremely destructive effects upon the human organism. However, macrobiotic principles and practices are fundamentally not interested in what disease symptoms a person has, but in changing the conditions and circumstances under which those symptoms have developed. This can only be done by the person who has the symptoms and is the way of creating a healthy, vital physical foundation for developing emotional stability, mental clarity and spiritual awareness.

Figure 1. is the hub of macrobiotic theory with regard to people's eating habits and its consequences. The "Process of Disease" is understood to be the way the human organism responds to a dietary pattern in which the foods being eaten daily lie outside those food groups which lie in the "Area of Balance". These food groups include meat, eggs, dairy food, refined foods, sugar, alcohol and drugs etc.(which I refer to in all the Alchemycal Pages as the "meat and sugar" diet), constituting the daily dietary intake of the vast majority of people in the US. According to yin and yang principles applied to food and the human organism, these foods are extreme in terms of their dynamics of yin and yang in relation to the dynamics of yin and yang of the human organism, which is why these foods lie toward the extreme yin and extreme yang ends of the 'Spectrum of Human Food Groups'. The implications embedded in this illustration are enormously significant in beginning to answer the problem of disease, and all its manifold consequences and implications, in the domains of the individual, social life, the economy, ecology and environment. I am not going to go into all the details here since they will be explored over the coming months and years in the Alchemycal Pages; I will begin by discussing what the phrase 'abnormal discharges' means and what they signify.

 

THE PROCESS OF ILLNESS.

 Stage 7

  "RETURN"
 Stage 6

CANCER
 Stage 5

 CHRONIC TOXEMIA
 Stage 4

ORGAN DYSFUNCTION
 The Phase of Degeneration  
------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------
Stage 3

ACCUMULATION
Stage 2

 SKIN DISCHARGES
Stage 1

 ABNORMAL DISCHARGES

YIN<--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->YANG

Chemicals Drugs Alcohol Sugar Spices Fruit Vegetables Seaweed Beans Whole Grains  Fish Chicken Meat Eggs Salt

The foods in the chart are listed from left to right as the "Spectrum of Human Food Groups according to Yin and Yang" relative to the yin and yang dynamics of the human organism. Chemicals are the most yin, then Drugs(which are distinguished from chemical drugs in that they are directly extracted from plant or animal sources for therapeutic, recreational, spiritual etc., purposes; e.g., LSD is a chemical and psylocybin is a drug by this characterization.). After drugs is alcohol, then sugar, then spices, then dairy and fruit. All the foods in Yellow are those in the "Area of Balance " of the spectrum. Industrialized Foods (any food eaten frozen, canned, packaged, artificially preserved, refined, processed etc., etc.) lie toward the yin extreme of the spectrum. On the yang end of the spectrum fish are the least yang followed by chicken, meat, eggs and salt is the most yang.

ABNORMAL DISCHARGES.

Of course, it is definitely not accidental that the dynamics of yin and yang within the food groups which are underlined coincide with the dynamic balance of yin and yang of the human organism, (this is in a range of 10/7 yin:1 yang) and there is a great deal of evidence this was formerly understood in the sacred literature of all cultures of the world. What this means is the dynamics of the physiological activities of the organs and tissues of the body function harmoniously when the body is fed a diet which is based on cooked whole grains and vegetables.

The human organism functioning harmoniously is revealed in many different ways but in the context of the subject of abnormal discharges, the way the healthy functioning of the body is shown is by normal discharges, which are urination, bowel movement and breathing. From a macrobiotic perspective, if a person is healthy, generally speaking, their urine is a clear, yellowish-brown color, much like the color of light ale, frequency of urination is 3-5 times a day, and never at night after going to bed. Bowel movement is also a light brown color, the stools well-formed, of a soft texture with a faint aromatic aroma, and they float in the water, with frequency of bowel movement being once daily between 6-8 AM, evacuation occurring in 30-60 seconds. Breathing is deep and even, with the inhalation and exhalation shown by outward and inward movement in the belly, from the navel down.

The harmonious functioning of the human organism is referred to as 'dynamic homeostasis' and is the underlying fundamental dynamic of the body. In other words, the body is always functioning, or tending toward functioning, in dynamic homeostasis.

Since it is axiomatic the body is always trying to maintain dynamic homeostasis, the question arises, how does it respond to a diet which has abandoned whole grains and vegetables and replaced them with meat, sugar, and chemicalized, refined foods, alcohol and drugs?

In terms of yin and yang, consuming a "meat and sugar" diet means a dynamic of 500/5000 yin:1 yang is introduced into the body, which, by virtue of the principles of yin and yang, means the body's metabolism is accelerated. This in turns means cellular activity is accelerated which means the cells are producing more waste products of tissue metabolism than is the case when the body is consuming a diet of cooked whole grains and vegetables. Since the organs of excretion and elimination (kidneys/bladder, liver/gall bladder, lungs/large intestine and the skin) function optimally on a diet of cooked whole grains and vegetables, when they are subjected to having to deal with the increasing production of waste metabolites they respond by increasing their production.

Thus we begin to urinate more frequently and the urine becomes colored differently (usually a pale watery color to dark yellow/brown) and as the kidneys/bladder weaken over the years we begin to have to get up at night and urinate. Bowel movement becomes more frequent and copious, until we move into the area where the weakening of the large intestines leading to constipation and/or diarrhea; the stools have a noxious odor, and they becoming dark brown to black to green in color. And we begin to breathe more rapidly with shallow breaths, as the center of breathing moves toward the upper chest area.

However, as we continue eating the "meat and sugar" diet, these efforts by the body to get rid of the excesses in quantity and extremes in quality of yin and yang in these foods are not adequate to dealing with the veritable flood of toxic waste metabolites it creates in response. The body then begins to get rid of the excess toxic waste metabolites by means of what are technically called 'abnormal discharges', which signify the first stage of the process of disease, in addition to bowel movement, urination and breathing.

Abnormal discharges include the following processes - fevers, headaches, sore throats, coughing and sneezing, watery eyes, nasal discharge, flu-like symptoms, diarrhea, skin breakouts, shivering, fatigue, chills and in the case of women, vaginal discharge and cystitis-type symptoms. In extreme cases there may be vomiting.

Now, what do these symptoms signify? They signify nothing less than the processes whereby the body is healing itself!

Well, well, well, I think we need to take a pause here, and reflect deeply on what this momentous insight means...

It means, properly speaking, there is only one disease, and this disease is, at this juncture, called 'living out of balance with nature and the cosmos'.

It means what we call diseases are not strictly speaking diseases. Rather, they are the various symptoms(symptomology) produced by the body as its response, in its attempt to maintain its dynamic homeostasis living under conditions of extreme imbalance, to a lifestyle created in large part, but not solely (this is to alert you to the fact that diet is not the only factor, but one of many factors involved in the development of disease symptoms) by an imbalanced diet in terms of yin and yang.

It means the stages of symptomology (as we go through stages 1-6) indicate the degree to which we are out of balance. Stage 4, for example, is a more advanced stage of being out of balance than Stage 3.

It means that the process of disease is at one and the same time the process of healing: now, there is a paradox!

It means there is no cure for disease.

It also means it is emphatically not in the best interests of the human race to find a cure for cancer, AIDS, arthritis etc., etc. ad nauseam.

Of course, all the above observations run counter to the prevailing orthodoxy of modern medicine and its superficial understanding of disease. For what do people do when they start getting these symptoms which indicate the body is healing itself? When people get the 'flu, fevers, headaches, diarrhea, sore throats etc., what is the general response? First, people immediately assume there is 'something wrong with them' and then go running to the pharmacy or the clinic to get the current drug for their condition, which they then take. Now, what is the rationale for this behavior? It is to treat the symptoms which their body is manifesting in its healing process. So, taking these drugs, be they pain killers, antibiotics etc., effectively suppresses the body's healing process, and if the symptoms go away, it means we have effectively prevented our body from healing itself. Furthermore, the taking of these symptomatic treatments merely serves to drive the imbalances the body is trying to redress in showing the symptoms of sore throat, 'flu, etc. deeper into the body. In terms of yin and yang, you will observe that drugs are at the extreme yin end of the "Spectrum of Human Foods", so that the taking of drugs introduces even more imbalances into the body.

In so doing, these imbalances will merely cause more serious problems later on. Furthermore, since no serious thought has been given to why these symptoms have appeared, nothing is done to change the imbalanced lifestyle patterns which have lead to the body having to respond to this imbalanced lifestyle by manifesting the symptoms of this one disease of the human being, which is simultaneously healing itself! If you understand what I have been discussing thus far, you will readily understand why it is not possible to find a cure for a disease, and also why it is totally not in the best interests of the human race that a cure for any disease be found.

It would be an extraordinary step forward if all attempts to develop drug treatments of any kind would cease at this time in human history. However, this is not going to happen in the foreseeable future because all the players involved in the present pharmaceutical-medical-scientific research community have too much at stake in terms of greed and egotism and are so mired in the morass of materialistic ignorance to do the decent thing and own up to the facts presenting themselves to anyone observing the human medical carnage which has ensued since the development of modern scientific medicine.

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