Poisons and Pathogens: Origins of Disease

Someone, with whom you have the polite connection, has been struck down by the particularly insidious form of encephalitis, as well as which is weighing upon my mind. As she is over eighty years of age, the make the difference is utterly serious. She has been in the intensive caring unit for over the week now, as well as usually today has she been equates to to inhale upon her own. Although there was early intervention, she stands the improved than fifty percent chance of permanent impairment, as well as certainly, the significant stroke to quality of hold up -- if, as well as usually if, she manages to tarry during all.

So, you know, you am observant prayers for her.

When her family initial informed me of the diagnosis, it caused me to stop the disturbing book you initial review seven years ago: The New Killer Diseases, by Elinor Levy as well as Mark Fischetti. Of course, this book, in turn, caused me to stop Desi Rinpoche's foretelling of such diseases, back in the time of the Fifth Dalai Lama.

Regardless, it might warn you to sense which encephalitis is mostly caused by herpes, as well as in such cases, mankind runs around seventy percent.

Herpes? The sexually transmitted "cold sore" disease?Well... yes as well as no.

Actually, herpes is the family of viruses, referred to as herpes 1 by 8 -- might be it is up to 9 or 10 by this essay -- that, from the Western recovering perspective, was initial recorded in really old Greece, as well as right away afflicts some-more than ninety percent of the world's population. That is scold -- over ninety percent of all adults in the universe have during slightest one form of the herpes pathogen already in their system.

When you investigate this mildew -- how it is transmitted -- which is not always or exclusively sexual -- as well as how it essentially operates once transmitted -- as w! ell as w hen you sense about the diversity, you proceed to cruise you have been reading science fiction. You proceed to cruise it is an visitor hold up form, sent to wipe out planet earth. Indeed, researchers during the Harvard Medical School believe which "herpes is so modernized it understands the tellurian immune complement improved than you do," so when they wish to investigate the tellurian immune system, they investigate herpes.

The classical Tibetan reason for herpes goes something similar to this: the couple had sex underneath the tree, as well as so annoyed the suggestion which happened to be in the tree, which the suggestion caused this infection to reach all of mankind.

Modern scientists do not similar to such explanations, though they offer little in the approach of alternative. Even modern Tibetan doctors tend to discredit such explanations, as well as appear ashamed of them.

So, where do diseases begin? Well... detached from desire, anger, as well as delusion, which is.....

In sequence to explore the various hypotheses, it is required to return to the time of Homo habilisalmost dual million years agowhen there have been no doctors as well as tiny medicines, as well as afterwards work the approach forward. We of march do not know everything about prehistory, though archaeology as well as anthropology have offering the few clues about the many recent prehistoric era, as well as you have been giveaway to extrapolate from the foundation these provide.

Primitive mans initial onslaught is sustenance. He must eat, as well as it is expected his pangs of hunger occur dual or some-more times daily, as ours do. Old boneshuman as well as otherwisehave something to discuss it us about what he eats. We find which male roughly rught away becomes carnivorous, as well as starts immoderate his own as well as alternative species.[1] This begins in moderation. Plants do not escape in fright or quarrel back when cornered, though animals as well as alternative humans do. The early die! t is to illustrate vegetarian to the greater percentage, with the lesser commission being flesh. Around 1,700,000 to 1,500,000 years ago, in the period of Homo erectus, you find evidence of the one after another make make use of of of glow for cooking. This is certainly an importantand substantially the firstmedical development, as it changes mans diet as well as hence, his constitution, for evermore.

We assume which primitive mans next onslaught is with his environment. Looking back, it is expected which average hold up outlook was subject some-more to the humour of wandering storms, descending rocks, vast birds, as well as peer aggression than to the etiology of disease. A palaeo-anthropological investigate which supports this likelihood comes to us from the Peking Man community. The investigate involves fundamental remains of the little forty Homo sapiens. More than the third died during fourteen to fifteen years of age, with traumaapparently both random as well as deliberatebeing the principal cause of death.[2]

Thus, really old male all the time forages about, snares the odd reptile or tiny mammal, spasmodic dines upon alternative ancients, as well as tries to equivocate being injured in the process. As he does so, he thinks of his lot in life. He has though one source of information to request to his mortal vicissitudes. To embrace this source equates to hope; to ignore it equates to disaster. This source is inflexible as well as absolute, nonetheless it has the rich, gigantic character, full of enchanting possibility.This source is nature, as well as inlet is the boundless instructor.

The boundless physical education physical education instructor allows us to witness, though does not rught away explain. Any reason comes from the contemplation of what you see. We insist what you assimilate as well as those things you cannot insist become magic. This becomes the guidance as well as guidance becomes the instinctcall this instinctive magic, if you like.

Some 2,000 years ago, an ! differen t Chinese author wrote, When the chairman is born, there have been dual things which do not need to be learned: the initial is to inhale as well as the second is to eat.[3] As tellurian beings proceed to consider, from the really foundation, what they sense from what they declare in inlet as well as afterwards request it to what they wonder about in themselves, the idea of initial power comes in to being. This, in itself, seems the elementary matter: what breathes, lives. That which does not inhale dies, so the initial place to find this initial power is the air.

The investigate of air is the surpassing step in the really old investigate of life, leading to the judgment of air as both disinfectant as well as recovering idea system. This, in turn, leads to the growth of the different palette of cultivation techniques. Hence, the practices of eating suggestion vapor, or exhale fullness encountered in early China, the disciplining of the 5 winds in Buddhist yoga, or the pranayama of post-Buddhist Hatha Yoga.

Such techniques come to differ usually in the make the difference of goal, or aim. The Chinese techniques, for example, have been intended to lengthen fleshly existence. In contrast, the Buddhist techniques have been intended to transcend fleshly existence, thus: Being the hold up force of sentient beings, what is called breeze performs all deeds; as well as as the car of [perception] is five....[4] As they have been intermittently remarked in the literature, you will postponement here as well as note the 5 winds of perception. These have been the rgyu ba wind, formed upon the eye; rnam standard rgyu ba wind, formed upon the ear; the yan dag standard rgyu ba wind, formed upon the nose; the rab tu rgyu ba wind, formed upon the tongue, as well as the nes standard rgyu ba wind, formed upon the torso.[5]

Consumption, the alternative thing which does not have to be learned, leads to the idea of food as medicine. On the rudimentary level, it is probable which ingestion of sure foodstuf! fs was f ast observed to gain sure effects; further, which in progress such foodstuffs could change or enhance pronounced effects.

The early materia medica evolves by equates to both sacred as well as profane. By approach of example, really old Tibetan physicians detected bcad sbyor, or the medicines schooled from nature. Doctors would paint cracks upon bird eggs, or paint cosmetic wounds upon baby animals, as well as afterwards observe what substances the deceived parents might move to heal their offspring. There have been twenty such medicines still in the pharmacopoeia, together with saussurea medusa, primula, paeonia veitchii, paraquilegia microphylla, as well as pterocephalus hookeri.

Fire, food, air, as well as the cautious, observant lifestyle have been to illustrate substantially the four corners of early medicine. Application of the tellurian hand is substantially the initial recovering treatment.

Around 4,000 years ago, someone in China had intestinal pain of such clear gravity which diviners were sent for. The record of their query, inscribed upon bone, asks possibly the pain can be successfully treated with colour by dire as well as rubbing, i.e. by massage.[6] More or reduction during the same time, give or take 5 centuries, the Sumerian in Nippur inscribed the clay tabletthe oldest perceived pharmacological novel in the worldwith the medication which called for friction as well as rubbing.[7] Around 3,000 years ago, the Greek poet Pindar wrote of the physician Asklepios recovering patients by spreading upon their limbs ointments from distant as well as near.[8] In Historia naturalis, Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE) mentions which unguents have been rightfully attributed to the Persians.[9] He afterwards writes, The initial instance of the make make use of of of unguents which you have been equates to to encounter with is which of the chest of perfumes which fell in to the hands of Alexander This sets the date of the third century BCE. Pliny afterwards des! cribes t he dozen principal formulae, together with one which he calls regal, since it was compounded for the Parthian kings. The ingredients of this regulation closely resemble which of an Ayurvedic formula, particularly in the make make use of of of Myrobalan.

Plainly, the laying upon of hands was really old mans initial response to somatic malady, as well as this for the elementary reason which it worked. If it did not, the use would not have survived the millennia as well as would not be seen in all quarters of the earth even to this day.

The alternative surviving caucasian tribe of time as well as stretch is the because of fire, food, air, behavior, as well as tellurian touch. In the age before microscopes as well as one after another introspection, this is the unseen dimension: the suggestion world. From the beginning times, the intoxicating beverage have been called onward by sound: by incantation, drumming, as well as song. The vibrations of light have been mixed together with the vibrations of sound, apropos spells, mantras, as well as prayers, as well as when total with the alternative media become ritual. Hence, is disinfectant born, as rite spawn from this universe of enchanting possibility.

One notable protocol of which you verbalise is which of the shaman: arguably mankinds initial recovering practitioner. The elements of shamanism, similar to the foundational elements of all early recovering idea systems, have been seen everywhere. These consist of mystic death, dispersal as well as resurrection; an capability to fly to, as well as afterwards fluently empathise with, the suggestion world, possibly in descent or ascent; the special attribute with fire, thorough of autothermy; the capability to enroll the animal realm, possibly by presumption or usurping animal form, as well as the power of invisibility, i.e. mastery of the growth as well as clandestine.[10]

The age-old, worldwide materialisation of shamanismand you safely call it thus, for there is conjunction the rec! orded ti me nor place when it is not encounteredleads us to the idea of specifically learned people who, for one reason or another, have been equates to to see what you cannot see as well as heal what you cannot heal. Thus, have been doctors born, as adepts in the basis of survival, in worlds seen as well as unseen, equates to to do for us what you cannot simply do for ourselves. In the resulting attempts to emulate these special people, you find the start of doctrine.

Doctrine is, perhaps, the really conflicting of shamanic insight. Doctrine is linear, as well as sequential. Time, which is the basis of mankind as well as the shamans ground, is in contrast the array of self-replicating models, or what one writer invokes as creative repetitions of primordial archetypes.[11] The object rises, the object sets. The moon waxes, the moon wanes. Night follows day as well as day follows night. People have been innate as well as people die. These things have been happening everywhere, to all of us, as well as you share knowledge of them. We appear to be innate in to this shared knowledge as self-replicating models ourselves.

But, you wandering from the topic.We have speculated about healing, though you should assume equally about disease. Did men die of cancer dual million years ago? What was the prevalence of heart disease? you used to pleasure in hearing my Tibetan teachers recollections of autocratic masters from the past. They were unrelenting, he told me. They had skeleton in the heart! Really! When they were cremated people would find skeleton in their heart.[12] Then you grown arteriosclerosis, as well as came to comprehend the start of the personality sort he described as well as the materialisation of skeleton in the heart.

As the indicate of depart in the review of disease, you wish to examine the recovering use from the Tibetan Bn tradition which dates to around 1017.[13]

The Bn religion is an ancient, pre-Buddhist, shamanic idea complement of Tibet which came underneath strong B! uddhist change from about the seventh century. The Bn apparatus underneath examination comes from the time, the little 3 centuries later, when such change is evident. Still, it is utilitarian in divulgence something of the progressing Bn practices. The apparatus is the Srid-rgyal drag snags gnad kyi dgongs-thim [The Secret Text of the Primordial State (of the Goddess) which presents the Essential Points of the Fierce Mantra of Sidpa Gyalmo].

Sidpa Gyalmo, or the Queen of Existence, is the Bn guardian deity of the transmundane type, i.e. an effluvium of the enlightened recognition as well as care of the good being, such as the Buddha. She has the formidable iconography, as well as pantheon of manifestations, though is usefully epitomised as the deep cerulean blue, wrathful deity who is pre-Buddhist in origin, as well as is the direct effluvium of Shes-rab byams-ma, the Great Goddess. The latter is variously described as the Goddess of Wisdom as well as Love, or the Queen of the Waters.

As the mythological study, Sidpa Gyalmo might paint the West to East transmission, along the Silk Route, of the many really old Mesopotamian goddess, possibly as old as 5,500 years, used by Ashipus, or Mesopotamian recovering exorcists. In this regard, she might well be Gula, the Mesopotamian enchantress of healing, well known as the Great Physician, who flourished in the city of Isin. Equally, she might be the pre-Zoroastrian Iranian enchantress of the waters Ardvi Sura Anahita, as well as in such box of after vintage, substantially perceived in around the second century BCE. In possibly event, Bn iconography depicts her riding the mule, lending credence to the idea which she arrives in really old Tibet from elsewhere.[14]

As the protocol issue, Sidpa Gyalmos use is directed to recovering spreading as well as contagious diseases. In the preliminaries, the practitioner commences with invocation to the deity, as well as afterwards transforms in to the deity. By equates to of boundless fire, desce! nt of ho ld up force, dismemberment as well as consumption, the practitioner-deity eradicates the intoxicating beverage of disease.

Next, the mantra is uttered countless times, the deity is praised, as well as the start of mildew is considered. In general, mildew is pronounced to outcome as the outcome of fighting amongst fleshly beings. This, in turn, disgusts gratuitous spirits, who desert them, as well as leads to conflict by antagonistic intoxicating beverage of water, wood, earth, as well as air, who mildew them when the seasons change.

The causal considerations have been pondered in detail, together with specific symptoms, as well as indications. For example: the practitioner listens to the receptive to advice of fresh open H2O in his or her particular territory, as well as thereby discovers the signs which issue before to the appearance of the infection. The practitioner additionally examines alternative signs in nature, such as the genocide of tiny mammals.

The body of the use afterwards commences with pick up of pure H2O from an east-facing, valley open in the clean earthen vase. One afterwards bathes as well as makes earnest invocation to the Goddess, who is visualized as land the vase containing medicine. She pours the disinfectant from her vase in to the vase containing the open water, after which the practitioner recites the mantra over the water, energizing it with sound.

The practitioner afterwards effects the cure with this H2O by showering the patient the little 6 times during the day, all the while believing himself to be an effluvium of the Goddess as well as uttering specific prayers.

The practitioner can additionally magnify insurance to an entire segment by manufacture specifically prepared flags temperament the mantra, or by scattering clay images as well as pasting the mantra upon doorway posts. Amulets have been prescribed for personal insurance as well as finally, the practitioner is suggested to grind ten protecting substances in to powder as well! as disi ntegrate this in the consecrated H2O as the prophylactic opposite mildew to the operation of dual miles.

The ten protecting substances have been listed as adonis vernalis, terminalia chebula, aconitum carmichaelii, sulfur, allium sativum, colchicum autumnale, ferula assa-foetida, saussurea lappa incense, musk, as well as crocus sativus.

From the investigate of the Bn resource, you sense which one dangerous, really old complaint was, plainly, dehydration outset from possibly influenza or heatstroke. This is indicated from the symptoms of the winter as well as open maladies: diarrhea, vomiting, crispness of breath, pains in the intestines, as well as heaviness of the head. This is pronounced to issue in outcome of cold, as well as imbalance in the breeze humor. In the summer as well as autumn maladies, the symptoms have been pains in the heart as well as headaches which scarcely mangle the conduct in to pieces. This is pronounced to issue in outcome of heat.

Of greater immediate seductiveness is what the apparatus reveals about the start of disease, i.e. the outcome of noise between living beings. Far from being intended as social commentary, this is intended as the fundamental definition. If you stop as well as cruise about it, this is the good definition. The Bn content says, Because of the immorality actions of the little sentient beings as well as the fierce fighting which ensued between them, their protecting deities might have deserted them.[15] This could encompass any somatic disorder you might caring to name.

Apart from being the definition, this is additionally the pragmatic demonstration of completing cause as well as effect. Buddhism, ever concerned with the root of things, takes the emanate of cause as well as outcome to the really basis as well as determines which somatic disorder is essentially caused by desire, anger, as well as delusion: the 3 poisons.
So, if this is the case, afterwards from where do the pathogens take their "intelligence," or their org! anic cap ability to survive, as well as indeed resist death?
An engaging question, don't you think?
[1] There is informed conjecture which the smarts as well as marrow of women as well as teenagers were continually consumed. See: Michael A. Cremo as well as Richard L Thompson, Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race (Los Angeles: Bhaktivedanta Book Publishing Co., Inc., 1998), pp. 550-554, deliberating the work of Franz Weidenreich with Choukoutien remains.


[2] State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine as well as Pharmacy, Advanced Textbook On Traditional Chinese Medicine as well as Pharmacology, Vol. you (Beijing: New World Press, 1995), p. 13.


[3] Anon., Tianxia Zhidao Tan [Discussion of the Culminant Way In Under-Heaven], in Donald J Harper, trans., Early Chinese Medical Literature: The Mawangdui Medical Manuscripts (London: Kegan Paul International, 1998), p. 432.


[4] Alex Wayman, Yoga of the Guhyasamajatantra: The Arcane Lore of Forty Verses (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1977), p. 198.


[5] Wayman, op. cit. pp. 252-253.


[6] Matthew Miller, A Brief History of Chinese Therapeutic Massage. http:// acupuncture.com/tuina/tuinahistory.htm (October 2002)


[7] Nancy Gordon, Mesopotamian Medicine, Ancient Healing: Unlocking the Mysteries of Health & Healing Through the Ages (Lincolnwood: Publications Intl., Ltd., 1997), p. 24.


[8] Ead., Greek as well as Roman Medicine, op. cit. p. 73.


[9] Book iii, Chapter 1.(1.) The Natural History of Exotic Trees as well as an Account of Unguents. Pliny was stating the initial century case. Today you assimilate which the Persians perceived their formulae from the Indians multiform centuries prior.


[10] Mircea Eliade, Yoga: Immortality as well as Freedom. Bollingen Series lvi (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), p. 320.


[11] Id. The Myth of the Eternal Return or, Cosmos as well as History. Bollingen Series xlvi (Princ! eton: Pr inceton University Press, 1954).


[12] Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche, c. 1968.


[13] John Myrdhin Reynolds, trans. The Healing Practice for Sidpa Gyalmo from the Bonpo Terma Tradition (San Diego: Vidyadhara Publications, 1996). you initial became acquainted with John Reynolds 45 years ago, as well as know him to be between the many gifted, as well as woefully neglected, of the Tibetan translators this generation has produced. His work should be collected as well as sent to the mainstream, as it is indeed considerable in the compass.


[14] you am captivated by the work of Jeannine Davis-Kimball, of the Center for the Study of Eurasian Nomads, in Berkeley, California. In particular, you am endlessly drawn to archaeological studies along the Silk Route which exhibit the presence of women of clear high rank as well as enchanting occupation, the little with decidedly Caucasian features, buried with countless horses.


[15] Reynolds, op. cit., p. 16. Note which sentient beings encompass any being with the mind, such as hell beings, pretas, animals, insects, humans, titans, as well as gods.


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