Day dreams
John Stewart Collis
Bodypower: The Secret of Self-healing Dr Vernon Coleman (Thames & Hudson £6.95) The Alternative Health Guide: The First Comprehensive Consumer's Guide to the Choices in Medical Treatment for both Minor and Major Ailments Brian Inglis and Ruth West (Michael Joseph £12.50) In 1615 Dr William Harvey discovered that the blood circulated. That was too much for Harvey's contemporaries t° swallow. Today every schoolboy knows about 'the circulation of the blood' without ever saying to a schoolmaster — it pretty clever of the blood to do that, Sir?' For we take our bodies for granted. They are our intimates, they give us shelter; yet they are strangers to us, we do not want to know them. `It will heal' we say when we have cut or bruised ourselves. It will heal? How come? We should look into this little matter: it might do us a power of good — and would certainly help doctors to concentrate only upon what is necessarY. If we are taken ill or are injured, instantlY thousands of soldiers will rush to out assistance. When some microbes or bacteria are proving harmful to us (normally they are our friends), when they assault useri° lls make us feel ill, then our white blood assault them and seek to eat them up. this they generally succeed. Thus when we are sick and feel terrible we should tak! comfort from the knowledge that wehav' an interior army fighting for usw, witc, 'n' understands the engagement and ill wi the campaign. Or take problem especiallyl f webreak i na bone youth. e rTei n
noe sprawling baby has been raised into .h erect person by bone-builders which we call osteoblasts. If we break a leg, and then are careful to keep it steady, an army of osteoblasts will soon mend the breakage with fresh cement. And that repaired part does not mean a patched-up part. Rather, the limb is renewed and strengthened. In- deed, a young man who broke his limbs continuously could claim without im- propriety that this was a measure for preserving his youth.
Thus we are, to a great extent, our own doctors and surgeons. This is what Dr Cole- man is concerned to drive home. I quote (and the italics are his) — 'The human body has an enormous range of mechanisms designed to help provide you with protect- ion and to accelerate the healing processes. These internal mechanisms are so effective that at least in 90 per cent of all illnesses you will be able to recover perfectly well by yourself without any form of medical treat- ment. If you are aware of the existence of these mechanisms, prepared to allow the body to repair itself, and understand ,how to take advantage of the systems that exist within the body, you will often be able to survive potentially damaging diseases without any need of interventional therapy - Though some readers may deplore the Fleet Street headings to his sections, and his continual use of the term 'mechanism' ap- plied to what is entirely un-mechanistic and for ever an unfathomable mystery, his book is a marvellously succinct and simple ac- count of how often the body can heal itself without resort to drugs. It is also refreshing- ly sensible. What a relief to read Dr Cole- man on Meditation. Without disputing that Transcendental Meditation was a Positive experience for the Oriental sages of Yesteryear, we know that it has been taken UP today by thousands of earnest seekers after truth at the mercy of phoney messiahs who lead them into delusion and even un- conscious despair. Forget it, says Coleman in effect; forget yoga and all that bag of tricks; achieve relaxation without any religious connotation by virtue of deliberate haPPY day dreaming. In The Alternative Health Guide the authors quote Dr Siegal (a cancer specialist) — 'We all have the ability to heal ourselves. , • • • On the primitive level we still know, but on the intellectual level we don't know how to take charge and control the healing process.' This is what Bernard Shaw meant !DY saying in a letter to a friend — 'If your heart goes wrong your whole life force will sail in to cure it if you let it alone. But if you keep prodding it with drugs it will sulk and that will get worse.' It goes without saying am_ at this is very far from the whole truth about drugs; nor are either of these volumes anti-medical books, but they would relieve
me medical profession of many unnecessary chores.
The Alternative Health Guide is (as the sub-title suggests) in the nature of an en- c. Yclopaedia of alternative therapies of every tk_ind: It is very comprehensive. The fact that it is compiled by Brian Inglis, with the assistance of Ruth West, is a guarantee of its quality and its scholarship.
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