A Holistic Approach of Health and Disease:
Exploring the Mind-Body-Spirit and the Personification of Organs
Kirinroop Carolina Israel.
The most wonderful thing I have
learned about the human body is its innate multidimensional configuration. As
an integrated system, the physical and the spiritual bodies support the
fulfillment of our soul’s experience. From this perspective, mind, body and
spirit are inextricably interconnected, forming part of a complex system of
interdependence.
Under this holistic framework, when
something occurs in one of these levels, the entire system is affected if we
consider the human system as a whole. Indeed, we are more than the sum of many
parts; every human being is unique from its fingerprints to his/her authentic
configuration and way of being in the world.
This holistic understanding draws
upon many contemporary theories, namely, system theories, complexity theories,
metaphysics and quantum physics, Gestalt theory, among others. These approaches
have offered, especially in the last decades, a more comprehensive
understanding of the process of health and disease in an individual, where
well-being -as a state of being-, is a result of physical, emotional, mental
and spiritual components organizing themselves in a unique pattern of
configuration.
Following this perspective, a disease
is a manifestation of a conflict, friction, block, shock or a chronic or abrupt
rearrangement of the patterns that compose the individual dynamic of being. From
a Metaphysical approach, disease has an emotional or spiritual cause, meaning
that the physical manifestation of a symptom is just an expression of an energetic
imbalance that has been progressively generating itself for a certain period of
time. This understanding exceeds the Germ Theory, which supported medicine’s
long ride through the Newtonian or mechanistic approach that suggest an allegory of the
human being as a machine.
A common mistake would be to exclude
one approach for the other; indeed, the greatest challenge for humanity is to
acknowledge the multidimensional reality that sustains us, -material and
spiritual. It is useful to remember that our existence entails both aspects of
the experience: we are not only a human, we are not only a being; we are a
human (material) being (spiritual). In this sense, there cannot be a phenomenon
occurring in one level without affecting the other. We are spiritual beings having a human
experience.
Likewise, health and disease are both
part of a continuum of experience, in which the appearance of an ailment comes
with a message from the spiritual or immaterial realm into the material territory
of the body. This message –usually configured within the subconscious dominion
of experience-, can be deciphered in order to bring consciousness to that part
of ourselves which we haven’t been acknowledging, accepting, or simply been
aware of. From this holistic comprehension, understanding the spiritual meaning
of a disease does not imply that one gives a “magical” meaning to it, or dotes
a phenomenon with unnatural qualities. On the contrary, it is most certainly
natural to conceive that an imbalance on a physical level is product of a
building force, a movement of energy creating an impact on many levels.
However, this building force undeniably
may have been gestating itself on a subconscious level, co-creating itself with
physical correspondent phenomenon. This means that an unconscious pattern of
emotions, such as perpetuated resentment for an unsolved situation, or a
traumatic experience, can build itself up to an energetic dysregulation of
other systems in the body, finally manifesting as a weakened immune response
(or any disease), for instance.
Moreover, if we consider homeostasis as the continuous dialogue
of opposite forces to sustain harmony, balance is plausibly a product of a
wave-like movement between two dimensions or aspects of experience. This could
entail a dialogue between cold and hot, light and dark, high and low, conscious
and unconscious, material and spiritual, and so on.
Consequently, the movement between
complementary opposites (like material and spiritual realms) manifest in both a
universal level –encompassing the
reality of all beings, namely, night and day, masculine and feminine, etc., and
an individual level –appearing
through a unique and authentic pattern of personal configuration, namely, fingerprints,
personality, biography, etc.
This holistic approach is not new, it
has been recognized for centuries by different cultures and traditions, from
metaphysical perspectives to ancient eastern perspectives. An example of this
is the Tantric Principle (India) or Yin Yang principle (China); opposites are
only complementary aspects of experience, where one part holds in its deeper
center the nucleus or seed of its opposite, implying an indissoluble inter-dependency.
Even more, the term “individual” has
its etymological roots in the Latin word individuus,
meaning “indivisible, inseparable”, or that which cannot be divided due to
its inseparable or holistic nature. The same principle holds true for the
example of “human being” mentioned previously, where spiritual and material
realms of existence form part of a natural and indivisible marriage.
Accordingly, an approach that
attempts to fragment human nature is simply failing to acknowledge its whole
nature. A comprehensive approach requires the recognition of multiple levels of
experience and the complex capacity of the human being to manifest itself in
unique ways.
Regarding health and disease, some
metaphysical approaches have described specific meanings of ailments to decipher
and describe patterns of organization that gestated an imbalance on an
emotional, mental and/or spiritual level. This approach states that the cause
of a disease lies on a pattern of the mind, as a property of consciousness
creating a certain reality. On the contrary, the Germ Theory states that the
cause of a disease is held solely on a physical level, hence, its cure must
undergo an intervention on this same level, regardless of the others.
However, an interesting middle
approach could reconcile both levels of experience. Let’s set up some grounding
notions to clear this up for proper understanding. A configuration is an arrangement or disposition of multiple elements
conforming a whole. A pattern is a
recognizable combination of qualities of a phenomenon, it represents the
insight that results from connecting the dots. The property of authenticity is like a spiritual
blueprint that brings uniqueness to the dimensions of time and space. In this
sense, when either a germ or a mental-emotional constellation (repeated and divided thought/emotion pattern) appears in our system (mind-body-spirit), the
quality of that system will determine its capacity for adaptation and its
pertaining homeostatic principle. The theory of Disease Resistance is similar
to this approach.
The art of healing -or comprehensively treating and understanding the
meaning of a disease, implies a recognition of a pattern of configuration in an
individual with the purpose of restoring balance or homeostasis. To heal, we
need to meet the unconscious cause of an ailment and unfold it through the
process of dialogue between opposites –material and spiritual-, while weaving
the nuances pertaining to different levels (emotional, mental, etc.). We
restore harmony by bringing encompassing consciousness and integrity to our
acts. We treat the physical body while we search for meaning, and in this way,
just like the immune system, we amplify our memory and awareness evolving
towards a more complex level of existence.
Moreover, the physical structure of
the body is also a configuration of patterns of the mind-body-spirit system. This
means that from the anatomical and physiological characteristics of the human
body we can extract its energetic/psychic expression. The Holistic Approach of
Health and Disease, created by the Chilean physician Dr. Adriana Schnake, is an
example of this integration. This approach derives from Gestalt Theory and
Psychotherapy drawing upon numerous universal, ancient and scientific principles
to understand the meaning and process of health and disease. By phenomenologically
observing the systems of the body and its organs, it is possible to recognize
its correspondence with aspects of the personality, by the way they are
constituted (anatomical structure) and how they function (physiology).
From this perspective, we can
identify the biological-organismic aspects of the personality, understanding
that each organ and system has its pertaining qualities of being. When we
negate, reject, neglect or struggle with aspects of ourselves, we are actually
denying aspects of our material and spiritual reality, thus causing
fragmentation, disruptive harmony and originating disease. When we do not
acknowledge all the qualities of our being, we are restricting our adaptive capacity
to deal with change and uncertainty, hence, impairing our innate ability to
respond and endure transformations.
The Holistic Approach of Health and
Disease derived from Gestalt Psychotherapy facilitates a dialogue between the
person and its organ. Through the role playing of an organ, the person can
embody its qualities to discover what are the rejected aspects of that organ
and its according aspect of the personality. Phenomenologically, this suggests the following exploratory question: What are the characteristics that are being isolated, negated and
fragmented by the individual? By experiencing the organ, the person can come to
an insight of the underlying causes of a disease, as he or she learns the
harmonic anatomy and function of his/her body-mind. In this sense, this
approach, also known as the Gestalt
Dialogues with the Body, offers the investigation of the symptom’s voice
and its unique message that it waiting to be delivered to the person’s
awareness.
An example of this would be a person
that when embodying (role playing) a joint (articulation), discovers that she
struggles with some aspects of its functions, such as being a mediator between
opposite/different parts (a joint articulates a bone and a muscle). This
insight can bring tremendous awareness and healing, especially if the person is
in the journey of recovering from arthrosis, for instance. What is new about
this method and differentiates it from other metaphysical methods, is that it
recognizes an individual’s unique psychic (mind-body-spirit) configuration.
While it is true that we can recognize patterns for all individuals, such as
relating throat ailments with the 5th chakra and its communication
aspects, each person has an irreplaceable way of being in the world, a unique biography and quality of experience. This method allows each individual to
relate to the original characteristics of their organ in order to notice what
aspects need acceptance, and with that, integration.
Integration comes from the creative
dialogue between opposites, be it the material and spiritual realms or the
multiple nuances that lie in between levels.
