|
Preface It might be
helpful to the reader to understand the title for this book: ‘ESCAPING
THE SNAKE PIT'’. My Mom died
just four months ago, and as I write these words, my Dad is dying in
hospital. There is so
much that can
still be done for him! I know of effective therapeutic techniques--this
book is full of them! The techniques are all low-tech, but rarely
applied. They are almost never used by practitioners of either orthodox
or alternative medicine. Sure, I'm
frustrated at not having the power to put in my two-cents-worth, but I'm
even more miffed by the way people "accept the
inevitable"--without so much as a murmur of protest. The former
premier of Ontario, Canada made a little stir in the fall of 1993. He is
an amateur song writer, and he wrote a song entitled: 'We're In The Same
Boat Now'. I liked this title, until I started to wonder what the name
of the boat was. Is it the liner S.S. Titanic [that 'Even God cannot
sink'], or a simpler Noah's Ark? A few years ago
a friend, in her early forties, was resigned to the incapacitating pain
of her arthritis. Another friend was almost proud of his classification
as 'schizophrenic'. It permitted him to have the expectation of futility
... ie. he could not even permit himself the satisfaction of limited
accomplishment. He could never remember (even as a child) feeling well.
Both these friends were heavy smokers! Like Martin
Luther King Jr., I too have a dream .... someday humans will hear the
words 'cancer', 'heart attack', 'stroke', 'multiple sclerosis', or
similar modern death-knell 'diseases' but they will not respond. This
insensibility will not be because their family members have too often
died from these illnesses, but because they themselves will be so
healthy that even these words will have faded from their lengthy
memories. Can you share this dream? The 'pit' is
not in itself the stranglehold medical people have upon the minds and
spirits of people. It is, rather, that many individuals tend to surrender
completely to the
belief that life is maintained by these professions ... ie. we cannot exist without them. We
often forget that we are descendants of people who pioneered this land
for 500 years--without doctors, ambulances, hospitals. Many of our
ancestors were forced to
come to North America... for Europeans, it was emigrate or starve; for
Africans, slavery offered no choice. The early pioneers survived ...
without modern medical intervention ... mostly in the simple belief that
all life was precious. Suddenly some
inheritors have developed a 'pit' vision of things. We kill babies and
call it women's rights (abortion). Now in Canada (1994) through media
hype, a lone disabled lady with amyo-lateral sclerosis(ALS) has
convinced many that doctor-assisted euthanasia is OK! Life is
difficult, often very difficult for a disabled person in our society. It
may be that we have to confront a newer 'pit-belief' ::: 'Life
should be without heart-wrenching struggles.' Such a belief dishonours our past ... our parents ... our
great-great-greatgrandparents who passed on to us a very tattered flame. I
like to think of Terry Fox, the one-legged Canadian hero who skipped-ran
half across our country to raise awareness and money for cancer
research. That journey was not easy ... every yard of his relentless
pace was a victory! His journey was outside the 'pit'! The question
is: Will you remain in the 'pit'--completely subservient
to the medical orthodoxy-- or will you become an escapee?
[In case you were wondering: my Dad did die about two weeks later.] John
McDonell Timmins,
Ontario March,
1994 ....
OCTOBER 2002 |