Being Well and Staying Well

“Half of the modern drugs could well be

thrown out of the window, except that the

birds might eat them.”

--Dr. Martin Henry Fischer

Thousands of years ago, in ancient China,

medicine was practiced quite opposite to the way it

is practiced today. In those days, every household

put a vase outside its door. As the healer made his

daily rounds through the houses of the village,

he would look into each vase. If there was a coin

inside it, he took the coin and went on his way,

knowing that everyone in the house was healthy.

If the vase was empty, the healer knew that

someone inside was ill. He would enter and treat

the patient to the best of his ability. When the sick

person was well again, the daily payment of a coin

resumed.

This was a simple method that guaranteed

the healer’s interest in the health of his patients,

for his payments continued as long as the patient

was well. To maximize his profits, the healer

needed the people under his supervision to

stay healthy as much of the time as possible. For

this reason, the healer would walk around the

village in his free time, advise people on healthy

living, and reprimand those who were negligent.

If a person was stubborn and refused to lead a

wholesome way of life, the healer would exclude

him from his rounds and refuse him medical attention

when he needed it.

This simple method guaranteed that both patient

and healer had a vested interest in keeping

healthy—a stark difference from our present approach

to medicine.

In modern medicine, a physician’s salary is

comprised of how many patients are treated daily,

how many commissions are given by drug manufacturers,

and how high the doctor’s rates are for

services. Under private medicine, wealthier patients

pay more for better doctors, which produces

a skew in the quality of care available to those in

lower income brackets.

In addition, today’s system penalizes a physician

whose patients are healthy. In fact, the practitioner

could theoretically starve to death or get a

pink slip precisely because he or she has succeeded

in keeping people healthy!

The drug companies, which we hail whenever

they announce a new drug or treatment for an illness,

are trapped in that same circle. If they produced

a drug that actually made people well, they

would go bankrupt. Hence, it is in their interest

that we remain alive and unwell. The whole system—

hospitals, drug companies, doctors, nurses,

and caretakers—actually benefits from perpetuating

our ill health. It is the only way healthcare workers

can sustain themselves.

But this reality is not the fault of any one person.

Doctors are not evil people, at least no more

than you and I. They are trapped in a system that

has been built to maximize profit instead of health

and well-being. As a result, patients—ordinary people—

must protect themselves by purchasing costly

health insurance and depend on the judicial system

in cases of malpractice.

And what evildoer has created this broken system?

It is our own ignorance of nature. Indeed, the

healthcare system is perhaps where the symptoms of

seeing only one half of reality manifest most acutely.

Michael Laitman