Do we really think we can outsmart nature and the natural progression of infectious diseases? Is fear the only way to be in relationship with our health? In the ebook decolonizing our souls :: liberation medicine for BIPOC (FREE only till 7/17 7pm PDT) , I offer processes for deconstructing fears around covid-19. However, let us unpack how fear-based understandings of health and dis-ease are in fact embedded in colonial models of ‘superiority vs. inferiority’ and how shifting medical paradigms can be decolonizing and healing in and of itself.
The fear-based medical model of technocratic industrialized medicine where nature and dis-ease are to be feared, controlled, manipulated and exploited is a manifestation and perpetuation of ‘superior vs. inferior’ or ‘master vs. slave’ paradigms of Western colonization and Darwinian evolution.
This colonizer paradigm is based on a framework of superiority vs. inferiority, that not all things in the universe are created with equal importance and purpose. This paradigm was reinforced scientifically with Darwin’s well known theory of evolution. Just to be clear, Western science and Darwin do not have monopolies on theories of evolution. There are many perspectives for understanding biological and human evolution, Darwin has only one very narrow and in fact racist [check out Darwin’s quotes on the biological inferiority of black people] and inherently violent and exploitive theory on evolution.
Darwin’s concept of ‘the survival of the fittest’ is embedded in a racist hierarchical system of competition and oppression; that to survive means having superior evolutionary and biological qualities. This naturally sets us up within a scientific framework whereby nature’s only intelligence is to destroy the weakest amongst us, to weed out the vulnerable, to exploit, control or destroy that which is deemed as a threat to human survival. Thus, compelling us as humans to exert force and subjugation on nature; or to act as superior to it.
In this framework then, dis-ease is understood as an evil phenomenon that we are in competition with for our survival. Rather than understanding dis-ease as a sign of biological or spiritual imbalances and an invitation to understand the imbalances and correct them, dis-ease in this ‘colonizer’ paradigm becomes something that must be controlled, manipulated, exploited or destroyed; just like the planet earth and black and brown bodies.
But as we’ve already established in our first episode of paradigm shifting, disease is but the other side of health. The two are one; they are in a yin yang relationship expressing the universal law of self-correction in nature. Through the manifestation of symptoms, dis-ease shows us what is in disturbance and what needs balancing. Dis-ease serves as a purpose and a power in nature; it does not come to be destroyed but understood and transformed into higher learning.
In this more indigenous and traditional framework then, symptoms are to be accepted rather than feared as they are signs of imbalances in one’s natural state; they are messengers for what needs correcting and healing. With this understanding, dis-ease and the expression of dis-ease through symptoms are not to be feared, controlled, suppressed or eradicated (like black and brown bodies are).
The assumption that we humans are evolutionary more intelligent than nature itself is the height of human arrogance and upholds and imposes superior vs. inferior and master vs. slave paradigms on our planet, our health and our medical systems. In this way medicine then becomes an aggressor, asserting its superiority on dis-ease and the human body by attempting to control, manipulate and destroy it. However, we know from the universal law of resistance, “that which we resist persists.”
Indigenous and traditional medicines do not assume this sort of human arrogance but rather uphold systems whereby humans learn to cooperate and harness the intelligence of nature, rather than to control, manipulate and destroy it. In homeopathy in particular, dis-ease is understood as disturbance originating at the level of the energetic body of the organism and symptoms are expressions of this disturbance on the mental, emotional and physical bodies. Consequently, homeopathy is a holistic medicine embedded in a sound philosophy that is in line with natural and universal laws; and rather than suppressing or disappearing symptoms, we use them as signposts to facilitate healing at the level of the disturbance, at the energetic level. This is true healing. This is activating our own human potential for auto-correction. [More about this in episode 3].
Traditional and homeopathic medicines are holistic, not fear-based systems and offer healing at the root cause of the dis-ease by harnessing the power and intelligence of nature rather than subjugating and resisting it. In this historical moment, we could choose to view nature, dis-ease and health fearfully and in need of aggression and control or with curiosity, openness and respect. We can approach health and medicine as arrogant colonizers that can outsmart, destroy and exploit nature (dis-ease), or as humans in relationship, learning and collaborative evolution with nature. We could utilize the universe’s technology or the colonizer’s technology. We could still choose to decolonize our souls.
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