Sickness is defense against the Truth

All rights reserved © 2017, 2019 Louis Antonio Abate, D.C.

One of the morning meditations from A Course in Miracles states “Sickness is a defense against the truth.” The meditation goes on to say “…I have forgotten what I really am, for I mistook my body for myself…”

As I was meditating I began to wonder about the statement ‘I have forgotten what I really am.’ I began to reflect on the times when I thought I was just my body, or when I was just a symptom or pain process.

As a chiropractor I see many people who initially come in because they have pain. Whether that pain is purely physical, or emotional, mental, or spiritual—or a combination makes no difference. Initially we all just focus on what is going wrong and how it can be fixed so that we can get back to living our lives. But what if just living wasn’t your goal? Did you know that there is a way not only know the gap and also be able to bridge the gap between the life you are currently living and the life of your greatest dreams and desires?

We are not our body, our set of circumstances or life experiences. Nor are we our mind or thoughts. Apologies to René Descartes. I believe he had it backwards when he stated ‘cogito ergo sum’ (I think therefore I am). From my experiences Descartes should have stated ‘I am therefore I think.’

Many years ago my dog Scrappy was exhibiting bizarre behavior. He wasn’t eating, his bowel habits changed drastically, and he seemed to be having trouble walking. At the veterinary hospital he was subjected to a battery of tests. When I was called in the vet proclaimed ‘cancer’ as the diagnosis. He proceeded to tell me all of the laboratory values and x-rays that pointed to his grave diagnosis. I was then told of all the things going wrong with my dog and how the vet would be the only one who can intervene to ‘normalize’ his lab values. I was flabbergasted. This was my dog whom I loved beyond belief and I was being told that he needed to be ‘normalized.’ The vet had no interest in my relationship with Scrappy or anything about his life or our life together. He was just focused on lab values and making them appear normal through chemotherapy—which had a 28% chance of the treatment working.

The next day at a business networking event I met a canine nutritionist who took interest in what was going on with Scrappy. She sat down with us, asked a ton of questions—even wanting to know Scrappy’s favorite toy and what I was feeding him—before looking at the lab results from the vet. She then said something that has stuck with me to this day. She said “I can see how much you and Scrappy love each other and I can even feel the love just being around the two of you. So let’s make sure you can both spend as much quality time together with Scrappy living a long and vital life.”

This canine nutritionist was more focused on the entirety of Scrappy’s situation, the love in the Field between us and how that energized the interpersonal Field of anyone who was around us. She was not solely and myopically focused on a series of lab results.

As it turned out there was no cancer, his kidneys were failing due to the food I was feeding him. She taught me to feed him a raw, organic diet; and within a week he was like a puppy again.

Had I just followed the vet’s advice Scrappy would be just a series of failing parts that needed to be fixed. As a chiropractor I know that we are more than the sum of our parts. And, that we have an Innate Intelligence that controls, coordinates and animates us.

How many times have you focused solely on your pain or symptoms? How many times have you believed that you are nothing more than a pain, symptom or disease, and wanted to fix it, make it wrong, or make it go away just so you can resume the life you were living?

We have been conditioned to want to stop pain, fix a problem or make it go away. After all our culture is committed to making pain of any kind go away. We have ‘retail-therapy,’ psychotherapy, reality TV, and MTV. We have Facebook and Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and instant text messages. We have government bail-outs, prescription and recreational drugs, and Kardashians—just to name a few. Everything is designed to either distract from having to pay attention and be with the pain.

Yet, if your life is going off purpose—in some way—you are supposed to have pain; and no one and nothing is supposed to take that pain away. Doing so is tantamount to a spiritual violation.

Dr. Donny Epstein, founder and developer of the EpiHealing™ technologies of NetworkSpinal™ and Somato Respiratory Integration™ has said that pain means 1. Stop, 2. Pay Attention, and 3. Make a Change.

Pain, whether it be physical, emotional, mental or spiritual is designed to stop us in our tracks. Once we pay attention to it we will recognize where in our lives we need to make a change. Once we make the change our bodies have no reason to continue to create the pain because it will have gained the wisdom inherent in the pain.

Part of my job is to help you find the meaning in the pain and the wisdom to make the necessary changes. Once you do that your life will automatically and effortlessly reorganize to a higher level.

An example of this is Jimmy Jr., who showed up to my office with severe lower back pain where he needed help to walk. During the consultation I asked him if he ever allowed himself to just ‘be with’ the pain, and not try to make it go away. He laughed in my face. I asked him if he knew what the pain was telling him. His response was ‘that it hurts here.’

I did a very simple, yet profound, exercise with him, developed by Dr. Donny Epstein, called Pain Integration Experience. Afterwards, he revealed that he was concerned that the pain continued he would not be able to work and therefore make enough money to support his newlywed wife and just born baby girl. As he began to tear up he said “If I can’t support my family I am worthless as a husband, father and as a man; and what’s worse is that is I will be teaching my daughter that’s what she can expect from a man.”

If he didn’t stop and pay attention to his pain he never would have discovered the real concern. After giving voice to this concern he took a deep breath and was able to stand up fully erect for the first time in two weeks. After working with him the wisdom of the pain was revealed and he realized he was not following his passion of being a restauranteur, but was ‘stuck’ in a job his father wanted him to take because “Wall Street stock brokers make a lot of money.”

There is wisdom in the pain. We just have to be willing to be with the pain/symptom/disease long enough for it to be revealed.

If you were to visualize your ideal life what would it be like? How would you be different? What kinds of emotions would this ideal You express? How would you optimize your life and the situations in your life?

If you are experiencing any kind of pain and would like support in knowing the meaning behind it, in discovering how you can bridge the gap to your ideal life, the EpiHealing™ technologies of NetworkSpinal™ and Somato Respiratory Integration™ will allow you to unlock the wisdom. Contact me for an appointment.