than what it could be. SOCIAL 7. TAKING RESPONSIBILITY. This means that we realize the futility of blaming others for our problems. If we accept the fact that we are the creators of our lives, it follows that we also created whatever mess we are in, healthwise or otherwise. Guilt is unnecessary at this stage, for it paralyzes. A straightforward noting of the facts, on the other hand, helps us see the way out. If we made the mess, we can unmake it as well. Taking responsibility is the basis for personal power, for the ability to change ourselves, and thereby the world, in a positive and healing way. 8. MAKING CHOICES. Exercising our capacity to choose could be the most crucial among the conditions of health. To fulfill it, we need( a) knowledge of the options available; and( b) the ability to communicate our decisions. And of course, to choose, we must accept responsibility for both the situation and the outcome. In the area of health, we should be able to make considered choices about the best healing technique to correct what ails us, with possibilities ranging from prayer and fasting to CAT scans and laser beam surgery.( It may be of interest to doctors and other healers that when the patient freely and knowingly chooses a particular therapy, with full knowledge of its limitations, malpractice is rarely an issue. It is so only in cases when the patient, instead of taking responsibility for his condition and his healing personally, blindly gives over that responsibility to the therapist.) SPIRITUAL 9. HONESTY. When our health is good, we have no fear, and thus no need to lie. This does not mean that we have to say everything that comes to our minds— tact and discretion are not dispensable. It does mean not lying to ourselves, being fair and honorable, trustworthy and upright— it means, in fact, integrity. 10. GRATITUDE. This condition presupposes a good memory; as we remember how bad things can be, or how easily we can lose that which is dearest to us, we become very appreciative of all things around us. When our body is healthy and we feel good, everything seems magnificent and admirable. At the same time, a sense of wonder and appreciation can in itself be an expression of health, regardless of our physical condition. 11. HUMILITY. About this one condition of health, we can do little, for we cannot cure ourselves of arrogance, that intractable disease of the spirit. If we have it, only age, the memory of our mistakes, the“ slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, the whips and storms of time,” can heal us. Our humility, if it’ s genuine, must not be noticed by us— only by others. 12. LOVE. We may change our diet, clear our skin, heal our cancer— but if we have no charity, it’ s of little avail. Health is but an ego trip, vanity, and a striving after wind if we don’ t unconditionally accept life, ourselves, and our fellow humans as they are— that is, love them. Finding fault with how our brother eats, judging him sick when he doesn’ t do as we do, disapproving of his lifestyle— all these only betray our own sense of incompleteness. Those who are capable of unconditional love at all times are forever healthy, no matter what their physical condition may be. WHAT IS ILLNESS? The conditions( or goals) of health listed above present us with a very precise model against which to measure ourselves. We will invariably fall short of some of them( if we think we don’ t, we fall short of numbers 9 and 11), but it is especially our shortcomings in the first six conditions that will quickly alert us that we are, in some way, ill. We are in fact right when we feel, for example, that being tired all the time is a sign that something is wrong, even if“ nothing can be found.” A loss of memory often accompanies hardening of the arteries, while habitual falling and dropping things can indicate the beginning of degenerative diseases of the nervous system. Even if there is no actual“ disease” in the Western modern medical sense, this health model will help us to identify imbalances in our system that can be corrected. Modern medicine recognizes mostly physical causes for our disorders: bacteria, viruses, genes, pollution, malnutrition. In cases where none of these seem to apply, the finger is pointed at psychological problems— stress, or“ nerves.” At times the latter seem simply catchall categories for“ causes unknown,” rather than actual causative agents.“ It appears to me that one ought to know what diseases arise in man from the powers [ forces ] and what from the structures,” wrote Hippocrates. Ancient healing systems, folk medicine, and occult wisdom— all based on the premise that“ all is one”— accept the nonphysical( the“ powers”) as coequal with the physical( the“ structures”). Holistic healing( in accordance with the systems viewpoint) realigns itself with that venerable worldview; therefore, a listing of the causes of illness must encompass all levels of reality if it is to be accurate— just as health, as we have seen, is manifest in all aspects of human life. Of all such listings, the one I have found most comprehensive and useful is that advanced by Paracelsus, the great sixteenth-century Swiss mystic and medical reformer. He recognized five major causes of illness: 1. External and Environmental: Heat, cold, wind, rain, trauma, and, in our modern terminology, bacteria, viruses, and pollution. 2. Poisons and Impurities: Spoiled food, wrong food, poisonous substances, chemicals of all kinds, herbs and