medicines with undesirable side effects. 3. Genetic and Hereditary: We must include here not only longstanding genetic conditions, but also those caused by alcohol, drugs, medications, malnutrition, and an unhealthy diet in either parent, as well as during the mother’ s pregnancy. 4. Psychological: Stress, grief, psychological trauma, hysteria, and other emotional conditions. 5. Spiritual or Karmic: In the worldview of Paracelsus, as in that of many societies and philosophies, past lives are real, and we are accountable in our present life for our wrongdoing during past ones. Disdain for cripples in one life, according to this belief, may lead to being a cripple in another. In this listing, wrong diet is only one among many causes of our disorders. We now know, however, that it can exacerbate the effects of the others by weakening our resistance and undermining our immune system. Right diet is, then, not always a direct cure but works indirectly by strengthening the body once again and allowing the immune system to regain its power. For this reason, many different diets appear to be“ cures” for any number of diseases; and people who experience them are neither mistaken nor lying about their stories. What happens is simply that each individual case history is the story of how one person’ s immune system was stimulated back into operation, rather than how a way of eating“ cured” a disease. It’ s the relative viewpoint that we have to change: Mother’ s milk does not only“ confer immunities,” it also doesn’ t make the child sick. A diet free of nuts, nut butters, soda pop, fried foods, mayonnaise, and dairy products does not“ cure” acne; it just doesn’ t cause acne, and therefore the body returns to normal and the acne disappears. * All symptoms carry a message about conditions within our system. They are the only forceful method of communication between the body and the waking consciousness, which is usually focused outward. In fact, they are much like the red lights on the dashboard that indicate when the car is low on gas or oil. Early symptoms whose messages are not heeded will eventually give way to other, stronger ones; if we still don’ t understand what the body is trying to tell us, serious trouble is bound to ensue. If only the symptom itself is eradicated, and its deeper, underlying cause is not found and attended to, it is akin to smashing the dashboard with a hammer instead of adding three quarts of oil to the engine. It is possible to do both— eliminate the symptom, or the area in which the symptom appears( e. g., as in tonsillectomy), and its cause( wrong diet). But that is like smashing the dashboard and then adding the three quarts of oil. The car will run well enough, but future communication between car and driver will be impaired— how will the car signal its need for oil the next time? Symptoms are always a change in the function and eventually the structure of the body. What does this change mean? Change can be part of the movement of items through a system; it can be part of the structuring of the system; and it can be the system decaying. 3 Symptoms could, then, be classified into two opposite yet complementary categories, according to whether they indicate movement toward healing(“ structuring”) or away from it:( a) symptoms of the integration mode; or( b) symptoms of the disintegration mode. This classification, as with most classifications of observed phenomena, is somewhat arbitrary, for all activities of the body are essentially designed to keep it functioning. It is when the symptom pits the body against itself that disintegration is hastened. For example, the formation of a cyst or tumor can be seen as the immune system’ s confinement and isolation of unexcreted cell waste or useless cells. But if the tumor begins to grow excessively, obstructing vessels and pressing on nerves, it is no longer useful; it has become detrimental to the system’ s functioning. The integration mode is the one in which the body operates unconsciously most of the time. Paradoxically, consciousness can obstruct its smooth functioning by trying to“ improve” things, through mechanical or chemical intervention. Often these interventions( surgery, drugs) seem perfectly rational and appropriate. But they end up having devastating side effects because they are based on the notion that without intervention things will get worse. This is rarely so:“ The great secret, known to internists but still hidden from the general public,” wrote Lewis Thomas,“ is that most things get better by themselves. Most things, in fact, get better by morning.” 4 When we don’ t acknowledge and cooperate with our body’ s inherent self-organizing abilities— with our immune system— our most elegant healing techniques invariably backfire. I have come up with a classification of symptoms according to the degree, or stage, of illness they represent. It is based in part on the work of various natural healers, especially Michio Kushi, 5 as well as on my own observations. I do not intend it to stand as a definitive categorization of stages of disease, but rather as another aspect of the mental model of the human system— a practical model that is easy to use for lay people, and true only insofar as it is useful in making accurate appraisals and predictions. This classification of symptoms has served me well in determining which disease conditions can be taken care of with food and home remedies, and which need the help of health professionals. Symptoms, then, can be