opposite, in fact, of entropy, or disintegration and decay. Understanding this progression, we can begin to view stress and trouble as friendly forces, rather than destructive ones, because it is through difficulties that we have the opportunity to evolve into higher states of consciousness. The body, then, is an organism in which many things happen at once, intertwined in such a fashion that it is difficult to determine what starts what, or which function comes after which other. In the context of a discussion of food and healing, the systems model can give us a wholly new perspective.
Curiously enough, although we live inside our bodies and must deal with them twenty-four hours a day, we know less about ourselves than we do about the external world. Our senses are directed outward; we have very few sensory nerves connected to the major organs that support our life, and consequently we are unaware of all the activity within. Mostly we have generalized feelings and localized pains, and sometimes vague hunches. But in order to function better, we do need to know how we function, and for that, we must perfect our conceptual model. There are several models of the human system that try to explain how it works, from the most arcane to the most narrowly scientific. Modern medicine tends to view what goes on inside that system as would an engineer, still somehow underestimating all the factors that influence it and the complexity of those influences and interactions. The model prevalent in orthodox medical thought includes the following basic assumptions:
• The human system works correctly unless an abnormality can be detected by an observer; that is, if nothing shows in the tests, there is no malfunction, even if the patient doesn’ t feel right.
• Most malfunctions of the system are due to physical agents— microorganisms, poisons, pollution. Cures are effected by destroying the pathogenic agent or removing the diseased organ or tissue. Diseases not caused by physical agents may be due to psychological factors, which are not real. Some of these factors are now acknowledged to have a physical basis in brain biochemistry, in the interactions of neurotransmitters; thus they have, so to speak, gained credibility.
• A disease will usually grow worse unless medical treatment is applied.( This assumption is often more widely held by the patient than by the doctor.) When a disease heals naturally, without intervention, it is thought of as exceptional and labeled“ self-limiting” or a“ spontaneous remission.”
• The symptoms are the disease; symptoms appearing in different organs are generally not related.
• Any disease or malfunction not due to physical or visible disturbances is of“ unknown origin.” Psychosomatic illness is an accepted category. The reverse, a physical disturbance that affects mental or emotional functioning, is rarely considered.
• Any cure of a major disease that occurs without official medical intervention is considered“ spontaneous remission,” or acausal.
• The major input in the human health disease system is that of pathogenic or disease-causing elements or organisms. Food input is only indirectly related to the system’ s functioning.
• In the cases in which food input does matter, it is mostly because of erroneous quantity( too much or too little).
• The effects of the natural environment on the human system are negligible. The holistic model of how the human system functions might include the following principles:
• Each human being has a general sense of whether his or her system is in good working order. The sense that something is wrong is usually correct.
• Malfunctions of the organism can stem from physical, psychological, or spiritual events. Cures are effected by finding the underlying cause and correcting it; the immune system takes over from there. The physical and the nonphysical are equally real.
• A healthy organism will tend to correct its own minor imbalances if allowed to do so; medical treatment may often interfere with that self-healing ability.