nature provides powerful agents like morphine, still one of the best painkillers known, so why not approach plants this way? In the context of the scientific approach, to view the human being as a biochemical laboratory where specific chemicals have specific effects seems justified and valid.
But can we really reduce a human being to the level of molecules? The human being surpasses description in its beauty and dynamic complexity of form and function, in potential expression and creativity. Of course on the level of physical form our body is also biochemical, but its organisation transcends by far the realms of biochemistry textbooks. Even if we were to fully comprehend the molecular complexities, we would not find what makes us human. There is a powerful and synergistic force at work within us—call it life, life-force, vital force or other names—that is us and is involved with the whole of us on all levels, not just the biochemical. At death the same chemicals are present but this energy of life and synthesis has gone. It is impossible to define this force, but the holistic approach is based on and works with a vision of humanity as animated by it.
Herbal medicine in its holistic sense recognises humanity as an expression of life, enlivened with life-force, and herbs can work with this whole being, not just specific symptoms. They do function through biochemical interactions and specific applications, but they do so in a way that augments the vital processes of the body. On the biochemical level, the numerous ingredients in a herb work in a synergistic way, with elements involved in the process that chemotherapy would not even consider as being active. In later chapters we will hear more about this, for instance in a comparison of Foxglove and Lily of the Valley, in the section on circulation.
If we just looked at herbs as a source of valuable chemicals we would limit their healing power, for beyond the physical level they can also work on the level of the life-force. As they heal our bodies, they may also heal our hearts and minds, for they open the body to a clear flow of integrating and synergising vital energy.
The body maintains a steady internal state, where temperature, blood sugar level, and other variables are kept within narrow limits, this process being known as homeostasis. This ability is fundamental to life, an expression of a force within working toward harmony and integration. If the body were not able to maintain this state of homeostasis we would not survive long.
This principle of homeostasis also applies to our environment. Our environment adapts to changes, but, like us, it is only able to do this within narrow limits. Beyond those, it dies.
As human beings we live in contact with two environments, the outer ecological one and the inner physiological one. Herbs can be seen as a bridge between the outer and inner environment, augmenting health by facilitating harmony and resonance between the two. Once we are in balance, we can radiate our higher state of health back into the ecosystem from which the herbs came.
If we slightly shift our view, we can see that we are really part of the whole of ecology, not separate from it. When we are healed with the help of plants, a part of the ecology is healed. By healing our bodies and our minds we will be more present as whole beings. And it is hoped that health will enable the growth of new awareness so that we can become conscious co-creators with nature and not remain the abusers and rapists that recent history shows us to be. A state of wholeness and health can affect our whole environment. It can affect our relationships, which affect society, and so potentially act to heal all humanity.
If we consider the concept of Gaia and remember that the Earth constantly works towards staying in a state of homeostasis, we can see how herbs act as homeostatic agents. Their purpose is to keep an element of the ecology—humanity—integrated and in harmony with the whole ecology. We can compare it to the purpose of hormones. Hormones released in one part of the body lead to a specific action in another part, integrating and harmonising our inner environment.
Chemotherapy cannot be substituted for this work of herbs. Chemicals do not work towards the integration of a system; at their best they bring some elements back into alignment. We can look at health as at any ecological system aiming for homeostasis. It is always in motion, with varying elements from outside influencing the system, which does its best to stay in balance and thus to stay alive. Health is when the personal ecosystem, the inner space that has been called the ‘milieu interieur’, is in balance with the outer space, and both of them are one. As J.Z. Young says: ‘The entity that is maintained intact, and of which we all form a part, is not the life of any one of us, but in the end the whole of life upon the planet.’*
The word healing has its roots in the Greek word ‘holos’, the same word that has given us ‘whole’ and ‘holistic’. Healing is the expression of wholeness, health is wholeness. The experience and expression of this quality can only come from within the individual, it never comes from an outer source such as a therapist or teacher. Just as all paths of spiritual development tell us to look within, so for our healing we must look to our inner selves.
Health is also the expression of integrated being that a person embodies. The emotions, thought-life and spiritual flow are as important to health as is the state of organs and tissues within the body. Whether we are concerned about being healthy, regaining health or moving to greater health, the whole of the being is involved.
The person who is ‘ill’ is in fact the healer. Aid can be sought from ‘experts’, whether allopaths or herbalists, psychotherapists or witch doctors, but the responsibility for healing can never be truly handed to anyone other than the person desiring healing. Healing comes from within, from truly embracing the life that flows within us. Herbs will aid in this process, but healing is inherent in being alive. It is our gift and our responsibility. This may come as a surprise to most of us, conditioned as we are to hand our power over to ‘experts’, whether they are doctors or politicians. In healing as in all life, we are free, and we are the divinely empowered authority for the process of our unfolding lives.
Healing is rarely an act of consciously harnessing inner energy and light, but is always a release and expression of this inner power. Whilst the healing process is unique, an expression of life in a person, this miraculous event can be facilitated by various tools and techniques. Numerous therapies have been developed throughout the unfoldment of human culture which have much to offer as healing arts. However, these do not heal. They cannot heal, they can only aid the body with its own innate healing power.
The apparent multitude of healing techniques, often appearing to contradict each other, can be seen as an interrelating ecology of approaches. I call it therapeutic ecology. Seeing the connections between the different schools of healing makes it clear that a unique blend of therapies may ideally suit one person whilst a different blend would be right for someone else. This provides us with a choice as to the best way to aid the self-healing process.
The following diagram places the individual—the heart and centre of self-healing—in the middle of an array of therapies. The foundation is Gaia, our beloved Planet, sustaining and supporting us. The overlighting presence is that of grace, embracing and illuminating us with the mystery of God’s loving presence.
