Mandtao so far

When I was putting the "blogs so far" online, I was not impressed, and when a friend asked me to expain what I was doing I found it hard. The stuff is not integrated, there was not a feeling of wholeness about what I am doing when I read it. I tried to convey to my friend what I was doing discussing the building blocks of science, but was getting nowhere - and this was with someone who wants to understand what I try to do. In the end I remembered she had experienced Chi Gung, and then she began to understand. How can science negate something she has exprienced?

Of course not everyone has had Chi Gung experience, so my presentation of this has to be much better. Give that time. But I do need to reflect a little before moving on. Let me begin with where I am at with science. Science has much to offer, don't get me wrong. The most obvious examples are technology, what we can do with computers is in general greatly beneificial; the failure in computing is the political reality that governmental awareness does not include the legislation for the right to work. Computers are putting people out of work because of their efficiency, and the 1%-controlled governments are not democratic enough to perceive that its responsibility includes ensuring a self-worth that embraces the right to work.

The next that science is often lauded for is medicine, but when one considers the whole package connected with medicine there are doubts. To a certain extent one can describe the process of health as the outcome of the food and medicine we take. The quality of our foods has deteriorated since we have begun to process our foods. BigFood has determined that there are greater profits to be made from the sale of foods which contain preservatives or in which there are additives such as excitotoxins. For many the addition of these chemicals is enough to determine a strategy of never eating processed foods. Whilst mother's milk is Nature's ingredient and necessity for healthy babies, there are doubts that milk from cows is what Nature intended for the rest of our lives. There are sufficient people around who claim that by eating a diet of grains, legumes fruit and vegetables - preferably organic (and fish for B12 and other benefits), much of the need for medicine disappears. But if we do take allopathoic medicines, then it is questionable whether the side effects are more damaging than the healing properties of the medicine itself. When it comes to the lifestyle diseases that have come to dominate the health of many, especially the elderly, there are even stronger indications that the natural diet described above would be more beneficial than medicines offered. With regards to cancer medicine offers chemotherapy as experienced by Farrah Fawcett, yet the scientific basis for chemo is not proven. A lifestyle change as suggested in "Healing Cancer from the Inside Out" is considered by some more beneficial, but such a lifestyle involves an energetic approach such as Chi Gung or Tai Chi, meditation to calm the mind and relieve stress and daily exercise to keep the body functioning.

But then there are other "advances". Firstly there are concerns that vaccines that are supposed to have wiped out diseases such as tb etc are now the source of 21st century maladies such as autism and so on. Rather than assuage these concerns the US government is forcing parents who don't want these vaccines to have their children vaccinated against their wishes. And then there is the modification of crops. As a crop wheat was altered to produce greater yields. Now we have coeliac's disease, and more people are forced to eat gluten-free diets. If that were not enough, BigFood scientists genetically modify crops so that farmers are forced to use their pesticide and buy their seeds - a Monsanto practice. GM foods are being promoted by capitalist benefaction such as Bill Gates, yet these foods are having many deleterious results in the Third World.

On the other hand laboratory testing has helped provide indicators of health conditions. Life-saving operations have clearly helped many people, the technology for which did not exist without the advancement of science. Every time I go to the dentist I wonder what people used to do to cope with decay. From my own perspective I have healed myself of GERD and migraines through healthy eating, and having changed my lifestyle I feel much better for it. My last involvement with medicine was a trip to the doctor's two years ago to have the wax cleaned out of my ears. But I consider myself fortunate. Those less fortunate than I are more dependent on the medical establishment but I deeply question their level of involvement.

And this is before I consider the work of Bruce Lipton. He has exposed the central dogma of biology that the genes are our command centre, exposing the fatalism surrounding hereditary diseases. He encourages people to take a more "spiritual" approach to healing.

For me "the jury is out" on medicine as a whole, but healing through change of lifestyle and eating natural foods is empowering. But what is very clear to me is that we need to regain control of the process of pharmaceutical approval. Aspartame has been approved but the approval process was very questionable. The cancer industry vetoes research into treatments whose efficacy has determined a need for research such as Gerson, Burzynski, B17 and cannabinoids. Quite simply the priority is not our health. Whilst I am inclined to believe the value of such treatments and whilst I would have no hesitation in using such treaments personally, they cannot claim truth as valid cures, not because there is evidence against their usage but quite simply because the establishment refuses to investigate. This is not science. Science is concerned with discovering knowledge, and there is no search for knowledge concerning these treatments. Yet there has been much research on chemotherapy, and the evidence is not clear as to its validity as a procedure but the medical establishment continues to push chemo - and many claim that is because of the huge profits for the cancer industry.

Science ought to be an unbiassed search for knowledge, not simply knowledge that produces technology or knowledge that leads to patent and profit, but knowledge that would come under the category of benefitting mankind.

And it is for this benefit that on a broader level I am suggesting the very framework science has established is not conducive. The methodology of sceince that restricts scientific verification to hypothesis and experiment is a restrictive methodology. Where it suits the scientific establishment quantitative research, a research process that focusses on experimental method, is expanded to qualitative research. This is particularly the case in what is called "social sciences". I was required in my Masters in Education to write a dissertation which was based on case studies - qualitative research. Inasmuch as I was awarded an M Ed this approach was accepted by the system, and yet there is no way that it would stand up to inspection through the experimental methodology of quantitative research. Was it knowledge? I have no doubts at all that it was. Were the conclusions of my dissertation verifiable by experimental method? NO. Was it knowledge? Definitely, YES.

So what about acupuncture? Centuries dating back to the Yellow Emperor in China have added to the empirical knowledge used in this system of medicine, and yet because chi is not recognised in western medicine, a recent upstart 200 years old, acupuncture is not considered science. Do I consider it knowledge? Definitely, YES. Here is my most obvious example in personal experience. I was living in Botswana at the time, and I came down with an illness. Basically I had a recurrent flu. I would wake up fine go to work and by lunch-time (mornings were 7.00 am to 1.00 pm) I would be feeling ill only capable of going home and sleeping. I would wake up the next day and go through the same routine. The doctor tested me and told me I had the liver of an alcoholic - I had been an alcoholic and had not touched a drop for 5 years or so. He gave me pills to strengthen the liver, but this illness prevailed for two months. Eventually I went to the acupuncturist who was working in the local hospital, and after one treatment this cycle of recurrent flu disappeared. Proof for me, sufficient; proof for you, maybe; proof for science, definitely NOT.

The framework of science that is practiced is restrictive. The status quo that is encouraged by the 1% establishment is limiting the questioning that could remove these restrictions. I have already referred to Bruce Lipton's exposure concerning the central dogma of biology. I have also mentioned the investigation of the atom that has brought into question atomic theory suggesting that sub-atomic particles need to be considered as points or waves, but cannot be considered as both at the same time. Similarly light functions as a point source or as a wave source. I have suggested a fundamental axiom that recognises this point-wave duality (I have to do much more to substantiate that suggestion).

And then we have broader religious considerations that we might consider axiomatic. Elsewhere I have discussed ONE planet. With this ONE planet approach, for me it is an axiom, not only does nature function as Gaia, but all of life including human life works together in unity. We are unity, ONE planet. Now this suggestion needs far more substantiation if it could be considered an axiom, but there are immediate social and environmental benefits of it accepted as axiomatic. We are ONE planet, so any rationale for war would not be based on the power of the hegemony but would be based around minimising the deaths of equal peoples, one Middle Eastern death is the same as one Western death. Climate change would never have happened because it would never have been necessary to exploit oil usage - we would have sought sustainability. This is one scientific axiom that can never be globally accepted because of the power of the addicted 1%. Yet it is a viable axiom. Science tends to work from building blocks when it is developing axioms. It tries for simplicity and then builds on that simple basis. But is that the correct approach to axioms? How much more knowledge would be opened up based on the axiom - ONE planet?

At this stage I am questioning the axioms that make up science. As yet I do not know where I am going with it. That is enough for now - Mandtao so far.