Nature Cure by Henry Lindlahr (best short books to read txt) 📕

In this connection it is interesting to note that the Mosaic law recognized the law of periodicity and fixed upon Sunday as the first day or “birthday” of the week, and upon Saturday (the Sabbath) as the last or “rest” day, in which to prepare for another period of seven days.

Orthodox science now admits that the normal length of human life should be about one hundred and fifty years. This would constitute three cycles of forty-nine years each, the first corresponding to youth, the second to maturity, and the third to fruition.

The Law of Sevens in Febrile Diseases

If we apply the Laws of Periodicity to the course of acute febrile or inflammatory diseases, we find that the sixth day from the beginning of the first well-defined symptom marks the first Friday-period or the first crisis of the disease, and that every seventh day thereafter is also distinguished by aggravations and changes, either for better or for worse.

The Law of Sevens in Chronic Diseases

Applied to the cure of chronic diseases under the influence of natural methods of living and of treatment, the Laws of Crises and of Periodicity manifest as follows:

When a chronic patient, whose chances of cure are good, is placed under proper (natural) conditions of living and of treatment he will, as a rule, experience five weeks of marked improvement.

The sixth week, if conditions are favorable, usually marks the beginning of acute reactions or healing crises. This means that the healing forces of the organism have grown strong enough to begin the work of acute elimination.

By all sorts of acute reactions, such as skin eruptions, diarrheas, feverish, inflammatory and catarrhal conditions, boils, abscesses, mucopurulent discharges, etc., Nature now endeavors to remove the latent, chronic disease taints from the system.

The character of the healing crises and the time of their occurrence in any given case can often be accurately predicted by means of the Diagnosis from the Eye (see Chapter XIII), from Nature’s records in the iris.

But the best of all methods of diagnosis is the cure iself, because weak spots and morbid taints in the organism are revealed through the healing crises.

The Same Old Aches and Pains

Frequently we hear from a patient in the throes of crises: “These are the same old aches and pains that I had before. It is exactly the same trouble I have been suffering with for many years. This is not a crisis!—I have caught a cold, or I have eaten something which does not agree with me.”

The patient has forgotten what we taught him regarding the Law of Crises. He loses sight of the fact that healing crises are nothing more or less than a coming-up-again of old disease conditions, an acute manifestation of ailments which had become chronic through neglect or suppression.

Of course they are “the same old aches and pains.” Nature Cure does not create new diseases. Crises mean the stirring up and eliminating of hereditary and acquired taints and poisons. Under the right methods of treatment, any previous disease condition suppressed by drugs or knife or by mental effort may recur as a healing crisis.

They are the same old aches and pains which so often gave trouble in the past, but they are now running their course under different conditions because the patient is now living in harmony with Nature’s Laws.

Under the natural regimen, Nature is encouraged and assisted in her cleansing and healing efforts. She is allowed in her own wise way to tear down the old and build up the new.

The “Old Schools” of healing proclaim Mother Nature a poor healer. But we of the Nature Cure school believe that the wisdom which created this wonderful, complex mechanism which we call the human body knows also how to preserve and to repair it. Every healing crisis passed under natural conditions assisted by natural methods of treatment leaves the body purified and strengthened and nearer to perfect health.

Our critics and opponents frequently ask us how we know that our methods are natural and in harmony with Nature’s laws.

To this we reply: The timely appearance of healing crises, their orderly development and favorable termination constitute the best criterion of the correctness and naturalness of the methods of treatment employed. The prompt arrival and beneficial results of acute reactions are a certain indication that the healing forces of the organism are in the ascendancy and that the treatment is in conformity with the natural laws of cure and with the constructive principle in Nature.

Another question sometimes asked of us is: “Do healing crises develop in every chronic disease under natural treatment?” Our answer is: If the condition of the patient is not favorable to a cure, that is, if the vitality is too low and the destruction of vital parts too far advanced, the healing crises may be proportionately delayed or may not occur at all. In such cases the disease symptoms will increase in severity and complexity and become more destructive instead of more constructive, until the final fatal crisis. The end may come quickly, or the patient may decline gradually toward the fatal termination.

Again, patients ask us: “Through how many crises shall I have to pass?” We tell them: Just as many as you need; no more, no less. So long as there is anything wrong in the system, crises will come and go; but each crisis, if successfully passed, is another milestone on the road to perfect health.

It is intensely interesting to observe how orderly and intelligently Nature proceeds in her work of healing and repair. One problem after another is taken up and adjusted.

First of all, the digestive organs are put into better condition, because further progress depends upon proper assimilation and elimination. The bowels must act freely and naturally before any permanent improvement can take place. A treatment which fails to accomplish this first preliminary improvement will surely fail to produce more important results.

In this connection it is a significant fact that nearly all our patients, when they come under our care, are suffering from very stubborn constipation in spite of (or possibly on account of) lifelong drugging. Neither medicines nor operations had given them anything but temporary relief and the trouble had grown worse instead of better.

If the “Old School” methods of treatment were not successful in relieving simple constipation, what else can they be expected to cure, since the overcoming of constipation is evidently the primary necessity for any other improvement?

A system of treatment which cannot accomplish this cannot accomplish anything else. It is strange, therefore, that a school of medicine which has not succeeded, with all its vaunted knowledge and wisdom, to cure simple constipation, flatly denies that natural methods can cure cancer, epilepsy, locomotor ataxy and other so-called incurable diseases.

Our Greatest Difficulty

The greatest difficulty in our work lies in conducting our patients safely through the stormy crises periods. The first, preliminary improvement is often so marked that the patient believes himself already cured. He will say: “Doctor, I am feeling fine! There is nothing the matter with me any more! I cannot understand why I shouldn’t go home and continue the natural regimen there!”

This feeling of mental elation and physical well-being is usually the sign that the first general improvement has progressed far enough to prepare the system for a healing crisis. Therefore my answer to the overconfident patient may be something like this: “Remember what I told you. The first improvement is not the cure, it is only the preparation for the real fight. Look out! In a few days you may whistle another tune.”

And sure enough, usually within a few days after such a conversation the patient is down in the slough of despond. His digestive organs are in a wretched condition. He is nauseated, his tongue is coated, he is suffering from headache and from a multitude of other symptoms according to his individual condition. In fact, many of the old aches and pains which he thought already cured come up again with renewed force.

Healing crises, representing radical changes in the system, are always accompanied by physical and mental weakness, because every bit of vitality is drawn upon in these reconstructive processes. The entire organism is shaken up to its very foundation; deep-seated, chronic disease taints are being stirred up throughout the system.

The eliminative processes of the healing crises are often accompanied by great mental depression and a feeling of strong revulsion to the natural regimen and everything connected with it.

The patient thinks that, after all, Nature Cure is not for him, that he is growing worse instead of better. In proportion to the severity of the changes going on within him, he becomes disheartened and despondent. Often he exhibits all the mental and emotional symptoms of homesickness. In these critical days it requires all our powers of persuasion to keep the depressed and discouraged patient from giving up the fight and from taking something to relieve his distress. He insists that “something must be done for him,” and cannot understand how he will ever get out of his “awful condition” without some good strong medicine.

If our patients were not continually and thoroughly instructed regarding the Laws of Crises and of Periodicity and if we did not strongly advise and encourage them to persevere with the treatment, few of them would hold out during these critical periods.

This explains why so many people fail to be cured and it also explains why natural living and self-treatment often do not meet with the desired results if carried on without the instruction and guidance of a competent, experienced Nature Cure physician.

So long as the improvement continues, everything is lovely and hope soars high. But when the inevitable crises arrive, the sufferer believes that, after all, he made a mistake in taking up the natural regimen, especially so when friends and relatives do their best to destroy his confidence in the natural methods of cure by ridicule and dire prophesies of failure.

Frightened and discouraged, the patient returns to the “flesh-pots of Egypt” and to the good old pills and potions and ever afterwards he tells his friends that “he tried Nature Cure and the vegetarian diet, but it was no good.”

Mother Nature remains a “book sealed with seven seals” to those who mistrust, despise and counteract her, who rely on man-made wisdom and the ever-changing theories and dogmas of the schools.

But on the other hand, every crisis conducted to a successful termination in accordance with Nature’s laws becomes an inspiration to him who follows her guidance and assists her with intelligent effort and loving care.