Thoughts on The Healing Power of Illness by Dethlefsen and Dahlke (a wonderfully radical book!)
 An article by Tim Bellows.
The words in this volume could stand anyone's life on its head. Or I should say set it, finally, properly on its feet? The gist of the book is that whatever we reject, hate, shun, or refuse to deal with will surely be brought, by the nature of existence, into our outer lives, often as illness or accident. Of course there's far more to this challenging, heady book: Highly recommended . . . but not for the faint of heart or for those not wanting to face total responsibility for their views and situations.
Wildly summarizing from page 37, I offer this as the heart of the book: anything we identify with and affirm always leaves one pole (its opposite) out in the cold (or in the shadow). But all the things we don't want to live out, don't want to identify with, go to make up our shadow. Rejecting one half of all possibilities, far from causing them to disappear, merely banishes them from the conscious mind's I-dentification, as the authors would say.
Later, going a step further, the authors explain, "Everything that we do not wish or approve of originates in our own shadow for it is the sum of everything we do not want. However, our refusal to get to grips with this one part of reality and live it out for real is precisely what ensures that we never get what we hope for [because] the rejected aspects of reality force us to devote ourselves to them all the more intensely" (37). Why? Because life at its most profound and powerful insists that we experience and accept all, and so it brings us a certain illness or a something that, in an analogical way, equals what we've rejected! And that something plays out in the physical arena of our life.
In short, life is inexorably leading us to be whole, to shed hard-minded opinions. Author Paul Twitchell often spoke about the value of being neither for nor against, and The Healing Power of Illness fits well with his idea, truly drives it home - in case we haven't quite gotten it!
So if we can’t stand Republicans, we'll surely, in time or in lifetimes, come around to marching strong and carrying that Republican banner. I'm reminded of religions that rail against sexual "deviation" and any kind of joy of sex. Funny how they can end up with some of their highest members on trial for, say, child molestation. And the examples abound! And in other arenas my life shows off the same principle. Like many of us, I once rejected and criticized the traditional life of getting a job, dressing decently, and playing along with society. I was a rocker who wanted to play guitar or party. Now you can guess I'm pretty straight laced and affirm things like dressing decently any time its needed. To honor others around me.
I could go on for days about this life-changing book. Here's one standout point: What wisdom, perfection and total consciousness amount to is the ability to see and recognize the whole of existence in all its validity and perfect balance. (This is pulled from the chapter on polarity and unity.)
I only wish The Healing Power of Illness was not so tricky to find. But I hope you'll search it out. It took me a few days of checking.
The authors quote this part of the Tao te Ching, highlighting the idea of how polarized most of us have become (here's one translation):
When people see things as beautiful,
ugliness is created.
When people see things as good,
evil is created.
Being and non-being produce each other.
Difficult and easy complement each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low oppose each other.
Fore and aft follow each other.
Therefore the Master
can act without doing anything
and teach without saying a word.
Things come her way and she does not stop them;
things leave and she lets them go.
She has without possessing,
and acts without any expectations.
When her work is done, she takes no credit.
That is why it will last forever.
~ from http://www.wam.umd.edu/~stwright/rel/tao/TaoTeChing.html ~
That second stanza truly points up how opposites actually go together, support each other. Therefore to hate anti-war people would make us un-whole. To me, the idea is to be spiritually enlightened, to give love to all, to remain undisturbed by the ever-turbulent world around us. (Still, we’re not to be passive; we make our choices and do our work, but in a more detached way.)
---As I write this, The Healing Power of Illness is now over $100.00 on Amazon, but you can try alibris.com, ecampus.com, and other major online booksellers. Certain libraries may be the only places to find the book in 2008.---
Copyright © 2007 Tim Bellows.
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