PATHOGENS AND PARADIGMS

Where We Stand...

LWL’s last post, "What if my Body is Brilliant?”, may have left some readers asking if we believe virologists are wrong about viruses and if we too question ‘the germ theory’, the most basic tenant of modern medicine. (Really, germ theory is the underpinning of how modern societies currently think about life, a paradigm that leads to killing germs and insects before they kill us.)

The short answer: we think questioning is a valuable endeavor. Especially in today’s world as humanity tries to find a best way into the future.

Shifting our beliefs about pathogens creates a different paradigm, a different story about how the world works. And this may be a good thing. Examining our relationship with the microbes that surround and live within us could be life-saving, for us and for them. Given medicine’s current struggle with antibacterial resistance (and almost a century of pollution with pesticides), we believe it’s critically important to ask where constant fear and fighting against germs (and insects) is taking us.

A more reasonable paradigm, with which LWL strongly resonates, is one that promotes understanding rather than fear, that teaches humans how to live in symbiotic relationship with our environment, and that supports our highest healing through positive interactions with all that surrounds us, including nature, and especially the microbial world.

LWL respects any paradigm that returns more control and sovereignty to individuals, families, and communities. Why? Because the more we must depend on external forces, even those of modern science and medicine, the more we become in need of being saved by them.

Any belief system that promotes more reliance on self-care as a means to sovereignty gets our vote. This ‘natural sovereignty’ comes not from laws granted by society but from wellness guaranteed by wholeness of body-mind-spirit, harmony among humans, and reconnection with the natural world.

What if our bodies really are just that brilliant? What if we can self-heal? What if we appreciate modern medicine’s amazing ability to treat physical trauma and save lives while investing more in food and lifestyle change to treat chronic conditions? What if ‘pathogen’ is a term relative to where and why and how many? What if ‘germ theory’ is a rabbit hole leading to a dangerous dead end? And what if scary pandemics offer a way back to the main road by showing us how far astray we have allowed human health to come?

What if every disease we humans have managed to create by separating ourselves from nature and natural processes is a disease we can reverse through reconnection and taking care with the way we live our daily lives? What if we build a medical system that can both treat trauma and heal chronic illness by supporting rather than blocking our innate capacity to self-heal? And what if such innate self-healing creates side-benefits instead of side-effects?

LWL believes this shift away from ‘germ theory’ (i.e. fighting against pathogens) and toward ‘regeneration theory’ (i.e. living in harmony with nature) may just be humanity’s greatest hope for a peaceful future. A future in which we as individuals, families, and communities have the sovereignty - and responsibility - to guide.

If so, the COVID pandemic has been a harsh but good teacher. Perhaps it has raised awareness about taking better care of ourselves, about the consequences of losing wellness, and about how easy it is for individuals and communities - and even nations - to lose control over their own health choices. While we can and must always protect the vulnerable among us, there must be a better system than we presently have in place, one that believed it had to shut down human activity around the globe to control a mere virus.

Can you see the different paradigms at work here? Herd immunity is rooted in the germ theory paradigm. Natural immunity flows from a paradigm in which balance and harmony with the natural world - especially the microbial world within us - protects and regenerates us.

Perhaps COVID 19 is teaching us what does NOT work. Perhaps humanity is being offered an opportunity to rethink where we are.

LWL’s vision of personal healing as a driver for healthy people, places and planet not only fits a ‘regeneration paradigm’, it actually helps it into being.

Up Ahead:

ALTERED HUMANS: Humanity at a Crossroads?

THE BEAUTY OF SLOW: Backing off of Biotech?