In the beginning was the word. After that came the concept and then, piece by piece, we began amassing knowledge of the world.
But what came before the word? Before our minds began to conceptualise? It can only have been the experience, alive and present in the moment. The word was only ever meant to be a reference point, a useful tool in describing experience, our own innate knowledge. But somewhere along the line we have crowned it King.
My point is that, when I consider how so many in our society regard issues of science, health and disease, it seems that concepts have come to have more value than experience and, as a result, our approach has become stagnant. To put it another way, we have forgotten how to listen to our own bodies and hearts.
A few weeks ago I saw someone who told me she felt bad every time she ate dairy but, as the tests had come back negative for a food intolerance, she continued to eat it. I asked her why she placed more value on a test than the experience of her own body. She seemed surprised. I have seen many people change their diet because of something they read even though they don’t feel good on it, take up strenuous exercise even though their joints are hurting, drink wine every weekend even though it plays havoc with their digestion etc. We have let our minds totally take over and have become slaves to knowledge as it appears in theory rather than as it appears in our living awareness.
Right now herbal education in the UK is becoming increasingly more research driven in an attempt to keep up with the scientific model of healthcare, a model which is at best disempowering and at worst highly exploitative. And at what cost? If a doctor/ herbalist/ person in a white coat with the letters BSc after their name tells us we should do something we just do it, even if the wisdom of own body says ‘stop’?
Our experience is alive because we are in the awareness of it at the present moment. With our minds firmly in control of the reins however, the concept – already a dead thing- has gained supremacy over what we are actually experiencing. I bumped into a friend last week on my way home and we started discussing a certain journalist who is notoriously anti-natural medicine. She said, “he’s got three degrees in science, he knows what he’s talking about.” I must say, this did little to change my mind. Let’s face it, I could have three degrees in theology but does that mean I know God?
What I mean by this is that studying doesn’t necessarily lead you to a deeper understanding of the thing itself, which can only be gained by experience. Study is very useful of course and is something many of us, myself included, enjoy and get much benefit from, but it is also dangerous because it can lead to a certain arrogance and the assumption that we know things, and that we know them better than you do. All we really know is that concepts and theories are changing and becoming outdated all the time but unlike experience, which is lived in the awareness of change, theory encourages us to hold onto something and cement it in our minds as ‘true’ or ‘untrue’. Experience is ever fresh, ever changing, always in the present, and as such, there can be nothing to hang onto.
One last example. Recently, another friend sent me an article written by a neuroscientist about how meditation had been proven to be effective – never mind that meditators have known this for centuries upon centuries through direct experience. The scientist went on to say that Buddhism was, in someways, acceptable to science because of the teaching of ‘no self’ as science has never managed to find something that could be called the self. Reading this guy’s description of no self made me laugh because it was so clear he had very rigid ideas about himself, despite the fact that science told him otherwise. Whilst he knew about this idea of ‘no self’ had had absolutely no experience of it. Contrast this with a great meditation master whose direct experience of selflessness is like a beacon shining from their very being and you can be left in no doubt that it is the experience which liberates, not the concept. The article is here if you have the inclination to read it.
So anyway, if you’re still with me by now, what I’m really getting at here is that we must learn to trust ourselves again. We can do so within a framework of study and knowledge but with mind as servant to experience rather than as the Grand Ringmaster, forever running the show.
“You do not possess intelligence, nor do you possess ignorance, nor do you possess a mixture of these two. You are yourself intelligence. An intelligence that never ceases and never strays. ” Avadhuta Gita
I like this entry very much. Thank you for the beauty!
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Thank you too. I’m so glad you enjoyed it.
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Bravo Lucinda! Common sense/experience and intuitiveness are sorely ignored, frequently, in this day of “lab results”. Lovely picture also:) Thank you for sharing your thoughts dear friend xxxxxx
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I know! Common sense is much undervalued, yet it would sort out so many of the problems of modern society. Love to you and the kittens xxxx
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You are so full of wisdom, my dear. I wish you could have seen me thumping my fist on the table in enthusiastic agreement 🙂
It makes me think of something that this elderly man said to me when I told him I was studying herbalism. He said, “You should be careful with that – medicine. Those people always want to sort things into smaller and smaller boxes until they can no longer see the big picture anymore.” I think it was one of the most accurate depictions of medicine I’d ever heard – and unfortunately I think it also is applying more and more to herbalism as well. Whether Ayurveda or TCM or phytochemistry – we sometimes lose sight of the truth in trying to contrive it to fit neatly into a theory. Your reminder is such an important one – and I think applies to more than just our medical system, but to our cultural paradigm as well.
Your painting is so beautiful, I can scarcely draw my eyes from it!
Thanks for this piece of brilliance 🙂
XOXO
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Hey Danielle.
That description is indeed perfect. I often wonder how the elderly must feel, having gone from a time of family doctors and home visits to one of anonymity and 5 minute consultations. They have seen much change in their lives.
What you say is also so true, I am attempting to write a piece at the moment on not being too rigid with energetic assessments. It seems we can let mind take over whatever the context! And I definitely agree with you that it is endemic throughout our culture. Thanks once again for your lovely words my dear. Much love xxxx
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Over the course of three years, I ate shrimp three times and got violently ill each time (food poisoning symptoms). When I put it all together, I concluded that I couldn’t eat shrimp anymore and haven’t. You wouldn’t believe how many people have told me that I should go back to eating shrimp because I am obviously not allergic to it because my reaction wasn’t an allergic reaction (swelling, difficulty breathing, etc.).
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Hi Carolyn,
I’m glad to hear you listened to yourself not the others in this case! Sounds very wise to me.
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Magnificent posting, Lucinda!
Your comment “what I’m really getting at here is that we must learn to trust ourselves again. We can do so within a framework of study and knowledge but with mind as servant to experience rather than as the Grand Ringmaster, forever running the show.” is the whole nub of the matter. Too many people trust the men in white coats without thinking. Herbalism – or something very much like it – has been used ever since mankind appeared. This new scientific approach has only been around for a few hundred years at the very most and still has to be proved beneficial.
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Thanks Paul, I’m glad you found it interesting. It’s lovely to read such enthusiastic comments from people and see that this issue is important to many of us.
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Thank you Thank you…I’ve worked for years as a Natural health Consultant and am always asking people ” HOW DOES YOUR BODY FEEL” I have treated a woman who had so many private allergy tests that as a pregnant woman she was only eating Almonds, Courgettes, and Quinoa!!!! But she insisted that it had been proven that she could not eat any other foods! Happily she now has a near normal diet.
My dear Ma died recently and guess what? My back is only allowing to go about my life at a snail’s pace..I’m listening to my body with love and care….It’s saying to me..go gently, SLOW DOWN……and so I am…your posts are an absolute joy..
Autumnal Blessings
Mezzie
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Hi Mezaree,
Wow that’s so extreme, I’m so glad to hear you could help to guide her towards a more intuitive way of eating, for her sake and the baby’s. Your work sounds wonderful.
And it’s great to hear you are taking the time to heal both physically and emotionally from the loss of your Mum. Take good care of yourself and thanks for your inspiring comment.
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Beautifully said, Lucinda, and I am echoing the others here…this needed saying. 🙂 Thank you for organizing such a passionate idea into an eloquent article! Our trust in our own ability to observe (in health, in life!) has been totally hijacked…and we’ve allowed it to happen, and we can reclaim it. We’ve become passengers in our own lives. Medical Doctors have (many have, not all) have become passengers in the cars of the scientists, and pharmaceutical companies. They too have allowed their keen senses to be taken over. My 12 year old son put it very clearly to me. “Mom, when I’m with you I don’t pay attention like I do when I walk by myself.” I say to him…”Who’s to say I’m not spacing out, my Dear? We need to both pay attention.”
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Hi Carey,
I love your analogy of being the passenger. Sometimes we are all guilty of it aren’t we, I suppose because it seems so much easier in such a demanding world to let go of responsibility and hope someone else will take care of it. Your son is so wise. Children see everything so clearly don’t they, they teach us so much.
I love to think of you walking mindfully together…
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Amazing piece of writing Lucinda, I love it! Our own bodily feelings and experiences, are always paramount to anyone else’s knowledge.
Much love,
Cxx
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Thanks Colette,
Hear hear! 🙂
xxx
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Can I echo everyone else’s comments here, Lucinda – lovely, lovely piece!
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Thank you so much Sarah. I hope you had a wonderful rest of holiday.
xxx
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Lucinda, Another wonderful post. Oh if only I had been educated and could write as you do.
I agree wholeheartedly with your words of wisdom.
I have not been to a doctor for twenty years…….Apart from diabetic checks (father is diabetic).
I have listened to my body for as long as I can remember. I understand her needs and honour them.
I saw my homeopathe last night….she is also a friend. It was wonderful to talk with her. We are like minded people. She told me she has given up trying to help family and friends with alternative medicine. They listen but they do not hear. I have similar experiences.
I had nothing as a child (material possessions) but I had shelter, love, food on the table and the outside world. My life has changed, in as much, that I married a man who is ambitious, and he is extremely generous. But how much do I really need…….I am that child from long ago. My needs are few.
I wonder if sleeping in the treehouse with the Grandchildren takes me back to those times 🙂
Tku for sharing your views with us, always a delight to read.
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Cheryl, you write wonderfully! You’re posts are so moving and thought provoking and perfect. Maybe having less education did you a favour and stopped you becoming too entangled in the mind so you can write so clearly from the heart.
I totally relate to you and your friend’s experience of trying to help those close to us. Now days I just try and let them be… though sometimes I have to bite my tongue!
I’m glad your marriage gave you the means to have such a beautiful tree house and garden. It is such a profound blessing to feel satisfied with what we have isn’t it. What more could you need being surrounded by so much beauty and love?
Take care x
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Just perfect. And especially since it is along the lines of things that I’ve been thinking and pondering as well. It is a sad trend where people of dis-empowered and taught no longer trust or believe in themselves. And relates to one of the sadder trends nowadays where too often we are taught facts and to appreciate information rather than how to develop wisdom and recognize it.
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Thanks Michael, I so agree. How wonderful it would be if we taught our young about respecting their own intuition and common sense rather than just overriding it with assumed knowledge in order to pass tests, be clever or the best at sports from such a young age.
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Now that is proper responsibility
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🙂
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I am lucky enough to have a doctor who reminds me to listen to my body and respond to that first. But two of my sisters gave me a good laugh recently when I was due to have a biopsy. One sister said, ‘what does your woman goddess voice tell you?’. I responded, ‘That I’m fine’. The other, pragmatic sister then said, ‘there are lot’s of things that don’t show symptoms’. I loved the contrast of the two. And, by the way, that inner Goddess voice was right.
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Hi Lisa,
That is wonderful. This post was definitely not meant to be anti doctors as I am sure there are some wise ones about, just as there are some herbalists with very rigid views. Your sisters sound like the perfect balance, though I’m glad it was the Goddess voice that won out!
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It was long ago explained to me that if you don’t listen to your body’s requests for what it needs to right itself then it has to shout louder and louder to make you listen.. modern medicine makes the symptoms ‘go away’ but never addresses the underlying issues. Perhaps this is because they are often lifestyle or emotional and thus messy and unscientific? The power of a hug, a hot cup of tea and someone who will listen without commenting or judging lies in release, relaxation and respite .. all the body’s systems respond by ‘standing down’ from a heightened state of functioning. And if we could only give this gift to ourselves as well as to each other ..? In our society, listening to what our body needs and giving it to ourselves is breaking the rules or ‘letting the side down’.. it is common sense to allow the body rest when it is fighting infection or illness, but this is a taboo. There are strict protocols about eating and sleeping, for example, how much and how often is ‘acceptable’. I tend to go my own way, having lived with ME for eight years – an illness which doesn’t technically exist according to western medicine because it doesn’t show up on any tests. So I must have been imagining it, apparently. I healed myself, eventually.. but only when I stopped trying to heal myself in the western sense and accepted what my body was insistently telling me about what it could and couldn’t cope with and what it needed. You meet a lot of resistance from a lot of people on that sort of journey – society is very challenged by those who can’t or won’t play the game. Its very scary that we don’t trust ourselves and are prepared to override our instincts and, as you say, our repeated and direct experiences, where there is a disconnect between these and ‘facts’ or science. Many thanks for this interesting and thought-provoking post!
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Hi Hedgewitch,
Thanks so much for sharing your story, it’s very inspiring. We are all caught up in ideas of how things should be in some ways aren’t we, it takes real courage to go against the prevailing norm. Society is completely geared around the working day so things like meal times and sleep routines become very fixed. And so many workplaces seem to expect people to work through lunch or stay late that often people just have to shove some food down whilst on the go and never have a spare moment to stop and really listen. The problem runs deep there is no doubt about it.
I suppose the best we can do is ‘be the change we wish to see’. (Almost) full moon blessings to you.
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That reminds me of all that’s going on with my mom. Her doctors want her to shut up about the way she feels and let them treat her. But when they’re treating her with prednisone (for inflammation and pain cause by RA) and it’s making her not sleep, have hot flashes, and the bottom number of her blood pressure be no lower than 110, I think it’s time to question the doctors. They weren’t too happy when she stopped it, they were willing to just treat her with blood pressure meds on top of it. They point blank told her that she could take the prednisone and when it gave her diabetes they’d treat that too!
It’s so frustrating. But this is a beautifully written article. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. 🙂
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Hi Arya,
That is a terrible story. Modern medicine at it’s worst. I’m so glad your Mum has the good sense to question what’s going on. When you need a medicine for the medicine you know something ain’t working!
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So Lucinda, happy that I happed upon your blog…….the empirical every time.
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Thanks Catherine. I couldn’t agree more,
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I’m really glad that I found your blog. You are very wise and make what a lot of us are feeling…make sense.
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Thanks Erin, it’s nice to realise a lot of us are feeling this way isn’t it, perhaps a change is coming.
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