Antecedentes Históricos

Over the past 30 years, thousands of people who were suffering from emotional and psychological problems have come for macrobiotic advice. Many had already consulted with psychiatrists because of problems such as insecurity, anxiety, and depression. Others were having problems with alcohol, drugs, or difficulties with relationships.

Many of the people who came to see me had spent months or years visiting psychiatrists. Some experienced improvement as a result of talking their problems through, but many saw no improvement even after spending years in analysis. Experiences such as these are common, and force us to question whether the present approach of treating the mind and body as separate can lead to solutions for problems such as these. That separation began during the age of Greece, and has con-tinued to the present day. At that time, people started to see things as separate, and began to analyze each aspect independently. Body, mind, and spirit were thought to be independent entities, and out of this belief came the preoccupation of science and medicine with the physical world. However, this view was shattered in the twentieth century when studies of preatomic particles revealed that there is no fixed unit of matter; matter disappears and changes into a mass of vibrations or

energy. There is nothing solid at all. In other words, matter becomes nonmatter.

When we think about our body in these terms, we see that it too is nothing but a mass of vibrations or energy that is constantly moving and changing, and that it is not static. It conforms to the explanation of matter by modern atomic science: Matter appears from time to time from space like a ghost. It appears and disappears. That is the most advanced modern conception of matter. In a similar way, the body is nothing but a mass of vibrations and energies that appear from time to time on this planet, and its essence is nothing but the movement of energy. We cannot hold on to it.

Thoughts are the same: Vibrations, energy, and waves. Think about a television receiver. When we turn the television on, waves are picked up and translated into images, sounds, and colors. In the same way, the essence of the mind is nothing but waves. Similarly, the body is nothing but waves. So the body and the mind are one. T h e difference is that the body is a more dense mass, while the mind is more dis-persed or diffused.

This understanding was expressed by Shakespeare in The Tempest, when Prospero explains a demonstration of spirits to the young lovers, Ferdinand and Miranda:

"These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits and are melted into air, into thin air: And like the baseless fabric of this vision, the cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself, yea, all of which it inherit shall dissolve and, like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep."

When the body becomes sick, which means that its energy flow is either stagnating or charging extremely actively, then naturally the mind also changes. So, when I look at a problem such as depression, I do not seek the cause in environmental factors or the type of relation-ships a person has with his parents or children. Instead I see what kind of physical health the person has. That is the way to understand the cause of the problem and find a solution. For example, if someone

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has a problem with their husband or wife, it is easy to blame the husband, wife, or someone else while overlooking the individual's own condition. Why do we think this way? Because we lack the ability of self-examination or self-review. This problem is apparent when we consider our view of A I D S and other illnesses. T h e A I D S virus may be coming from outside, but when it enters the body, if we are healthy, our immune ability will immediately react and neutralize it.

But if our natural immunity has been weakened because of our diet and way of life, the virus will take root and spread. It is also possible that the A I D S virus is being created internally by the decomposition of cells, especially white blood cells. We may be creating the virus ourselves through our day to day lifestyle and eating. We may have weakened ourselves to the extent that self decomposition is taking place. Instead of reflecting on our own condition, however, we very easily accuse the virus as the cause of the condition, and so no definite solution is found. As long as we deal with the virus only, we overlook the importance of changing ourselves in order to become stronger.

A similar situation has occurred with cancer research, which began about ioo years ago. At that time, like A I D S , cancer was thought to be infectious. Now, a hundred years later, we still do not have a definite solution, except for symptomatic approaches such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and others. Meanwhile, we have not been able to prevent cancer, so it continues increasing. Soon, one out of three Americans will develop it, and it is beginning to affect every family.

One hundred years ago, the incidence of cancer was very small.

Billions of dollars have been spent on research so far, and efforts have focused microscopically on trying to understand more about cancer cells. For example, finding out whether they are caused by cell muta-tion, hereditary influences, or environmental factors. We have been looking at cancer cells without self-reflecting on the kinds of foods we are eating or the kind of lifestyle we are leading so as to discover what it is that makes these cells turn cancerous. We have not examined that aspect thoroughly enough. In other words, we tend to put ourselves aside and see our problems as separate, isolated factors, and as things that " h a p p e n " to us rather than as things we ourselves create. So there are no solutions. Problems such as crime, drug abuse, and mental illness also cannot be isolated from our physical condition and daily

way of life. Only by understanding the interconnectedness between body, mind, and behavior can we begin to solve these and other social problems.