6. Allo-path, Homeo-path or No-path

In Wikipedia the following definitions are given in very technical terms and complex sentences:

Allopathic medicine refers to the practice of conventional medicine that uses pharmacologically active agents or physical interventions to treat or suppress symptoms or pathophysiologic processes of diseases or conditions. It was coined by Samuel Hahnemann (1755–1843), a homeopath, in 1810. Although "allopathic medicine" was rejected as a term by mainstream physicians, it was adopted by alternative medicine advocates to refer pejoratively to conventional medicine.

Allopathy from the Greek ἄλλος "other", "different" + the suffix, páthos πάθος "suffering"

The basic principle of homeopathy, known as the "law of similars", is "let like be cured by like."

Homeopathy: coined in German from Greek hómoios - ὅμοιος "like-" + pathos πάθος "suffering".


"Caveat patientem"  - let the patient beware. Patientem translates from Latin as "one who suffers."


If we see ourselves as patients, we have made a decision to suffer and it really does not matter which "path" we go with to relieve our suffering. Allo- and homeo- look at the body as the source of our suffering and ask us to put something in our mouths to relieve it.

Dr. Edward Bach maintained that emotion was the cause of disease. Even though he was a homeopath, he realised that treating emotions with the same emotion would not work. A greater fear does not relieve fear. The only way to treat fear is with love.

Taking Bach's idea one step further we realise that emotion must have a cause. The cause of our emotions is thinking. We see people misbehaving, we ask them to stop, they don't stop, we get angry. The misbehaviour is not in their actions but in our judgment of those actions. Judgment is a thought process, it is something we do in our minds. And having made up our minds that they are wrong, we are right to engage in a righteous emotional outburst. But, what are the consequences?

Dr. Wilhelm Reich used the expression "muscle armouring" to describe how long held emotional tendencies affect our bodies. Try a simple exercise:

1. Get a bag with handles.
2. Fill it with stuff until it starts to feel heavy. (Maybe your handbag already)
3. Grab the handles with one hand, palm down, and squeeze tightly.
4. Stretch your arm.
5. Lift your outstretched arm up until bag is level with your shoulder.
6. Hold it there for as long as you can.
7. Don't overdo it - when it starts to get uncomfortable gently place the bag down.

The muscles in your arm, shoulders or back may have got tense and may be sore.

We have just tensed our muscles for a short while and they feel sore. With muscle armouring we learned to do this with many muscle groups. Some of the key ones are the throat, the diaphragm, and the pelvic floor. We learned this in absorption mode and it is more than likely that we have lived our whole lives with some of our muscles armoured.

In Chinese Medicine, emotions are seen to be stored in the body, with the different ones being lodged in specific organ energy systems.

Emotion	Energy System Affected	Physical Effects	Mental Cause
Anger	Liver	Tendons, cramp,	Judgment
Fear	Kidney	Bones, head hair, dandruff	Lack
Elation	Heart	Blood vessels, stammer	Excited
Grief	Lung	Skin, sinusitis	Smothered
Worry	Spleen	Snivel, muscles	Round and round
Hate	Pericardium	Asthma	Relationships
Guilt	Triple Burner	Tinnitus	Accused
Resentment	Gallbladder	Itching	Self delusion
Spite	Bladder	Backache	Betrayal
Nervous	Small Intestine	Diarrhoea	Comparison
Blocked	Large Intestine	Constipation	Holding-on
Anxiety	Stomach	Ulcers	Rejection

Very few of the physical effects associated with the emotions are listed in this table. They are included to give some idea of how thinking manifests in the body.

From the medical perspective the body is the problem. However, the condition of the body is determined by the state of our thinking. The body serves the purpose that we give it. If we see ourselves as here to suffer, then the body will suffer. We can change the purpose that the body serves by changing what we think it's for.

Accepting the ideas that we are mind and that all minds are joined can make us wonder if there is any beneficial purpose for the body. It depends on where we think we are within the potential range of humanity

Physical matter___emotional___mental___spiritual___purely mind

If we see ourselves as purely physical then we are totally determined by the laws of physics. If we see ourselves as purely mind then we are probably unaware that there is such a thing as bodies. I guess most of us see ourselves as embroiled somewhere in the body-emotional-mental-spiritual spheres, cycling through various states of attachment to or detachment from them.

The body, under the beneficial guidance of mind, is useful for two things. It is a means to communicate to minds that are totally convinced they are bodies. And it is a learning device for our egos. It helps us realise the effect that our thinking has on us. (There will be much more on this in later posts.)

Remember we are mind, all mind. The body is an indicator of the state of our ego attachment to it. Even though our thinking can never be neutral, we can get our bodies into a "body neutral" state. We use observation to help get us into the present. When we become present we get "access granted" to the infinite range of mind.

Exercise - Watch this space

Look around you and find a blank space. Watch that space. Don't look for anything, just look at.

Exercise - Watch the screen

Close your eyes. When the afterglow fades you'll see a screen. Watch the screen. Don't look for anything, just look at.

Exercise - Scan the body

Take your awareness and go through your body. Describe, don't analyse, the sensations you are experiencing throughout your body. Repeat until your body is neutral, until there are no sensations anywhere in it. Three scans are usually enough.


We are not here to suffer. Welcome to the No-path.