Health And Disease

SAT., OCT. 21, 1989, 5:12 PM
CONGRESS HOTEL, CHICAGO

You are now between conventions, and, symbolically, between health and disease. Health is the quality of your capacity to function and to adapt. Disease is, generally, anything that definitely reduces this functioning. This approaching convention, you see by the program, describes disease in a very broad way, and many of the sessions deal more with ill-health… lack of functioning… than with positive health.

These meetings are definitely different, and your role is different in this one than in the one just completed. Nevertheless, your role in relating to colleagues and former students is a continuing, common one, and one I recommend. No, I shall not hassle you about not writing nor about not being on programs here… nor even about not coming to this learning opportunity I offer. But I do want you to be involved with these educators and to reaffirm, whenever possible, your concern for improving spiritual health.

It would not be appropriate at this meeting, quite probably, but it should be your usual affirmation, which I have offered to you, that spirit is an important positive contributor to health, while a lack of spirit often, but not always, is evident in disease. Spirit is the essence of health, for it energizes and guides behaviors and life actions. Your spirit encouraged you to get a good night’s sleep after some times of excess, even though it was rewarding and spirit affirming. Now you are ready again for a healthy entering in.

I reaffirm that it is not your role to give much attention to disease or to dysfunction. Health needs to be reinforced and reaffirmed. You shall teach and lead those who will serve their fellow humans in this way. Health is contagious, just as disease is. Yet there are mechanisms for its spread, just as with disease. Continue to be as positive as you can be, and help others to encourage positive health, not just the rejection of disease.

You shall not worship in your usual place this next Sunday… perhaps at no place. Know that this is an aspect of health maintenance for you. You may continue for some time without such an infusion of worship, praise, and remembrance, but, like loss of sleep, you eventually must return to what you truly need for full functioning. For you, a Teaching is the next best spiritual enhancement. There, of course, should be no excuse for your not hearing Me again tomorrow.

Disease is a test of spirit, even as it sometimes develops from lack of spiritual power. For I built into the human person, in mystical creation, the connection between spirit and enzymes, hormones, neuropeptides, and other substances, so that spiritual experiences provide the best balances for health. Conversely, when spirit is low or unrecognized, disease, though not inevitable, is more likely. When disease strikes, spirit is challenged. When spirit arises and “meets the occasion” this disease process is rendered less bothersome.

However, disease often also precedes death. Recovery is not apparent. Spirit does not always bring back health. It is not some magic potion. But since death, I tell you, is just a transition to another realm, with other opportunities, spirit can be crucial to the dying process. Death can be a very spiritual experience. I want you to somehow include this in your teaching toward this aspect of health. If spirit can meet the challenge of disease it is the key factor in a comfortable transition “across.” Fighting for life is acceptable, certainly, and there are some exceptional instances of recovery. More often, however, the fight for life impedes the journey to the next realm. Sad.