The human mind can heal itself and the body naturally, provided that the mind makes room for the spirit to coexist with it. The healer, therefore, would help the patient to heal himself by simply helping him commune with the spiritual nature. Paracelsus, the great sixteenth-century Swiss healer said, "The physician is only the servant of nature, not her master." Similarly, the healer's role is not to impose upon nature but to observe, to appreciate, to witness, and to commune with.
Those who are impoverished in their spiritual world tend deep down to have a depressive disposition. They steadily spew out anger and disapproval, and chant criticism filled with pessimism and ingratitude. The psychologist Timothy Miller purposely rewords a famous song in order to express such negative sentiment:
I see hungry kids and hopeless men-And futile wars
No one can win,
And I think to myself-What a terrible world.
This is contrasted with Bob Thiele's and George David Weiss's first cadenza of their original song, "What a Wonderful World," which portrays sacred optimism, evoking gratitude in everyday living:
I hear babies cry, I watch them grow.
They'll learn much more than I'll ever know:
And I think to myself-What a wonderful world.
It is the same world, but perceived with two very different views. Miller tells us how to deal with this contrast in his book How to Want What you Have. When you are chronically pessimistic, negativistic, and ungrateful, he recommends that you take another look at the world. If you purge yourself of resentment, envy, or disappointment, you will find something to be grateful about. Such gratitude can be as obvious as being thankful for being fed, feeling warm, and being loved or as subtle as appreciating the small delights of nature. Gratitude may not naturally come to us because we seem to take for granted what we have. In fact, we seem always to be wanting more than we have. Miller suggests a simple practice of picking an object in your immediate surroundings and seeing "if you find a way that it might evoke gratitude."
T. Byram Karasu, MD is the author of The Art of Serenity
