Perfect World Without Disease
“Perfect World Without Disease” —DeepAI, 2023
Growing up in 1980s America, I fully believed in the doctrine of progress. We were about to defeat the communists, win the war on drugs, end disease, and even—eventually—put an end to death itself. I envisioned my 2023 life traveling to and from distant cities in my own personal flying car, downloading entire languages to my neural implant in nanoseconds, experiencing perfect health without ever having to work for it, and overall just really enjoying world peace with my gorgeously augmented soulmate that AI’s algorithm matched me perfectly with.
Particularly in regard to health, this is not how things worked out. Fact is, most of us are sicker than ever. Our antibiotics now barely work for a whole host of diseases, and they’ve left our guts in shambles. Any progress we’ve made with viral diseases has mostly been from the natural mutations that viruses make, not from our innovation. Cancer hasn’t slowed down. Autoimmune has absolutely skyrocketed. The USA alone puts out over a hundred million prescriptions for psycho-pharmaceuticals to treat depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues each year. Plastic particles and other modern industrial neurotoxins can be found in every living cell on the planet.
It almost seems as if trying to rid ourselves entirely of disease led to more disease. As if there is a planetary feedback mechanism pointing out that there is an important aspect to the journey from disease to health. As if the healing process itself is somehow inherent to earthly incarnation and growth.
And that’s why I can’t put you back together on my own. I can diagnose you. I can use the living body of medical knowledge that I am trained in to treat you accordingly. I can, and will, put everything into helping you get to where you need to be. But in the end this is your race to run. I am your pacer.
Years ago I had severe sciatic pain that put me in agony to the point of sometimes feeling like I couldn’t walk across the room or even get out of bed. I was seeing an acupuncturist in Portland, Oregon at the time. His name was Dr. Bob Kellum… I loved Bob. So Bob was able to get the pain to go away for a few days at a time but it was clear that something was bringing it back. Something that Bob couldn’t do for me. I had to do it myself.
One day during treatment, Bob asked me a series of questions that led to my revealing a traumatic family betrayal that had occurred earlier that year. Bob lit up. He was really good at what he did and he knew that the reason I could barely physically move was because I couldn’t move through what had happened emotionally. It was such a massive betrayal… I just couldn’t even believe it. I was stuck.
When I told Bob the story and he dug deeper into what became obvious as a lifelong pattern of abuse, he saw that what I needed was to stand tall both literally and metaphorically. Along with his acupuncture treatments, I used meditations, mantras, exercises, and wearing these special orthotic inserts that forced me to straighten my back. I developed a new dynamic with the abusive family member that I like to call the “I’m not mad about it but you can go f*** yourself” dynamic. And you know what? My pain was gone.
I’m stronger for having went through that experience of standing myself up. Of standing up for myself. Have you seen the movie Friday with Ice Cube? Remember when Craig knocks Deebo out? Standing up for yourself, fighting your own fight for your health, it’s just like that. Your life is richer for it. A pill couldn’t give you that. A magical injection couldn’t have done that. I needed to develop as a human and Bob helped me find the door to go through but he couldn’t magically enter my body and walk me through it with my head held high.
I have patients with complex conditions that just want their pain to go away and I understand 100%. I want their pain to go away too. I am here to walk with you through the depths of hell but I can’t actually take the steps for you. Would you want me to though? I’m sure sometimes you do. But then what if the condition comes back?
Tonight I saw a post in a Lyme support group on social media where someone had asked ChatGPT what do do for Lyme Disease. I was pleased that AI told him to get acupuncture and herbal medicine as AI has access to a lot of information and it could have told him to get a prescription for antibiotics.
What really fascinated me though was several of the replies to the post. Some commenters were pretty darn sure that AI was going to mean the end of disease within 5-10 years. The feeling of 1980s America was palpable through my iPhone as I read the replies. I could feel that giant last gasp of hope that our country let out before the ‘90s hit and Kurt Cobain told us how things really were.
To investigate further what an AI envisioned world free of disease might be, I went ahead and asked AI itself. With the prompt “perfect world without disease” I received the featured image of this post. Perfect. World. Without. Disease.
It’s clear that what many of us want is for disease and hardship to just… go away. But that’s not the way it works. As humans, we need to work for what we get. It’s hardwired into us. When we get something without working, it’s called “bread of shame”. We can eat it, but it will never truly nourish us.
The path to healing is sometimes long and arduous. Occasionally we get a quick miracle cure for sure. Life is like that with some easy wins here and there. But for the most part it’s going to take a mental/emotional/spiritual reckoning on the part of you, the patient, in order to heal.
When disease strikes, it is a message. If you get a rash, for example, your body is saying that there is a buildup of something inside and would you please get it out. If you have chronic knee pain, what is it you are afraid of that you need to work through in order to fulfill whatever it is you are here on Earth to do?
What do you need to get off your chest?
What thought pattern do you need to let go of?
The healing process, when facilitated correctly, happens from the inside out. The symptoms that are happening are not just warning signs but are often like pressure release valves that are preventing something far more serious. Your body is a miracle. Trust it.
Diseases such as chickenpox and even measles are part of building an immune system that will lead to better health outcomes later in life. This is something that Rudolf Steiner wrote about extensively and is now being investigated and confirmed by modern science. Researchers in Japan found that people who contracted measles were less likely to die from heart disease. Researchers in Italy found that people who contracted measles fared better with cases of lymphoma. Researchers in Switzerland found that people who contracted measles (and other febrile infectious diseases like chickenpox) were less likely to get cancer in general and, if they did, they would identify it earlier.
So, no, disease isn’t going to end in 5-10 years. Not in my estimation. Disease is part of our collective and personal evolution. Just like bones become stronger with impact, so do we. AI’s vision of a perfect world without disease is a pipe dream that has been promulgated my entire life. That’s what AI is though: it is all of our ideas spit back out at us.
I’m proud of my patients for showing up and doing the work necessary to improve their lives and regain their health. I’ll always be your corner man. When the chips are down, I’ll be right there. But the real work is all you and it’s all part of your personal evolution toward a new, more complex version of yourself.
See you at your next appointment.
—Jaime