"The body knows how to heal itself: if someone goes to the emergency room with a
laceration, a doctor can remove obstacles to healing (e.g. remove foreign bodies,
infection, etc.) and can help create favorable conditions for healing (e.g. sew the
edges of the wound close together), but the doctor does not direct or cause the healing
that ensues. The body initiates a remarkably complex and sophisticated healing
process and always spontaneously attempts to move toward healing. The psyche too
exhibits an innate healing intelligence and capacity."

-- A Manual for MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy in the
Treatment of
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

(link to the original text/manual) http://www.maps.org/rese...nual_Version_6_FINAL.pdf

simply put; this is the best analogy you could use to describe to someone how psychedelics and empatho-entactogens heal people.

share some of your analogies; i'm sure someone has a few others

Loved the analogy. And also love MDMA

thanks Varox! i found it to examplify the healing process perfectly.

I saw a movie years ago where the main character was diagnosed with a terminal illness. The lady has 3 months to live. She loses her job, her boyfriend breaks up with her all on the day of her diagnosis.

She leaves the doors of her apartment wide open and just walks away from her life. Leaves all her possessions and relationships. She begins to buy what she wants, live where she wants, does what she wants.

Three months go by, not dead. Six month, not dead. She goes back to the doc and says what gives you said I would be dead by now. He does some tests and all results come back negative.

She had changed herself so much that the disease no longer recognized the host and disappeared. This may have just been a movie but it really got me to thinking. How much pain and disease do we create or allow in or lives? How much time do we give ourselves to heal? I think you are right the body and the mind or psyche will all heal themselves and return to homeostasis or baseline if the conditions are right for healing.

How do I create the right conditions for myself to heal?

you might have to answer that question yourself. but i like what you mean; what movie was it?

hope you get better buddy

I can relate, having MS, you tend to go through life riding some pretty big ups and downs, you have good days and bad ones, and days that symptoms totally refect state of mind/body, and I've turned some of the bad days around by changing negative mind sets to positive ones.

The name of the movie was 'The Guitar'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guitar_(film)

dmnstr8; it meant alot that you shared this with me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZhLPOxtnzQ

thank you very much.

Interesting post.

The Chinese say that illness is due to a blockage of life force, or 'chi'. They say that good health is dependant on a healthy flow of 'Chi'. They incorporate these philosophies in buildings (feng chui), and cultivating good chi (chi kung).

I think that there is a lot of truth in this. I think she healed herself by removing herself from a toxic lifestyle that was emotionally creating a blockage to her true spirit,by being not true to herself, this itself probably led to the body manifesting the illness. By breaking away, the blockage was allowed to clear and work it's way free, hence the healing.

I think it's really important to highlght the processing (and releasing) of negative emotions as probably being the most fundamental requirements to understanding the underlying causes of ones illness, and the healing of it. This is how MDMA therapy works with PTSD patients, it allows them the opportunity to revisit trauma, process it, and release it. Under most normal conditions, the psyche of a traumatised person is like a closed door because the ego does not want to revisit that painful trauma.

In many ways Ahahuasca healing is working along similar lines. The Icaros help move the life force, help inject good energy, etc. It's all about keeping that life force vital, moving, and novel. This might even explain why a holiday can feel so good, if it allows us to break away from our regular habits.

Creating the right conditions for a healing and healthy lifestyle would therefore probably involve living a basic healthy life, not allowing oneself to get stuck in a rut, to give life a purpose, set goals true to your heart, and above all to live as true to yourself as you possibly can.