The Tree of Health
By David Cumes

If we define healing as the process of moving toward a greater sense of wholeness and drawing closer to our inner being or higher self, then the Qabalistic "Tree of Life," a model that represents polarity and balance, can assist us in our quest to become healthy. We can also extend the principles inherent in the Tree of Life to a focused concept of a "tree of Health."

TREE OF HEALTH

In order to understand the Tree of Health, the basic idea of the Tree of Life needs to be emphasized. Its central trunk embraces the concepts of will, balance, and grace. IN the Tree of Health, will comes from the desire of a patient to be well. This will forces us to seek balance, through which grace can enter at any time. All healing occurs through these three essential properties on the central limb of the tree.

According to the Qabala, we are all made in the image of God. Since our inner healer also happens to be fashioned in the image of God, it knows the alchemy required to create health out of disease. It remains for us to maintain the equilibrium required to allow healing to occur. In order to encourage this, some South American shamans use a mesa, a table-like altar, as a tool for healing. Implicit in the mesa is the idea of balance or equilibrium. In this practice, shamans see the dark, evil, or negative facets that create illness on the left-hand side, and the light, positive, or healing attributes on the right. The shaman heals by staying in the center of the mesa and balancing these opposites.

This universal principle of polarity balance can be extended to a model of healing which is concordant not only with the idea of the mesa, but also with the principles of the Tree of Life. By staying in the center of the Tree of Health, patients can attain balance, healing, and self-restoration. In order to maintain our equilibrium on the central trunk of the tree, some form of inner practice is crucial. This will enhance our life force, which in turn will enable the inner healer to do its job.

Still, to achieve healing, we need to discern the difference between curing a disease and healing the person. Whereas a person may be cured from cancer he may in fact not be healed. On the other hand a patient may not be cured of AIDS but may be healed from within. The polarities of the Tree of Health that a patient should develop are: on the left, restraint, resignation, inhibition, fear, guilt, denial, ignorance, lack of choice, and inaction; on the right, expansion, strength, hope, trust, faith, surrender, love, courage, knowledge, receptivity, and right action; and in the center; balance and equilibrium resulting in inner peace and harmony that supports the inner healer. Through the center the patient's life force can assist the inner healer. Inner practices enhance the life force. Calling or naming our wish to be healed creates will, which with balance leads to healing. Grace may enter at any time, and its ultimate expression is spontaneous remission. When we find our center or we center ourselves, we are balanced in the core of a Tree of Health.

BELIEF AND HOPE

Belief and hope boost the effectiveness of the inner healer. This is also known as the "placebo response." The healer who is aware of the power of belief on the inner healer of the patient can put this effect to good use. Whereas placebo is almost a bad word to the Western doctor, it goes to the core of healing - in the relationship between the physician, the therapy, and the inner healer of the patient. Some doctors and healers exclude a sense of unruffled calm, certainty, trust, composure, and confidence that augment the placebo effect. Shamans are masters at strengthening placebo.

The inner healer is activated within the belief system of the patient. At one level or another, the healer is also treating the patient's own specific consciousness and conviction. Ultimately this will translate into better alignment of the patient's energy body. Most Western physicians do not have the training or the time to deal with illness in this way. Nevertheless, they need to pay attention to it. When healers disturb the belief system of the patient by the imposition of their own beliefs, they compromise the magical ability of the system to work. Faith or belief in the healer is critical and there must be a consistency between the patient's notion of healing and the doctor's approach.

When the oncologist tells the patient that he has a 50 percent chance that the drug or chemotherapy might not work, the power of hope has effectively been divided in half. For the treatment to work, both the patient and physician must believe in and be hopeful about its effectiveness. A Westerner may be satisfied with a written prescription and explanation as to how the medication is going to work. An aboriginal patient would trust a hands-on approach and the magic of the shaman's trance state.

Certain physicians are more influential than others even when the same treatment is administered. This occurs because of a special bond of belief, hope, and trust that arises between patient and healer. A lack of trust or belief in the physician could be harmful and even toxic to the patient's health. Patients who for financial or other reasons only have access to a fixed panel of doctors may have their own special needs compromised. This may not matter for the average medical problem but can become vital when managing difficult health challenges.

RESIGNATION VERSES SURRENDER

Resignation, withdrawal, and hopelessness may be a manifestation of indifference, laziness, or passivity, all of which lead to inaction. Fear may play a part here.

Hopelessness and resignation are not the same as surrender, however. Surrender implies letting go and allowing a higher force to take over. Surrender is the ultimate expression of unconditional hope and belief - trust that whatever arises is for the best. The patient feels gratitude and acceptance and is content to just be. Surrender is fearless and does not exclude the use of medical attention. Resignation implies desperation or depression, which is known to suppress the immune system. Passive resignation with an underlying hopelessness is not the same as the active and joyous acceptance of surrender. Surrender arises from a deep connection within and an acknowledgment of a higher power working to support the life force and strengthen the inner healer.

Surrender usually involves a certain humility and subordination of the ego. Therefore the boon that arises from surrender is desirous attachment is one of the greatest obstacles on the enlightenment path. When we reach keter, the pinnacle of the Tree of Life, we experience the divine within and without, and we detach from everything. We just are; we attain pure being. If we lose the fear or the attainment we have to being cured, we may be healed and possibly even cured.

FEAR

There are two basic emotions: Love and Fear. Love is always good for healing. Fear is usually bad. Courage counteracts fear, and although bravery is usually part of one's makeup it can be nurtured and developed. As discussed above, fear is also a part of resignation and hopelessness.

Disease creates fear, eliciting a response called the fight-on-flight reaction from the autonomic nervous system. This in turn elicits a response from the adrenal gland, which pours out hormones. If the reaction persists, the adrenaline overloads the cardiovascular system and taxes the immune system. Morbid fear can totally overwhelm the inner healer.

GUILT

Dread of the consequences of failure to heal causes feelings of inefficacy and paralysis. This generates guilt. Some patients for moral or religious reasons may feel they are not worthy of being well, and this will adversely affect their inner healer. Guilt may also be aggravated by a New Age misconception that not only has the patient caused the illness but he or she has the ability to correct it. When a cure does not occur, this guilt may lead to a sense of defeat. This physician can significantly aggravate the situation by giving gloomy or hopeless prognoses. Overall, guilt has no place if we desire to be well.

DENIAL

For some, denial can be a powerful coping mechanism. This seems a contradiction since denial is self-defeating when it comes to health. In the short term, however, denial may help the patient get over the terror of a medical crises. The patient's subconscious may know that true knowledge of the predicament may be too much to handle at a critical time. Denial may be good in these circumstances, though not when it prevents the person from going to the hospital for treatment.

IGNORANCE

Ignorance, like denial, is also useful in certain predicaments, but probably not in the long term. For instance, South African Physicians hardly ever tell their patients a diagnosis for their illness. In the United States, almost everyone is told their diagnosis; nevertheless, the results in the two systems are similar. Superficially, it would seem that ignorance of the condition might cause less fear and therefore a longer survival. However, it is likely that the patients knew at a subconscious level that they had cancer. If you added to this the physician's and the families' silent knowledge of the problem, and the projection of this awareness onto the patient, it is hardly surprising that the outcome was equivalent whether the patient was told or not.

TRUTH

There is something especially liberating about the truth. When a patient knows the truth about the nature of a disease, he or she knows the extent of the challenge. Just knowing a diagnosis can be reassuring and is therapy in itself. The inner healer can then come to grips with the challenge and do its job. On the other hand confusion about a diagnosis and treatment can increase fear and inhibit the inner healer. Many patients are optimistic when they know what's wrong with them and can do something tangible about it. Denial may lead to a deluded sense of what is appropriate action, resulting in failure to properly contend with the problem. The patient has to be realistic about the undertaking or there will be a mismatch between the energy required for healing and the effort expended for the task. Denial may help us feel better temporarily, but in the long term truth is a more powerful agent. Truth is the antidote to denial and ignorance.

THE PROGNOSIS

Physicians with their scientific training, feel obligated to tell patients the truth. They may quote statistics, such as, "You only have six months to live because you have stage X and grade Y of disease Z." This can be a powerful negative visualization, and even a type of voodoo curse or hex. Only exceptional patients can rise above such predictions.

American physicians are frequently motivated to tell the whole truth because of their own fear of the litigious nature of the society. There always seems to be a phantom attorney sitting on the patient's bed dictating the doctor's decisions. No medic wants to be sued for lack of full disclosure. "Informed consent" before invasive procedures requires listing all conceivable complications related to diagnosis and therapy.

This custom creates unnecessary fear and anxiety. The truth should be delivered in an informative, supportive, nurturing manner with due regard for a patient's sensitivities. There are different ways of telling the truth: the message does not have to be detached or cruel. Giving enough facts to inform, but not terrify, a patient is a vital clinical skill. The physician's fear of the legal system should not be transmuted into patient terror.

I try not to give my patient's statistics about their possible outcome. In the end it is arrogant to believe that in our limited capacity as healers we know the truth about the patient, the inner healer, God, and countless factors that cannot be measured.

I also believe that the raw truth may have a negative effect in healing. A balanced and hopeful look at the truth can have a grand transformational tool that induces the changes required for better health. A patient who is knowledgeable about his or her condition without being debilitated by fear can rise to the challenge. Knowledge of one's predicament can give a sense of control and lessen fear.

If we dwell on the concepts on the right side of the Tree of Health, we align with health. If we stress the dark aspects on the left, we do the opposite. We should strengthen and facilitate the positive conversation and beware of delving into negative dialogue.

In the end, if we stay centered we have the greatest likelihood for wholeness and health. A Tree of Health helps us remember the essential factors that influence the inner healer and reinforces the concept of balancing the opposites. This is the key to all healing.