Why Believes Matter
Physical-, Mental-, Emotional-, Spiritual-, Social- and Intellectual Health are the 6 modules that are deeply intertwined with a profound effect on one another, but together amount to “Whole Health”, commonly referred to as Holistic Health. These constituents are constantly vying for dominance in our Wholeness and account for our volatility as Human beings. However, in conversational parlance about Health, we tacitly limit understanding of Health to mean Physical Health only, because none but Physical Health is measured and expressed by scientific consensus. Nevertheless Physical Health is nothing more than a fractional aspect of the Well-being; therefore the “Physical Health-check” is unable to determine the Health of a person, rather, it measures Illness. It can only detect symptoms and quantify the deviations from what is considered a normal physical state.
But symptoms of Illness are commonly just the final exposition of a past traumatic event that caused a disturbance in the body’s energy field. Such a traumatic event immediately impacts the other 5 elements of Health, long before it becomes measurable at the physical level. This is an important observation in the realm of Preventive-care, or Sustainable Health-care, because forestalling Illness means detection at the level of a disrupted equilibrium between the 5-non physical elements, long before symptoms show up at the physical level. Consequently, what is commercially called “Preventive-care” is not preemptive care, as it is limited to analyzing Physical Health and therefore should be more aptly termed “early Symptoms detection”. In order to anticipate disease and keep the Individual healthy, we need to extend our Health Analysis to all its 6 elements: Physical Health; Mental Health, Emotional Health, Spiritual Health, Social Health, Intellectual Health
While there is unequivocal consensus that Spiritual Health plays a major role in our Lives and Well-being, the consensus abruptly ends at the perpetual question of: what is Spiritual Health, how do we define Spirituality?
Spiritual Health – the futile search of a Definition
Searching the literature doesn’t reveal anything close to a universally acceptable definition, it is rather interesting to note that otherwise reputable institutions seem to flee from the issue. So it is not surprising that the awkward WHO definition of Mental Health:
“a being of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community”.
Note thatSpiritual Health is conspicuously absent; it was probably sacrificed on the altar of political correctness, after endless debates among nations, that the WHO entertained in 1979. The first WHO document to mention Spiritual Health is buried deep in the WHO-Africa web site as a paper from 2003 entitled: “The Bangkok Charter of Health Promotion in a Globalized World”, which states:
The United Nations recognizes that the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without discrimination. Health promotion is based on this critical human right and offers a positive and inclusive concept of health as a determinant of the quality of life and encompassing mental and spiritual well-being.
(Emphasis mine). However, there is no definition of spiritual offered. As if it evidently a charged issue, it is conveniently dodged by the bureaucrats. At the World Summit for Social Development, held in March 1995 in Copenhagen, Governments reached a new consensus on the need to put people at the center of development: governments of all European nations signed the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development committing themselves to addressing the “spiritual” needs of their populations. Yet, with the exception of end-of-life intervention, this dimension is almost totally absent from discussions of public health and health promotion in Europe, whether it be in the discourse of public health professionals or policy-makers. Why is there so much dancing about the issue? asks the author of an article in the European Journal of Public Health (Vol..15 Issue 5 Pp 457). The answer:
‘Spiritual’ was, for a long time, considered indissociable from ‘religious’ and our lay society prefers to steer as far as possible away from discussions on religion, for fear of igniting latent conflicts or encroaching on a taboo subject. The archaic and sectarian attitude of some followers of religions and in particular some religious leaders no doubt play an important role in this state of affairs. There is also the practical difficulty of identifying, defining and measuring dimensions of ‘spiritual’ health.
Some scientists assert that “spirituality” can’t be defined:
“What might this spiritual dimension of health be? In spite of the various references to spiritual health over the past decades, one is at a loss to find an acceptable theoretical or working definition of what it might entail.” (American Journal of Health Promotion, 1995,9, Pp 371-8).
Non-Governmental Organizations however are in good company in stifling the issue of defining Spiritual Health. Remarkably, a scan of Christian Ministry web sites that promise a definition, duck the real issue by wordy circumvention of the word “God”, resorting to euphemisms like energy, spiritual forces, emotional balance, etc. instead. It transpires from all the gingerly approaches to define spirituality, that this is clearly the most controversial definition within the 6 elements of Health.
Religion versus Faith
A lot of this cowardice may be due to the all too common mix-up of Faith and Religion. While everyone has a Belief, many are quick to say “I’m not religious”. Being religious has a stigma, no matter what the religion is. It is associated with a Dogma and religious people may impose their dogmatic doctrine upon us whenever they find an opportunity. Hence, in a subconscious attempt to self-protect the inner balanced state, many consider it wise to avoid the topic of religion altogether in any conversation so to not get into an argument. However, our Creator did neither create nor mandate religion; therefore we can be Believers without being religious. Any person can believe in the existence of God and God’s law without joining any church or religious group; God’s promise of salvation doesn’t go to Churches, but to those who believe in Him. The Divine Moral and Ethics laws in Scripture are delivered to all of us; in fact, the God of Abraham is the God of the Jews, Muslims and Christians alike. That explains why fundamentally the same laws of conduct apply in virtually all cultures and societies around the world. It also explains certain innate behaviors of mankind, such as our feeling of shame to be seen with no clothes on.
Every religion is characterized by its proprietary Doctrine which it more or less vigorously defends for the sake of self-preservation and expansion. It is such activism that is perceived as offensive by members of other denominations and non-believers. Some religions go ways beyond defending their doctrine; they are vigorously pursuing anyone who is not a member of their group. They are claiming – against Scriptural evidence – to act by the Will of God in faulting anyone who has not submitted to their dogma; and they are using every situation to indoctrinate them, convinced that they hold the only Truth and Salvation. It’s this missionary zeal that stigmatizes religion and distorts the Image of the Creator. Sadly, this constant intimidation has turned many people away from seeking their inner peace in God, thus giving up Faith while they fear the demands for restraints that are imposed on them – not by Scripture, but by religious dogma. As an example, God never demanded abstinence from Alcohol – as many religions teach – he merely told us, not to get drunk. It is these unreasonable manmade impositions that drive people to seek their spirituality in Occult, Mysticism, Humanism and Atheism, Buddhism and esoteric gods. But it is not God that is intimidating; it is the religions that are teaching distorted scripture to better control people for their own purpose.
It seems blatantly obvious that Spiritual Health cannot thrive in an environment of intimidation. If people feel bullied by religion and falsely believe it is God’s will that way – with Nothing Higher to turn to – their Spiritual Health takes an immense Hit. Once they have lost their core Belief, their certainty of Belonging and Purpose yields to the sense of emptiness and their life becomes meaningless. Naturally, this awareness impacts Emotional Health and Mental Health and, inevitably such structural disturbance of a person’s equilibrium, will result in symptoms of Physical Illness.
This is the classic illustration that symptom-fixing can’t get the person’s Health back, other symptoms will show up as long as the Spiritual-Emotional-Mental Trauma remains unattended. At the spiritual level it doesn’t matter what “the Facts” are, the only thing that matters is the person’s perception. Unlike in Physical Health-care, there are no sample analyzers that churn out numbers that compare against a benchmark. Analyzing Spiritual Health is not possible without cooperation and trust of the “patient”, and then there is no Healthy or Unhealthy verdict in Spiritual Health-care. Nevertheless, it is well known that spiritual chaos is the trigger for many degenerative diseases.
The concept of Spiritual Health, as a major and integrated driver of Total- or Holistic Health, has not even been adequately defined, let alone researched, grounded in theory, or integrated into the health education curriculum; Spiritual Health is also the least commercially contested and exploited of the 6 elements that comprise Health. Spiritual Health may be a core element that governs all of our thoughts and actions and thus influences our Emotional and Mental Health and how we interact with others, the Social and Intellectual Health. A disturbance of any of these modules will ultimately show up as a Physical symptom, and that fact may indeed reveal why pharmaceutical drugs cannot restore Health, just temporarily relieve symptoms.
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