Since 1954, when Huxley wrote the 'The Doors of Perception', the doors of perception about what we need to do to keep ourselves fit and healthy were gradually closed shut by the hegemony of modern pharmaceutical junk medicine.

 

Only in very recent times have the doors started to open up as more and more people come to the realization that the first law of health is to 'look after yourself'. They are forcing open (against the resistance of the established junk medical industry) the doors of perception by visiting non-medical health experts, purchasing books and searching the internet for health and fitness information.

 

This web page has some links to what I believe are some very useful sites where you can go to open your perception about what you can do restore and then keep yourself in good health.

 

2000 odd years ago, one of the great men of the time said, 'Doctor heal thyself.' At the end of the junk medical era all that's changed; it's now 'Patient heal thyself.'

 

The selective-evidence, symptom-masking, pharmaceutical-based, dependence-generating, reductionist, dualist, blank-cheque, junk medical era was the experiment we needed to have, just to see if the inmates in the sheltered workshops for  the academically gifted could produce medical treatments that made people healthier.

 

They couldn't and didn't. You could just about count the number of people who became fitter as a result of pouring billions of dollars down the medical research drain every year on the non-opposable digits of one hand.

 

Sure, the quality of life of thousands improved. But whilst that happened, the quality of life of millions became worse. Some smart alec in another sheltered workshop devised a universal health scheme and bolted it on to a welfare system to deal with that one, a health system that now costs the governments of Australia $60B a year, and counting.

 

The more money spent on medical interventions the unhealthier people became. It was an expensive experiment that sucked governments right in and nearly sent them broke. It didn't work. People just got unhealthier.

 

It stripped vitality out of  the community, lulled people into false senses of consciousness, turned them into lotus eaters 'with half-dropped eyelids still' - in particular leading them to believe that they could stuff themselves with junk, sit down all day cooped up in cages and still stay healthy. Junk medicine became synonymous with junk food, junk mail, junk research and junk religion. 'Junk, junk, all is junk saith the Preacher.'

 

Those who became dysfunctional relied on someone else to fix them up for nothing; whoever thought up that one pulled one of the great swifties of all time. Let's hope that next time the gravy train comes round we'll be able to get our cars fixed up for free as well!

 

In 50 years time, when someone writes another world history of medicine, the medical era at the tail end of  the 20th Century will go down as a period of high farce.

 

The pontiffs of the junk medical/pharmaceutical power elite, together with their cardinals, archbishops and parish priests ignored what the ancients knew about stimulating the body's own recuperative power; said there was no double-blind evidence that proved beyond doubt that Chinese, Ayurvedic, Red Indian, Australian Aboriginal, Calithumpian or any other medicine that was not of their own selective design was any good. Even placebo got rubbished.

 

They spent billions setting up self-serving institutes and charities to research blood pressure, blood cholesterol, blood glucose and arthritis and earned billions selling pills, powders, potions, crèmes, syrups and suppositories to mask the symptoms and ease the pain.

 

Palms were greased, silver-service dinners tucked into, bottles of Grange Hermitage quaffed, conferences in flash pubs attended, nosed browned, freebies accepted, heads turned and fortunes made. (In 2000, the head of Pfizer in the US took home $40m. The Chairman of Merck had $181m in stock options. Wonder where they got that from?) Want to know more about these shenanigans? Get a copy of Overdosed America by John Abrahamson and The Truth about Drug Companies by Marcia Angell.

 

They used every high tech gadget known to mankind to measure everything except how fit, strong, flexible and relaxed people were. They  didn't think of prescribing them something as mundane as exercise, meditation, a case of apples or a dose of cognitive therapy. They didn't know how to do the cognitive therapy themselves. Dunces all of them, working themselves up into a lather, spending time trying to rescue people who obviously don't want to be rescued - just palliated.

 

How much easier and cheaper would it be if people could go straight to the pharmacist to get their fix without having to traipse past the gatekeeper in the surgery?

 

I was talking to a bloke a few years ago who had just purchased a $2000 oxygen cylinder and a gas mask because he had sleep apnoea. I acted dumb. I said 'Did the doctor measure how fit you were?' He said, You can't measure fitness can you?'   Whilst you'd have to roll your eyes when people come out of surgeries and hospitals with that level of ignorance, you'd just about have to poke your fingers down your throat when you realized that the people running the surgeries and hospitals didn't know either and encouraged the bloke to buy an expensive gadget, instead of encouraging him to lose 25 Kg and get himself into exceptionally good nick - for free; but I suppose a bit of time and effort are harder to muster than the 2 Grand.

Generally speaking, sleep apnoea is just another symptom of a body in dreadful shape. It's certainly not caused by the lack of an oxygen bottle and a gas mask.

 

The practice of this sort of medicine is what diverts the attention of regular folks away from what they can do for themselves to keep in exceptionally good shape.

 

Another case in point. If you go to the Australian Arthritis Association website you'll get the same sort of nonsense. It reads like an apology for the pharmaceutical industry, which is not surprising when you note that all the sponsors are pharmaceutical companies. On the front page you'll be invited to stock up on paracetamol which will allow bones that are out of alignment to continue to grind away at each other without you knowing it.

 

The junk medical era will, eventually go down in history as the age of forgetfulness.

 

Hoodwinked as a community, we forgot what we needed to do to keep ourselves fit and healthy. We were conned into the belief that we could buy back our good health in a pharmacy.

 

So, in the post junk medical era where are you going to get smart advice on how to stay in great shape? Where can you get countervailing opinion to stack up against the likes of Pfizer, Merck and co?

 

Open the doors of perception about what you can do to keep yourself fit and healthy.

My advice? Open the doors of perception by sniffing around the internet for newsletters that promote wellness, and encourage you to do the things that fit and healthy people do to keep themselves fit and healthy.

 

Below  are some of the sites I recommend. They've all got very useful newsletters that are well worth signing up for.

 

If you come across any other sites that are worth listing, send me an email.

In the mean time stay tuned, highly tuned.

John Miller