CHAPTER FIVE:

THE FIELD OF PHYSICAL HEALTH

SCIENTIFIC MATERIALIST: I've been waiting for this topic because I feel that I am now on familiar ground. You probably think that my medical knowledge is restricted to conventional western medicine, but it is not. I served on a government committee to review alternative forms of medicine.

Some of the alternative systems we looked at were Chinese, Indian and Tibetan medicine; homeopathy; naturopathy; Native American folk medicine; and a few other body-work oriented systems.

Since you tie your astrological knowledge to a Vedic or pre-Vedic approach, I suppose you have an ayurvedic orientation to healing, since that is the Vedic system for dealing with health and disease.

TM MEDITATOR: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has revised ayurveda for our age. Maharishi Ayurveda is an incredible step forward in holistic health-care.

SCIENTIFIC MATERIALIST: Deepak Chopra has done a lot to make ayurveda a household word in America. I believe he works for your organization.

TM MEDITATOR: He was formerly associated with our organization, but now we have many wonderful Indian and western physicians promoting Maharishi Ayurveda throughout the world. It is much too big a task for any one man.

EDWARD TARABILDA: I have a strong background in traditional ayurvedic medicine. I studied with Dr. Vasant Lad, an ayurvedic physician who left India to start an ayurvedic school in New Mexico with the help of his American friend and administrator, Lenny Blank. After my own apprenticeship I taught at this school with Dr Lad for a year (1982) before leaving to start my own school in Ojai, California. Later I helped form the Institute of Holistic Education with Santos Krinsky in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin. This institute specializes in home-study courses in ayurveda.

Although Deepak Chopra and the TM movement did a lot to spread ayurveda in this country in recent years, Dr. Lad preceded them and did his share, too.

I discovered through the Astrology of the Eight Fields of Living that the ayurveda practiced by virtually everyone in the world is not the ancient ayurveda. I call this re-discovery of the ancient ayurveda the "Eightfold Ayurveda" (TM).

SCIENTIFIC MATERIALIST: Oh, no! You are at it again, suggesting that what is going on in the name of ayurveda is not the real ancient science, just as you attacked modern Vedic astrology as a poor imitation of the original. How much of this do you expect us to take? What little credibility you have built up with us through the previous dialogues will be lost if you continue in this vein. What arrogance!

TM MEDITATOR: I can't agree more, especially since what you suggest is belied by people's experience. Since the introduction of ayurveda to the West many thousands of people have been helped through ayurveda.

QUANTUM PHYSICIST: Even I am a little put off by this latest assertion, but I'm willing to listen. Let us give Ed a chance. What does he have to gain by alienating all of us?

EDWARD TARABILDA: First of all, the assertion of the TM person that many thousands have been helped through ayurveda is totally contradicted by my experience. The TM community in Fairfield, Iowa is a good sample population to observe the effects of ayurveda. Most of them used to accept the party-line that Maharishi Ayurveda was going to be the perfect tool for health and longevity. Now many of them are totally disillusioned. In fact, when someone really gets sick, the last person they will entrust their care to is an ayurvedic physician. I know this because I often visit Fairfield and consult with many meditators who have given up on Maharishi Ayurveda.

And the same holds true for other people around the world: they are initially attracted to ayurveda, but later find out that it is imprecise and ineffective in many chronic cases -- the very area it is supposed to outshine modern western medicine.

TM MEDITATOR: These malcontents obviously are not following the prescriptions of Maharishi Ayurveda.

EDWARD TARABILDA: Those of a more fundamentalist bent continue to accept as true what experience shows not to be true. It is a manifestation of the true believer syndrome.

TM MEDITATOR: I'm beginning to find you very offensive! I think of myself as one of the more open-minded meditators, but you are just impossible to talk to. You are so negative!

QUANTUM PHYSICIST (to TM meditator): Why are you taking this personally? We are all adults here. Ed is not attacking anyone personally, he is just questioning the validity of the present-day practice of ayurveda. Ed, why do you think contemporary ayurveda is not helpful, and how does what you call the "Eightfold Ayurveda" differ from modern ayurveda?

EDWARD TARABILDA: In the ancient days ayurveda and Vedic astrology were treated as sister sciences. One was never practiced without the other. Even the founder of western medicine, Hippocrates, linked the two fields together when he said, "The physician who does not know the science of the stars is not worthy of calling himself a physician".

It appears that the true science of the stars was lost in India about three to four thousand years ago. Since that time or earlier the caste system in India has been based on heredity rather than individual inclination. Furthermore, the different branches of Vedic science, such as Jyotish and ayurveda, have evolved separately.

But it was the true science of the stars which gave a powerful paradigm to the Eightfold Ayurveda. The Eightfold Ayurveda suggests that there are eight primary disease-types, and that every person has one of these health-disease tendencies. These disease-types are based on the eight planets in the following order:

Planet Disease-Type

Sun heat

Moon coldness

Mars lightness

Jupiter heaviness

Saturn dryness

Venus oiliness

Mercury mixed disease

"Mixed disease" for Mercury means that it can assume one or more of the six other disease tendencies.

The North and South Nodes of the Moon relate to mixed diseases of a different nature. They are mysterious, hard-to-diagnose karmic diseases due to past-life influences.

Notice that the six major disease tendencies form three pairs of opposites: hot-cold, light-heavy and dry-oily.

These disease tendencies exist irrespective of one's basic constitutional body-type, which has seven possibilities: 1) air 2) fire 3) water 4) air-fire 5) air-water 6) fire-water and 7) air-fire-water. There's also a more mysterious and difficult-to-diagnose eighth type which may be considered another approach to any one of the other seven.

In the ancient ayurveda it was understood that one's disease-type is independent of one's constitutional-type, yet there is a relationship between the two. For example, if one tends to suffer from the disease of dryness, then that disease is more likely to manifest in a significant way in those who are predominantly an air-type constitution, because air is also dry. But it does not preclude other constitutional types from also getting the disease of dryness.

As ayurveda drew away from Vedic astrology the eightfold paradigm of disease became lost and more and more emphasis was placed on body-type as the basis for determining disease-type. A theoretical distinction between body-type (prakriti) and disease-type (vikriti) was maintained, but this distinction was increasingly difficult to put into practice.

Theoretically, one's vikriti can be determined from pulse diagnosis and other diagnostic tools, but in practice this does not happen. So today's ayurvedic practitioners are as skitish as the Jyotish practitioners. They keep searching for a relationship between the person's body-type and their chronic illness, and are puzzled when they don't find it. They hold sacred the strategy, "Treat the constitutional body-type to cure the disease." This is a complete distortion of the original strategy, which was, "Know and treat the disease-type without regard to the body-type, but recognize that the body-type will affect the severity of the disease tendency".

CATHOLIC PRIEST: Maybe an example would help us understand these highly abstract distinctions.

EDWARD TARABILDA: Good idea. Let us assume that someone has a Saturn disease-type. This brings the tendency for the disease of dryness. Now, if such a person has a constitutional body-type of fire and water, then he will be less likely to suffer severely from symptoms of dryness, because both fire and water share the attributes of oiliness. In this case the constitutional type, containing oiliness, will ameliorate the disease-type of dryness. However, if the constitution is airy, lacking in oil, it will accentuate the symptoms of dryness.

If this same person had an air body-type, he would be extremely likely to have severe dryness problems and its complications. But the main focus needs to be the underlying disease tendency, not the constitutional body-type. Modern ayurvedic practitioners cannot do this because they have no basis for determining the underlying disease tendency without the Astrology of the Eight Fields of Living.

CATHOLIC PRIEST: I get it now.

EDWARD TARABILDA: Each planet also signifies a number of other physiological and therapeutic categories:

A. Dhatu or tissue element in the body:

Planet Tissue

1. Sun bone tissue

2. Moon blood

3. Mars bone marrow

4. Jupiter adipose tissue

5. Saturn muscle

6. Venus reproductive tissue

7. Mercury lymph tissue

B. Organ systems (meridians in Chinese medicine):

Planet Meridian

1. Sun Heart and small intestine meridians

2. Moon Triple warmer and pericardium meridians. Also the brain and uterus.

3. Mars Gall bladder and governor vessel meridians

4. Jupiter Liver and conception vessel meridians

5. Saturn Spleen and stomach meridians

6. Venus Kidney and bladder meridians. Also the pancreas, ovaries,

testes, and prostate.

7. Mercury Lung and large intestine meridians

C. Endocrine system:

Planet Endocrine Gland

1. Saturn prostate/cervix

2. Jupiter gonads (testes/ovaries)

3. Mars adrenals (and pancreas when stimulated by adrenal hormones)

4. Moon thymus

5. Venus thyroid

6. Mercury pituitary

7. Sun pineal

The orderings of the planets under "A" and "B" are by the pairings of opposites, such as hot vs. cold, which we will discuss in a minute. The physical ordering, given under "C", corresponds to the planets' distance from the Sun. It governs the chakras' physiological influence and location. This correspondence between the chakras and the endocrine system is a working hypothesis which we have not fully confirmed at this time.

SCIENTIFIC MATERIALIST: There is a lot of controversy about which chakras govern sexuality. What is your view?

ED TARABILDA: The Art of Multi-Dimensional Living suggests that the first chakra relates to the physical ability to procreate (Saturn), the second chakra to romantic attraction (Venus), and the third chakra to the desire for children (Jupiter). So a person may have a strong sex drive and weak fertility, or vice-versa.

Now, when we discuss therapies, there are two general categories, allopathic and homeopathic. Allopathic therapies treat like with dislike. They provide the body with something it's missing, like missing nutrients or heat, or take away something harmful or in excess. Catharsis and surgery would fall in this category.

There are three pairs of allopathic therapies -- heating/cooling, nourishing/lightening, and oleation/drying. Each disease type has one therapy to favor and one to avoid:

D. Allopathic therapy

Planet Favor Avoid

1. Sun cooling fomentation (heating)

2. Moon heating cooling

3. Mars nourishing lightening

4. Jupiter lightening nourishing

5. Saturn oleation drying

6. Venus drying oleation

7. Mercury mixed therapy

Similarly, each disease type has one taste to favor and one to avoid:

E. Taste:

Planet Favor Avoid

1. Sun salty pungent

2. Moon pungent salty

3. Mars sweet bitter

4. Jupiter bitter sweet

5. Saturn sour astringent

6. Venus astringent sour

7. Mercury mixed taste

In contrast with allopathy, homeopathy treats like with like, "fight fire with fire". In other words, stimulate the body's natural resistance with a minute dosage of something it doesn't want.

F. Homeopathic therapy:

Planet Favor Avoid

1. Sun silver gold

2. Moon gold silver

3. Mars tin iron

4. Jupiter iron tin

5. Saturn copper lead

6. Venus lead copper

7. Mercury mercury

For example, one would use homeopathic gold for the disease of heat, and homeopathic silver for the disease of coldness.

Certain homeopathic cell salts are also useful as part of this ancient eight-fold ayurveda. In fact, the whole homeopathic Materia Medica can be realigned to fit this ancient ayurvedic paradigm.

Any questions?

TM MEDITATOR: Salty taste increases the fire humor and heat, according to Charaka, Sushruta and other ayurvedic teachers of the past. You use it to reduce heat!

And you do not use bitter taste to treat the disease of Mars, which relates to the fire humor, but the ancient ayurvedic teachers did.

EDWARD TARABILDA: To answer the latter part of your question first, one can use bitters as purgatives to treat the disease of heat because one of the principles of ayurveda is that heavy doses of like substances can shock the body into recovery. This is why electro-shock therapy can appear to help highly nervous, neurotic people. But the Eightfold ayurveda would not recommend using bitter taste in any other way when one has the disease of lightness. Bitter taste creates bitterness, a trait of someone with excess fire, which is part of the disease of lightness.

I have no problem contradicting Charaka and the other ayurvedic teachers of the past because they taught an ayurveda which was no longer tied to the earlier model I am presenting. This model may also have been a pre-Vedic model, just like the Astrology of the Eight Fields of Living.

To answer the first part of your question, salty taste does not increase the disease of heat; it reduces it by increasing liquidity in the body. People with the disease of heat, as defined in this work, generally have low blood pressure, and therefore need salt to increase their blood pressure. Only when they fall into a very serious deficiency condition might salt be contraindicated, because then they will manifest high blood pressure.

I am able to demonstrate these things clinically time and time again.

TM MEDITATOR: I don't buy it.

EDWARD TARABILDA: I didn't expect you to, but I can guarantee one thing: Ayurveda will be nothing but an overly generalized health-care modality until this more precise model of ayurveda is understood and put into practice. But practitioners will have to drop their attachments to what they have been doing, and pride and skepticism may be obstacles which effectively block this transformation.

HOMEOPATHIC PRACTITIONER: I have heard of some mavericks in our profession using the seven metals and their various combinations as a basis for their practice. I haven't paid much attention to these people, but I may begin to do so now.

EDWARD TARABILDA: Recently I heard about that new approach in homeopathy through a practitioner in Austin, Texas. It is apparent that these mavericks recognize the value of the metals, but do not have the ancient astrological knowledge for prescribing them correctly. In fact, their method of using the metals may be harmful, so let the user beware. Nevertheless, their emphasis on the metals certainly signifies theoretical progress in the field.

QUANTUM PHYSICIST: Can you tell us more about the symptoms which reflect each disease type?

EDWARD TARABILDA: Here is a brief description:

1. The disease of heat, ruled by the Sun, gives cardiovascular problems with abnormal blood pressure (often low), heart palpitations or other cardiac irregularities, poor circulation, feelings of depression and self-condemnation, sleep and eye disorders, osteoporosis, malabsorption of food due to heat in the small intestine, emaciation, fatigue, etc. If you also read about the symptoms of disfunction of the small intestine and heart meridians in Chinese medicine, you can find more symptoms of this disease. Also read the symptoms under the remedy Aurum Metallicum (homeopathic gold), in any "Materia Medica" of homeopathy.

2. The disease of coldness, ruled by the Moon, gives "agni" troubles, or problems related to low digestive fire, flatulence, menstrual disorders, uterine disease, feelings of being cold all the time, atrophy of the cerebellum and other brain disorders, colds and coughs, hoarseness or loss of voice, melancholy and depression, severe backache, etc. For further symptoms read about disfunctions of the triple-warmer and pericardium meridians in Chinese medicine, and the remedies Argentum Metallicum and Argentum Nitricum (two silver preparations) in homeopathy.

3. The disease of lightness, ruled by Mars, gives fever, tropical diseases, various types of anemia, excess agni (digestive fire), emaciation, lumbago, flushing, cold extremities, difficulty making decisions, hemochromatosis, etc. See the gall bladder and governor meridians for further symptoms. Also see the remedy Ferrum Metallicum (homeopathic iron) in homeopathy.

4. The disease of heaviness, ruled by Jupiter, brings obesity, tumors, liver disease, problems relating to conception of children, typewriter paralysis, diabetes, chronic bronchial and pulmonary conditions, etc. See liver and conception vessel meridians for further symptoms. Also see the remedy Stannum (homeopathic tin) in homeopathy.

5. The disease of dryness, ruled by Saturn, brings stomach upset, constipation, flatulence, poor immunity, neuro-muscular problems, paralytic weakness, low back pain, emaciation, cracks in the skin, numbness and coldness in the extremities, and symptoms similar to those of lead poisoning. See Plumbum Metallicum (homeopathic lead) in a homeopathic Materia Medica for further symptoms. Also see spleen and stomach meridians.

6. The disease of oiliness, ruled by Venus, brings kidney and bladder disorders, reproductive problems, blood sugar problems (including diabetes), mental health problems, tics, tremors, spasms, obesity, asthma, whooping cough, nausea, meningitis, etc. See kidney and bladder meridians and the remedy Cuprum Metallicum (homeopathic copper) for further symptoms.

7. The disease of Mercury is a mixed type of disease, meaning that it takes on the characteristics of one or more of the other disease-types. It also tends toward disfunctions in the lungs and large intestine. See the homeopathic remedy Mercurius Vivus (homeopathic mercury), and the lung and large intestine meridians for further symptoms.

8. The Nodes of the Moon bring karmic diseases best treated through religious and magical ritual. These diseases are difficult to diagnose and treat, because they are due to past-life karma, not mistakes in the present life. It takes an occult healing art like the Eightfold Ayurveda to diagnose such people properly, and then the right treatment including rituals to heal such people.

THEOSOPHIST: Where do we look for the meridian points and related symptoms?

EDWARD TARABILDA: Any good diagrammatic acupuncture or acupressure book.

THEOSOPHIST: What kinds of treatment are offered for these various diseases?

EDWARD TARABILDA: The previous classifications of treatment I mentioned earlier are useful guides, but let me first elaborate further on the types of treatment offered in this ancient Eightfold Ayurveda before we use a case example of how it all fits together.

Each of the five senses has a related set of therapies:

1. The sense of smell relates to aroma therapy. This is a new therapy in the West, but with great potential.

2. The sense of taste relates to dietetics, herbology, and homeopathics.

3. The sense of sight relates to color therapy and geometric form therapy. These forms are called "yantras" in India.

4. The sense of touch relates to massage and other forms of bodywork used in ayurveda, from gross manipulation to subtle energy work.

5. The sense of hearing relates to the use of primal sounds, music, ultra-sound, etc.

Pancha-karma means five methods of purification:

1. Nasya therapy -- nasal administration of medicinal substances.

2. Virechana -- purgation.

3. Vamana -- therapeutic vomiting.

4. Basti -- therapeutic colonics and enemas.

5. Rakta-moksha -- therapeutic blood-letting.

These treatments are very important in ayurveda, but unless the practitioner knows what someone's disease-type is, great harm is often done in the name of purification. For example, people who have the disease of oiliness often suffer setbacks in health through traditional pancha-karma treatments where they are required to take in oil to "loosen the toxins".

Finally, ayurveda regards human ignorance as the fundamental cause of disease, which ties ayurvedic therapy back to the field of spirituality. Knowing and practicing your own yogic or tantric path is the best way to promote health and longevity, because then you make fewer mistakes in all fields of living.

Any questions?

TM MEDITATOR: Maharishi Ayurveda has all the therapies you mention, and more.

EDWARD TARABILDA: I don't deny the holistic nature of modern-day ayurveda. Its practitioners just do not know how to apply these holistic therapies in a precise way.

TM MEDITATOR: Well, thank you for giving us some credit.

EDWARD TARABILDA: I support all alternative approaches to health-care, even when they are off-base in some way, because I feel they serve as a healthy balance to the type of western medicine represented by the American Medical Association, which has become a giant tyrant in this field, with the money to wield great power.

A PHYSICIAN: I won't let people attack what is the greatest medical system in the world without defending my profession. I admit the care has gotten a little expensive, but look at what it costs to go through medical school.

ALTERNATIVE PRACTITIONER: Please don't insult our intelligence with such an argument. You turn a profession which should be based on caring and giving into one in based on money, and then you ask for our sympathy. What a joke!

PHYSICIAN: You can't deny that the quality of care we give is very high.

ALTERNATIVE PRACTITIONER: It is high in acute trauma cases, where surgery is needed, and in control of epidemics. In cases of chronic ailments its reputation is checkered, at best, and in the area of preventive medicine your system is absolutely primitive.

PHYSICIAN: The public seems to have great confidence in us.

ALTERNATIVE PRACTITIONER: The public has been educated to believe that medicine is for the experts, and that the patient must trust the doctor. The medical profession will do its best to discourage or eradicate the idea that someone can prevent illness through natural, non-invasive and non-pharmaceutical means, or that anyone can practice self-help.

PHYSICIAN: Your view can cause a lot of people to try to help themselves in ways which might endanger their health and safety.

ALTERNATIVE PRACTITIONER: A wonderful ploy to discourage people from becoming more self-sufficient in the field of physical health!

PHYSICIAN: It sounds like you don't know anything about medical science. Are you just parroting some uninformed gadfly who couldn't get into med school?

ALTERNATIVE PRACTITIONER: I'm not. What I do know is that your training has nothing to do with teaching people how to look at anatomy, physiology, health and disease in a way which is self-empowering.

PHYSICIAN: We teach preventive health-care through life-style changes, like proper diet and exercise, and not smoking.

ALTERNATIVE PRACTITIONER: It's still based on a medical model that treats the body like a machine, devoid of soul and spirit, and which can only be maintained by consulting MD's, who are rewarded for dishing out drugs and surgery.

ANOTHER PHYSICIAN: I'm afraid I must throw in my hat with the alternative practitioner on this last issue. Our training is woefully inadequate in preventive medicine.

Another problem we have is the threat of lawsuits. Even with malpractice insurance, we're always looking back over our shoulder for legal exposure. It causes a lot of expensive tests to be performed which we would otherwise never consider.

And now the insurance companies are beginning to side with the hospitals against the doctors, driving doctors from private practice into HMO's.

ALTERNATIVE PRACTITIONER: If the AMA has their way, no alternative practitioners will even exist, nor will the public have access to food supplements, herbs, homeopathic remedies, and other things they can prescribe for themselves.

PHYSICIAN: Who is trying to ban these?

ALTERNATIVE PRACTITIONER: They are trying to turn everything into a medicinal substance so that it can be controlled by the Food and Drug Administration, which represents only the conventional medical paradigm of the AMA .

PHYSICIAN: We have trouble with the FDA, too.

EDWARD TARABILDA: That the AMA tries to get rid of all its competition is a reality beyond question, in my judgment. However, just how much influence the AMA has on the Food and Drug Administration is not so easy to document.

The pharmaceutical industry is also a player in this whole drama. They see how lucrative alternative medicinals are, and they want to control them.

More to the point of our original discussion, I'm sure the traditional MD will have little understanding of or sympathy for the health-care model I have presented in the name of the Eightfold Ayurveda.

PHYSICIAN: How can we? We don't know the system you use to derive such a paradigm, nor can we test such a system.

EDWARD TARABILDA: I think a test could be created to study the accuracy of my predictions in this field. I don't oppose such a test.

PHYSICIAN: Very interesting. I didn't expect you to say that.

EDWARD TARABILDA: Well, I don't see this as my major role in life, since I am more of a spokesman of the true science of the stars than a person who desires to prove it to the world, but if that challenge is presented, I would not turn away from it.

PHYSICIAN: What else can you share with us about your model of the Eightfold Ayurveda? What about the etiology of disease, and what about diagnostics?

EDWARD TARABILDA: The causes of disease are understood in the most comprehensive manner by studying Vaisheshika philosophy. In this philosophy all of life is deemed to be governed by nine fundamental causes or principles. These causes apply to medicine, as well as any other field:

1. Earth

2. Water

3. Fire

4. Air

5. Ether

6. Space

7. Time

8. Mind

9. Atman

The first cause of disease is the overuse, under use, or misuse of the sense of smell, which relates to the earth element.

The second cause of disease is the overuse, underuse, or misuse of the sense of taste, which relates to the water element.

The third cause of disease is the overuse, underuse, or misuse of the sense of sight, which relates to the fire element.

The fourth cause of disease is the overuse, underuse, or misuse of the sense of touch, which relates to the air element.

The fifth cause of disease is the overuse, underuse, or misuse of the sense of hearing, which relates to the ether element.

The sixth cause of disease is the wrong use of direction. There are five vayus, or directions: upwards (udana), down and out (apana), horizontal (samana), circular (vyana) and down and in (prana). These natural flows of energy are disturbed when we suppress or overextend any natural urge such as belching, relieving ourselves of feces or gas, passing urine, breathing, eating, drinking, etc.

The seventh cause of disease is the wrong use of time. There are four basic wrong uses of time:

1. Misusing the time for proper digestion of food. One should not eat for at least three hours after finishing a prior meal, even a snack.

2. Misusing the time of day. Morning time is best for study, afternoon for active work, and evening for celebration.

3. Misusing the season. Regimens need to be altered according to the season and the attributes of each season. For example, someone with a fire ailment needs to be more watchful in the hot summer than in winter.

4. Misusing the time of life. The water humor governs life from birth to sixteen. The fire humor governs life from sixteen to forty-five. The air humor governs from then on. Certain activities must be moderated due to this life-cycle. This is particularly true of sexual activity, other physical activity and dietary regimens.

The eighth cause of disease is misuse of the mind, which causes stress and tension in the physiology.

The ninth and ultimate cause of all disease is ignorance of our true spiritual nature, which causes all sorts of mistakes and wrong behavior, which, in turn, lead to disease.

Any questions?

PHYSICIAN: Please give an example of the overuse, under use and misuse of a particular sense.

EDWARD TARABILDA: Those who snuff recreational drugs are misusing the sense of smell. These drugs often interfere with olfactory sensitivity. Those who breath toxic fumes are overusing or mis-using the sense of smell. Those who never take time to notice the natural smells of nature under use the sense of smell, and tend to have under-developed olfactory function.

There are still a few rare souls who can actually diagnose the disease through smelling a person. In ancient times some doctors used the sense of taste. They may taste the person's sweat, urine, or even feces! But such practices were not encouraged by sages such as Charaka. We may only wonder why!.

PHYSICIAN: All I can say is, "Thank God for modern medicine"!

EDWARD TARABILDA: Still others will just use the sense of sight to look at the whole physiology for signs of body-type and pathology. This is the most common practice in ayurveda, along with pulse diagnosis, which uses the sense of touch. Some practitioners even use their sense of hearing to diagnose disease. They make a diagnosis based on hearing the client sing certain scales.

Music and tonal therapy are becoming rare in the East, but more common in the West.

PHYSICIAN: There is such a danger for quackery with these types of procedures.

EDWARD TARABILDA: There are all kinds of abuses with standard western methods of diagnosis and treatment as well. The greatest danger to freedom in America comes from over-protective institutions that treat all of us as poor, innocent victims incapable of deciding for ourselves what kind of practitioner to see.

We are using licensing laws in a very destructive way. Rather than educating people to take responsibility for their choices, we would rather treat them as children who require constant help and guidance from regulators to protect them from all the charlatans.

Fortunately, there is a growing groundswell of resentment against such abuses of power, and I hope this trend continues.

PHYSICIAN: You don't think there are people who need protection from quacks?

EDWARD TARABILDA: Not when the protection takes away our right to alternative practitioners. Strengthen fraud laws, or create other legal devices to deal with people who rip off the public, but don't use licensing laws in a way which deprives self-sufficient individuals from having a full range of choices in their health-care.

PHYSICIAN: Sounds too idealistic for me!

EDWARD TARABILDA: Your approach is too authoritarian for me. Under your approach no alternative health-care paradigm will even get a fair hearing.

We don't realize just how close we are to a de-facto dictatorship in this country in the world of ideas. Modern science is becoming the ultimate arbiter of the many complex issues that arise in life, and licensing laws are undermining our most precious freedoms.

ANTHROPOSOPHIST: Rudolph Steiner has been warning us about this for a long time.

EDWARD TARABILDA: I know he has, and his vision of our future laws is an eye-opener.

PHYSICIAN: I will forget our differences for the moment and ask you to give us a case example of how the Eightfold Ayurveda works. This way we can tie together some of the strands of knowledge presented.

EDWARD TARABILDA: Let me discuss a recent case. A woman in Austin, Texas, complained of an environmental illness. She gets an allergic reaction to almost any chemical substance which may be in the carpets, clothes, detergent, etc. She had to find a residence built especially for chemically sensitive people, away from the city's air pollution. She is never certain just what may trigger a reaction. Her life has become a living hell in some ways.

The Sun rules her physical health, bringing the disease of heat. She admits that her problem only became a major one when she moved to Austin, a very hot place with the air pollution typical of any large city.

The disease of heat relates to excess fire, and the fire humor in the body is the policeman which fights invaders. When this policeman becomes too strong, he begins to see invaders everywhere! Thus, the sensitivity to environmental stimuli.

The most important advice is to reduce heat in the body. I encouraged her to move to a cooler climate, and to take in more salt and less pungent food. I also told her which foods and herbs are hot and which are cooling.

This person needs cooling therapy: walking under the moon, staying out of the hot sun, swimming or bathing in cold water, eating cold foods, taking more salt and liquid, taking more calcium and aurum metallicum (homeopathic gold), etc.

Due to the aggravation of heat, this woman is her own worst enemy. Heat brings anger, frustration, envy and a host of other emotions which she tends to project onto others, including me! Because of this unsettled state of mind, she jumps from one healer to another. I wish her the best and can only hope that the blueprint for recovery I gave her can help her stay on course and bring an eventual resolution to her illness.

PHYSICIAN: So someone with the disease of coldness would need just the opposite therapy as this woman: no salt, a lot of hot, pungent food and all sorts of fomentation therapy? They would also need the homeopathic preparations Argentum Metallicum and Argentum Nitricum. Is that correct?

EDWARD TARABILDA: You are absolutely right.

PHYSICIAN: All this certainly gives me food for thought. It seems too simple in some ways, but that may be the bias of my own training.

Can this system be used by others? You are the only person who claims to know how to use this science effectively.

EDWARD TARABILDA: It is a useful model for any physician. I know several doctors who have used it effectively, although they like to consult with me in cases where they have trouble deciding which of the eight disease-types is ruling. That potential handicap -- that no one else seems to have the inner gift -- could keep others from using it precisely, but this defect would not prevent it from being of immense value to all those in the healing arts for understanding the true nature of disease, its major manifestations, and the proper methods of treatment.

Of course, present day ayurvedic practitioners will resist this paradigm because it puts their practice in a bad light.

Fortunately, the ayurvedic contingent is not powerful in the West, and for all the reasons presented herein, will be less and less of a force in the future in terms of alternative health-care. Why? Because their model is too general to be of any value in cases of serious illness. It is even misused in preventive medicine such as pancha-karma. I already cited an example of how it is misused. Do you remember?

PHYSICIAN: The case of the person with the disease of oiliness?

EDWARD TARABILDA: Yes. I believe we have we have said enough on medicine today. Please remember all that I have said in the context of the world horoscope. The world's physical health is governed by a weak Saturn. This means the disease of dryness is the basic problem our earth will face in the coming centuries. Since Saturn governs the spleen and immunity, it also means that many of our diseases will stem from the loss of immunity. Immune diseases such as HIV will rise, and the earth's ozone layer, which is a protective shield against ultraviolet radiation, will continue to be depleted. Since Saturn also governs the stomach, it also means that people will not eat and digest their food properly. The average time it takes customers to order, eat and be on their way at McDonald's is a matter of minutes! This aggravates the air humor, which is responsible for the majority of disease symptoms.

As the body of the earth becomes more desert-like -- and we are already seeing this with the loss of rain forests, depletion of life in the ocean, and the build-up of toxins hostile to life -- there will be a further spiraling downward of public health.

And what will be the response of the health establishment? A weak Saturn governing this establishment implies any response will be one of a blind or ruthless patriarch determined to impose its will on everyone. We already see this happening. Wake up before it is too late!

THEOSOPHIST: What about an example from the life of a famous person before you close this section of the book?

EDWARD TARABILDA: Let us use a tragic case, that of Ronald Reagan, the former president of the United States. His physical health is governed by a weak Saturn. A weak Saturn does not necessarily bring poor health while one is young, but it guarantees poor health when one is old.

Saturn governs the disease of dryness, and in particular dryness which eventually affects the brain and causes Alzheimer's disease. With a true science of the stars this condition could have been predicted and possibly forestalled.

Or take the case of Jackie Kennedy, who died of lymph cancer. Mercury governed her physical health, and this same planet governs the lymph system. Only therapies treating this disease of Mercury might have prevented this illness or treated it properly.

Of course I'm not allowed to make diagnostic assessments of clients under our ridiculous laws, which are strongly biased toward conventional medicine, so I have to curtail this part of my work somewhat, to the detriment of the many people who could be helped by it.

Let me give you another tragic case -- Muhammad Ali, the great boxer. Here is a man who had strong physical health through the planet Mars, but chose a profession which so taxed his body that his nervous system could not handle the stress and he developed a paralytic nerve disorder.

But why would someone so sensitive to his body allow such a thing to happen? Pride is the culprit. Pride blinds us to situations which we would otherwise avoid. To put it this way possibly does not do justice to Ali. Some people make conscious sacrifices for their race, family and friends. They sense their place in history and accept certain risks in order to make their contribution. Ali knew there were risks to his continuing to fight, but he did it anyway. A mistake? The Astrology of the Eight Fields of Living suggests that all leaders in society engage consciously or subconsciously in forms of self-sacrifice. Ali is such a person.

I would like to close with a further note on this field of physical health. It is more properly called "the field of physicality", and includes longevity, the institution of marriage, and even significations regarding physical charisma.

Scientific research into conventional systems of astrology would confirm that they cannot determine either physical longevity or the longevity of a marriage. Such issues would make good research projects because they deal with objective facts rather than subjective states.

For an interesting case study on physical charisma, see Adolf Hitler in Appendix B.