If we look at the human genome and genetic material of diseasing agents as libraries
full of information, infectious diseases can be regarded as a scholarly clash between
scribes. A simple cold resembles a dispute concerning minor differences whereas a
life-threatening disease can be compared to a religious war between orthodox faculties.
Our immune system defends the human genome as if it were the Holy Scripture and alien
genetic material is dealt with as apocrypha, as they do contain a message that does
not correspond to the truth as we see it.
The reality of the history of our genetic material is that 95 % is said to stem from
bacteria and viruses that somehow and somewhere in time managed to get their information
included in the human genetic library. A lot of their “scriptures” are badly understood
and derogatorily called junk DNA. One could say that they're in the Vatican but not
acknowledged to contain a useful message for humanity: a fate I wouldn't doubt will
change with time and certainly better than that of those that were burned on the stake.
A fast-forwarded replay of the history of the human genome would thus show a gradually
expanding library. In the process it has been restructured innumerable times, new
sections were added and other ones sank into oblivion. The whole library burned down
many times but thanks to the many versions of it the continuing evolution of its content
was never seriously jeopardised.
Parts of the human race that lived in isolation for long periods of time fell seriously
ill from innocent childhood diseases, as did the Native American Indians who were
practically decimated by the measles, while in return syphilis that was relatively
harmless for them left deep scars in Europe.
The whole concept of infectious diseases is based on the delusion of separation, of
“me” versus “not me”, and no other outcome can be envisioned as that in time we will
make peace with more and more microbes, find ways to live with them, and learn and
benefit from them. Current epidemics are showing which lost parts of our potential
unity are being retrieved and brought back to us so we can fulfil the higher purpose
of our existence.
Death and infectious diseases, suffering and chronic miasmatic diseases: they are
all part and parcel of this process. Microbes play their part and serve the human
race by helping it to make the necessary evolutionary steps and do this in an impersonal
way. They come where they are invited, flourish where conditions are favourable and
leave when their purpose has been achieved.
Apart from the fact that the vast majority of genetic material in our body cells originates
from microbes, the bacteria in and on our body also outnumber our cells. We can add
to that the rapid replacement of all our bodily cells. Although the seven years it
takes shows a slower rejuvenation than other tissues even bone is replaced. Each time
atoms are replaced in a cell, changes in the DNA can occur. And then there is the
effect of radiation and an ever-growing number of chemical substances present in our
environment.
In this light the human genome is anything but a fixed entity, always changing and
in constant communication with its surroundings. At the micro level also, the process
of meeting strangers, of learning to accept their ways, of coming to respect their
beliefs and finding a way to live with them in harmony is often a painful one. Epidemics
take their toll and miasmatic diseases are like a bush fire that keeps smoking for
a long time.
To suggest that homeopathy can change the outcome would imply that homeopaths know
the course evolution has to take. However tempting this idea may be for the ego I
suggest we denounce it as false. What we can offer is to reduce suffering by “the
lifting and annihilation of the disease in its entire extent in the shortest, most
reliable, and least disadvantageous way …” (Organon § 2). Not by killing the messenger
or burning the message but by gratefully adding the scrolls to our library and living
their wisdom.
Harry van der Zee, Editor
