Fear and Disease by Dr. Ted J. Cibik

It seems it was a lifetime ago, that I heard my judo instructors' voice saying to me that I need to relax, flow and cultivate the mindset of Mushin or "no mind." I was only 6 years old at the time, and it seemed perplexing to me that you would have "no mind" when you were fighting! After all, wasn't the intent to pummel the opponent into submission? That it required thought to outwit your opponent! Wasn't this the art of judo? Ah….. I had much to learn, but luckily, plenty of time to do it.

Confucius said, "A common man marvels at uncommon things; a wise man marvels at the commonplace."

I have wondered since those early days of martial arts and meditation training how mere thought or intention can lead to the manifestation of fierce fighting while remaining calm, or to cultivate euphoria from quiescent meditation practice. How something as undeniable as awareness is beyond our conceptional grasp of explanation. Knowing yourself, your own mind, and being able to "flow" takes time to master.

Self Empowerment

Being an asthmatic and training in Judo and meditation as a young child was enormously challenging before the common use of rescue medication. My asthma attacks would last up to several days at a time. One of the “gifts” that came to pass from these frequent asthma attacks is that you come to understand yourself more fully. You know your strengths and abilities (mine was that I could quiet my mind and still my thoughts through meditation), as well as your weaknesses, as I had congenital asthma since I was a baby.

I also became aware of how asthma (you can fill in the blank here with your own affliction) made me fearful of the next attack, and if I had not become aware, or mindful of my fear, that it would have inhibited me from playing with my friends and trying new experiences as a child. Thank God that I found martial arts and meditation as a proactive means to face my fears and provide me the tools I needed to face those fears head-on. How does a patients fear truly keep them from living?

Most therapists and physicians would agree that fear can be debilitating. Fear is something that patients live with continually whether admitted or not. What transpires in ones own mind, frequently is never discussed with loved ones -as a means of protecting them - especially in children. Disease can be enormously frightening to children, as well as to adults and let us not forget about the parents who have to watch their child go through a severe or life threatening disease. All these emotionally charged states elicit enormous chemical changes in the body called fight or flight or stress.

Western medicine has noted the value of the relaxation response (including QiGong/meditation) as an effective method to combat stress thanks to innovative work by Herbert Benson M.D., a cardiologist at Harvard University, and Robert Sapolsky, Ph.D. a researcher at Stanford University. Dr. Sapolsky was one of the first western scientists to prove that sustained stress, real or imagined, can damage the region of the brain responsible for learning and memory! By making use of the relaxation response and its capacity to strengthen our own immune system, we are learning that we can take control back from the autonomic nervous system and “manually” reprogram ourselves into a better state of health.

Interestingly enough, not only can external pathogens affect us such as bacteria and viruses, but the inner world of our emotions can function as an internal pathogenic factor that can affect us as well. Here psychology meets pathology. Suppressed emotions such as anger or grief energetically attack our defensive Wei chi (energetic body or astral body) from the inside out, and can actually create holes in the energetic matrix.

For example, Dr. Molly Barnes, M.D. found in a unique study at the University of Wisconsin that women who were sexually abused as children are more likely to develop fibromyalgia as adults. Additional studies have shown that 80% of women with chronic pain syndromes had suffered major childhood trauma. Dr. Barne's theory is that trauma creates abnormal nerve pathways that interfere with everything from heart rate (heart/brain) to pain perception.

What is lacking today in healthcare is addressing peoples own mind and the negative mental games that a patient can play with themselves in the silence of their thoughts. This constant barrage of worry, fear, anxiety, sadness and questions of “why me” all contribute to a mental state that can challenge ones own faith in their own spiritual belief systems.

Some patients are fortunate enough to have absolute faith in their religious beliefs when they are facing their own mortality, while others lose their faith. I see this in phase-four cancer patients consistently. These patients seem to have deeper questions when confronted with their own demise. The fear of dying, the fear of loss, the fear from taking things for granted (such as relationships and life itself), all come to a culmination. The patients’ musings and reflections of their own lives become a point of discussion in my office - and ultimately a part of their healing.

I should state here as a 89th generation disciple of the Yu Qing Huang Lao Pai (Jade Purity Yellow Emperor Lao Tzu Sect) that I come from a long linage of priests and physicians who can deal with such responsibility. In this tradition, physicians and priests were the same person and had training in both aspects. I was gifted the title Zhong Yi (Chinese physician) by the linage holder of this tradition.

The Physical, Emotional and Spiritual

Wei Chi Fields

Of course any disease is about the immune system, and the Chinese Health Practitioner concept of Wei chi (pronounced “whey chee”) can be enormously helpful in helping us to think about immunity. The Wei chi field, for lack of better description, is a force field that exudes out from our body and surrounds us in three distinct layers; it also connects us to the environment beyond our bodies. The Chinese words mean “protective field.” TCM schools of the west and the indigenous Chinese teachings differ in their understanding of Wei chi. The TCM schools believe that the Wei chi is limited to the surface of the body and circulates only within the skin and the muscles. However, in the original teachings, the three Wei chi fields link directly to the three Dan Tians, or energetic orbs that form the vessel of the body.

A point of reference: the Three Dan Tians are a Taoist system, whereas the chakras are a Buddhist system In ancient texts, the two systems were explained to be a part of each other.

These three Dan Tians correspond to the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of man and each Dan Tian directly affects the other. I call this the Triune Nature of man. Additionally, this concept is extremely important for understanding the inner alchemy of Taoist meditations.

Not only does Wei chi field connect energetically to the internal organs and radiate out to the external tissues of the body, but also Wei chi interacts and communicates with the external environment (i.e. other people and their Wei Chi fields), and, most importantly for us, protects us from the pathogens of the outside world. So the very people we surround ourselves with directly affect our recuperation.

Since emotional pathogens (excessive emotional states) are vibrationally powerful, they can gain access to our internal organs very easily. Like ripples in a pond, the vibrations begin to permeate the meridian system, burrowing themselves deeper and deeper. These external holes then allow pathogenic factors (virus, bacteria, fungi, etc.) to enter the body and manifest themselves in multitudes of ways. Since in Chinese Medicine the Wei chi is linked to the internal organs, damage to the Wei chi can begin the state of Yin/Yang imbalance that creates disease or further propagates it.

Fear, anxiety and grief weaken and attack the Wei chi from the inside out. This predisposes the weakened Wei chi to additional assaults from outside pathogenic factors. If this is not interrupted, additional problems can materialize other than the original disease.

Western-based medicine has introduced an enormous amount of understanding of how the parts of the body work. However, the strength of Chinese medicine is in the summation of the parts: a sentient hologram of the triune nature of man that is more than parts working together. In chronic illnesses, the true answer or “cure” from disease is following the model of Taoist thinking - capitalizing on the ancients wisdom of how the three Dan Tians work together to make one whole.

Meditation, QiGong, Taijichuan, mindfulness (the list goes on) should be a part of our mainstream treatment/education to allow patients the option of being proactive in their disease process. What better lasting gift to give, but to allow a person to control their own fear as they gracefully age?

Copyright 2007 Dr. Ted J. Cibik, ND, DMQ is executive Director of Inner Strength, Inc, an education and clinical treatment center specializing in Chinese Medicine including Medical QiGong and the energetics of nutrition. Further information can be found for the clinic or Dr. Cibik's Books and videos at www.inner-strength.com or for certification and education at www.inner-strength.org