Can our body heal itself?

The short answer is - Yes.

A fractured bone regrows and mends the break. Small cuts on the skin will heal without any medications.

These all happen due to the Medicine Within called as Prana and, Bodily Intelligence (explained further below).

Self healing is not a miracle

We hear some real-life stories of cancer patients gaining full recovery. But we tend to call those as ‘miracles’.

But for complex illnesses, many others often find that the body is not able to self-heal.

Why?

May be we have forgotten our innate abilities? May be our bodily intelligence, which is also part of Cosmic Intelligence (Mahat) needs rekindling? May be we have lost that art, that connection? Don’t know for sure.

There could be many reasons.

If the animals can heal themselves of complex issues, why can’t we humans- the most intelligent of all species?

Some type of lizards regrow their tails. Sharks have great self-healing capacity. In Atlantic Shark Conservatory, a white shark named “Crescent” was seen with some serious injuries in 2017 with a split dorsal fin. The research team saw him in 2022 and was able to see that his dorsal fin “zipped” back up. The genome of great whites was investigated recently in 2019 and adaptations for wound healing were clearly evident in the results.

Some Westerner’s accounts of Indian Yogis around 1900s (e.g. Paul Brunton), mention such incredible self-healing achieved by the Yogis.

But why go that far in time?

Here is this modern day Yogi- who did this extraordinary feat of squeezing his body in a a small box and remain under water for 5 minutes. (DO NOT TRY THIS EVER!)

In nut shell, when we MAY have so much control over our body or some ability to rekindle its innate healing power- either by itself or by connecting to some Higher Power through Yoga Meditation- then perhaps we may be able to heal it out of any complex conditions.

Till then we have to rely on modern medicine or, on the Medicine Within to certain extent.

The Medicine Within

Yoga, the sister science of Ayurveda, discovered that our body function is regulated by life energy. Like all matter, our body and mind is nothing but combination of energies, governed by life energy or Prana. This Prana is the Medicine Within.

When the skin gets a cut or when we get any infection, many a times we heal without any medication. Modern science tells that the white cells, T cells etc act to kill the germs, to effect healing.

But who guides the white cells? Who equips them with such mechanism?
Science stops at referring it to ‘brain’ or at the most ‘mind’.

But then, what guides the brain or the mind?
Here science again points to some electrochmical , physiobilogical process of the brain.

But what programmed these processes? Who controls them to act in a particular fashion?

Science till yet has not given satisfactory answers to such questions.

The answer is Prana- the life energy inherent in Nature.

Yoga says Prana is everywhere and it is what informs everything in nature- seasonal cycles of trees, behaviors of ants in stocking food, migration paths of birds and whales…whatever you wonder about ‘how it happens’.

What is bodily Intelligence?

It is an element of Consciousness in a sense.

Going back to big-bang (modern view of cosmos origination), Mahat or Cosmic Intelligence came into existence. The individualized aspect of that Intelligence that permeates the whole cosmos is bodily intelligence.

It may be regarded by some as intellect in brain. But its a limited view.

Modern science has now recognized that intelligence is present at cellular level- a view held in ancient teachings since tens of thousands of years.

By this intelligence, the muscle cells know to extract protein from food, fat cells know how to break down carbs and so on.

Even its same intelligence present in ants that makes them behave in certain way. Its same intelligence that makes an apple tree grow from apple seed and converts the apple we eat into our body.

In nut shell, our body, each cell, each organ ‘KNOWS’ far more and better than we tend to believe.

How we can use the Medicine Within?

Ayurveda uses this ‘Intelligence’ aspect in healing, along with Prana.

How?

For that we may need a quick understanding of Ayurveda’s view on the disease formation within the body.

When we abuse our body with wrong habits, bad diet, this Intelligence gets ‘covered’ per se- like mud covering the diamond. Sometimes, we may get external bugs too. When that happens, the doshas, some cells, tissues (often regarded as weakest link) kind of lose their optimal guidance and start to behave in sub-optimal ways. Then the associated organs can not function optimally, can’t effectively break down their respective inputs from food we eat and, more waste begins to form within the body- called toxins or ama. The external bugs may further impair organ functionality. These subtle toxins accumulated may create blockages and flow of Prana may get affected, leading to dis-ease.

Simplistically speaking, Ayurveda herbs aim to detox the body and bodywork therapies aim to open the energy channels of the body to facilitate free flow of Prana, to effect self-healing. Self-healing can be as well seen as elimination of bugs and increased immunity against them. In whatever way, once the body’s self-healing ability takes over, there is no need for further treatment.

That’s why Ayurveda therapies place much importance on re-kindling or uncovering this bodily intelligence so it can open healing channels and start process of healing using the Medicine Within.

Of course the healing outcome depends on stage of the dis-ease (which are 6 according to Ayurveda) and that’s why, as with everything, one needs to act before it’s too late.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:

This blog no where suggests that one can heal without medication. One should carry on with their medical treatment advised by their doctor.