THE FIVE SENSES

I have also frequently had the privilege of sitting in the cockpit, sometimes of a jumbo jet and, not so long ago, on a short flight from Belfast to Glasgow, I was asked to sit in the jump seat of a 28-seater plane. It was not a particularly nice day and because the plane was flying low I could see the Irish Sea beneath me as we passed through patches of thick fog. I looked at the Captain and First Officer and thought to myself how busy they were kept, during that half-hour journey, keeping that plane in the air. As I was very cramped and could hardly move I did not have a chance to go to sleep in the plane, as I usually do. Instead, I followed every movement of both men. It was an old plane, and it was with great admiration that I observed their skill in landing the plane so that we scarcely knew that we were on the landing strip. Once we had landed I asked the pilot if he was always able to let the plane touch down so softly. He said not always. My second question was how often had he been in danger and what does he do in such circumstances. He answered that you could almost smell or feel when there is something not right. I pondered over these answers at the time and later, when I started to write this book, I thought again about how a pilot must be in harmony with his five senses. If he were not, I am sure there would be real problems. It is amazing that man’s five tangible senses are so tuned in to man’s technology.

The other day I looked out of a window as I thought about a difficult problem I had with a patient. I thought of the different ways that this patient, who seemed to be a hopeless case, could be helped. To be very honest, all the possibilities that came to mind told me that there seemed to be no answer to this man’s problems. Suddenly, a little bird appeared on the big lawn of our Troon clinic. I looked at that little bird and thought of this little creature that had the ability to fly. While it was doing its little circuits above the lawn I thought of that little creature which has the same senses that man has. Suddenly, it disappeared and then I saw the reason why. Although the bird had probably not seen it, there was a cat under the rhododendrons contemplating how it could catch this little creature. Instinctively, the bird had flown away to look for a safer place. Like the pilot who told me of his intuition, this little bird had sensed when danger was imminent.

Sometimes people speak about a sixth sense – intuition – and a great deal has been written about this subject. Mostly it is said that the sixth sense is an intangible sense, but has anything been scientifically proven about intuition or does it just exist in our imagination? It has taken me many years to discover what this particular sixth sense, or intuition, is all about. In the conclusion of this book I would like to explain some of my tangible findings.

When I think of the enormous passenger aircraft in which I have travelled, compared with this little goldfinch, the two extremes teach us a lesson about Nature, technology and science working in harmony together. This harmony can only be achieved if we realise that if we belong to nature we must live with nature and that we are only a minute part in this great universe where so much can be done even with a very small touch.

I remember a patient who was told in hospital by his doctor to go home and live with his illness and I was thinking of the little I felt I could do to help. I pondered a while on the intuition of that little goldfinch and tried to think intuitively and positively about the patient in order to find an answer. The answer eventually came to me when I later saw this man, who had an incurable disease, back at work and grateful for the little I had been able to do for him. He had followed my advice to the letter, and his progress proves that the laws of science are there to help us discover the secrets of Nature and make these available to man.

I often think of people who were almost crippled, living in places where there was barely any medical help and who have gone to a person with little or no medical knowledge who were nevertheless able to help. I have never forgotten the blind practitioner in Sri Lanka who with only one touch of his thumb clicked a disc into place that had been out for years. I saw it with my own eyes. This blind practitioner, with some osteopathic skills, but without formal training in manipulation, clicked the disc into place. Because his thumb was on the right place and on the right energy point, it could be done. It often surprises me how major problems can be cleared by a little touch and it makes me appreciate that Shakespeare could have been writing for today when he wrote: ‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.’

Every day in practice I am surprised by what works with a patient, what methods can be used and how little we really know of the human body.

In this chapter I will set out to explain some of these methods. Some of them have been viewed by many as having no medical value, but over the 30-odd years I have been in medical practice I have seen for myself how many of these methods have been effective, and how many have gone on to receive wider recognition. I will say that it is wonderful to see how with a little adjustment so much can be achieved. Life is a constant renewal of cells; illness and disease are a relentless breakdown, and yet it sometimes takes very little to increase the quality of life and improve situations beyond human understanding.

Well over a year ago I was informed that my youngest daughter was pregnant, and her husband showed me a scan of a tiny living creature, no bigger than a cashew nut, at about eight or nine weeks development. Two months later he showed me another scan and I could clearly see a little baby sucking its thumb. That little creature has now become a very big boy, full of life. At the same time my third daughter was expecting a baby. In her case it was more worrying because she had already miscarried three times. After six months it was decided that the baby was in distress and she was delivered prematurely as this was considered best for both mother and baby. When that baby was born it was scarcely bigger than a packet of sugar, weighing all of two pounds and three ounces. But the baby was very much alive. After her first day in an incubator I truly believed that the baby would stay alive. She possessed a tremendous spirit which wanted to stay alive and she fought to get rid of all the little drains, tubes and monitors to which she was attached. This baby would live because I could see that the tangible five senses were in harmony. The breath of life was given to her and that would keep her alive.

She did well until she was about one week old, when trouble started. Her tummy started to swell because her digestive system was not functioning. When the doctor decided to operate I prayed all night and by five o’clock in the morning the answer came to me. Because of my emotional involvement my intuition had let me down and it was not until I had thought and prayed that I remembered what I had written about in my book on body energy: the tremendous power to balance energy we possess in our own hands. I phoned my son-in-law very early that morning and told him to go to the hospital immediately. He should disinfect his hands and then all he needed to do was to place his hands right under his baby’s navel. Located at this point is an enormous life centre which not only directs the nervous system, but also has a powerful influence on the digestive system. I asked him to put his left hand under the navel of his little baby and to cover this with his right hand, while breathing deeply in and out. After ten minutes he phoned me from the hospital and told me that a miracle had happened because for the first time the baby had had a normal motion – and she has been right ever since. He told me that he had felt a distinct pain in his left arm and been forced to withdraw his hands. It was then that she had passed a normal bowel action.

Nature will tell us what to do and will also direct us, if we intuitively let Nature work. When I look at that little creature who is so full of life and almost perfectly made, I see once again what can be achieved with a little touch. Her transformation was achieved by transferring energy through the hands, just as I have described in my book Body Energy. This energy transfer is neither a mystery nor a secret; it is simply the use of our own power and strength to balance energy. A small manipulation or even one acupuncture needle can balance energy and restore harmony where there is an imbalance. This is often the most important aspect to consider when treating people and there are many ways that we can do it. Let us look further at some of the different therapies.

Just as my son-in-law only touched the little tummy of his daughter by placing his left hand first under her navel and right hand on top, so there are many other simple therapies that we can use. Let us look first at what we can do for ourselves with our own hands, thereby avoiding expensive medical treatment. We can, in fact, apply our hands, so that we can alleviate our health problems in an easy and safe way. Hands have so much to offer – but is our potential for health present in our own hands? Think of how a nurse can give relief by simply placing a hand on the patient’s forehead. We know that hands can give comfort and if we look further we can clearly see how much power there is in our hands.

The human hand is trained from infancy to express the thought or purpose of the mind which controls it. The hand is the tool which the mind depends upon when it wants to do anything. Thoughts of action naturally turn to the hand for their expression. The hand is the first means of expression. A baby uses its hands long before it learns to walk. The hand ministers and it carries aid. The hand lifts the fallen and ministers to the sick. It is peculiarly the organ of expression of the good wishes of the kindly disposed. When we are hurt, we instinctively place our hand upon the injured part. When another person suffers and we sympathise, we instinctively use our hand to soothe their pain.

Clasped hands represent the universal pledge of friendship and good will. From the earliest dawn of civilisation, the hand has been used in the most sacred ceremonies. The hand is the natural organ of expression, and its actions are mental symbols to which man has learned to make response through untold ages of experience and adaptation. Even thousands of years ago, the ancient Chinese found that the abdominal area had reflex-pains that refer to certain zones or organs. These zones were charted for posterity. These zones of pain were then known as the alarm signal areas to the viscera which could be developing a state of disease – a sort of warning signal of things to come.

Figure 1 plots these abdominal zones or areas. The abbreviations denote the organ that could be in trouble if a pain develops in any of these areas.