Thoughtful response, Rede. Note that I have re-edited the above set up. And at top of my post I have related it to psychology and pneumatology, which, IMO are "sciences", especially pneumatology (the mother of psychology), which deserve far more attention than they are getting.
It goes without saying that I have a great deal of respect for who we are, somatologically--that is, physically--the rightful realm of the hard sciences. But, with you, I have a strong intuitive feeling that "there is a greater reality" than that sensed by the senses and confined to the somatic dimensions.
I repeat: What I am calling for is a holistic approach to understanding what nature is and who we are within it. Perhaps life a matter of nature, nurture and pneumature. This holistic approach is calls for a delicate balance of somatic, psychosomatic and pneumasomatic factors--physical, mental and spiritual. Health is what we call it when all three are in balance and harmony.
This poses questions about the nature and cause of diseases. Somatic diseases are obvious. There was a time when medical science believed that all diseases are somatic. They bring on pains and suffering to the body and mind, as a whole, and in its parts. They operate somato psychically.
PSYCHOSOMATIC DISEASE
But what of diseases which appear to originate in the psyche, the mind, that give aches and pain to the body?
Since the 1930's we have become familiar with the term, "psychosomatic". Medical science finally came to accept that certain, not all, physical aches and pain can originate in the way we precess things, mentally. Stress, that is, stress in excess, in the mind can give us the feeling of physical stress and pain in the body.
See THE STRESS OF LIFE, by the great Canadian researcher, Dr. Hans Selye. (do a google). Experimenting with animals, Dr. Selye demonstrated what excessive stress--some stress is normal--can to the glands and bodies of animals. It can bring about a painful and early death.
However, Selye took note that none of the animals used in the experiment every gave themselves stress. All stress was imposed on them by humans. It seemed that only humans gave themselves stress.
PNEUMA-PSYCHOSOMATIC DISEASE
Enter the pneuma factor. (Be back. Got to go, for now. More on this, later.)
Last edited by Revlgking; 06/20/08 08:47 PM.
