$500 Piece of my Mind

My new goto response when the pharmaceutical research firms come a callin’

I was offered $500 for a phone interview by a pharmaceutical research firm to give my opinion on hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia.

This was my reply to their email:

I’m probably not the best person to ask about this as I’ve lost faith in the modern medical paradigm of disease management which attempts to hack our infinitely complex physiology without ever fully understanding it or its interrelationships with the microbiome (and everything else). We’re an irreducibly complex system and disease is not a sign that we’re “broken”, it’s simply an expression of the environmental inputs that are determined not only by the physical world with its toxins, pathogens and nutrients, but by our mental, emotional, and spiritual health, and the “toxins,” “pathogens,” and “nutrients,” present in those higher realms, which are reflected in our physical bodies. Trying to find a simple biochemical solution for a physical problem without understanding what really causes it at a deep level will either worsen the physical problem over time or lead to shunting it into some other physical or non-physical manifestation.

So the ultimate goal of medicine can’t just be the resolution of symptoms, it must be the resolution of the deeper causes that are being manifested as those symptoms. Symptoms are just the immune system fighting off toxins and pathogens. The immune system isn’t broken in hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia or any other disease. It is doing its job perfectly. The “trestment” our modern paradigm will find will simply attempt to block a specific immune function so that the illness doesn’t manifest any more. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of what is going on. It doesn’t address why the immune system is acting up. Since it doesn’t address the why, it will always fail. It’s like someone being burned from a fire and their solution is to numb themselves up and try to speed up their healing so the burning is no longer apparent. Fires tend to spread and get worse if you dont put them out and so do the underlying causes of disease. Eventually the salves and lotions and numbing agents will fail to cover up the burning, or you'll just be all burnt up.

Patients and physicians both need to wake up and realize life isn't all about comfort, it's about refining the self, and because that is the fundamental nature of our reality, problems will always arise. They are only signs pointing to the ultimate problem everyone has, which is themselves. Our selves are what needs fixing. Disease is just a means to make us realize that. The secret to healing is to embrace its true meaning.

The surveyor replied:

“I really appreciate you taking the time to respond to me. I found your message very poignant.“

They didn’t think it was worth $500, but I can still hope this short exchange plants a seed that one day bears fruit for them or for you.

If so it will have proven to be priceless.