In the ancient Greek philosophy there was a belief that behind the personality, and behind the mind, there resided a deep and mysterious core existence within each individual.

The ancient Greeks knew that there had to be something that existed behind the visible commonplace self, and they felt that this part had to be the spark of life that made them live. This inner spark was a radiance that animated and brought vitality to what would have been an inanimate body.

To understand the workings of the world and the cosmos, the old hermetic philosophers relied heavily upon a philosophy that believed there is a relationship of the little world, which is a human being, to the big world that existed outside of the human being. There are constellations in the brain, solar systems in the heart and planets everywhere within the human body.

The influence of astrology was based on the fact that humans are filled with stars and by virtue of these internal stars, human beings are bound to the majesty of the cosmos. It is the interior stars that are effected by the planetary influences in the cosmos.

Nothing is hidden in nature that the human mind cannot ultimately discover. There is nothing in the farthermost part of space that human consciousness cannot search out and understand. Through the diversity that takes place within a human being the ancients were able to understand the outward nature of reality.

In 1981, Sharon McDonald, Ph.D., conducted a study on the effects of color on rheumatoid arthritis.

"The purpose of her study was to determine what effects the presence of certain colors, directly projected upon the body, might have on the experience of pain.

Data was collected from 60 female volunteers between the ages of 40-60 years who had been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. The variables between the volunteers were the filter types, colors of red, blue and a control color, the presence of a visual barrier, and the duration of exposure.

Three conclusions at the end of the study seemed to be relevant to future health care interventions;

On September 6, 1941, the following announcement appeared in Science Newsletter: New Sonic Generator Kills Bacteria With Short Waves.

"A new generator, that kills bacteria and other microorganisms with very short sound waves, has been built at the University of California. The new device, developed by Prof. A. P. Krueger, consists of a nickel tube within a magnetic field, activated by electrical impulses.

"The tube is first elongated, then contracted by the alternative pulls of the magnets. So rapid is this oscillating motion that the nickel emits sound waves with a high frequency of 9,300 cycles per second. The tone is deadly to bacteria and viruses.

In 1948, a husband and wife research team conducted medical research utilizing magnetic fields. Eugene Barnothy, Ph.D., was a professor of physics in Budapest, and his wife Madeleine was an assistant professor at the University of Illinois Medical Center.

For years they made significant biological discoveries using ISP "C" shaped permanent magnets. Placing young mice in small cages between the gaps of the magnets, they discovered they could completely stop the growth of animals using a magnetic field strength of 5500 Gauss.

Even after the growth development had stopped for six weeks, the female mice remained perfectly healthy, and after removal from the field were able to produce healthy offspring. Males, on the other hand, died after six weeks from being subjected to the same magnetic field strength.

Both Dr. Benjamin Rush (1745-1813) and Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) had very interesting thoughts regarding health and health care. Both men were original signers of the Declaration of Independence and Thomas Jefferson became the 3rd President of the United States.

Thomas Jefferson shared the following thoughts in his ‘Letter to Doctor Caspar Wistar,’ dated June 21, 1807. The letter can be found in the Writings of Thomas Jefferson.

In 1939, a team of medical doctors at Yale University announced an unusual cure for fungus infections of the hands and feet. Their preliminary report appeared in both Science Newsletter of May 6, 1939, and the Journal of the American Medical Association of April 1, 1939.

The team of doctors passed copper through the skin by an electrical current. The afflicted person sits with feet immersed in enamel pans and their hands in other basins. When the infection is on the feet, the hands are immersed in salt solutions and the feet in 0.2 percent copper sulfate solution. For infections of the hands, the relations are reversed.

Whenever we are within the range of hearing music it has an influence upon our body, mind and spirit. Music can speed or slow down our heartbeat, relax or jar our nerves, affect our blood pressure, and affect our digestion and rate of respiration.

Although we have come to understand how music has an effect upon our physical state, the ancient philosophers recognized a far deeper importance to music and many cultures recognized a sacredness belonging to music.

In 1997 a very special garden was built by David McBurney, who lived in Enfield in Sydney, Australia. McBurney is a gardener by trade and he wanted to develop a tool that might help children who are blind.

His special garden was an adjunct to a program that was run by the Royal Blind Society in New South Wales. The Royal Blind Society was running an early intervention program for blind and visually impaired children up to six years old.

The Society had a playroom with toys and gadgets that are arranged to stimulate the senses. McBurney believed that the children might have more fun outdoors, while stimulating their senses through smells, sounds, taste, touch and sight. His garden consisted of a lawn with several small sandstone blocks arranged in a semi-circle. There was surrounding garden beds with a range of different plants, including perfumed flowers, aromatic herbs and fruit trees. The garden also included tactile objects such as bark, pine needles and leaves.

On January 28, 1997, an interesting article appeared in The Australian, a newspaper in Australia. The article was discussing the birthday party of Jeanne Calment, who was celebrating her 122nd birthday in her nursing home in the south of France.

She was born in Aries, France in 1875, a year before the invention of the telephone. She remembered the builders erecting the Eiffel Tower, and when she was a teenager she met Vincent van Gogh. She was an adult when the Wright Brothers first flew in 1903, and she was already drawing a pension when Hitler invaded France.

Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour starred in the 1980 move, ‘Somewhere in Time.’ In the movie, Reeve was staying in a hotel, in 1972, for some rest from overwork. While walking through the hotel, Reeve fell in love with a of a young woman’s picture, who lived in the hotel in 1912. The more Reeve thought about the woman in the picture, the more obsessed he became with her. Having come across a book written about time travel, Reeve decided to follow the instructions in the book, so he could travel back to 1912, and be with his love.

The instructions in the book included; utilizing self-hypnosis, wearing the same type of clothes worn during the desired period, wearing his hair as men did in that period, and also having some physical items from the period. He was to meditate on the image of the woman and the date that he wanted to be with her. He was using self-hypnosis to create, in his mind and awareness, that she exists and he could interact with her. He was also to remove any item from his view that would remind him of his current year. In the movie, he accomplished his task.

Paracelsus, a famous philosopher of the 1500s who spent a great amount of time in nature, found his interest peaked in virtually every aspect of the natural world. One of his observations involved a pond near his home. During the spring the pond was very active with fish. During the middle of summer, the pond became heated and some fish died. During the winter time, the outside temperature became extremely cold, and the pond became frozen. The fish became less active, some swam deeper under the surface, and some of the fish died.

What fascinated the old philosopher was why the pond went through these changes. He reasoned that the sun, the earth, and the pond water were still of the same essence throughout the year. If all the basic elements remained the same, then what would cause the changes of heat and cold? He then realized that the pathway of the sun across the sky was different throughout the year. He recognized that, while the elements had not changed, the relationship between the elements was different.

The philosopher carried the theory of relationship to many other areas of life.

The alchemical drawing that you see is from Michael Maier (1618), it is titled, ‘Let Nature Be Your Guide.’ 

The footprints represent the pioneers that have followed nature. The walking stick represents the use of reason, the spectacles on the man represent the importance of experience, and the lantern represents the study of writings.