The value of disease

José López Guido

We live in a state of constant anxiety, exposed, threatened, and vulnerable due to the nature of this pandemic. The coronavirus has become a harmful ghost, lurking in the shadows, ruining our lives. The virus may have already visited one of your distant relatives, a friend, or perhaps a loved one. It took us by surprise and has upended our lives.

A disease of this caliber may have, as we know, significant consequences. A disease is also “the result of a lack of harmony,” and can be a warning sign pointing to an area of our life where love is missing. We may not be giving or getting love from people around us, and we may be lacking self-love.

When we’re not loved, besides being affected by that mere fact, a self-destruction mechanism emerges in our subconscious mind. We need to feel approved of and loved. Otherwise, we become ill because we don’t feel deserving. Disease, therefore, roots itself in disapproval; it’s the embryo of self-destruction.

When we don’t love somebody, deep inside we’re hating them. Hatred triggers organic disintegration, hurting the one who feels it and the one who receives it. “What we send out comes back.”

The first warnings from nature to human beings are mild diseases. If we don’t pay attention to these signs and change our harmful habits, the diseases will become severe. If we persist in behaving lovelessly, they can worsen and eventually become fatal.

The warnings or diseases that nature gives us are intended to encourage a change in some of our attitudes, in those attitudes that harm us and contaminate others. Our environment can change when we change our attitudes.

When we don’t love ourselves, we think of self-destruction. When our own thoughts turn against us, our health begins to deteriorate. Our inner self obeys unquestioningly the unconscious commands we give it.

An outbreak of a contagious disease occurs when the surrounding conditions are favorable to its spread. These may include poor hygiene or eating habits, amino acid deficiency, inherited genetic disorders, etc. (physical causes). Moreover, the ideal environment for any disease to spread is a lack of love.

Whenever we feel threatened by or suffer a disease, nature is giving us a chance to examine where it came from and where our own conscious or unconscious determinations have taken us. A determination is a fervent desire to see something happening. The wishes we once held in our mind are the life we lead today. We can wish, for example, to be loved by our father. Our subconscious mind receives the request and displays, perhaps, a type of behavior to fulfill it. So, we think that a disease can make that happen! If we’re ill, then our father will come to see how we’re feeling and will give us love. It’s quite common that some determinations can lead us along the tortuous path of disease.

A disease opens the possibility to tap into our inner wisdom. Wisdom that is all-knowing, all-encompassing, and all-understanding: “the absolute whole.” When we’re ill, we feel the need to examine our existence. We ask ourselves whether we’re doing the right thing; if we’ve been good parents, spouses, children; if we’ve left something unfinished; whether we’re guilty or angry; if we’ve put our affairs in order to die well; or if we haven’t closed any cycles.

With introspection, we begin to contemplate change. And with change comes serenity. The more we endeavor to redirect our destiny, the more satisfied we will feel because of the good we’ve done. And all thanks to disease.

Sometimes diseases are the means to reconnect with ourselves and promote self-transcendence. As one looks beyond, values change. Diseases encourage us to live in a more natural way. We get a disease because our energy doesn’t flow: we wear plastic clothes and eat food that is full of chemicals, growth hormones, and artificial flavors or even genetically modified. We live in houses that make us ill; we’re immersed in a world filled with electromagnetic radiation; and we welcome stress to achieve success. And in that never-ending race we fail to follow the basic rules of human relationships, walk all over people, trigger resentment, carry guilt.

A disease is an opportunity for introspection, to examine how we live. It’s a bump in the road that allows us to stop and come closer to our ancestors. When we get to know them, we gain a better understanding of ourselves.

When we achieve clarity through introspection, there’s no going back. If we don’t change today the way we think and behave, tomorrow may be too late. Nature’s calling today. It’s an invitation to return to our roots, because it’s in our roots where ancestral wisdom lies and reconnects us to traditions, to respect for people, our planet and its flora and fauna—the place where we live.

Disease is one of the seven riders of the Apocalypse and the way to beat it—besides what science prescribes—is through love. Because where there is love, all is well.

José López Guido