The Act of Healing Your Body: Book Review of Cancer, I Love You

I have never had doubts about the potential healing power through faith and belief. When this occurs, it is often regarded and considered a miracle, and in many ways it is. Genuine and all-encompassing faith can move mountains and at that point and stage not even the sky can limit or contain its immense expansive and luminous powers. Belief or faith as a thought process tied and connected with emotions has a drive that can change lives and mobilize and accelerate the healing process.

Fortunately, this is not necessarily treated as an alien concept in today’s science. A case in point would be the book Cancer, I Love You by the physician Alexandre Rushenas. In this book, the author demonstrates the processes that our body undergoes when we change certain patterns of thought and emotion and how this could lead not only to a more fulfilled and healthier physical as well as spiritual life, but how it could also unlock potentials for healing in various diseases, including cancer.

First off, Rushenas gives us a glimpse of his own troubled and suffering past. He was born in Iran, attended a multi-faith school and was living during the tumultuous times of the Iranian Revolution; he had to witness, experience - and eventually accept - the futile and cold-blooded murder and execution of his father by violent elements of a changing regime.

As a child, he used to believe in God, but this horrendous and inexplicable loss of his father cast everything into somber shrouds of doubt. Yet over the years, he managed to recover and regain belief and faith by channeling them in the direction of medicine. The result is a refreshingly renegade outlook away from traditional scientific practice and medicine in favor of an alternative, more holistic and psychological approach, one that I myself accept and embrace.

We would need to understand his philosophical viewpoint before we can fully understand and appreciate what he has to say about the healing potentials of our body. His ideas philosophically speaking are rather simplistic, yet they include interesting metaphors to show how our mind and body interact and combine to create either healthy or unhealthy lifestyles and conditions.

Rushenas breaks down the universe into three parts. On the outermost level, there is the planetary dimension or realm, which includes everything out there from our tiny infinitesimal speck of a planet towards possibly two trillion galaxies in the known as well as still largely unknown and unexplored universe. This mind-boggling fact about our living space is something we tend to forget, but it may help ground us a little more in our daily life and existence.

Then there is us, the human level. This is a state that has been reached throughout evolution and continues to evolve. This is a realm that has created scientific and technological advances as well as impressive and unequaled works of art, poetry and literature, all of which separate and distinguish us from the domains of animals and our ancestors. We continue this quest of knowledge to not only understand ourselves better but to explore our surroundings into the farthest reaches of the planetary dimension.

Finally, there is the cellular level. This is the microcosmic part of and within us. In the cellular dimension, we have hundreds of trillions of cells. These cells have evolved, adapted and gone through myriad changes throughout to lead to our current existence on this planet. At its inception, we all start off as the mother of all cells, the zygote, and through embryogenesis we evolve and cross from the cellular level into the human dimension. Yet most of the times, we live and act as if there is only the human realm, ignoring the other dimensions that are part and parcel of who and where we are in space and time.

Nonetheless, we are sometimes reminded, more often painfully than not, that this is not the only level. Our cellular dimension is most intimately connected and interconnected with us, so when things go wrong, we will feel it. For instance, when we get sick, this will spread out to the second and larger dimension and would interfere with our lifestyle, and in unfortunate or advanced cases, could even lead to death. For instance, when we catch pneumonia, unbeknownst to us, there are billions of cells attacking the germs and trying to restore our inner balance of homeostasis.

Yet even in peaceful times, meaning when there are no imminent attacks from foreign agents, our body is in the process of constant renewal. On a continuous basis, dying cells are replaced, damaged ones are repaired and up to three hundred million new cells may be produced every minute. These cells are genetically designed and trained to do what is best for our health, with little or no conscious or willful action necessary from us, the owners of the cells.

As owners, or as Rushenas puts it as the gods of the cells, we hover and reside over them and communicate with them in conscious or unconscious manners. However, they do not respond to language, which can be even in the best of times rather ambiguous, but they listen to and obey our emotions only. Any emotion we feel – be they positive or negative - then has a direct impact on the cells of the cellular dimension. This would explain how our attitude can either accelerate healing processes or deteriorate health conditions.

Every emotion emanates a certain type of energy that is absorbed by the cells leading to certain changes on the molecular, chemical and hormonal levels. Emotions can either heal or destroy us. When they are positive, they can give us a sense of well-being and that positivity is embraced by the cells leading to more positive outcomes for the given individual.  

This is not merely a case of pretense or just positive thinking, but it must resonate with genuine feeling and emotion since the message that is transmitted to the cells must be as clear and as unequivocal as possible. This mechanism is mainly responsible for the placebo effect: We truly believe that the medication in question has the properties to heal us (even when they do not and are mere water pills) and this belief becomes an actual fact and condition.

This faith then can propel the cells into more effective and sweeping action that would not be the case otherwise. Anybody who truly believes, regardless of their denomination or belief system, can unleash this power and communicate this message of peace and healing to all the cells of the body. This is the power of prayer; however, it is important to communicate this desire not just through words but through genuine feelings; via a wondrous symbiosis of the brain, emotions and cells, we may reach that desired state of well-being, health, and happiness.

Whenever anyone manages to cure themselves from progressive and terminal diseases, we call it a miracle. Again, it certainly is. It comes from changing one’s perspective from one of fear, worry and hostility to one of peace, compassion and unconditional love. The push may initiate or come from outside of us, it may be a life-changing experience, entity or epiphany, but, in either case, it needs to strongly resonate within us and it will then internally move obstacles and lead to our overall health and well-being.

We should keep in mind that we all have cancerous cells within us that may or may not be expressed and activated during our lifetime. When they are, we see that as an invasion and use war as a metaphor to combat those cells as cancer is in the words of Rushenas an “emotional and physical shock of the highest level in the life of any person.” 

But the problem is that war and strife will intensify negative emotions, which are then also absorbed and taken up by the cells. Our intentions are certainly good but combined with thoughts of aggression, they may have unintentional detrimental effects. In addition to anger, we will also feel shame and despair, and these emotions will wreak havoc on the cellular system.

Of course, it is easier said than done. One cannot change one’s attitude and expect immediate results overnight, the same way radiation and chemotherapy cannot provide quick and instant results. But the prolonged, continuous and authentic practice of love and kindness shall have beneficial effects for everyone involved. We can heal our cells and by extension ourselves, and from this, we shall emanate light and energy towards other humans and outward into the recesses of the planetary dimension.

A feeling of love and acceptance of all humans as well as of all cells within us, including the darker and unwanted ones, shall lead us to better, more fulfilling and more purposeful lives. This love for even the darker parts of oneself explains and underscores the title of this book, namely that one should love every inch of oneself, even the orphaned and harmful perfidious cells within us. 

Through this positive outlook despite, amid and through immense pain and suffering, one can mobilize and summon up all energy to one’s disposal, and one may be more effective in dealing with potentially terminal conditions and diseases. This is the faith that can move mountains, and we are all capable of igniting and spreading it, both within and without.

God as a Narcissistic Artist: A Review of Aronofsky’s mother!

I remember that at the beginning of the year, Darren Aronofsky’s mother! with its headlining poster of Jennifer Lawrence was heralded as one of the most anticipated movies of the year. As a film buff, I was also quite thrilled to see the next film of the filmmaker who had critically acclaimed movies the likes of Pi (1998), the brilliant and innovative Requiem of a Dream (2000) and Black Swan (2010) under his belt despite the occasional missteps and misfires such as The Fountain (2006) and Noah (2014), which are easily forgiven and certainly not as bad as they were made out to be by some film critics.

Then when my movie-watching group at work ventured out to see this long-awaited film on the silver screen, alas I could not go as I was agonizing with a case of the stomach flu. Any other kind of flu and I would have been there, heavily sedated and drugged if need be, but the stomach one is a very tricky affair and a highly uncomfortable issue to deal with.

Eager to find out how this movie went down but already slightly wary due to some incoming negative criticism, I was given an earful of how bad this movie was (supposed to be). Yet a couple of my co-workers who had hated the movie with an unprecedented passion (and we had previously endured inexcusably abominable movies, such as Suicide Squad) carefully interjected that I just might end up enjoying the film more than them, whereas one of them, my former boss, even suggested that he could see me blogging about this movie at some point. And right he was, and so here it is.

My thoughts and reflections come with a delay because I stayed away from this film by avoiding it like the plague. I read about it and even, which is very unusual for me, read up on its gory scenes and sequences to see if I would be willing to stomach them (even without the ‘flu). The trailer (also unusual for me as I do not like previewing films with trailers) had made me think of Polanski’s cult horror film Rosemary’s Baby (1968), but I was told that it was nothing like it and that the whole thing was rather confusing, pretentious and even disgusting. I could not mention the film to my colleagues without having them shudder in front of me as if traumas and wounds had just re-opened and were being relived before my eyes.

At some point, the suspense got to me and curiosity won the upper hand and killed the proverbial cat. I watched it, once again uncharacteristically I did so on my own, that is without my regular and trusted viewing partner, my wife. Characteristically, I wished to shield her from possible atrocities and decided to test view it. Should it pass - and there were two criteria to be considered, namely is it too disturbing and is it any good – then we would watch it together. As a comparison, Lars von Trier’s Antichrist (2009) did not make it because that is one of the rare instances where I felt a movie simply went too far and was simply not as good as it should have been, while Haneke’s The Piano Teacher (2001) had been put on hold indefinitely; the latter is certainly good but – with pretty much anything this great film director has done – it is at the same time on the disturbing side of things.

Yet as I was finally watching Aronofsky’s mother!, I could not shake off the feeling that this was much better than I had initially thought. The first half did remind me of Rosemary’s Baby in how it was building suspense around the mysterious personality of the house and the enigmatic, odd and intrusive visiting couple (Michelle Pfeiffer keeps getting better at her craft) who were disturbing in both senses of the word.

The second half of the movie just went berserk, bonkers and off the rails, and although it was definitely over the top, in certain ways I appreciated it and was not as shocked about it. I must confess that my previous preparation for the film had buffered possible shocking effects as I had inklings of what was about to happen towards the end of the movie.

There are two interpretations I shall offer here for this film. They can be considered separately and independently, or they may be combined in a hybrid, which is what I would prefer. The first interpretation is of Biblical nature and status. As the film progresses, we realize that these people are not meant to be real or fictional for that matter but are rather symbolic representations of the Bible.

The couple that enters the secluded cabin are Adam and Eve; the diamond that the Javier Bardem Jehovah-like character so cherishes is perhaps the forbidden fruit they are not to see or touch on their own, while the couple’s sons are evidently stand-ins for Cain and Abel where, and this is no spoiler for those who know their Bible, the former kills the latter. Who JLaw is supposed to be remains a bit unclear and enigmatic, and it is certainly not facilitated by the fact that none of them are given names. Alternatively, she could be the Tree of Life, God’s wife, Mother Earth with the cabin (our planet) as her home, or although less likely, she may even be the Virgin Mary.

What becomes clear though is that she is intimately connected to the house and that she passionately loves and is in love with Javier Bardem’s godly character who is incidentally much older than her. She is completely devoted to him and has vowed to rebuild, reconstruct and redecorate his house, which had previously succumbed to a devastating fire. At various times and on different occasions, she wants to protect the house from others, which to her has become a living, breathing and heart-beating entity.  Later, she tries even more desperately and passionately to protect her son and to shield him from any impending harm, including from his own father.

Yet the latter is either too naïve and trusting or simply craves and even demands attention and adulation from his subjects and creatures, all of which comes at the expense of his house’s and his family’s health and well-being. For instance, without asking for nor heeding his partner’s (wife’s?) opinions and protests, he welcomes Adam into his home and offers him a place to stay. Even when his guest takes advantage of this generous hospitality (the chain-smoking (!) Adam continuously disrespects house rules by smoking everywhere and even unabashedly and without asking brings along his wife to stay with him), God still embraces him.

Unlike Genesis in the Bible, the couple is not rejected nor expelled even though they have broken God’s most precious jewel. He showed it and bragged about it to them, but they (of course it was Eve but with Adam present) accidentally (or so they claim) break it. Yet despite their error or carelessness, they show no remorse whatsoever. When God finds out, he is devastated and exasperated, and he even shouts at them in a godly furious demeanor with reverberating echoes added to his voice for effect. He then bloodies his hand by crushing the shards of his precious jewel as a form of atonement for his guilt, but he refuses to blame his hosts for the transgression.

This refusal may have been due to selfish reasons since it is their presence that has provided him with much needed and sought-after inspiration. Now we move to the second interpretation, namely that of the frustrated and uninspired artist. She – the Jennifer Lawrence character - is his muse, but she is not (strong?) enough to spark his passion and interest, so he uses other people’s presence and stories to provide him with much needed inspiration.

He also gets confirmation by and through them. In fact, it must be mentioned that he had previously published a book of poetry that was a major success, but his writing abilities had dried since then. His hosts, it turns out, knew in fact that he was the famed poet, and they had purposely sought him out because they wanted to meet him in person; supposedly, they worshiped him and his work.

Despite the many and continuous protests of his wife, his attention is never fully on her, but he is adamantly focused on and preoccupied with his writing. It is only after the continued presence and reaffirmation of his prowess via his guests that his passion for her is ignited and he finally “knows” her (to use a biblical term). As a result, she becomes pregnant. In a magical scene, which occurs almost immediately after their lovemaking (details of which are not provided onscreen), she claims to him that she is with child. How do you know, he asks in his slumber, and she responds that she simply as a woman knows it to be a fact.

This then jump-starts him and instead of celebrating the news and moment with her, he impatiently demands for a pen and some paper, then sits down as naked as He himself made himself and starts writing nonstop for hours or days on end until his manuscript is finally completed. He ceremoniously gives his work to her awaiting and expecting her judgment (praise); she reads it in one sitting, and she is blown away by the depth of emotion expressed therein. She is moved by his gesture of turning a veritable emotion of expecting fatherhood into a book of poems.

But like many (though not all) artists, he is being somewhat dishonest. In fact, she was not the first to read the poems, but he had already sent out a copy to his editor who then calls him and exuberantly accepts it for publication. There is an element of betrayal in the sense that the Jennifer Lawrence character as his supposed muse awaiting his child was not even the first person to be given the manuscript; he had already sent a copy to the (female) editor whom he seemed to deem more highly than her.

When his book turns out to be a complete success and they are about to celebrate this event in a lavish and intimate dinner that she personally prepares for him despite her pregnant state, he is quickly distracted by a number of unannounced visitors who show up at his door that same evening. Instead of sending them off and opting to protect his privacy and choosing to dine with his wife, he uses this opportunity to showcase himself. He gives speeches and toasts and indiscriminately invites all of them to his home. They, hungry and driven for any kind of token and souvenir, enter and eventually destroy his home.

They try to take anything they can get their hands on while at the same time eating the food that she had lovingly prepared for him. Starstruck, they want to touch him and him to touch and bless them; he obliges because he relishes the fame and attention that he receives from them, even though they not only destroy his home but also abuse and beat his pregnant wife in the vilest manner possible. When she gives birth, he is even willing to offer his son to the wild and hungry mob. He presents his infant to them because he wants admiration from them, and the ravenous crowd in their careless over-zealousness not only break the infant into pieces but even consume the baby’s flesh.

At this point, my two interpretations intersect. These admirers are those who blindly follow God and who at the same time are immensely selfish, insatiable and destructive. They keep asking for more and whatever God gives them is never enough. At the same time, God endures their horrific pettiness because they give him love and attention. They build altars in his name and image, and they worship him feverishly and ecstatically wherever they go. They may incite God’s wrath, but he is more than willing to turn the page and forgive them even though they have cruelly dissected his only begotten son.

The son may represent Jesus whom God has willingly offered and slated for sacrifice. The film portrays God here as a sycophant who is so set on pleasing his fans and followers that he would even turn a blind eye to the most despicable and heinous acts committed by humanity (that evidently lacks all kinds of humanity). They are needy, but he does not stop short of giving them what they want as long as they promise to follow and worship him. Their greatest sin would be to turn their love and attention away from him.

In fact, God’s obsession with following his orders and commandments and his insistence on obeying him to the utmost degree of potentially sacrificing one’s own child (as in the case of Abraham) is borderline narcissistic. A similar strain of narcissism can be delineated among those artists who Faust-like do not stop short of selling their soul for a bit of fame and recognition. In presenting and showing these ideas, the film succeeds; it willy-nilly and despite its excesses, flaws and failings, provides food for thought and fodder for discussions regarding religion, art and the possible combination of both. You may not have enjoyed the ride (though I personally did as well as my wife who for your information ended up loving the film), it is certainly worth seeing, thinking and talking about it.

Orthorexia Nervosa: When Healthy Food becomes an Obsession

Being healthy is good but being constantly obsessed with one’s health is neither good nor healthy. It is true that we often neglect health matters, especially in the modern day and age where we have more wealth and with it more immediate access to junk food dangerously paired up with a sedentary lifestyle. It is a sad and tragic irony that a billion of people are overweight and obese, while another billion is suffering from serious malnutrition in other parts of the world. The former attempt to shed their excess pounds through diet, exercise and pills, while the latter are trying to survive and make it to the next day.

Nonetheless, this health crisis ought not to be blamed only upon the quick and easy access to fast food alongside its quick and fast lifestyle that includes and embraces microwavable food. In fact, we are further driven and prompted by advertisement and our surroundings to consume more and to consume more often and that includes everything from electronic devices to unhealthy food options. The same way we instinctively grab for our smartphones, we munch and snack on chips, cookies and chocolate, the three deliciously dangerous and addictive Cs in our lives.

It is not a complete surprise then that we have wide-ranging and serious problems with obesity and that shockingly this begins and develops now at a much younger age than ever before. Nowadays, even children can develop Type 2 Diabetes and as a rule they suffer from more and more health problems that used to be applicable to adults only. It is also true that psychological factors aside, one of the main culprits here is our careless and constant food intake.   

As we are bombarded not only with information that is harmful to our psychological and physical well-being, we also face - in some cases too much - information about being and becoming healthy. In today’s world when technology allows and enables us to access an unprecedented wealth of information at our fingertips, this can come as a blessing but equally as a potential downside for some.

Indeed, we are often like pendulums that know not of moderation and may go from one excessive side to another. There are times where we completely neglect our health only to replace it later with an ardent obsession for it. While the previous – our neglect and avoidance of healthy behavior - is often mentioned, discussed and criticized in the media as well as with friends and colleagues, the latter – our obsessive drive for health - is not given much food for thought nor is there much discussion about its potential toxic effects on our health and well-being. But there ought to be.

In fact, not caring about one’s health is almost as equally bad as caring too much for it. In most of these cases, the root of the problem of both sides of the pendulum is psychological, namely neuroticism stemming from trauma, past experiences, drives and lifestyle. These neurotic tendencies may manifest themselves in different rather extreme forms. We only need to look at the media to notice how obsessed people have become vis-à-vis diets and dieting and that they nervously jump and hop on and off from one trend or bandwagon to another. Although some adjustment to diet is not a bad thing, the pendulum may swing from the Atkin diet to paleo and gluten-free fads, and we are often left in rather the same state and weight (if not worse) as we began initially.

I am not saying that taking care of one’s health, adjusting one’s lifestyle or watching what one eats and drinks is not important or essential for our well-being, but I am concerned with those for whom this is merely a substitute and a rather convenient foil and excuse for obsessive and compulsive behavior. While carelessness with health is generally frowned upon and obesity is often attacked up to the nasty and cruel point of shaming people, we let health-obsessed people off the hook. Well, until now at least.

They may be able to go below the radar but their fierce manners of adamantly and continuously searching for their health makes them a perfect candidate for unhealthy obsessions. Like gamblers they also are facing an addiction; however, society encourages them, turns a blind eye towards their excess and may even use them or hold them up as role models for others. But, in fact, they are suffering from a condition called Orthorexia.

Orthorexia nervosa is an obsession with one’s food intake. Essentially, at least psychologically speaking, it is not that different from anorexia or bulimia. With Orthorexia, people are obsessed with food intake and neurotically count calories while being constantly on the lookout for healthy food; they shun all types of unhealthy food as if they were the devil incarnate. Such constant and ubiquitous manners of thinking about food is exhausting and instead of providing bouts of energy, it can drain them both physically due to lack of essential nutrients as well as psychologically due to raging internal conflicts.

What are the symptoms of Orthorexia Nervosa? Like anything, even health needs to be taken with a grain of salt and while we should be concerned about our well-being, we should not be obsessed by it or think about it at every turn and moment of our waking life. Whenever, you see somebody talking non-stop about health or worse trying to preach to you about the shortcomings of your behaviors or lack of restraint, beware. I have known reasonable vegetarians in my life (I myself had been proud part and parcel of the club in my younger years) but then there are also the preaching and self-righteous vegetarians; the latter sound like posessed evangelical preachers who would like to send you straight to hell for your lack of concern regarding your health and that of animals.

But even following vegetarian and vegan diets has both its pros and cons. In fact, there are studies that show how strict or not properly attuned or calibrated vegetarian diets can wreak more havoc than provide benefits to the person in question. Imbalanced diets can lead to diseases and chronic conditions ranging from osteoporosis, cataracts, allergies as well as a number of mental health ailments and even certain forms of cancer.

Blanket statements that vegetarian or vegan diets are always good and healthy or that meat eating is completely unhealthy miss the point and lead to false perceptions as well as faulty reasoning. In fact, strict or severely restricting diets will rob the body of important nutrients and will also strain it and can lead to anywhere from negligence to poor physical and emotional health. Too much of a good thing can then suddenly turn into its unintended opposite.

I find the religious metaphor not unwarranted here. The drive for pure, right or perfect food is not unlike the puritan belief of becoming clean and pure by shunning any kind of evil influence or so-called devil’s work. People are constantly alert about possible temptations and the devil may then reveal himself as a chocolate cupcake or a slice of hot cheese-dripping pizza. There is also the unspoken and understood undercurrent that people who practice such “cleansing” behaviors are deemed or see themselves as morally superior, a kind of holier-than-thou attitude that often permeates or emanates from them and supposedly gives them the right and permission to preach to others, the perceived sick and infidels.

Some of the negative effects of Orthorexia is not just a severe limitation of necessary food intake and nutrients but people suffering from this condition may isolate themselves due to their beliefs; they may not engage in social events and gatherings due to the fact that people around them would partake of unhealthy food; conversely, they may even be rejected by their peers for upholding and executing such drastic and radical views.

Although Orthorexia is not (as of yet) an officially recognized eating disorder, there are ways of gauging its impact and influence through a simple test. Dr. Steven Bratman, who coined the term, has provided a set of questions to test yourself for this eating disorder. For example, if you are constantly reading nutritional labels or thinking about food throughout the day or are meticulously planning your next day meals in advance, or have lost, given up on or sacrificed the pleasure of eating and replaced it with cold counting of calories, then you may be prone to have or be in the process of developing this disorder.

Food should be not only providing nutrients to your body, but it should be much more. As a food lover, I very much appreciate its myriad nuances in our life and history. It is a cultural statement evidenced in the variety of ethnic food from different regions; it is also a social event that bonds and unites families and communities; it is most and foremost also one of the most pleasurable activities out there. We go out not only on dates but also eat out to celebrate important events and accomplishments. Not enjoying food or shunning, severely restricting and limiting it or even feeling consistently and constantly guilty about it are warning signs that you may be heading in the wrong direction of your quest for health.