The Health Pillar of Prosperity

By Walt F.J. Goodridge

Special to the Saipan Tribune
Originally published: Wednesday, October 31, 2007


The only way to take control of your life, raise your standard of living and move beyond merely surviving is to create your own unique product or service that you offer to increasing numbers of people in exchange for the things of value that you desire. This simple formula applies to countries as well as people. A self-sufficient economy has its own products or services of value to export to the world. Similarly, a self-sufficient individual has something of value to exchange in the global marketplace. That thing of value is based on your natural talent, skill, or interest—in other words, your passion!

I was visiting Guam over the weekend and, on three separate occasions, had people ask me if I was a healer of some sort (doctor, holistic therapist, etc.) Also had a chance to visit a 6th generation practitioner of Oriental medicine in Guam who scanned my physical form, energy and aura, and pronounced me clean and clear. Another friend e-mailed me a link to an insightful discussion of mankind’s latent ability to live to 140 years of age or more. So, I’ll take all these as signs from the universe that it’s time to venture into a discussion of one of the Pillars of Prosperity we touched upon last week: health.

Yes, of equal importance to investors, tourists, entrepreneurs and the culture-conscious to a nation’s prosperity is the existence of a health consciousness that moves the population toward vitality and away from decay and deterioration. Neither an individual nor a nation can effectively create, sustain or enjoy prosperity unless their mental, emotional and physical health exists in a state of balance and tends toward improvement.

There are (what some may consider radical) concepts of health, wellness, disease and cure that can empower you to create a more fulfilling physical experience here on the planet. I’ll start with the underlying premise of these concepts, taken from the book, The Ageless Adept. Future columns will explore this more in depth and elaborate on the individual concepts. Everything that I and others believe about health can be summarized by the following:

"Perfect health, long life and eternal youth are not the random genetic blessings of a chaotic or capricious universe, but natural birthrights that can be accessed through the mindful acceptance of simple truths, activated by the committed practice of proven activities, and sustained by advancement along a single known path."

Now Consider This

This may come as a surprise to you, but it’s entirely possible that everything you believe to be true about food, medicine, health, illness and aging is nothing more than a set of subjective ideas put forth by people who really don’t have a handle on truth, don’t know what they’re doing, or worse, don’t have your best interests at heart—people who are playing by a faulty rulebook or, worse, with no rule book at all.

Uninformed ideas, blind assumptions and outright lies underlie many of the food and (increasingly prevalent) drug commercials that air on television and radio. I’m sure you’re familiar with many of these assumptions: that milk does a body good; that meat is real food for real people; that cancer can’t be cured; that the common cold is inevitable; that allergies can only be relieved, not ended; that hormone levels, hair growth and one’s vitality inevitably decrease at certain ages; and that the drugs these companies are pushing actually heal and aren’t, in fact, more dangerous than the ills they claim to cure given the mountain of (sometimes even fatal) side effects warned of in the disclaimers.

The sales pitches for these products start with these assumptions as “givens” and are never challenged. As a result, people buy into them (operative word “buy’) and continue a vicious cycle that only ends up perpetuating the very lifestyle that caused their ills in the first place.

The society seems to have lost a vital roadmap and is headed off in a direction of devolution that serves nothing more than to support the industries that profit from peddling the products. The products allow people to believe they can maintain the destructive lifestyles, while purchasing so-called "cures" that in actuality do nothing more than temporarily relieve, mask and replace the symptoms of the diseases the lifestyles cause.

I’ve always lived my life with a healthy dose of skepticism toward that which most everyone else takes as true. In my own quest for truths related to health, I’ve met people who’ve actually cured lupus, sent their cancers into remission, gotten rid of their allergies, eliminated colds, and now live pain-free lives all based on truths that few are addressing publicly, or worse, truths which are lampooned, ridiculed or suppressed.

With that said, my articles on health will present a new paradigm of health, wellness, disease, aging and youth by offering

- a new understanding of nature that encourages new questions;

- a set of stable truths through which to see the world anew;

- a method of critical analysis to arrive at new answers;

- a new set of possibilities and choices based on those answers;

- a common sense philosophy on which to base your new lifestyle, all based on a foundation of essential truths which never change.

Your Given Gift

Before we begin, the following concept is important to grasp: You do not need anyone to validate truth for you. The whole power of these ideas rests in the notion that you, yes you, are eminently qualified to judge and conclude the validity and truth of these ideas ON YOUR OWN.

You do not need outside research. You do not need men in white coats. You do not need news anchors or the media. You do not need the government or the Food and Drug Administration. You do not need men and women with PhDs to tell you what is true for you. You were born with that ability and that power.

Since the very purpose of these ideas is to empower you by reacquainting you with the inherently endowed gift of your own power, then you automatically invalidate your power and the ideas the minute you seek another’s permission, authority, or expertise in order to come to your own conclusions. Did you get that?

In other words, these ideas are not offered for debate. They are offered for you to do with as you please. Once you understand them, you can come to any conclusion you desire. You can choose to follow them or not. You can choose to act upon them or not. Once you understand the initial premise, you’ll realize that any proof you think you need exists within your ability to obtain. But beyond that, you will find that the premise is self-validating and needs no outside proof beyond that which you can see with your own eyes deduce through your own experience, or intuit.

Why?

Ever the idealist, my goal through these ideas is to get everyone on the same page; to dispel the myths; to reveal the truth; to move us forward collectively; while at the same time, to avoid meaningless debate, or the concerted invalidation of truth that often occurs when these truths threaten the status quo.

Why is this important? Well, my vision of the New Saipan involves a new paradigm of health that helps people take control of diabetes, overweight, and all the crippling, life-threatening effects of what is now considered a traditional diet. If Saipan is to become a place for rejuvenation and wellness (as described in the New Saipan Agenda), then a new concept of wellness as well as a reality evidenced by the people who live here must take hold.

So, to begin, let’s address the basic, underlying assumption of all the concepts of health that you’ll encounter in my work. The assumption is the answer to the following: Is nature (i.e, God, i.e. the Universe) perfect of flawed?

To kick off the discussion in your mind, here is an excerpt from the Ageless Adept in which the Adept begins the first of the 7 Conversations of Agelessness with the Seeker.

Is nature perfect of flawed?

“…Nature, with its origins in the infinite, and its laws steeped in the divine, is perfect. Nature didn’t require little men in lab coats with their lasers and little blue pills to confer perfection on what has ostensibly existed for countless millions of years. Yes, it is an assumption. But it is not an assumption you need to struggle with to believe. You can prove it to yourself with just a little bit of critical analysis. Do you believe in God, Seeker?”

“Absolutely,” I replied.

“If you believe in God, then you likely believe in God’s perfection and the perfection of God’s divine plan, yes?”

“Yes, I do.”

“So I ask you: would Nature—God’s tool for creation—a tool that can produce an infinite variety of snowflakes, the Grand Canyon, and a million species of plants and animals, need man’s help to reach perfection?

That would imply a flawed God, wouldn’t it?”

“I guess...” I replied.

“Well, don’t guess. I need you to pick a position.

Do you believe God is perfect or not?”

“Perfect,” I replied, with more conviction.


“So, if you were God—perfect, wise and omnipotent—would you create a world and a system of survival that required PhDs to master? Or would you make it foolproof, so that even the least of your creations could negotiate it? [end of excerpt]

So, think about that question and come to your own conclusion by the time of the next in the health series of Saipanpreneur/New Saipan articles. You can feel free to email your reply at walt@passionprofit.com

Welcome to a new concept of health. Forget what you’ve heard. This is the New Saipan! (Visit www.TheNewSaipan.com for more!)

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Until next week, remember, success is a journey, not a destination!

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