Obtaining a medical certificate for hiking in high altitudes, and a little about the belief in modern medicine, disease and health
One of the requirements for foreigners wishing to hike in Sikkim, is to provide a medical certificate signed by a doctor, that they are fit to hike in high altitudes.
The government of Sikkim is strict about this permit requirement, because family members of people who had previously died while hiking in high altitude, have sued them for damages.
It is sad that people sue for "wrongful death," do not realize that nobody is to blame if someone's body could not handle the high altitude.
They never win anything, and their legal actions just complicate the traveling experience for future adventure seekers to the area.
We tried to tell our expedition organizer to Sikkim, that we would be very willing to sign personal releases absolving everyone, and taking FULL responsibility for our health and for anything that might happen to us on the hike.
We agreed to take personal liability for any risk... But we were told that the government of Sikkim is not flexible about this matter...
We made an appointment at the Aspen Medical Center in Basalt, to obtain the certificates.
The drive to Aspen meanders through the Glenwood Springs Canyon, with its magnificent red rock formations and trees perched on top of high cliffs.
The Colorado River snakes through the Canyon's floor and since it is summertime, we could see people rafting on the river with colorful rafts and kayaks.
We stopped in Glenwood Springs for tea, and to replace a part of the electronic window of our Jeep.
At the Aspen Medical Center, the young doctor was horrified to hear that I do not get regular mammograms and pap smear checkups.
I knew that it was going to be difficult to explain my beliefs to her....
It is funny how if you do not buy into the belief that "Modern Medicine" is the temple for healing and that doctors are the new priests, holding all the knowledge of the nature of the body and of healing,....... that you are viewed as a weirdo, or worse, as a person who does NOT care about her health and is actively NEGLECTING her health and well being.
In this line of logic, a person who eats meat three times per day, lives with extreme anger and stress, drinks alcohol, and smokes, BUT.... gets a regular physical and checkup every six months, is seen as a person who DOES care about his health.
After examining both Jules and I and finding nothing wrong with us, the doctor reluctantly wrote the certificates and spoke STRONGLY about the fact that we must NEVER go to any place in the Far East, without first getting immunization shots.
She spoke about the importance of getting a shot for Yellow Fever, for Typhoid, for the new form of Polio that has mutated from the old one, a shot for Malaria and a shot for Japanese Encephalitis, and another shot for the mosquito-borne Eastern Equine.
I sat there feeling depressed.
I needed this medical certificate, without which I could not enter Sikkim.
I knew that there was no way in which I could convey to her my beliefs about the nature of the vibrational light-filled body, that reacts to all ideas held in the mind..... Nor did I feel that she would understand what I meant, without taking offense as if I were trying to undermine her knowledge and profession.
I sat there feeling sad, and simply said that I do not believe in taking six kinds of shots, each filled with small doses of live viruses of exactly the diseases I wish NOT to get, so my body will become "immune" to them....
I could not express myself in a way that she would understand....
How can I explain how sensitive my body is.... that I get winded from one cup of coffee?... That even one glass of alcohol knocks me out and makes me sleepy.... That even a small amount of preservatives, refined sugar, MSG, food coloring, all make me queasy...
That I simply know that if I injected into my body six kinds of terrible disease immunizations, that I would become sick for weeks... and maybe not be fit for the journey at all...
The doctor signed the certificates, because we ARE healthy and fit, and because we already live in high altitude and show no symptoms of altitude sickness.
She wrote an abstract note saying that since we already live near Aspen, which is at high altitude, and since we already exercise in high altitude, we should have NO problems hiking in Sikkim.
After the medical exam, we drove to shop at the newly opened and long-awaited Whole Foods Market in Basalt.
We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant nearby and spoke about our exams and how they had gone.
Both of us were feeling depressed.
We were made to feel as if we do not care for our health and even neglect our health, because we do not get colonoscopies, pap smears, mammograms, and checks for all sorts of cancer on a regular basis.
The place that "modern medicine" has claimed in the lives of people, is one of artificial importance, and if you do not believe in it and do not participate, you are seen as backwards or neglectful.
There were times in which people went to the doctor only when something was wrong.... Not in constant anticipation of things going wrong...
The wrong thinking of modern medicine, is that it simply EXPECTS the body to FAIL at any point, and inevitably at some point, and it believes that detecting disease early, will prevent later complications.
The problem with this way of thinking, is that it is not in alignment with Spiritual Truth Principles, which state that you ALWAYS get what you expect, or that you always get what you "ask" for, BECAUSE you expect it to happen.
In other words, the Universe ALWAYS says YES, to everything that you TRULY and sincerely believe in and expect to happen.
"Expecting" something to happen, does not imply joyfully expecting it to happen; it could be done by FEARING that it would happen, but still believing that it is unavoidable.
It is BECAUSE we believe that disease is REAL, and can claim our lives, that it does...
It is BECAUSE we believe that there is "no cure" for a certain disease, or BECAUSE modern medicine tells us that a certain condition is irreversible, that it becomes so....
Our FAITH is SO strong that it can and DOES move mountains, or at least it imagines that it is so, and it creates mountains out of molehills.
In reality, we are NOT bodies, but Divine Spiritual Beings who only imagine that they occupy physical bodies.
We are LIGHT-BEINGS.
Our bodies can become dense and disease prone, or they can become Light-filled, and overcome all disease with ease.
Dis-ease, which is a state of lack of "ease," can be replaced with a state of healing and a regaining of balance and ease, if we let go of the idea that the body is the decision maker and the holder of LIFE.
The body is organic, made of atoms that make up everything else in the Universe.
Our bodies are NOT in opposition to Nature, they are PART of Nature.
Your body is NOT an isolated vulnerable "clean" object, moving through a dirty cloud of disease-carrying bacteria that is all around you, waiting to enter in, infect your body and make you sick.
Your body is ONE with all other matter that makes up the Universe inside and around you.
The thought that your body can get infected with a terrible disease by getting a mosquito bite, or if someone sneezes in a bus or on an elevator, is truly a paranoid and a very wrong idea.
Your body, if you believe it to be so, is very regenerative and extremely efficient and capable of quick healing, and processing out of all sorts of bacteria and disease.
The Nature of Life IS PERFECT HEALTH and it always moves in the direction of healing and regaining harmony.
Anyway... We did finally get the medical certificates of clean health, and we refused the six sets of immunizations.
That night before I fell asleep, I recalled the doctor's words, about Japanese Encephalitis.
It is believed to be a mosquito-borne disease that inflames the brain.
She told me about it as she shook her head disapprovingly, hearing that we had climbed mountains in rural Japan.
She said that my ONLY options were either to get immunization shots, or to make SURE that I did not get bitten by a mosquito.
That night I had a very vivid dream, recalling past experiences that had actually happened.
In the dream I recalled how while we were in Japan, we walked into wet forests swarming with clouds of mosquitos.
I did not apply mosquito repellent and I did not get one single bite...
If I truly believed that a mosquito bite could infect me with a disease that could kill me, I would never go on any kind of expedition to begin with....
If I believed in this line of thinking, that disease is lurking around every corner, waiting to infect me, I would probably develop severe mental and emotional problems, like many people in the world today.
It is because we believe without question in what is presented to all of us as the absolute "truth," backed by concrete "scientific evidence," that we are so terrified and helpless and unable to live without fear.
People are terrorized by the world they perceive around them, and it is all fueled by fragments of shallow "scientific" understandings, or translations of misunderstood laboratory findings.
All of us know by now, that modern medical science has a bias.
Only certain kinds of methods and drugs treating certain 'popular' diseases, have money funneled to them and so get researched.
Otherwise, without funding, scientists do not have the time and do not put any effort into research.
A science that teaches men to become dependent on its findings, and drives people to financial ruin if they wish to benefit from its surgery and medical procedures, is not a good one.
Only a science that brings widespread benefits and empowerment to all, and teaches all to grow in understanding and progress as a human race with full personal responsibility into an enlightened-human-race, should be revered and followed.
The doctor who examined Jules, admonished him about not getting a regular colonoscopy (an exam in which a fiber optic instrument is inserted into the anus in order to examine the colon).
She laid out his options with a doctor's humor that is insensitive.
She said: "Better a colonoscopy than a urinal bag!"
But these are NOT the only options....
You do not ONLY have two options....
Either to live in fear of constantly getting sick, and get regular check ups, OR, get cancer and they will remove your colon and you will have to pee through an external plastic bag.
You COULD live a healthy and happy life, if you only shift your beliefs from an ego based belief in the reality of bodies, sickness and death, to a belief in a loving and compassionate Universe, governed by eternal and consistent laws of Light, Love and endless kindness, of which you are an integral part...
You are NOT a body..... YOU ARE LIFE ITSELF....
The government of Sikkim is strict about this permit requirement, because family members of people who had previously died while hiking in high altitude, have sued them for damages.
It is sad that people sue for "wrongful death," that they do not realize that nobody is to blame if someone's body could not handle the high altitude.
They never win anything, and their legal actions just complicate the traveling experience for future adventure seekers to the area.
We tried to tell our expedition organizer to Sikkim, that we would be very willing to sign personal releases absolving everyone, and taking FULL responsibility for our health and for anything that might happen to us on the hike.
We agreed to take personal liability for any risk... But we were told that the government of Sikkim is not flexible about this matter...
We made an appointment at the Aspen Medical Center in Basalt, to obtain the certificates.
The drive to Aspen meanders through the Glenwood Springs Canyon, with its magnificent red rock formations and trees perched on top of high cliffs.
The Colorado River snakes through the Canyon's floor and since it is summertime, we could see people rafting on the river with colorful rafts and kayaks.
We stopped in Glenwood Springs for tea, and to replace a part of the electronic window of our Jeep.
At the Aspen Medical Center, the young doctor was horrified to hear that I do not get regular mammograms and pap smear checkups.
I knew that it was going to be difficult to explain my beliefs to her....
It is funny how if you do not buy into the belief that "Modern Medicine" is the temple for healing and that doctors are the new priests, holding all the knowledge of the nature of the body and of healing,....... that you are viewed as a weirdo, or worse, as a person who does NOT care about her health and is actively NEGLECTING her health and well being.
In this line of logic, a person who eats meat three times per day, lives with extreme anger and stress, drinks alcohol, and smokes, BUT.... gets a regular physical and checkup every six months, is seen as a person who DOES care about his health.
After examining both Jules and I and finding nothing wrong with us, the doctor reluctantly wrote the certificates and spoke STRONGLY about the fact that we must NEVER go to any place in the Far East, without first getting immunization shots.
She spoke about the importance of getting a shot for Yellow Fever, for Typhoid, for the new form of Polio that has mutated from the old one, a shot for Malaria and a shot for Japanese Encephalitis, and another shot for the mosquito-borne Eastern Equine.
I sat there feeling depressed.
I needed this medical certificate, without which I could not enter Sikkim.
I knew that there was no way in which I could convey to her my beliefs about the nature of the vibrational light-filled body, that reacts to all ideas held in the mind..... Nor did I feel that she would understand what I meant, without taking offense as if I were trying to undermine her knowledge and profession.
I sat there feeling sad, and simply said that I do not believe in taking six kinds of shots, each filled with small doses of live viruses of exactly the diseases I wish NOT to get, so my body will become "immune" to them....
I could not express myself in a way that she would understand....
How can I explain how sensitive my body is.... that I get winded from one cup of coffee?... That even one glass of alcohol knocks me out and makes me sleepy.... That even a small amount of preservatives, refined sugar, MSG, food coloring, all make me queasy...
That I simply know that if I injected into my body six kinds of terrible disease immunizations, that I would become sick for weeks... and maybe not be fit for the journey at all...
The doctor signed the certificates, because we ARE healthy and fit, and because we already live in high altitude and show no symptoms of altitude sickness.
She wrote an abstract note saying that since we already live near Aspen, which is at high altitude, and since we already exercise in high altitude, we should have NO problems hiking in Sikkim.
After the medical exam, we drove to shop at the newly opened and long-awaited Whole Foods Market in Basalt.
We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant nearby and spoke about our exams and how they had gone.
Both of us were feeling depressed.
We were made to feel as if we do not care for our health and even neglect our health, because we do not get colonoscopies, pap smears, mammograms, and checks for all sorts of cancer on a regular basis.
The place that "modern medicine" has claimed in the lives of people, is one of artificial importance, and if you do not believe in it and do not participate, you are seen as backwards or neglectful.
There were times in which people went to the doctor only when something was wrong.... Not in constant anticipation of things going wrong...
The wrong thinking of modern medicine, is that it simply EXPECTS the body to FAIL at any point, and inevitably at some point, and it believes that detecting disease early, will prevent later complications.
The problem with this way of thinking, is that it is not in alignment with Spiritual Truth Principles, which state that you ALWAYS get what you expect, or that you always get what you "ask" for, BECAUSE you expect it to happen.
In other words, the Universe ALWAYS says YES, to everything that you TRULY and sincerely believe in and expect to happen.
"Expecting" something to happen, does not imply joyfully expecting it to happen; it could be done by FEARING that it would happen, but still believing that it is unavoidable.
It is BECAUSE we believe that disease is REAL, and can claim our lives, that it does...
It is BECAUSE we believe that there is "no cure" for a certain disease, or BECAUSE modern medicine tells us that a certain condition is irreversible, that it becomes so....
Our FAITH is SO strong that it can and DOES move mountains, or at least it imagines that it is so, and it creates mountains out of molehills.
In reality, we are NOT bodies, but Divine Spiritual Beings who only imagine that they occupy physical bodies.
We are LIGHT-BEINGS.
Our bodies can become dense and disease prone, or they can become Light-filled, and overcome all disease with ease.
Dis-ease, which is a state of lack of "ease," can be replaced with a state of healing and a regaining of balance and ease, if we let go of the idea that the body is the decision maker and the holder of LIFE.
The body is organic, made of atoms that make up everything else in the Universe.
Our bodies are NOT in opposition to Nature, they are PART of Nature.
Your body is NOT an isolated vulnerable "clean" object, moving through a dirty cloud of disease-carrying bacteria that is all around you, waiting to enter in, infect your body and make you sick.
Your body is ONE with all other matter that makes up the Universe inside and around you.
The thought that your body can get infected with a terrible disease by getting a mosquito bite, or if someone sneezes in a bus or on an elevator, is truly a paranoid and a very wrong idea.
Your body, if you believe it to be so, is very regenerative and extremely efficient and capable of quick healing, and processing out of all sorts of bacteria and disease.
The Nature of Life IS PERFECT HEALTH and it always moves in the direction of healing and regaining harmony.
Anyway... We did finally get the medical certificates of clean health, and we refused the six sets of immunizations.
That night before I fell asleep, I recalled the doctor's words, about Japanese Encephalitis.
It is believed to be a mosquito-borne disease that inflames the brain.
She told me about it as she shook her head disapprovingly, hearing that we had climbed mountains in rural Japan.
She said that my ONLY options were either to get immunization shots, or to make SURE that I did not get bitten by a mosquito.
That night I had a very vivid dream, recalling past experiences that had actually happened.
In the dream I recalled how while we were in Japan, we walked into wet forests swarming with clouds of mosquitos.
I did not apply mosquito repellent and I did not get one single bite...
If I truly believed that a mosquito bite could infect me with a disease that could kill me, I would never go on any kind of expedition to begin with....
If I believed in this line of thinking, that disease is lurking around every corner, waiting to infect me, I would probably develop severe mental and emotional problems, like many people in the world today.
It is because we believe without question in what is presented to all of us as the absolute "truth," backed by concrete "scientific evidence," that we are so terrified and helpless and unable to live without fear.
People are terrorized by the world they perceive around them, and it is all fueled by fragments of shallow "scientific" understandings, or translations of misunderstood laboratory findings.
All of us know by now, that modern medical science has a bias.
Only certain kinds of methods and drugs treating certain 'popular' diseases, have money funneled to them and so get researched.
Otherwise, without funding, scientists do not have the time and do not put any effort into research.
A science that teaches men to become dependent on its findings, and drives people to financial ruin if they wish to benefit from its surgery and medical procedures, is not a good one.
Only a science that brings widespread benefits and empowerment to all, and teaches all to grow in understanding and progress as a human race with full personal responsibility into an enlightened-human-race, should be revered and followed.
The doctor who examined Jules, admonished him about not getting a regular colonoscopy (an exam in which a fiber optic instrument is inserted into the anus in order to examine the colon).
She laid out his options with a doctor's humor that is insensitive.
She said: "Better a colonoscopy than a urinal bag!"
But these are NOT the only options....
You do not ONLY have two options....
Either to live in fear of constantly getting sick, and get regular check ups, OR, get cancer and they will remove your colon and you will have to pee through an external plastic bag.
You COULD live a healthy and happy life, if you only shift your beliefs from an ego based belief in the reality of bodies, sickness and death, to a belief in a loving and compassionate Universe, governed by eternal and consistent laws of Light, Love and endless kindness, of which you are an integral part...
You are NOT a body..... YOU ARE LIFE ITSELF....
