The Path of Synthesis

Jul 10, 2024

After Vietnam, I was posted to India. Being adventurous, I took 100 days and drove a Land Rover from England to India. I spent a lovely, absolutely memorable, Christmas in Afghanistan and arrived in India just before the end of 1968. Instead of reporting to the embassy immediately, I went to the home a friend whose father was on his way out the door to meet one of India’s foremost scholars, Prof. Dr. Lokesh Chandra. He asked me to accompany him and thus began my studies of Tibetan and Indian religion and medicine. It has now been 55 years, and two people this week told me to stop referring to myself as a “student” of Ayurveda!

Eventually, I did show up at the embassy and was in the cafeteria when a Sikh lady noticed someone new in room. She approached me and said, “You are different from the others, were you born in India?” I don’t think the culture wore off on me that fast, but surely I had had past lives in India.

There was a small bookstore in the lobby of the embassy and I was its best customer. I remember the first book on Ayurveda. The only recognizable words were prefaces to profundity that might begin, “Before commencing this protocol, be sure . . .” and the rest was all in Sanskrit which, alas, I had not studied in college.

We can say perhaps that during these 55 years as “student”, my goal had been to discover the underlying principles of Ayurveda, not to memorize slokas which is how the curriculum in Ayurveda colleges is taught. There is no precise starting point unless we begin with the philosophy of Creation itself as an interaction between an ideational masculine energy and a receptive divine feminine. To minimize the associations we have with gender, I have referred to these forces as radiatory and magnetic. The ratio of will to receptivity is hierarchical, meaning one could be anywhere on the spectrum between Heaven and Earth or the movement of energy and its ultimate manifestation as a person or plant or stone. Density is a reflection of vibration and when the vibration changes, everything else follows suit.

More to the point, where humans are concerned, we have unique constitutional types that contribute to our appearance as well as our proclivities. Imagine for a second that you are sitting at a table in a restaurant and the wait person is refilling water glasses. One person requests, “no ice, please” and another wants to risk breaking his teeth on cold cubes. The question is whether the preferences are conducive to balance or whether they simply appeal to our typologies.

Constitutional type is relatively easy for a properly trained medical astrologer to determine because it is based on the elements, all of which have unique properties. For example, the air element is light and dry whereas the water element is heavy and moist. Our bodies are roughly two-thirds water but some people have less water and are thus thinner than those with more water. They are often very happy being as they are, but there are specific risks associated with too much or too little of anything.

This is perhaps Introduction 101, but believe me, it becomes more and more subtle and interesting as we progress in our understanding. What has been obsessing me for the last fifteen years or so is what I can see in the darkfield microscope that explains “obstacles to cure” and regeneration. So, these are the topics for the forthcoming retreat in San Miguel de Allende which I heard last night has once more been declared the best city in the world in which to live. It won the award in 2021 and apparently still does not have serious competition. It’s an historic place by continental American standards and is certainly culturally rich and enchanting.

To forge a connection between body, mind, and soul, the meals for the retreat as well as snacks served during breaks will make a direct connection to the subject matter of the day. For instance, if we are talking about awakening spiritual awareness and the need to decalcify the pineal gland, the beverages and dishes served will include tamarind.

Connecting dots is one of my favorite pursuits so in this case, Kitzia will direct the botanical tours and cuisine while I try to take complex ideas and turn them into art.

The pièce de résistance will be the availability of the darkfield microscope and an all day workshop for health care practitioners.

We recognize that some people will be from out-of-town and will require accommodations whereas some will be local. We are tackling the numbers and will announce them soon, but the full tuition, meals, and lodging will probably be around $3000 for a program that actually spans about ten days. Locals will obviously not have their pockets dinged to the same extent.

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Note: Bioethika International is the main site with a complete list of available herbs. The other active e-commerce enabled sites are Ayurvedic Bazaar, AdrenalHerbs.com, ImmuneFormulas.com. MoldHerbs.com has the herbs I used to recover from very serious mold exposure. ToxicTeeth.com has herbs for chelation. Referrals of new subscribers are always welcome. Just be sure you have permission from your friends before subscribing them.

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The Path of Synthesis

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