True Health Freedom
Part 1

Dr. Robert Sniadach

Health care for everyone! Relief from disease and suffering!

This is the rallying cry of today, as it was yesterday and will be in the foreseeable future.

Man has experimented with countless techniques, therapies and remedies in order to alleviate his pains.....and we are still looking. Is the answer now in sight? Are we closing in on the panacea of health?

Let us probe deeply and discover marvelous treasures....

Shelton relentlessly taught and promoted a practical, sensible and extremely effective system of achieving overall human health and happiness - Natural Hygiene

Dr. Herbert Shelton (1895-1985) was an iconoclast and rebel health pioneer. Standing on the shoulders of prior progressive and independent thinkers, Shelton relentlessly taught and promoted a practical, sensible and extremely effective system of achieving overall human health and happiness - Natural Hygiene. The name comes from two words: Natural - in harmony with Nature, and Hygiene - the science of good health.

Many of the principles of this natural science of human health can be traced far back into history, but modern thinking, theorizing and codification into a wholistic, grand paradigm began in the United States of America in 1822 through the work of Dr. Isaac Jennings, M.D. The work was greatly expounded upon by Dr. R.T.Trall, M.D. around 1862, and still further by Dr. J.H.Tilden, M.D. at the turn of the century.

Shelton was by far the most prolific thinker and writer on the subject, and he was steadfast in promoting self-reliance. Examining a few philosophical tidbits from his article "Principles of Natural Hygiene"(1) allows us to cut right to the chase:

Natural Hygiene is that branch of biology which investigates and applies the conditions upon which life and health depend, and the means by which all health is sustained in all its virtue and purity, and restored when it has been lost......Natural Hygiene is not a system of therapeutics. It professes to build health in all forms of diseased states by the employment of hygienic agents alone and without the employment of poisons or resort to enervating palliatives or therapies of any nature. In the class of hygienic agencies can be included only the actual necessities of life - food, air, water, sunlight, rest, sleep, relaxation, exercise, play, warmth, cleanliness, hope, faith, courage - and the means of securing these. Constructive surgery forms the only non-hygienic measure endorsed by the Natural Hygienist.

The truth should be self-evident that any method or system that destroys the independence and autonomy of the individual and makes one forever dependent upon another person or class of people is not natural. Any system that of itself creates a privileged class who can, by law or otherwise, lord it over their fellow people destroys true freedom and personal autonomy. Any system that teaches the sick that they can get well only through the exercise of the skill of someone else, or through the operation of something else, and that they remain alive only through the tender mercies of the privileged class, has no place in Nature's scheme of things, and the sooner it is abolished, the better will humankind be. It was no more a part of the original scheme of things that people should be a supplicate at the feet of the healers than that lions or cod-fish should be. It matters not whether a person is dependent on the physician, the osteopath, the chiropractor or the psychoanalyst, that person is a slave to that class upon which one depends. Therapeutics makes slaves of men and women. This is an evil and cannot endure. Natural Hygiene uses no treatments.....none. A hygienist is a guide, a teacher. I'm not a treatment peddler. I do not treat symptoms. We always first look for the cause. The hygienist does not use the word cure.

The healing principle is always in the living system itself. All living organisms are self-constructing, self-defending and self-repairing. Teach men and women to prevent disease by avoiding its causes rather than attempt to cure it by administering the causes of other diseases [drugs] - then health and happiness will abound everywhere. We are convinced that mankind can be educated in correct principles and trained in right practices so that sickness will cease to trouble us. It is our business to teach people how to prevent disease and not merely how to take care of themselves when ill. I am well aware of the revolutionary character of the principles I have presented.....but I am convinced that the physical salvation of the human race depends upon their acceptance.

These statements by the late Dr. Shelton reflect his search for truth and his understanding that humanity is born to be free and autonomous; that the power and intelligence that created a fully mature human from a microscopic fertilized ovum is the same power that will maintain us in excellent health and well-being. All it takes is some basic education in the natural laws that govern us, the Earth, the Universe.

All it takes is some basic education in the natural laws that govern us, the Earth, the Universe.

More recently, Dr. Thomas Hanna (1928-1990), a philosopher, writer and researcher, spent much of his time studying and teaching in the area of somatic education. He, like Shelton, stood on the shoulders of great visionaries that came before him: F. Matthias Alexander (creator of the Alexander Method), Moshe Feldenkrais and others. Likewise, he synthesized and improved upon the works of these predecessors. Combining insights gathered from neurology, physiology and sensory education, Hanna created a body awareness and movement improvement technique he called "Somatics".

Hanna: "Underneath I have enormous anger because I see so many people abused."

In an interview entitled Mind Over Movement(2), Hanna put it like this:

My own interest, first of all, for myself, and second of all for any person I deal with, is to do anything I can to inculcate freedom. Freedom, independence and autonomy is what human life is all about. This is what we grow up to become - totally autonomous, self-determining, self-balancing, self-healing, self-regulating, self-correcting. We're magnificent creatures for becoming just that. Usually we don't come off being so. In various ways - emotionally, psychologically, physically - we get enslaved. And we don't have either the confidence or the ability to choose and truly conduct our own affairs and take care of ourselves. The truly burning and major issue of the 20th century - how can we become more autonomous human beings - rather than depending on authoritarian experts who give advice on everything.

The whole thing is to let people get a taste of freedom; for self-reliance. You've got to be competent and confident enough to be independent and autonomous because freedom means that you're capable of being self-responsible. The human life has no other aim, as far as I can see than for human beings to become self-regulating and self-directing. Human freedom is at the heart of all issues. It's the only issue there is of human and moral philosophy: how can you help people become more free?

What I do is education.....not therapy. My main concern is in knowledge that frees. We do things in one or two sessions and the problem is gone. And they (the clients) are utterly in command and aware of what went on. Thoughtful medical people know the limitations of medicine. Arrogant ones are dangerous.....the excruciating unhappiness is to know what I know and realize it's going to take years to get these ideas across to the establishment of traditional thinking that has a hard time absorbing them. The impatience that I feel is with physicians who damage and hurt people and are arrogant about it. Underneath I have enormous anger because I see so many people abused.....I've got certain talents, certain understandings; it's in some sense my personal obligation to myself and other human beings to help them in any way I can. It has nothing to do with power. It has to do with loving people; being concerned about the human condition.

Hanna's love of freedom permeated all his work; he understood that much of the misery of humanity stemmed from a lack of self-responsibility, which was mostly due to a lack of education. To chip away at this wall of ignorance was his primary mission.

[Author's note: The goal of this article is to reintroduce into the realm of true health care some age old wisdom, seen through contemporary eyes. That wisdom is simply this:

Daily practice of their precepts of Natural Hygiene, Somatics, and the Alexander Method will enable you to live a full, joyous and healthy life for all of your years. Embracing the philosophy and science will fortify your mind with the knowledge necessary to carry on through good times and bad.]

Click here for part 2

Dr. Robert Sniadach
robertsniadach@netscape.net