Practical Metaphysics 1: Overcoming Cold and Flu Forever

I'm a firm believer that metaphysical work -- that is, prayer, meditation, or any form of spiritual study -- must show its value in the physical world, improving our lives in tangible ways. I had a real breakthrough in this regard about three, maybe four years ago. Let's say three, just to be conservative. I haven't had a cold or flu for at least three years, and this is how it works for me.

I have long pondered the fact that cold or flu virus "germs" surround us all the time. Many people have gained the insight that getting sick from these germs is a function of the mind -- for example, how stressed we are when the germs come around to call. I think this is true, but it's too small a piece of the puzzle to help us most of the time. I mean, you can try not to get stressed, and that's healthy for all sorts of reasons, but it's a hit-or-miss solution because it depends on your reaction to external situations. Your reactive power is always your lesser power.

Furthermore, the "don't-get-stressed" approach doesn't really give you the solid basis of the understanding of true being that you need in order to conquer any disease once and for all. Conquering cold and flu diseases need only be done once -- forget the fact that viruses continue to evolve and every year there's a new species. That is of no importance to this method.

Why doesn't it matter that viruses continue to mutate? Because you aren't going to try to kill them anymore. You're going to convince them that they have nothing to fear from you.

Look at it this way: Viruses are tiny creatures. You can think of them as animals, although they aren't actually in the animal kingdom. But more importantly, they did not evolve in the long history of Earth to harm you! That has never been their purpose.

I first became aware of this in a collection of essays by the late virologist Lewis Thomas called Lives of a Cell. I was surprised to learn that evolutionary biologists believe that viruses -- with their unique and uncanny ability to cut-and-past sections of DNA from one life form to another -- have likely been the principal agents of all evolutionary change in the history of life on Earth. That was a mind-blowing discovery for me.

Look around you -- do you like how life has evolved? I do! I think the natural world is a pretty amazing and terrific place. Well, guess who we have to thank for that: Viruses! They did their tiny little jobs over eons of time to bring us the life forms that we see today.

So how is it that we have made them our enemy?

Let's switch gears for a minute. I want to talk about the symptoms of cold and flu. I'm hardly the first to point out that every symptom you can list, from runny nose to the runs, constitutes a method the immune system has devised to drive those viruses out of the body, or to coat them so that they can't latch on anywhere, or to burn them out, or whatever. The immune system is a fighting system, but ironically, it's the system that is making us suffer. Let me say that again: The viruses are not what's making us suffer; it's our own immune system that puts us through hell.

When I put these two facts together -- that the purpose of viruses is not to harm us, and that my own immune system is what's making me feel sick -- I realized that I had a potential solution to the problem that was truly radical.
Viruses are here to help life forms evolve. What if I embraced this idea, and welcomed the virus as an agent of my own "evolution"?

The test came soon enough. One day I began experiencing that tell-tale symptom of discomfort in the nether zone between the roof of my mouth and my nasal cavity. I knew exactly what it meant, and in the past I would have begun mega-dosing myself with Vitamin C and garlic, and committing myself to full bed-rest for 24 hours. But I'd become uncomfortable with the mega-C protocol, and I didn't want to lose a day out of my busy life to bed-rest.

Instead, I meditated deeply on the meaning of these new thoughts about viruses. I moved my consciousness to the irritated spot, and I began loving whatever was there. I thought about those viruses gathering there, and I began to love them. I thought about myself as "host," and decided to be as good a host as I could be. I consciously welcomed my guests in. I told them to be well, to be strong and beautiful and wonderful. I told them that if their life purpose was to be the agent of positive change, of evolution, then I welcomed that change, I was ready for that change.

Throughout that day, as I went about my business, every time I felt that twinge of discomfort, I stopped thinking about whatever I was thinking, and instead remembered to love and welcome my guests. Whenever this happened, I found myself slowing down (which also lowered my stress level) and being more patient with whatever situation I found myself in -- traffic, kids, whatever. I discovered that I couldn't simultaneously devote my consciousness wholly to love (even loving a virus), while being stressed or impatient or irritable.

I went to sleep that night holding on to this new insight, and the next morning I awakened completely free of any symptoms. And as I said, in the three-or-so-years since that time, I've never had any cold or flu beyond the first couple of sniffles. When that happens, I find that it's a joy to revisit my role as welcoming host, and the symptoms just go away.

I'm so intrigued by this method. I've been working on it in other areas too -- for example, hay fever or other allergies. (Can we honestly believe that flowers developed their fantastically-shaped pollen particles in order to harm us? No! Those were made to cling onto moving objects -- particulate dust or animal fur -- in order to spread the flower's genetic material far and wide. Why should our immune system to fight that?) I also wonder about its application to auto-immune diseases, or HIV.

I haven't figured it all out! But I have had one blissful, lasting victory, and I am so grateful for it. I hope other people will try it, and let me know whether it works for you.

Love, Lettie

PS -- A Bible-reading friend has suggested that I add this Bible quote supporting the metaphysics of this approach. This is Leviticus (yes, the dreaded arbitrary rule-maker, but bear with me), and I'm using the Contemporary English Version: Lev. 19:33,34:

"Don't mistreat any foreigners who live in your land. Instead, treat them as well as you treat citizens and love them as much as you love yourself."

--L.