Book Review… Does modern medicine do more harm than good?

Nov 13, 2016 Book Review…, Features / Columnists

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Book review: Goshinsho: Revolution in Medical Science

Author: Mokichi Okada

Reviewer: Dr Glenville Ashby

Conspiracy theorists have accused The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), The American Cancer Society (ACS) and the Pharmaceutical Industry, of collusion and material exploitation of a generally unsuspecting public. They charge that as drug prices skyrocketed by 5000% in the past year, the cure rate for cancer is mired in single digits.

Alternative, holistic therapies are denounced by these giant corporations as the lust for money goes unchecked. It’s an unforgiving betrayal of trust, according to these theorists. But there is another group that has denounced modern medicine. They are practitioners of Johrei, a Japanese healing modality. Its founder, Mokichi Okada (1882-1955), also known as Meishū-sama, blames ignorance, not greed, for the confusion surrounding medicine.

Said to have garnered the art of Johrei through divine revelation, Mokichi Okada is spoken of in hagiographic terms and is widely popular in Japan and Brazil. He is author of Goshinsho: Revolution in Medical Science, a revealing work that claims that contemporary medicine will never solve the pathologies that plague humankind.

He is detailed and at times repetitious as he attempts to devalue long-held beliefs.  His is a call for reason.

He writes: “Medical science should exist to help humans achieve long life, but instead [it] is preventing humans from being healthy, resulting in shortened life expectancy.”

Labored and esoteric at times, he presents a compelling but admittedly controversial case. He explains that diseases are caused by three toxins: innate or inherited toxins; uremic toxins or excessive urine caused by weakened kidney function; and medicinal toxins that cause fevers, pains, itchiness, diarrhea, vomiting, paralysis and discomfort.

Overall, he is thought provoking. “People learn as common sense,” he pens, “that medicine supports health,” [but] “if medicine can cure disease, the number of cases should decrease.” He contends that medicine is a foreign material, so only the nutrients contained in it can be absorbed, while the rest remains intact creating potential problems.

He uses fever to best exemplify his position: “The higher the amount of medicinal toxins in your system, the higher your fever becomes [so] if you never took medicine you would never develop a fever.” In other words, without medicine the body naturally purifies or heals itself from invading toxins. This period of discomfort is called purification action where toxins in the blood gather and later harden in particular areas of the body.

Of the common cold and purification action, he writes, “While modern medical science has not yet found the real cause of a cold…it is actually one of the most simple purification actions [and] if left to run its course, without taking any medicine or receiving any treatment, the purification will proceed naturally…and the symptoms will disappear…By taking medicine to “cure” a cold, the purification action is stopped, but the toxins become solid again, only giving an illusion of a cure.”

Meishū-sama, though, advocates cleansing or removal of toxins at their root or spiritual level. All toxins first appear in the spiritual body only to manifest in the physical body. Thus, treating the physical body only masks festering problems that are never truly eradicated

It follows that “the spiritual way of healing must be the true way to cure disease.” But this direct, understandable pronouncement surrenders to more complex analyses. “First and foremost,” he writes, “it is universal law that all phenomena in the visible world have already been generated and undergone movement in the spiritual world.” He is analogous in his argument: “This can be likened to when a human first thinks about moving his hands or feet, and then actual moves them.” He presses his case: “It is for this reason [ignoring the spiritual basis of ailments] that advances in culture have not been followed by improved human welfare.”

In this revolutionary treatise, Meishū-sama acknowledges that “modern science has finally discovered that all living creatures, mineral substances, plants, and so forth, give off a kind of radiation [but] radiation emitted from the human body is the highest level among all creatures.” This element exuded by humans is more diluted and therefore difficult to perceive. “It is therefore easier for us to detect the radium in minerals or the phosphorous in plants as these have a lower level of spirit than humans,” he states.

Notably, not every human emits the same degree of radiation, and, by reason, the stronger the radiation, the greater the capacity to heal. The actual healing process is described as uneventful as the Johrei practitioner faces the patient and directs ‘divine light’ through the palms.  Today, thousands practice Johrei daily as a preventative measure against disease as a whole.

Meishū-sama’s claim of ‘divine light’ is supported in a 2010 article featured in International Journal of Behavioral Science. The study, “Biofield Therapies: Helpful of Full of Hype? A Best Evidence Synthesis,” concluded that there is evidence that biofield therapies (of which Johrei is included) reduce pain intensity in hospitalized and cancer patients; and decrease negative behavioral symptoms in dementia and anxiety.

Clearly, it appears that the efficacy of Johrei is undeniable as doctors in the United Kingdom, Japan and the National Institute of Health in the US have begun clinical trials to understand this phenomenon.

The extent to which Goshinsho: The Revolution in Medical Science becomes a standard text for philosophical and practical use is indeterminable. What is certain is that practitioners of Johrei are unified in their testament that Meishū-sama’s writings hold the key to good health and happiness.

 

Feedback: [email protected] or follow him on Twitter@glenvilleashby

Goshinsho: Revolution in Medical Science, 2016 (2nd edition translation)

Author: Mokichi Okada

For more information: [email protected]

Ratings: Interesting read

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