The bio medical model which is taught in medical schools is based on the Newtonian model of a material universe. This can be described as geological, historical and mechanical way of describing the human body. It is very much the reflection of the Victorian Era of the time of the industrial revolution when great emphasis was based on objective experiments and classification. The prevailing ethos at that time was of survival of the fittest in which individuals succeeded according to their so called superiority. The medical system developed to become a more caring and altruistic process with the political changes and democratic ideals as the twentieth century advanced. Infectious diseases were eradicated by higher standards of living including improvements in sanitation and better housing and living accommodation for the masses. This coincided with the growth of the vast chemical industry from which came many pharmaceuticals. In order to maintain profits these chemicals could be patented and owned by the company and thus medicine became over the next fifty years from the 1940s a trillion dollar a year industry globally.

The bio medical model is consistent with a specifically male oriented, parochial, authoritarian, dogmatic professional culture. It is very much based on the patient being a machine that has an illness. It deviates from the conception of an alive patient to the notion that aliveness and consciousness are epiphenomena of the body and when there is a disease process the patient is called a disease. I remember having ward rounds with the consultant in the hierarchy of the hospital and noting how the institutionalized patients had in fact become institutionalized diseases. It was also evident patients fed on a bland diet of often processed food with no living nutrients in them are often prone to infectious diseases and post operative complications as their immunity has been severely compromised by the food they eat.

It is however characteristic of the pharmaceutical and allopathic mode of treatment that the cure of the illness is considered to be the province of the drug rather than the quality of the nutritional immune status of the patient. I believe that this is still the case and despite the famous statement by the French medical scientist Professor Claude Bernard (1813-1878): "Le germe n'est rien, le terrain est tout" (the germ is nothing, the substratum is everything). the medical profession still seems brainwashed in being unable to deal with the state of mind ,consciousness and nutritional and immune status of the patient.

It is interesting to note the way doctors ignore the fact that medical treatment in the States is the third most commonest cause of morbidity and mortality in the populace. Allopathic pharmaceutical drugs often attack the disease process rather than create balance and harmony within the biological system Attacking the disease often means attacking the patient for example consider the number of toxic side effects which patients experience from chemotherapy which in fact could be tremendously alleviated if they were given better nutrition and adequate supplements including Vitamins and Minerals.

The patient has the most important part to play in the determination of the outcome of the illness they suffer from. This is why I think Dr Russell De Souza`s methodology of combining CBT with spirituality is so important as is his concept of transcendence.

I think it is essential now as we enter the twenty first century that we start looking at the human being as an individual whose consciousness rests on a deep and implicate relationship with a living universe. This for some maybe an extremely difficult concept for some Doctors to grasp.

Most of our science now rests on quantum physics. A lot of our computers and technology use this kind of physics in order to function. With the advent of Einstein the bio medical model was really rendered obsolete as a new picture of the universe was of one in which the observer influenced the experiment. Scientists despite all their objectivity are not that removed from the experiments they conduct and this especially is the case in the field of biological living phenomena. This is why people with the power of their minds, intention, attention and belief can overcome so called incurable diseases like cancer.

We are still conning ourselves if we think that genes are the final arbiter of our destiny and fate. Some stem cell researches are even suggesting that ill mothers should donate some of their ovum stem cells so that the genetic abnormality that caused their disease can be analyzed. What doctors don't seem to realize is the role that the environment and mental attitude contributes towards health or illness.

Psychosomatic medicine was developed in the 1950s and it was further explored by most psychotherapeutic schools who could see and understand the connection between the mind and the body. I used to be involved in Balint groups. Michael Balint was a psychoanalyst who wrote the book the Doctor, The Patient and the Illness. In our Balint groups it was notable that although what we saw in the patient was often a reflection of what was in us ,we could also see the way the dynamic interactions within the context of the patients relationship and his relationship with him or herself affected not only psychological upset but also physical illness. It is known that 80% of patients that attend general practice suffer from some depressive illness and indeed depression is becoming very widespread in our community.

Era III medicine a term coined by Dr Larry Dossey, shows that the mind cannot only influence the body ( as they are in fact a complete integrated unit and of course this work has been confirmed by Dr Candice Pert who found that neuropeptites were in every cell and system of the body) but also the mind can influence other minds.

Ground breaking research into the Science of Consciousness has been done at the Institute of Noetic Sciences in California and also at Stanford University. Of course Dr Herbert Benson of Harvard was one of the first pioneers in the field of Mind Body Medicine which surprisingly enough was initiated in a way by the Maharishi and his Transcendental Meditation movement . Also the human potential movement in the sixties and seventies gave great impetus in integrating the great spiritual and consciousness traditions of East and West. It is awful that this kind of information and learning on the need for meditation and brain heart coherence is not taught in medical schools

A lot of work has been done by such people as; Dr Gary Schwartz, Dr Marilyn Schlitz and Dr Dean Radin who have done absolutely infallible scientific research into the effects of mind not only on other minds but also on matter. The new non local science of consciousness research shows that in fact humanity is an interdependent interconnected whole and that we are much more than bodies having a profound spiritual and non local essence to our very being. One of the great exponents of this concept is of course the famous philosopher Ervin Laszlo, PhD who is generally recognized as the founder of systems philosophy and general evolution theory, He is the author or editor of sixty-nine books translated into as many as nineteen languages, and has over four hundred articles and research papers.

The people in the world who are extremely distinguished in the field of Consciousness research include; Dr Marilyn Schlitz, Dr Dean Radin, Dr Deepak Chopra, Don Beck, Andrew Coin, Eckhart Tolle, Edgar Mitchell, Marion Williamson, Dr Puthoff, Russell Targ, Dr James Hurtak, etc etc.

Wellness cannot be isolated into the health of a single organ. It has to be seen as an interdependent nexus which brings together many facets of our human existence including; nutritional status, cellular function, well being, consciousness of spirituality, harmony with the environment and community and society.

Psychiatry as a discipline which categorizes people into DSM4 numbers for the benefit of pharmaceutical companies who wish to sell their designer drugs for often contrived illnesses has no place in a rapidly evolving global society which places more and more emphasis on the individual as being free and self empowered.

Indeed the next trillion dollars in medicine over the next fifteen years will be made not by the pharmaceutical companies but by the wellness industry. The new era is the era of the mind and consciousness based on the new science of quantum physics. The old science of Newtonian, bio medical paradigm is on its last legs and likely to pass away any moment.

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Dr Michael Ellis MBBS MRCP DCH MACNEM NPAA BA (Hons) Dip Grad (Nutr Med)

Dr Michael Ellis Chief Editor, Co Publisher and Creative vision behind The New Paradigm Journal www.newparafigmjournal.com is an English trained Doctor with over 20 years of General Practice experience both in the UK and in Australia. He has higher qualifications in general medicine and paediatrics. He has a special interest in mind/ body medicine and in optimizing the physical, mental and emotional health of the individual. He is the Australian co-representative of The Institute Of Noetic Sciences oin California. He has been practising Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism for 30 years.

As well as his medical qualifications, Dr Ellis also has an Honours Degree in Literature, Arts, Philosophy and Social Psychology. He also has Naturopathic qualifications.

He is President of The Global Citizens For Peace http://www.globalcitizensforpeace.com/. Founder of The Centre For Change www.centreforchange.org and Co Founder of The Medical Renaissance Movement www.medicalrenaissance.org. He is Chief Editor and Creative vision behind The New Paradigm Journal www.newparadigmjournal.com.

The Centre for Change in the Third Millennium is an open forum and ongoing dialogue for humankind on key issues affecting sustainable survival and the search for solutions. It is a global 'think tank', a global 'watershed, bringing together humanity's most inspired and creative thinking - a convergence of the spiritual, scientific and humanistic. The aim is the creation of a planetary 'peace culture'. Dr Ellis has a keen interest in the plight of the ordinary GP and is concerned about creating a more sustainable future for both doctors and the community. Because of this, he established The Medical Renaissance Group www.medicalrenaissance.org in Australia in 2001. The Medical Renaissance Group aims to bring together the global community of doctors and community to lobby their respective governments for the creation of a healing culture which places priority on the health of the individual rather than on the illness of the individual. In this respect, it supports preventative, nutritional, mind / body medicine and Wellness Medicine and sees healing as being a unique partnership between the doctor and the patient.

Dr Ellis has conducted seminars on Globalization, and Wellness at the Post Graduate School of Medicine Swinburne University, Melbourne.
He can be contacted on mindquest@ozemail.com.au and michaelellis@alumni.swinburne.edu or on 0414 543 397. He practices Nutritional and Environmental, Integrative , Mind Body and Anti Aging Medicine in Kalorama Victoria.