Whether we consider, the ancient cave images and paintings in the caves of lascaux in France or the pyramids in Egypt, each image and construction has a story, which reflects not only the individual, but also the culture from which this technology originates. The image in these narratives of rites of passage of individual cultures, also reflect the inner subtleties and dimensions of inner experience, whether it be thousands of years ago or in contemporary society, where our technology also reflects, a prevailing belief system and way of life.

Petrarch, 1336, the Renaissance artist and philosopher, stated. The soul is as spacious as the grand vistas before us. Space is internalized; soul is externalized; in fact, we are on a continuum Nature is so full of soul and has to now be painted that way with subtle gradations of color and perspective, and we are full of space and vast countries and landscapes of soul.

We have now reached a phase in the history of humankind, where we are at a cusp or turning point. Can our planet support the burgeoning and exponential growth of population? Can we deal with the gross inequity, where 50% of the people on the planet, exists on less than two dollars a day and where 10 to 15% of the population hold. 90% of the material well. How can we deal with gross injustice towards individuals and races. In the past two to 300 years, most of the indigenous people of the world have been decimated, we have seen war after war, culminating with the dropping of the nuclear bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The Americanisation and Europeanisation of the world follows the ancient Roman creed or pax Romana of Veni vidi vici (I came Ii saw I conquered). this essence of competition and competitive action is the basis of economic rationalism with the concept that economies can grow infinitely and that the survival of the fittest is based on the natural order . But how can this mindset, which is accompanied by the growth of enormous global alliances like the World Trade Organisation, NATO, APEC, the European Union, and the development of blocks of countries and nations often at odds with each , compete in a world, which is being degraded and mutilated beyond all recognition?

It seems that the loss of the indigenous people of the world and their ancient knowledge and wisdom is now accompanied by the enormous loss of biodiversity on the planet. We are now at a sixth phase shift of extinction, which means that the extinction of biodiversity,currently occurring, is the same as the extinction of the dinosaurs that occurred 65 million years ago.

There is inequity, in the way that we exploit both living and nonliving the sources on our planet. There is inequity in the way the human ecological footprint eclipses the ecological footprints of other species of flora and fauna. There is inequity in the way through climate change, we overheat the planet and raise the sea levels, destroy tropical rainforests and the Amazon, create pollution and acid rain and overwork and destroy arable land., through chemical farming methods.

Similarly, there is inequity, in the way the human species, treats itself in terms of marginalisation, exclusion, unemployment and competition. Professor Michael marmot, has defined for the World Health Organisation ten social determinants of of illness and health. Of particular significance is empowerment.

It is found that within a hierarchy in an organisation or business, that those people who are in control are much less likely to become ill and than those people who are lower down in the hierarchy. Such people are more likely to develop heart attacks This finding was initially made, in the Whitehall study, but has since been proven in other organisations. What this study showed was that when people feel disempowered and do not feel they have control over their lives, they exhibit disease and stress.

Increasingly, happiness, is not necessarily, defined by higher and higher standards of living. There is a limit as to what people need. For example, the the degree of happiness in America has not changed in the past 20 years. However, the evidence shows that there has been greater increase in youth suicide. Lately it has been found that there has been increase in incidence of suicide in female children between the ages of 10 and 20, in the US. Child suicide, was unheard of, 70 years ago. According to Chiltern P earce, the reason is because of the change in the nature of child rearing. This child rearing, is the product, of what he calls enculturation. Enculturation means con forming to the dictates and belief systems of society.

Modern medicine has at its basis, a reductive paradigm. It seeks to find solutions to the problem of disease through looking at what has what is wrong with the parts, rather like a watchmaker, who mends the watch by repairing the faulty cogs In order to make it a whole again.

Modern medicine goes as far as to incorrectly define, the DNA as being the brain of the cell, which has to be changed, if it is faulty. The reductive paradigm is part of the Newtonian basis of the philosophy of modern medicine, which is defined in chronological, hydraulic and mechanical ways of thinking.

The modern Doctor follows the manual of management and treatment, rather like a car mechanic. In psychiatry, the brain is still considered to be the organ, which is faulty, when there is a mental disturbance. Doctors are becoming more and more, the technologists for administering the latest allopathic chemicals, for the pharmaceutical companies.

Allopathic medicine consists of chemicals, which attack and change chemically the disease processes. At the same time, these chemicals, have side-effects. Western healthcare including surgery and drugs is now the third leading cause of death in America. Journal American Medical Association July 26, 2000;284(4):483-5) The British Medical Journal also declared that in America alone, 199,000 A YEAR are being killed by errant medical procedures However this is not a local problem. In the UK, blunders by doctors are killing 40,000 a year. In Australia, 1 in 5 are being killed by their own healthcare You are four times more likely to be killed by a doctor in the States than by homicide. In Western society, medical treatment has enormous side-effects of morbidity and mortality.

Up to now, the concept of human development, has been seen in terms of socio-economic factors, which include standard of living, sanitation, clothing, housing, food, water and the provision of a medical infrastructure , including medical centres and other forms of healing.

Human development, is often seen as being in parallel, with the GDP of a country and the current earning capacity of the individual. A great deal of emphasis is placed on the relationship between poverty and illness and life expectancy.

Human development, unfortunately, is not seen in terms of the development of human potential.

More and more quality of life is judged in terms of wealth rather than in terms of such immeasurable faculties such as happiness, creativity, well being, generosity of spirit and a sense of compassion and connectedness. Even the education system is focused on the needs of big business and children are narrowly focused on aims which do not enhance their health or create a wider knowledge of their understanding of their place in society or the nature of life itself.

The basic needs of freedom from poverty expressed by such people as Galtung, Rawls, Max-Neef and Lasswell and Maslow are not addressed for people even in higher socio-economic groups in the developed world. Such needs would address the needs specifically for affection, understanding, participation, leisure, creation, identity and freedom.

Our society is so stressed that by 2010, one in three people will be suffering from depression which psychiatrists consider needs medical treatment by drugs. So we come to the brave new world of Aldous Huxley where the workers are placed on soma or prozac to blunt their conception of what freedom or real quality of life is.

The Key To Culture

Often, the key to culture is found, not only in the early experience of the child but also on pre-natal experience such as the kind of nutrition the mother has, the kind of experience she has had during her pregnancy, the kind of relationships she has, whether it is integral and stable or unharmonious. After birth, the forms of child rearing, social stimulation, love and care are very significant as to the child's happiness.

The most important thing about the Central Nervous System of the Human Being ever discovered is that the prefrontal cortex on which our higher attributes of love ,care creativity and spirituality depend devlop according to the mother`s love for the child in the womb and in the next 6 years of life.
See http://www.ttfuture.org/services/joseph_pearce/main.htm

The brain at age 7 has 60 % more neurones than at birth but then resculptures itself up to the age of 21 developing more the logical analytical intellect.

Enculturation which is conflictual and negating will fragment the orbito loop of brain from the prefrontal cortex which leads to lack of integration with mid and hind brains and the subsequent societal tendency to violence and fear and anger This is shown in the fact that the USA has the highest degree of child suicide in the World from the ages of 3 up to 24 due to the fear of abandenment or the sense of lack of love.

Enculturation conditions many people in this world to accept the status Quo and their mind set precludes them from seeing outside the confusion. In particular the Media breeds disinformation about the state of the World glorifying Wars and Violence.

The Montesorri Schools and Rudolph Steiner Schools are based on love and tolerance and spiritual growth for their pupils.
The question ia how can we promote a new understanding about the nature of true. Humanity which is the prerequisite for Global Citizenship.

Our children are currently being born into a world which is threatened by many, many adverse factors. The factors the global community has to deal with in the next hundred years are famine, global spread of disease, civil war, international wars, competition for scarce resources, civil disorder amongst the haves and have nots, housing shortages, a highly materialistic ethos and the possibility of human extinction.

Human beings have already changed the environment of the planet radically and have caused many other bio-extinctions of other species. If current trends continue the picture will get worse. The projected extra six billion people in the next hundred years, predicted for 2020 would need more room to live and grow food. If there are more of us, there is less room for plants and animals. There is less room for the tropical rainforests and the planetary biodiversity of species.

Yet, politicians generally do not think in terms of large periods of time or even the next generation. Perhaps the maximum term they can think of is three years which maybe the tenure of their political term or contract. The name of the political game appears to preclude actions which can save humanity.

Quality of Life and Culture

One thing we can say is that culture alters quality of life and that that individual quality of life is enhanced by a persons ability to be educated and be brought up in a warm, caring environment.

Within this context of mind and matter there are several papers which are of interest. First it has been shown that the intellectual or emotional development of children from the age five to the completion of high school is adversely affected by lack of social capital. The social capital refers to unfavourable environments which basically do not give care or support. The effect was specifically noted in socio-economic deprived families, Quote Pediatrics Volume 101 1998, Children who Prosper in Unfavourable Environments, the Relationship to Social Capital.

Another study has found that dementia occurs at a much higher rate amongst people with learning disabilities than it does amongst the general population. This is independent of the association between dementia and Downs Syndrome.

A further study examined the perception of parental caring obtained by undergraduates relating to subsequent health over an ensuing thirty-five years.
This was done on Harvard undergraduate men who participated in the Harvard mastery stress study and the results show that subjects identified in mid life as suffering from the common degenerative diseases of Western society gave their parents significantly lower ratings as perceived in terms of "parental care, loving and just and share, hardworking, and clever," whilst in college.

It is obvious that intellectual stimulation and loving, caring support from family, friends, and the community at large is extremely important for the general well-being of the individual as well as for the prevention of intellectual deficit later in life.

Integral Medicine

In the scheme of things, we need to take, a more all-inclusive approach to medicine.

Hippocrates lived around 460 to 361 BC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocrates

In the fifth century BC, various aspects of the pre-Socratic traditions were absorbed by Hippocratic approach to medicine. The Hippocratic tradition recognised that health and disease were affected by the seasons and the quality of the environment. This tradition emphasised the patient, rather than the disease and emphasised also prevention.
The emphasis on the person rather than the disease, on the environment in which they live and on their lifestyle is in contra distinction to the way modern medicine views the patient.

Integral medicine is based on the new philosophy of medicine in which the Doctor is the therapeutic agent. This means that when the patient comes within the presence of the doctor, they feel healed.The integral process of healing, takes into account the doctor being a person who works on themselves using consciousness processes, to enhance their self-awareness, consciousness, integrity, wisdom and compassion. Indeed, the doctor becomes the therapeutic agent.

Within this context, we then proceed to deal with promotion of health, prevention of illness, and finally treatment of disease.This new integral medicine would spend time with patients seeing healing as a sacred profession and following up patients over a period of months so that if they needed to be referred to a specialist or another health practitioner, everything would be organized to ensure that the patient was constantly reviewed and cared for.

As regards prevention of illness and health promotion, we would need the involvement of pathology and imaging. In particular, we would need to use, functional pathology, and also the new ways of dealing with genetic markers of disease. Protocols would be established for using the latest advances in, conventional, nutritional, and hormonal, anti aging and mind body medicine. We would also use techniques of non local healing. The aim is to be positive and proactive towards the patient creating a positive healing environment

In Western medicine, the phenomenon of healing as seen in holistic approaches has been lost. It is the most serious indictment on our conventional approaches. In its reduction of the body for analysis to smaller and smaller fragments, the patient as a human being is lost and health is reduced to a mechanical function.

The rise of modern scientific medicine began in the nineteenth century, with the advent of the thinker Descartes. In Western religion, a division was made between God and Man, i.e. Th e concept of Deus ex Machina, so God became separate and objective.

Science as objective scientific materialism became pre-eminent. William Harvey discovered the anatomy of the heart and circulation and the whole body was mapped with precision so medicine became objectified and people were classified as organs and systems.

We need a profound renaissance in western medical care which follows Osler's dictum. Osler, the brilliant physician who lived a hundred years ago said that medicine is an art which considers the constitution of the patient and has principles of action and reason in each case This means the individual patient and their uniqueness in being and constitution has to be taken into account and the Healer in the Doctor needs be expressed.

We have to bring back value and quality into medicine and that means value and quality in both the lives of the doctors as well as the patients they treat.

Just as the body is composed of mind, body and spirit and works in an integrated fashion, the various illnesses, which people suffer have a common cause. Medical science is now beginning to define this cause but unfortunately because of the kind of education that doctors receive, (the bio-medical model), this means that most of the profession are not willing to open their eyes to a holistic approach.

The incidence of stress in our society is rising, and scientists in general, and doctors in particular, do not understand the effect the mind can have on reducing and controlling stress. The problem of stress is further compromised by the stresses that occur within the context of society, particularly in the work situation. If people are forced to work in situations which are controlling and restrictive, and in which they are not allowed to contribute to decisions and management, they will get sick. Also social exclusion and unemployment are associated with premature death.

In the past, people relied on what is now considered to be hidden or unproven potential in human beings to heal themselves through mind over matter. Thus the Shamans had the ability to heal by channeling the life force to heal themselves and their patients. The Yogi was able to master his bodily functions through a conscious biofeedback that enabled him to monitor his health. The Buddhist Monk could change the phenomena of life around him and pray for the wellness of all beings, and send out loving kindness. There was a knowledge of the interconnectedness between the person and the environment and a oneness with all things.

The old conception of people having five senses is outmoded. In fact, the whole body is a multi-sensory and therefore multi-modality information receiving biomind. Human beings are biomind, biosentient organisms.

How do we reach the human potential within ourselves that we may transform and recreate our lives in the way we wish our dreams to unfold? We have to acknowledge the way we have constructed the patterns of our lives in order to see our lives and the way we have formed them.

By breaking through to the common ground of being,by exploring the unknown,by seeking that which is within, by accessing the multidimensionality of our selves, by realising that we are in fact multisensory beings, we begin to understand that there is this essence from which all things come and manifest.

One of the greatest commitments of Albert Einstein was to see the universe as one seamless whole and he felt that physics had to in some way reflect that.

In deep experiences of meditation and high experiences of transcendental bliss, time seems to stand still and the illusion of separation and isolation that human beings feel seems to melt away into a sense of seamless expression of connectedness in the sense that we are all in a giant ocean of wholeness

The one thing about the living body, is its amazing plasticity, and its amazing ability to replicate, reproduce and perpetuate itself The living body in contradistinction to the human psyche is in constant motion, constantly changing. Phenomenologically it is never the same as it was in the previous instance. It is like a chameleon, but still maintains its shape, and form and patterning, and its function is directly related to its patteming and changing form.

From this we can understand that we need a new philosophy underlying. The new philosophy needs to recognise the supremacy of the human psyche, and needs also to understand that human beings are composed of mind/body and spirit.

The integral approach, brings together the best of allopathic and complimentary or alternative medicine. However, the key aspect to the integral approach is that the doctor is no longer the separate and observing technologist or scientist, but has a commitment to also healing himself. This commitment implies a willingness to explore his own nature, and his own sufferings, and his own vulnerability that he may better understand the vulnerability andcomplexity inherent within every person or patient he meets.

http://www.shiftinaction.com/node/102

This new-found I reality and self-realisation inherent within this process of discovery mirrors very closely what is actually occurring in many people on the planet, who seek self-actualisation. The number of groups devoted to inner exploration of spirituality and healing within the context of communities or even global transformation is mushrooming as more more people realise that their planetary home is being irreparably damaged by ways of thinking, which are archaic, competitive and destructive, not only to the environment but also to the people themselves. They see that the wars, the inequities, the poverty, the pollution the loss of biodiversity as a final call for all humanity to heal themselves,each other and the environment. This inner exploration of the self is part of the wounded healers journey to wholeness, not only for himself or herself, but also for the patient with whom the Doctor is intimately involved.

The patient may be the person we see in our consulting room suffering from a cold or bronchitis or heart condition or metabolic syndrome. The patient may also be the psychopathic disturbed brain damaged terrorist in Iraq, or the wounded Palestinian. The patient may also be a forest of trees terribly damaged by logging or a declining population of polar bears not able to survive on a shrinking arctic environment.

What this basic philosophy shows, is that everything maintains itself at expense of everything else Indeed, there is a balance in which when one thing goes wrong, the system itself becomes disturbed and needs to be rebalanced.

The integral philosophy also shows, that everything is basically in the state of oneness,despite the fact that our current world attempts to create divisiveness separation fragmentation and competition for so-called scarce resources amongst Nations.

As doctors and healers, we now have the role of being Stewards and guardians of our patients ,our populations ,ourenvironments, and our planet. This integral approach and philosophy of medicine, means that we are concerned, not only for the physical health of our patients but also for their spiritual health and their eternal health.

The new doctor of the future needs to be a healer by his very approach of consistently working on himself in creating within himself a living example of the therapeutic agent. This means the rather than the pharmaceutical drug,we now have the good doctor as the therapeutic drug,so that by his very presence,he elicits wellness and well-being within his congregation of patients

And men go abroad to admire the heights of mountains, the mighty billows of the sea, the broad tide of rivers, the compass of the ocean, and the circuits of the stars, and pass themselves by... (St Augustine)

Augustine as depicted by Sandro Botticelli, c. 1480

The truth is that all-out economic growth can no longer be viewed as the ideal way of reconciling material progress with equity, respect for the human condition, and respect for the natural assets that we have a duty to hand on in good condition to future generations." - JACQUES DELORS

The current biodiversity extinction event: Scenarios for mitigation and recovery
Michael J. Novacek* and Elsa E. Cleland*
* American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024; and Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305

The current massive degradation of habitat and extinction of species is taking place on a catastrophically short timescale, and their effects will fundamentally reset the future evolution of the planet's biota. The fossil record suggests that recovery of global ecosystems has required millions or even tens of millions of years. Thus, intervention by humans, the very agents of the current environmental crisis, is required for any possibility of short-term recovery or maintenance of the biota. Many current recovery efforts have deficiencies, including insufficient information on the diversity and distribution of species, ecological processes, and magnitude and interaction of threats to biodiversity (pollution, overharvesting, climate change, disruption of biogeochemical cycles, introduced or invasive species, habitat loss and fragmentation through land use, disruption of community structure in habitats, and others). A much greater and more urgently applied investment to address these deficiencies is obviously warranted. Conservation and restoration in human-dominated ecosystems must strengthen connections between human activities, such as agricultural or harvesting practices, and relevant research generated in the biological, earth, and atmospheric sciences. Certain threats to biodiversity require intensive international cooperation and input from the scientific community to mitigate their harmful effects, including climate change and alteration of global biogeochemical cycles. In a world already transformed by human activity, the connection between humans and the ecosystems they depend on must frame any strategy for the recovery of the biota.

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The Medical Renaissance Movement International

www.medicalrenaissance.com 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.

To join our International Discussion Group please include some details about yourself and subscribe here: www.medicalrenaissance.com.

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Dr Michael Ellis
Dr Michael Ellis Chief Editor and Creative vision behind The New Paradigm Magazine 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 optimising the physical, mental and emotional health of the individual. As well as his medical qualifications, Dr Ellis also has qualifications in Literature, Arts, Philosophy and Social Psychology. He also has Naturopathic qualifications. He is Co Founder of The Centre for Change and The Medical renaissance Group Dr Ellis is a writer and author. Dr Ellis founded and convened an international conference - Conference Earth: Humanity and Planet Earth - 2001 and Beyond. This conference was held at and supported by Melbourne University on 17-19 November 1995 with 400 delegates, 50 workshop leaders and 10 international speakers attracting national media coverage. This series of Mindquest Conferences is now supported by the Research Institute "The Centre for Change" co founded by Dr Ellis in 2000 and he has since conducted regular seminars at Swinburne University, Melbourne on a wide range of topics related to the achievement of World Peace. His invited speakers have all been Leaders in their chosen fields. With Dr Pavel Kasyanov in 2002 he presented the paper entitled Transition to a Sustainable Civilisation at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002.