Leaving western medicine, we now switch to a short discussion of the other major medical models still existing within the modern world–the traditional Taoist-based Chinese model and the Ayurvedic medicine of the Aryans who entered into the Indus Valley around 2500 B.C.E. Because of similarities between the two medical models, it seems likely that both systems developed from the same source, most probably Aryan. Consequently, I will treat both systems as a unit comprising the system of eastern medicine.

Eastern medicine is based upon common concepts underlying eastern philosophy and world views which are a direct outgrowth from the historic, shamanistic practices of the Asian continent. Eastern medicine is based upon the premise that all life occurs within the circle of nature. All things within this matrix are intimately interconnected and mutually dependent upon one another. Nature is one unified system, known as the Tao in Chinese medicine. Nature is in constant motion, following cyclic patterns that describe the process of transformation. When the elements of nature are in balance, life is harmonious and flourishes. When the balance of forces is upset, disaster looms and disease finds a home.

While Chinese medicine focuses primarily upon the actions of Chi, the underlying fundamental energy of world creation and world maintenance in its dual aspects of Yin and Yang, as it manifests in specific patterns of harmony; the Indian system discusses and addresses directly the effects of human inheritance, the status of the parent’s mental and emotional attitudes during the sexual act, environment influences, astrological conditions at birth and the importance of balancing at least three bioenergies, called doshas.

Within the eastern world view, each human being is a microcosm of nature, a smaller universe, operating under and exposed to the same laws functioning within Nature itself. Human beings, as a component of life itself, represent the juncture between the Cosmic and the material worlds–Heaven and Earth. Humanity cannot be separated from Nature, as humanity is Nature–Nature manifest as people. Eastern medicine recognizes that within Nature and within each individual there exists an essential pattern of harmonious existence and that disease exists whenever a person is out of balance with his own, unique energy pattern. A man is seen not as a machine reducible to simple parts, but as a monad, a totality, which must be respected and treated as such. Eastern medicine sees health as the ability of an organism to respond appropriately to a wide variety of challenges in a way that insures maintaining equilibrium and integrity. Disease represents a failure to adapt to challenge, a disruption of the overall equilibrium, and a rent in the fabric of the organism.

Consequently, eastern medicine is preventative in nature, encouraging each person to adopt a healthy lifestyle appropriate to his essential energy pattern. Eastern physicians can be likened to gardeners rather than to mechanics. Eastern doctors treat conditions rather than specific causes, seeking to cure the patient by reorganizing the existing pattern of disharmony into a harmonic pattern of healthy relationships.

These concepts can be seen within verse 77 of the Tao Te Ching:

The TAO of Heaven: how it resembles the archer!
He presses down what is high
and raises what is low.
Whatever has too much he reduces,
whatever not has not enough he completes.
It is the TAO of Heaven
to reduce what has too much
and to complete what has not enough.
Man’s TAO is not so,
He reduces what does not have enough,
in order to offer it to what has too much.
But who is capable of offering to the world
that of which he has too much?
Only he who has TAO.

Generally, eastern medicine can be seen to encompass at least two distinct worlds of experience. The first is the finite, material world acknowledged by the western physician; the second is the spiritual world–the home of one’s ancestors, spirit forces, gods, demons, the Celestial Hierarchy, the work place of the Taoist immortals and the Buddhist Bodhisattvas. Consequently, the world view of the eastern physician is more expansive than that of the typical western healthcare provider. However, I would like to propose that any new view of medicine will have to allow for an even greater range of opportunities of incarnate and discarnate human expression. Therefore, before finalizing the details of this talk it is necessary to delve briefly into one model describing the construction of our Ray of Creation, or Universe of All Possible Experience.

One frequent postulate of many ancient teachings is that Creation can be described by a series of concentric worlds. This concept is utilized by several yogic schools, is represented in Buddhism by the realms of form and formlessness, by the world designations shown on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, in the teachings of Gurdjieff and within Sufism. Most commonly, either seven or four worlds are listed. These worlds represent mutually exclusive realms of energies, each having its particular sphere of activity and world purpose.

Previously, I mentioned the Sufi designation for the material world, the alam-i-ajsam. This world is but one of four possible worlds which can be experienced in some manner by a conscious or transconscious formed or formless being. The other three worlds in ascending order of sophistication or refinement are: the world of spirits, or the alam-i-arvah, the world of possibilities, or the alam-i-imkan, and the highest world, or lahut. I am mentioning these worlds so that you will understand how extensive the intended scope of teleomedicine is relative to current concepts of both western and eastern medicine.

The alam-ajsam, or the world of bodies, is equivalent to the world of the material scientist. This is a finite world in which objects can be counted, a world that can be described by number, a world subject to discrete and specific laws of physics and chemistry. Although a number can be large beyond imagination, such as Eddington’s estimate of the number of hydrogen atoms within the light horizon of the universe, 10**80, all such numbers can be increased or decreased by one, forming a totally different and distinct number. It is in the nature of the finite, material world, the world of bodily existence that everything is limited and we can only deal with finite, countable numbers and the mathematical relationships existing between them.

That the material universe is finite in extent, and not infinite, is quite clear from cosmological observations, e.g., the maximum distant photons could have traveled since the moment of the Big Bang, the uniformity of the microwave background of the universe, the nature of the cooling curve of the material universe, the conservation of energies and momentum and so on. Everything that exists– large, small, past, present or future–is subject to separateness in space and successiveness in time and is therefore measurable and countable. All material bodies have definable properties and static and dynamic behaviors within the time-space matrix (this expression differs slightly from Minkowski space-time) which can be accurately described and predicted. Although the rules of manifestation differ between the macroscopic and quantum levels, even the behavior of quantum objects can be mathematically described using first-order, linear, differential equations.

Therefore, when the materialistic scientist declares that the only existence which can be studied is the material world and that only natural occurrences are possible, he or she is correct–as long as they do not look beyond the walls of their chosen system of study.
The Sufi world of spirits, the alam-i-arvah, is equivalent to the sphere of non-bodily experience known in the mystical and occult literature as the astral, psychic or spirit world. St. Paul spoke of this world when he wrote, “Whether in the body or out of the body, I know not.”

This is the world of Spiritualistic phenomena, out of body experiences, near death experiences and so on. This is the world where time and space lose objectivity and become subjective. This is the orb we pass into during the dreaming phases of our nightly slumbers.

This is the source of the life energies which are utilized to form the body of the lower soul or astral body. Relative to the finite world of bodies, the world of energies is a true infinity. This is the sphere which contains all the potential possibilities of expression for the material world and its denizens. This is the home of the World Wave Function.
Although this world of spirit is limitless in its possibilities, it cannot get beyond itself. It is itself and nothing else and there is no way of turning it into something it is not. This is the first level of infinity described by George Cantor in the late 19th Century, aleph0. Every such infinity is complete, nothing can be added to or subtracted from it. One reason why the second world is not the end is that there is nothing that can change the individual aleph0. If we wish to be something more than we are, we have to be pulled beyond the world of spirits and into a more full infinity.

If one is stuck in the spirit world, he or she cannot exist anywhere other than within his or her dreams. Some metaphysical schools have taught that people who are fixed in the spirit world when they die, form a whole world around them. They are quite convinced that they are living in an ordinary world with their friends and family members. The validity of this position has never been adequately demonstrated in controlled experiments. The major subjective evidence provided by proponents of this speculation are found within the annals of the Spiritualist Movement of the 19th and 20th centuries and recent popular books dealing with near death experiences (NDE) and information-channeling from discarnate individuals. Whether or not this model applies to “sleeping” humanity at death is a moot point.

The third Sufi world is the alam-i-imkan, or the world of possibilities. Everything here is beyond the infinity comprising the world of spirits. We can look at this in terms of awareness. There can be more or less awareness; this is measurable. We can see that when we wake up in the morning we are more aware than we were when asleep. During the day our awareness of the world around us fluctuates and sometimes we observe ourselves and sometimes we do not. When we are observing ourselves there is an awareness beyond our awareness of what is simply happening.

Then a change comes when we are no longer conscious of anything but there is a consciousness without any limitations. This is the transition from the measurable to the lowest infinity described by the transfinite mathematics of Georg Cantor. This level of consciousness is often called Cosmic Consciousness because when a person enters into this state, he is aware that there are no limits and that he knows everything; and he is bound to feel that he has attained the ultimate state of awareness. He may even be convinced he can remain in this state of infinite consciousness, but then he returns to the finite world of bodies and retains only a memory of having known everything.
This is the world of all that is possible and impossible within our own Universe.
It is possible to realize that one knows everything in a particular perspective. There can be detachment from the cosmic consciousness and something can arise that is no longer conscious as we know it. This is called in Sanskrit samadhi. This brings us into Cantor’s second transfinite infinity, aleph-1. In this state there is detachment from oneself. One’s individuality becomes quite different, it is unique, but every individuality has the same value.

The last Sufi world is called lahut, which means boundless. In Sanskrit it would be called sunyata. This world is also known as the Unfathomable Source. This world cannot be said to be full or empty, not full or not empty, both full and empty, neither not full nor not empty. What one experiences subjectively is a state of complete emptiness where everything disappears, but because it is absolute nothingness it is also absolute creativity. This is the infinity which contains all possible combinations of all possible and impossible states for our Universe.

Once we allow for the possibility of human experience beyond the finite, material world, we quickly see that we have entered into the octave of teleomedicine. No longer is the physician’s responsibility limited solely to assuring the prosperity of the physical body–the teleomedical physician must also be concerned for and apply specific interventions so to insure the proper development of an individual human soul and its transformation from selfhood to Personal Individuality. At an even higher level, the teleomedical practitioner must concern himself or herself with the physical and spiritual health of the developing group soul and spirit of the Earth itself.