NATURAL HYGIENE

Natural Hygiene
Natural Hygiene not only proposes a radically different practice in the care of the well and the sick, but also offers a philosophy which is consistent with fundamental biological principles, and at variance with the traditional teachings upon which conventional medical theory and practice is based.
The theory and practice of Hygiene did not originate from the medical system. They do not appear in medical books, nor are they taught in medical colleges, nor recognised by the medical profession. Hygiene opposes medicine, both logically and factually.
To paraphrase the eminent Dr. Russell Trall: "Hygiene controverts all of their fundamental dogmas; denies all of their pretended science; challenges all of their philosophy; and condemns nearly all of their practices". Hygiene not only rejects totally and unequivocally as both unnecessary and dangerous the employment of drugs, sera, vaccines and many other agents as remedies and prophylactics in the treatment of the well and the sick but it rejects most vigorously the philosophy upon which these practices are predicated.
Hygiene is the art of preserving and restoring health by the use of materials and influences that support and are essential to life. It is not concerned with the 'cure' or 'treatment' of disease; it is not a remedial system. It studies the basic needs of life and their appropriate application.
An organism's life is characterised by and dependent upon a constant process of internally generated action (self construction, self defence and self repair). The goal directedness of living action is its most striking feature. This is not meant to imply the presence of purpose on any conscious level but rather to stress the significant fact that there exists in living entities a principle of self regulating action and that that action moves towards and normally results in the continued life of the organism. Concepts of health and disease are only meaningful when the issue is placed in a wide biological context. They are inexplicably linked to the basic alternative confronting all organisms: the issue of life and death. The health or disease of an organism is judged by the standard of how well or poorly it performs its survival functions. Life is the standard of judgment: without life as the standard, the concept of health and disease is not intelligible. The requirements of health are qualitatively similar to the requirements of life, but they are quantitatively more crucial. Life depends upon the availability of the basic needs: food, air, water, sunlight, activity, rest, sleep, mental and emotional factors, etc. Health depends on their intelligent use. The crucial act that humans must perform is identifying and judging what is for them and what is against them. In this context, what is necessary to maintain our health and life, what is favourable to our survival and what is health impairing; disease causing.
The principles of Hygiene are original and independent of the philosophies of the various schools of so-called healing. Hygienists do not recommend, approve or condone the use of medicaments. First, they are not usable materials. They have no normal relation to the body; secondly they do not remove the cause of disease; and thirdly their invariable poisonous nature renders them additional causes of disease. Rational people do not attempt to preserve their health by taking drugs. They recognise their dangerous quality. Why then do they indulge in the irrational practice of using these substances to recover health? Health cannot be maintained or regained by using the causes of disease. The attempt to make sick people well by the use of agents and materials that make well people sick is irrational and absurd.
Hygiene studies and attempts to understand the intimate relation that exists between the organism and its environment. We cannot separate the organism from the environment that supports it. The living organism is self constructing, self defending and self repairing providing that the materials and conditions supplied are usable and innocuous. There are definite limitations regarding the capacity of each individual organism and if these are exceeded, impairment is inevitable. Excesses or deficiencies of the basic needs of life invariably detract from the health of the organism. Disease represents a defensive, remedial, reparative and adaptive process in relation to materials and conditions unfavourable to the survival of the organism. It is a mechanism of the organism's survival but it is not something to be destroyed, conquered, overcome, suppressed or cured.