Sometimes sickness is an opportunity in the search for God. When faced with a painful injury, debilitating disease, or life-threatening illness, even when high-tech medical interventions are available, there is a natural tendency to look within and search the soul. Thus, serious illness can thrust us onto the path of transformation. We may begin to wonder and ask deep questions: Is suffering good for the soul? Are symptoms messages from a deeper level of the psyche? Is physical disease symbolic of mental or spiritual transgression? Do we make ourselves sick?
The concept of illness as a growth opportunity has been around for ages. Yet in our modern materialistic culture, the idea that disease can be purposeful makes many uneasy. This is a controversial topic that requires some deep reflection. Is the calamity of disease the result of some sin of omission or commission? Or simply an outcome of natural law that can be attributed to the forces of heredity and environment? Or perhaps, just random misfortune – in the wrong place at the wrong time?
If a spiritual cause is identified, guilt can complicate the healing process. In such instances, some conclude that suffering is good for the soul and endure the experience with a heavy conscience. For those who accept the concept of karma, illness may be regarded as an effect with a specific cause somewhere in the past – in this lifetime or another.
In the lesson on Righteousness and Sin we were introduced to various aspects of sin as it pertains to soul development. Remember, sin is a mistake, an error – missing the mark.
The Cayce readings insist that illness is sin. In other words, the natural state of the body is health. Any deviation from that ideal state is a mistake or error at some level.
Perhaps the error is at the spiritual level: A lack of love or purpose in life has caused the soul to become lost in itself. Maybe the sinful mistake involves a mental attitude or pattern of thinking that makes the body vulnerable by putting undue stress on the system. Possibly the illness has a physical cause – an injury or nutritional deficiency, or such. Or maybe the illness is a manifestation of all these aspects of the self in some complex combination.
Regardless of the specifics of the individual case, the illness is not normal for the body. The error requires correction. As a multidimensional being, healing is an opportunity for soul development, if approached with the whole self in mind.
Just as the Cayce readings insist that illness is sin, all healing is divine and comes from within. Spirit is life and vitality. The lifeforce energy that animates the body and keeps it alive also heals the body when it is sick. As a low form of electrical vibration, this health giving creative energy is a manifestation of God in this material world.
Even when medical science administers a therapeutic drug, performs surgery, or provides some other type of outside intervention, the body must respond from within for healing to take place. Otherwise, the drug becomes a poison, the surgical wound does not heal – the treatment fails.
Ideally, the therapeutic intervention is close to nature. Natural remedies such as herbs, massage, and hydrotherapy work with the body.
Lifestyle choices that engage the mind and will, such as diet and exercise, bring additional layers of therapeutic options into play. At the spiritual level, healing involves purpose, meaning, and value. Why would you be healed? What would you do differently with your life? What is your spiritual ideal and how can the power of ideals be integrated into the treatment plan?
An additional layer of meaning may be explored if the condition has a karmic dimension. Is the soul meeting itself from a past life indiscretion?
This holistic approach is common in the Cayce readings that place the experience of sickness and healing into the larger context of soul development and the search for God.