Modern Medicine: The New World Religion
 By
Olivier Clerc, France
When the Christian
missionaries of the last three or four centuries were evangelizing
so-called "primitive people,” they believed that
they had only to destroy or burn the various cult objects
of these people in order to eradicate their religions, superstitions
and customs.
Centuries after
the conquistadors tried to stamp out the Inca culture, or
the Inquisition tried to stamp out the protestant ‘heresies,’
or the similar attempts to annihilate the Voodoo or the many
African and Asian religions, we know that such arrogant high-handedness
does not work. These beliefs still continue today, sometimes
under different guises, long after the objects of worship
associated with them have been destroyed.
This lesson from
history is not only valid for primitive people and their religions.
It can equally be applied -- if not more so -- to aspects
of our own modern society. Indeed, even a superficial study
of contemporary culture will reveal that the supposed secularization
of present day society is just an illusion. Even though most
people do not conform to the outward show of religious custom
and practice -- mostly Judeo-Christian in western culture
-- the beliefs and superstitions remain deeply embedded in
their subconscious, influencing many aspects of their daily
lives without them realizing it.
And as several
sociology studies have shown, the superstitious beliefs that
used to be attached to the formal religions have in many cases
simply been transferred to other objects, persons or events.
The daily evening television news bulletins, watched by millions
worldwide in their respective countries, the stars of show-business
and sport, humanitarian associations, cults and all sorts
of other things in modern life have now become the new gods
we venerate or fear, or the shrines at which we worship or
curse, and where we still experience those primitive religious
urges and feelings where we can believe without necessarily
having to think or rationalize.
However, it is
in the field of medicine that this unconscious transposition
of the religious experience -- and more specifically the Judeo-Christian
ideology, myths, beliefs, expectations and hopes -- seems
to have had the greatest impact. The facts show clearly --
for anyone taking the time to study them -- that medicine
today enjoys an astonishing degree of undeserved credit that
is out of all proportion to its actual results or promises.
Real health keeps
regressing while the great medical “miracles,” such
as vaccines and antibiotics, are now clearly showing their
limitations, which some had foreseen and warned of right from
the start. This undeserved credit comes mostly from the fact
that medicine and science have replaced religion as the only
certain belief in an uncertain world.
And the doctors
and scientists are seen as the priests of the new religion,
delivering through the certainties of science what the old
discredited gods were not able to deliver. If we can no longer
believe in the miracles, the cures and the curses of the old
religions, we can certainly believe in the miracles, the cures
and the destructive powers of the new science.
Almost imperceptibly
medicine has taken on a saving or messianic role, the characteristics
of which we must examine. Looking back through history, there
is a sense in which medicine can be said to have displayed
characteristics that have at various times characterized the
Roman Catholic Church:
- Autocracy
- Centralization
- The control
and manipulation of people
- Censorship
- Propaganda
- Total obedience
- Infallibility
- The destruction
of heretics
- The stamping
out of individuality
All this, of course,
has been done in the name of public health and the general
good, just as the church acted for mankind’s salvation.
Let me make my
position clear -- I am not a conspiracy theorist; I do not
believe that doctors, scientists and governments are intentionally
and corruptly conspiring together, abusing their powers in
pursuit of wealth, “Big Brother” and “Brave
New World” just a step away. Rather, I do believe we
are faced with a phenomenon that is largely of the unconscious
kind.
What I believe
is happening is that people, whether within the medico-pharmaceutical
industry or outside it, are being subconsciously influenced
by deeply rooted myths, fears and superstitions, which are
now being projected onto the new screens of science and medicine.
This produces an amazing paradox.
Although medicine
sees itself as exclusively scientific and rational with no
room for spiritual or human dimensions (such as psychic healers
or shamans who are dismissed as charlatans), it organizes
itself and functions in a way that can be described as intrinsically
religious. The paradox is that by rejecting any spiritual
dimension medicine in fact becomes the toy of the forces and
myths it tries to ignore and cannot control.
Mere denial of
something’s existence has never made it disappear, except
perhaps in our consciousness, but instead it is banished to
our subconscious mind where, beyond our control, it can roam
free, wreak havoc, and wield even greater power.
We can see, then,
that even though our society considers itself to be secular,
it has remained as Christian as it was a century ago but with
two major differences. Firstly, our society is not aware of
it. It believes itself to be rational, scientific and free
of superstition. It fails to recognize that it is still, in
effect, observing the old religious rituals but under a new
guise. Secondly, our society now lives its religious experiences
through secular forms -- medical ones in particular -- and
has at the same time transferred its hopes and aspirations
from the spiritual world to the material.
Medicine, then,
has become the new world religion. The specific myths, beliefs
and rites of Christianity have been unconsciously projected
over medicine since Pasteur. As I explain in detail in my
book, we can establish a very close parallelism between the
catholic religion and modern medicine, although for lack of
space I cannot go into all the details of each comparison
in this article. In brief:
- Physicians have
taken the place of priests.
- Vaccination
plays the same initiatory role as baptism and is accompanied
by the same threats and fears.
- The search for
health has replaced the quest for salvation.
- The fight against
disease has replaced the fight against sin.
- Eradication
of viruses has taken the place of exorcising demons.
- The hope of
physical immortality (cloning, genetic engineering) has
been substituted for the hope of eternal life.
- Pills have replaced
the sacrament of bread and wine.
- Donations to
cancer research take precedence over donations to the church.
- A hypothetical
universal vaccine could save humanity from all its illnesses,
as the Savior has saved the world from all its sins.
- The medical
power has become the government’s ally, as was the
Catholic Church in the past.
- “Charlatans”
are persecuted today as “heretics” were yesterday.
- Dogmatism rules
out promising alternative medical theories.
- The same absence
of individual responsibility is now found in medicine, as
previously in the Christian religion.
- Patients are
alienated from their bodies, as sinners used to be from
their souls.
People are still
being manipulated by their fears and childish hopes. They
are still told that the source of their problems is outside
them and that the solution can only come from the outside.
They are not allowed to do anything by themselves and they
must have the mediation of priest-physicians, the administration
of drug-hosts, and the protection of vaccine-absolutions.
Just as the magnetic
field of a magnet placed under a sheet of paper controls the
way iron filings fall on its surface, revealing the invisible
lines of force between the two poles of the magnet, a “religious
field” likewise imperceptibly structures and organizes
the development of modern medicine. Invisible, impalpable,
this “religious field” is made up of all the beliefs,
myths and values of the Christian -- and more specifically
the Catholic -- religion. In other words, the secularization
of society happened only on the surface.
We took away the
"iron filings,” the specific religious forms, but
we did not change the “current of thoughts,” the
underlying “religious field,” which continued to
exert the same influence but through medicine. That is the
reason why behind the different structures of medicine and
the Church of Rome we find the same fundamental concepts,
the same relationships, the same characteristics, the same
fears, the same hopes and expectations.
This substitution
of medicine for religion has had many unfortunate consequences.
In medical research, it influences what should be looked for
and what can be discovered. Any discovery or theory that is
at odds with the overarching orthodoxy is rejected and its
authors called heretics. Entire areas of research, as well
as promising new lines of approach, are thus disqualified.
Furthermore, the
unconscious need to bring the medical world into “religious”
obedience frequently leads to (involuntary) falsifications
of results, as became clear with Pasteur's discoveries. The
medical credo takes precedence over reality, something that
scientists refuse to acknowledge when it does not correspond
with their preconceived ideas.
Lastly, the hidden
religious dimension of modern medicine inhibits the free debating
of already fixed beliefs, preventing them from being properly
reexamined and criticized. Indeed, dogmatism, irrationality
and passions -- all characteristic of the religious experience
-- take precedence over any calm and carefully thought out
argument, even over the most tenuous facts. The same vehemence
that led Galileo to be condemned by the Church for his theories,
in spite of the scientifically demonstrable facts, is now
being used by medicine to reject any thesis that is contrary
to its own dogmas. Science has learned its lessons from the
Church.
My aims in writing
and lecturing on this topic have therefore been several. Firstly,
I wanted to bring to the fore this phenomenon of projection
and transfer of religious content, which takes place in the
medical field. In recognizing this phenomenon, we should then
dissociate from medical practice the spiritual aspirations
that quite logically can only be satisfied in the spiritual
dimension. It is dangerous to mistake eternal life with physical
immortality, or to think we can achieve collective salvation
through science and genetic engineering instead of individual
salvation through transformation and personal achievements.
I also hope that
by bringing to the fore the influence of religious beliefs
in medicine, which is but one example of a very widespread
phenomenon today, readers will start thinking about how their
beliefs filter their perceptions, biasing and distorting them.
Every time an object,
a person, a social group or an event becomes the target of
religious projections, there is danger. Their real characteristics
fade in the eyes of those who color them with their beliefs.
These targets then become the objects of religious urges,
impervious to any rationalization, whether they are expressed
through fear, hatred, “devilisation” and search
for scapegoats, or through deification, idealization and unconditional
devotion.
From Princess Diana
to Waco, and from Mother Teresa to Saddam Hussein, there are
numerous examples of the kind of consequences brought about
by this transfer of religious expression to real persons or
situations.
Beyond this dissociation
of medicine and religion, I would like to encourage an increased
awareness of the fears found in the depths of our consciousness,
which remain the hidden determining factors of most of our
actions. As shown in my book, these fundamental fears -- fear
of death mostly, but also fear of evil, fear of suffering,
fear of separation and fear of solitude -- have lead humanity,
at all times throughout history, to make up all kinds of beliefs
in an effort to exorcise these fears.
Then with the development
of science and the rise of intellectualism mankind has tried
to rationally justify these beliefs, hidden under the cloak
of medicine and life sciences.
In other words,
there are three layers superimposed inside us:
1) A core of
fears, from which we have learned to protect ourselves by
covering it with
2) A layer of
beliefs, which make us feel safe (even though those fears
have not disappeared), this layer being itself dissimulated
under
3) An intellectual
varnish, a rational facade, which give us the illusion of
having transcended superstitions and beliefs, and which
shelters us from our fears, keeping us barricaded behind
intellectual knowledge.
But in reality
as soon as any unexpected event scratches this varnish, our
underlying beliefs and fears reveal their presence and their
indirect influence.
As long as they
are not acknowledged, accepted and transformed, these fears
will feed on every area of human endeavor. The intellect cannot
think freely and the heart may not love fully, as long as
both of them are hamstrung by the permanent task of appeasing
our deepest anxieties, which keep trying to resurface in our
consciousness.
No technological
innovation, no scientific discovery, no external knowledge
will ever enable us to avoid this confrontation with ourselves
and -- more specifically -- with our shadow. It is quite instructive
to see to what degree the intellectual and technical knowledge
of this century -- often quite remarkable -- remains captive
to the fears that haunt society. We only have to look at the
poor state of our planet, at the multiplicity of wars and
at the emergence of new diseases, to see how this way of using
our inner capacities is unproductive.
Finally, through
this increasing awareness and consciousness to which I invite
my readers, I hope to encourage greater individual responsibility,
be it on the medical or on the spiritual level. It seems inexplicable
to me that we should give away our power to whatever external
authority (priests, physicians, experts) and then blame them
for abusing us with it.
Very few people
are capable of being totally impartial and disinterested,
especially when money and power are at stake; and especially
when psychological studies show that the noblest motivations
often go hand in hand with more dubious unconscious intentions.
Therefore, taking
personal responsibility for our own health, our own inner
evolution, and our own life at every level, without rejecting
any available help or advice, remains the safest and most
rewarding attitude. The obscurantism that endures under new
forms will not so much be fought by the lights of science
than by the sparks of our own self-awareness, that each one
may awaken in oneself. At least, such is my conviction.
This
text first appeared in CONTINUUM Magazine and is the introduction
to the book "Médecine, Religion et Peur; l’influence
cachée des croyances” by Olivier Clerc. The book
has been published with Editions Jouvence, 1999. France. Olivier
Clerc has been working for 20 years in the field of alternative
medicine, spirituality and personal development, as author,
translator, journalist and publisher.
Beside
his book on medicine and religion, he has written a book on
lucid dreaming ("Vivre ses rêves", Helios,
1983) and another about isolation tanks ("L’océan
intérieur", Soleil, 1985), and was chief editor
of a French magazine dedicated to health, ecology and social
issues. He was editorial director of Editions Jouvence, Switzerland,
until February 2001.
The
author can be contacted at olivierfclerc@yahoo.fr
SickofDoctors.com http://www.sickofdoctors.addr.com/articles/modernmedicine.htm
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