Purify Thyself
By Susan Vaughn

Purification comes in many forms: spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical. I will depart from my usual subject matter of spiritual healing to focus solely on the body. I have done an enormous amount of healing just by purifying my body. Although doing this alone was not enough to completely heal myself, it was an important aspect of it. Physical purification is a time tested method of healing that was actually described in the Bible, and I’m certain that it is far more ancient than that.

The key words in physical healing are detoxify and nutrify. In order to understand why we need to purify the body, we must first understand the process of disease. According to Smokey Santello in his book Intuitive Eating, which is where most of this information is coming from, there are seven basic ways that we physically destroy the body: toxification, liver derangement, bad fats, immune system failure, hormonal imbalance, poor digestion/elimination, and choice.

Essentially, all life, whether we are talking about human, plant, animal, or microbial life, finds its sustenance in food, air and water. Unless you are a breatharian, the only way you can sustain life is to support that which nourishes it. Food, air, and water provides the elements of nutrition, oxygenation, and hydration which supports or maintains life. In order to overcome disease, we must overcome nutritional failure, poor oxygenation, and/or poor hydration.

Nutritional failure comes about in four specific ways:
1. Lack of excellence in food quality.
2. Poor absorption of the nutrients we do get.
3. Poor elimination
4. Poor food choices.

When our cells metabolize that which sustains us (air, water and nutrients), it goes through a natural process of extracting out of it that which gives life and discards the waste. If this waste is not eliminated quickly and efficiently, it becomes a breeding ground for pathogens. Pathogens are mutated microbes that live on waste products. As plants and animals die and putrefy, pathogens continuously proliferate upon the waste until the substance is returned to the soil. Pathogens are a normal and natural part of the cycle of life and we would be in big trouble if the process of decay did not occur. When pathogens exist within a living body, the body is said to be diseased. Disease is the result of a long process of biological toxification. Pathogens live on dead or dying flesh, much like maggots live on the pollution in a trash can. When our bodies become polluted with more “waste” then the body can handle, microbes mutate to become pathogens, which feed off the pollution.

In allopathic medicine, the approach to healing is to kill the pathogens that live off the decay. It is not to clean up or even address why there is decay in the first place. In fact, many of the drugs that are given to kill the pathogens add to the body’s already toxic overload. In Naturopathy, the approach to healing disease is to clean up the filth that the pathogens live on. When purification is undertaken, the whole body is purified. If you take away a pathogens source of nourishment (and perhaps with a little nudge from the proper herbs), it will die and be eliminated through the natural process that the body has for eliminating that which does not sustain it.

All organisms, including pathogens, are programmed to survive. If they can’t survive under normal conditions, they will mutate and learn how to survive under abnormal conditions. This is why antibiotics are becoming ineffective. The pathogens that they used to kill have mutated, become stronger and more defensive against the substance that is used to kill them.

When pollution is injested, inhaled or imbibed, our cells begin to degenerate because they are creating more waste than they can rid themselves of. Eventually, our cells begin to die one by one, just as we would die one by one if a group of us were locked into a room in which we weren’t given adequate food, air and water and an inadequate sewage system. Although pigs can do it, humans simply can’t live in filth.

Cell death goes through several stages:
1. Enervation: this is when cells stop functioning at their peak level. The first sign is fatigue or lack of energy.
2. Enlargement: in order to deal with the toxic overload the cells enlarge and work over time, which creates more waste and more fatigue.
3. Toxemia: once the waste accumulates to an overwhelming extent the cells begin to drown in their own waste products.
4. Degeneration: as pathogens multiply because they have found a nutrient rich food source, the organ and eventually the body begins to degenerate.

The body will show signs of degeneration in areas of genetic weakness, which may not show up until later in life, sites of old injuries (including old diseases), where the greatest offense to the body is (i.e. the lungs of the smoker, the liver of the alcoholic, or the heart, veins and arteries of people who ingest too much bad fat) and as generalized immune system failure created by depression, too much stress, sadness, disappointment and anxiety, which is otherwise related to our general attitude toward life. When our immune systems fail, our body degenerates.

Liver derangement is another way that we destroy the body. The liver is the second largest organ of the body that has many functions, primary among them is that of detoxification. Under the microscope the liver appears as a huge filter or sieve, which is designed to remove waste products that do not sustain life. Under perfect conditions, the only waste products the liver must deal with are the wastes created as a natural process of cell metabolism. Today, more than ever before in the history of human kind, people need to have healthy livers to break down the thousands of toxic chemicals that have crept into our environment, air, water and food chain. Many of the toxic chemicals that enter the body are lipid soluble, which means that they dissolve only in fatty or oily solutions and not in water. Lipid soluble chemicals have a high affinity for fatty tissues and cell membranes, which are made of fatty substances. Some of these chemicals can be deposited in the brain and endocrine glands, resulting in symptoms of brain dysfunction and hormonal imbalance, which manifest a vast array of diseases.

Many of the toxic chemicals released into our environment are carcinogenic. The chemicals that the liver cannot eliminate are stored in these fatty parts of the body for years. They are only released during times of stress, exercise, weight loss, and purification. When they are released, these toxins produce such symptoms as headaches, poor memory, stomach and muscle pain, nausea, fatigue, dizziness and heart palpitation. This is called a cleansing reaction.

The liver is designed to convert lipid soluble chemicals into water-soluble chemicals so that they may be excreted from the body via watery fluids such as bile and urine. This conversion is done through a complex system of enzymes that exist inside the liver cells. If the cells are already overloaded with waste, the liver must work harder and harder to complete its task of both detoxifictaion and fat metabolism. There are good fats and bad fats. Bad fats are fats that solidify, (with the exception of coconut oil) such as meat, dairy products and shortening, and any fats that have been damaged through heat, light and air, which causes them to become rancid and release free radicals very quickly. We need adequate amounts of the good kind and none of the bad kind of fat. Even excessive amounts of the good kind are harmful.

Bad fats literally have a structure that the liver cannot metabolize or excrete. They are therefore stored in the body. When we eat good fats, which are vegetable, seed and nut fats that are still fresh and in their natural state, the liver metabolizes it, using what the body needs and releases the rest into the elimination system where it can be excreted. If humans who make the choice to overload their body with toxic chemicals and bad fats do not change their habits, eventually the liver will undergo the process of enervation, enlargement, toxemia, and degeneration discussed earlier. This takes a long time to develop, but it does happen. When the liver cannot effectively do what it was designed to do, toxins, dead cells, fat globules and pathogens build up to undesirably high levels in the blood stream. This can damage the inner lining of the blood vessel walls leading to cardiovascular disease.

Bad fats also increase the work load on the immune system, causing it to become irritated and excited. This can produce excessive inflammatory chemicals and, in some cases auto-antibodies because it is in a hyper-stimulated state. This can lead to symptoms of immune dysfunction such as allergies, inflammatory diseases, swollen glands, recurrent infections, chronic fatigue syndrome and auto-immune diseases like lupus, thyroiditis, vasculitis, scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis, etc. The liver and the immune system are intimately related. Just like a married couple, they are dependent upon each other and each one’s happiness is related to the others. Therefore, a congested or sluggish liver also signifies an overworked, possibly burned out immune system.

Another major function of the liver is to break down and eliminate excess hormones. This is very important in relationship to emotional stress, for stress translates into chemical messengers called hormones. Each of the emotions translate into different hormones. Fear produces a different hormone than anger, sadness or despair. It is our hormones that produce all our body’s functions. Too much or too little of one can cause the whole body to feel out of whack. These chemicals have to be processed by the liver before they can be neutralized or eliminated. Under some circumstances, they can be stored in the body for years, adding fuel to emotional imbalances such as chronic depression, resentment, or anxiety.

Unfortunately, emotional stress is a natural part of life that is unavoidable. A completely stress free life is impossible to attain. Emotional stress cannot be suppressed by telling yourself not to feel the way you do. It must be resolved by fully exploring the story you are telling yourself and figuring out if there is another perspective that is less stressful. By seeing the situation differently, you might be able to come up with new behaviors that actually resolve the problem. If emotional stress is not resolved, the hormones get stuck in the body causing residual feelings to persist long after the triggering event that caused them.

Because of the pain that unresolved emotional stress causes, we turn to addictive substances and habits to numb ourselves to our pain. Pain numbing addictions that change our body chemistry come in many forms: drugs, alcohol, food, excessive TV watching and video game playing, sex, over-working, over-spending, over-exercising - basically anything that is done in excess to avoid feeling one’s feelings, facing one’s challenges, and being in the moment. Many of these addictions pose an even greater threat to the liver and immune system than does environmental pollution.

The liver is also intimately related to elimination. When the liver stops functioning properly, the body has problems eliminating waste through the bowel. Therefore, constipation and/or diarrhea develops. You know you have liver problems if you have either chronic constipation and/or diarrhea. However, chronic constipation or diarrhea can also be caused by insufficient intestinal flora caused by antibiotics that have destroyed all one’s good bacteria. (This problem cannot be corrected by cleansing the liver. Rather, one must replace the good bacteria by taking a good acidophilus culture. The best one I’ve found that worked wonders for me in only a few days was a product called Bio-K Plus, which I ordered from the health food store.)

According to most of the books I’ve read on health, cleansing, and nutrition, proper elimination consists of two BM’s a day. Less than this allows toxic debris to remain in the body for longer than is healthy. Pathogens, including parasites, live on this toxic debris. In her book, A Cure For All Cancers, Hulda Clark says that parasites living off solvents that have entered our body through food, air, water and body products cause every form of cancer. Transit time is how long it takes after food is eaten to exit the body. The shorter the transit time, the less likely will be the food to spoil within the body. The amount of time it takes food to putrefy or spoil in the body is parallel to the same food outside the body. Meat and milk products spoils very quickly. Fruit lasts a long time.
Foods that putrefy become mucus forming foods. If they are not expelled from the body before they putrefy, they will add to the body’s mucoid overload. Certain foods produce large amounts of mucus, especially if you are allergic to them, or eat them in the wrong combination. These are wheat, soy, all processed foods, refined sugar, meat and milk products. By eating these foods daily, the entire digestive tract from throat to anus becomes covered in slimy mucus which then hardens in layers, creating massive amounts of what is called mucoid placque, which can only be removed through purification.

Excess mucoid plaque prevents nutrient absorption, so even though you may be eating a good enough diet, you won’t be absorbing all the nutrition you are ingesting. When we don’t absorb the nutrients from our foods, we slowly starve to death, even though we may have plenty to eat and may even be storing large quantities of fat. Mucus also slows transit time. Bacteria, yeast and parasites that live in the mucus cause the immune system to overload.

In addition, we have weakend our digestion by cooking our foods, which destroys the enzymes in it. Enzymes are the interface between spirit and matter. They are the catalysts that produce every bodily function from thinking and feeling to digesting and eliminating. Without enzymes the body is dead. Enzymes are like the spark plugs in your car. Though you may have a perfectly good car, without the spark that ignites the engine, the car won’t go anywhere. Each of your body’s organs have these “spark-plug” like enzymes that create that organ doing what it does. There is not an unlimited supply of them. Once they are used up, they are gone. Only raw food supplies the body with enzymes. Nuts and seeds must be soaked overnight before they will supply enzymes to the body. Since cooking destroys enzymes the body must use its limited supply to digest the food you eat. Once its enzymes are used up, it must borrow enzymes from other organs which were not specifically designed to digest food. This is another way that inefficient digestion occurs. By constantly borrowing enzymes from other organs, they become enzyme deficient and therefore compromise their efficiency.

It is also important to understand the role of water and oxygen in health. Obviously both have been heavily polluted with toxic chemicals. In addition, according to Paul Bragg N.D., Ph.D, in his book The Shocking Truth About Water, most of our water supplies are saturated by inorganic minerals, which cannot be absorbed by the body. These inorganic minerals produce all kinds of problems from kidney stones and arthritis to arteriosclerosis and senility. It does this by depositing these indigestible and unusable minerals all over the body, eventually turning us to “stone.” He and others claim that the only water that is good for us to drink at this point is distilled water. Distillation removes not only the pollution that occurs in all our water sources, but also the inorganic minerals that may occur naturally. Minerals play an enormous role in food metabolism. According to Bragg, “Only a living plant can convert an inorganic mineral into an organic mineral.” These minerals must be obtained by eating mostly fresh fruits and vegetables and their juices.

An adequate oxygen supply is another key ingredient in creating optimal physical health. Because of air pollution, the destruction of our rain forests, and the thinning of the ozone layer, the measured oxygen level within the air we breathe is at an all time low. In the book Stop Aging Or Slow The Process, William Douglas M.D., says, “The main reason for aging is the failure of enzymatic systems that are responsible for our body’s uptake and utilization of oxygen.” There are many factors that inhibit the body’s ability to absorb oxygen besides pollution. Among them are “stress, physical or mental overstrain, complete lack of exercise, intoxications, infections, operations, radiation and other high-energy types of medical therapy, cancer, immunizations, drugs, smoking, trauma, and even infections like a boil or an abscessed tooth.”

In recent months I have become personally aware of the effects of oxygen deprivation. For years I have suffered from headaches that made my head feel like it was going to explode. I finally traced the cause to oxygen deficiency! Though I don’t have any signs of high blood pressure or hardening of the arteries, my blood simply was not carrying enough oxygen to my brain. By researching which supplements increase circulation and promote oxygenation in the brain, I discovered a non-toxic, aspirin free way to heal them. Each morning I take an oxygen rich cocktail of niacin (a vitamin that promotes circulation), vinpocetine (a derivative of periwinkle that oxygenates the brain), phosphatidyl serine (a key human brain phospholipid that oxygenates the brain), co-enzyme Q10 (an enzyme that promotes circulation and cell oxygenation), GABA (an amino acid that has anti-seizure qualities), DMG (an amino acid that promotes cell oxygenation and has anti-seizure qualities), Ginkgo Biloba (an herb that oxygenates the brain and improves memory), lecithin (a derivative of soy beans that nourishes the nerves, particularly those in the brain), and Oxygen Supreme II, which is an ultra high concentration of stabilized oxygen in liquid form. To build my blood I take spirulina, chlorophyll, and chlorella on a regular basis. I purchased all of these supplements at our local health food store and they have made an amazing difference in my life, fully oxygenating my blood and giving me more energy then I’ve ever had.

When we eat polluted, cooked, poor quality food and bad fats on a regular basis, we compromise our liver and immune system. As our digestion becomes inefficient, we use up our precious store of enzymes. Without proper elimination our food putrifies inside us, providing a breeding ground for pathogens and parasites. Without enough oxygen to breathe or pure water to drink, our cells degenerate. In time, our body degenerates through the normal process we call aging. If one truly wants to live a long, healthy, pain free life, one must take responsibility to heal oneself by healing one’s heart (emotions), head (belief system) and body, for all three are most definitely intertwined.

There are many wonderful books on the market that teach people how to cleanse the liver, lymph, blood, and colon. The one I like best is Cleanse And Purify Thyself by Richard Anderson N.D., M.D., which is available at our local health food store. You cleanse your heart and head by changing your attitude toward life and expanding your belief system. You can do that by attending some of the wonderful workshops and classes described in this journal. Though purification takes time, a healed body, mind and soul is well worth the effort. Happy cleansing!

Susan Vaughn is an author and teacher in the Humboldt County area. She teaches a class series called The Art Of Conscious Evolution.

Visit Christine Breese's Metaphysical Sciences youtube channel to view free video satsangs.