03.05 – Natural Hygiene as a Philosophy of Life – Part 2

Dr. Herbert Shelton describes the revolutionary attitude that burns in the hearts of all who desire to see humankind live happy and healthful lives.

Dr. Shelton states, “Natural Hygiene is that branch of biology which investigates and applies the conditions upon which life and health depend, the means by which all health is sustained in all its virtue and purity, and restored when it has been lost……Natural Hygiene is not a system of therapeutics. It professes to build health in all forms of diseased states by the employment of hygienic agents alone… without the employment of poisons, or resort to enervating palliatives or therapies of any nature. In the class of hygienic agencies can be included only the actual necessities of life – food, air, water, sunlight, rest, sleep, relaxation, exercise, play, warmth, cleanliness, hope, faith, courage – and the means of securing these. Emergency care and constructive surgery form the only non-hygienic measures endorsed by the Natural Hygienist.

“The truth should be self-evident that any method or system that destroys the independence and autonomy of the individual and makes one forever dependent upon another person or class of people is not natural. Any system that of itself creates a privileged class who can, by law or otherwise, lord it over their fellow people destroys true freedom and personal autonomy.

“Any system that teaches the sick that they can get well only through the exercise of the skill of someone else, or through the operation of something else, and that they remain alive only through the tender mercies of the privileged class, has no place in Nature’s scheme of things, and the sooner it is abolished, the better will humankind be. It was no more a part of the original scheme of things that people should be a supplicate at the feet of the healers than that lions or cod-fish should be. It matters not whether a person is dependent on the physician, the osteopath, the chiropractor or the psychoanalyst, that person is a slave to that class upon which one depends. Therapeutics makes slaves of men and women.

“This is an evil and cannot endure. A pure Natural Hygienist uses no treatments…..none. A hygienist is a guide, a teacher. I am not a treatment peddler or drug pusher. We do not treat symptoms. We always first look for the cause. The hygienist does not use the word cure. The healing principle is always in the living system itself. All living organisms are self-constructing, self-defending and self-repairing.

“Teach men and women to prevent disease by avoiding its causes, rather than attempt to cure disease by administering the causes of other diseases [drugs & therapies] – then health and happiness will abound everywhere. We are convinced that mankind can be educated in correct principles and trained in right practices so that sickness will cease to trouble us. It is our business to teach people how to prevent disease and not merely how to take care of themselves when ill. I am well aware of the revolutionary character of the principles I have presented…..but I am convinced that the physical salvation of the human race depends upon their acceptance.”