"Auto" means self, and an autoimmune dis-ease is when the immune system attacks part of one's self, that is, a target organ of the body. Something goes awry with the process in which the immune system learns to distinguish self from not-self, the body's own tissues from that of an invading germ. The person's immune system, meant to defend against germs and not-self, instead directs its fury against the person's own tissues - self. It's the physiological equivalent of friendly fire.

Myelin is the target organ in multiple sclerosis; the islet cells of the pancreas in Type 1 insulin dependent diabetes; the joints in rheumatoid arthritis; the lungs, kidney and other organs in lupus; the connective tissue in scleroderma; and the thyroid gland in immune thyroiditis.

There are at least 80 autoimmune diseases, ranging from familiar ones like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis and Type 1 diabetes to more obscure ones like pemphigus vulgaris. They affect 5 to 8 percent of the American population, or up to 23.5 million people, say estimates from the National Institutes of Health. Patient advocacy groups often give much higher estimates, and there is evidence that the incidence of some of the diseases is increasing. There appears to be a current epidemic of Type 1 insulin dependent diabetes, whereas rheumatoid arthritis appears to be decreasing in frequency. Nobody knows why.

Autoimmune dis-eases can run in families and some people get more than one. Most of the victims of autoimmune dis-ease are women - many in their childbearing years. There are at least eight women for every man who has lupus, scleroderma, thyroiditis and Sjogren's syndrome. Women also outnumber men, though not by as large a margin, for multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease. As for the gender discrepancy, many scientists theorize that it results from women's hormones, like estrogen. This is partly because many of the ailments begin after puberty and tend to ease after menopause.

Little is definitively known about the causes of autoimmune diseases or how to treat them. It has been more than 30 years since a new drug was approved for lupus, for instance, and the existing drugs have severe side effects. Many autoimmune dis-eases are treated by suppressing the immune system with steroids or chemotherapy. But immune suppression leaves a person vulnerable to infections. One scientist described the current approach as "rather like taking a sledgehammer to the computer to try to slow it down."

Unfortunately, this "sledgehammer" approach to autoimmune dis-ease is typical of western medicine that addresses symptoms but not underlying causes of dis-ease. Here it's basically the heavy-handed "the immune system is killing us; let's kill it." Little thought is given to the more basic question of why the immune system is attacking the self. This approach is not working and is bankrupting society.

Just Do the Numbers

Given that at least 23 million people in this country have an autoimmune dis-ease, suppose that $1,000 is spent per person over the course of their dis-ease. Three things will happen: a) 23 BILLION dollars will be spent, which will b) bankrupt our society and c) this will accomplish next to nothing, because what can be bought for $1,000 in our current medical system.

This argument excludes the use of a) physical products or b) technical procedures to treat auto-immune dis-eases. There are just too many sick people and you can not afford physical products or technical procedures. Furthermore, products and procedures do not prevent these disorders.

Physical products and technical procedures are the two cornerstones of western medicine and of the medical industrial complex. Indeed, western medicine, which is male dominated, for profit and based on recent technology, specializes in products and procedures to be more profitable. If you sell 200 pills versus 100, or do 50 procedures versus 25, you will make twice as much money.

Principles not Principals

If you are not going to use Principals – physical products or technical procedures - to treat auto-immune dis-eases, what are you going to do?

What about a Principle?

The immune system is a memory system, that is, it remembers or learns. That’s what vaccination and allergy are all about. Expose or sensitize the immune system to an antigen such as the polio vaccine, and the immune system remembers or learns to recognize the polio virus. Its response the second time it sees the polio virus is different than its first exposure to the polio vaccine. It has learned to recognize the polio virus.

The immune system is a memory system that responds to memories or to learned experiences.

In, Not Belong; Manifesting Not-Self on a Target Organ

The MASH approach says that the person having an autoimmune dis-ease has something "in their life that does not belong”, and that they are manifesting a not-self memory on a part of their body. By being attached to a memory, story, prior role or segment that is in their life but does not belong, the person is manifesting not-self on a part of their body, and so their immune system is attacking that not-self on that target organ. See diagram1 and diagram2.

(The onset of several autoimmune dis-eases often correlates with a physical infection, which can be bacterial or viral. This is not-self in the physical. The MASH approach of having not-self in the metaphysical on a target organ is a generalization of this known physical phenomena.)

Different themes of not-self manifest on different parts and on different chakras of the body.

Movement and Warrior Not-Self

For example, MS or multiple sclerosis is a dis-ease of movement where the immune system is attacking the myelin – the insulation of the nerves.

We are proposing that multiple sclerosis and ALS (Lou Gehrig’s dis-ease), which is probably a protein folding dis-ease, are associated with the warrior theme of de-voted action and movement and with prior group warrior experiences. The warrior not-self would affect movement – the actions of a warrior. Women are more prone to develop MS, and men more prone to ALS.

We are also proposing that the genetic dis-eases of myelin – Charcot-Marie-Tooth or CMT dis-eases, which also impair movement, are associated with warrior themes.

Thyroid dis-ease and speaking your truth

Immune thyroid dis-ease is common, particularly in woman. The thyroid is on the 5th chakra, which involves manifestation in the physical and “speaking your truth.”

We are proposing that individuals, particularly women, in our patriarchal society who are not speaking their truth and not manifesting their true “self” are manifesting not-self on the 5th chakra, and so their immune system is attacking their thyroid.

The healing process is to identify and to non-attach to the not-self and to manifest their true self by speaking and acting their truth.

For those who wish to heal in the Judaic Christian tradition, manifesting your truth on the 5th chakra – doing what God/Goddess wants you to do - can be associated with the Days of Pentecost in the Christian tradition, when Jesus’ word was made manifest to the disciples, and with the major Jewish holiday of Sha-vu-ot when Moses went up Mount Sinai and manifested the ten commandments and the word of Yahweh. Both holidays occur in the Spring.

The two-step MASH Healing Strategy:  Identify and Non-Attach to the Not-Self Memory

Step One is to look for and to identify what is in a person’s life but does not belong, that is, the not-self memory that is resonating with the target organ.

The person’s Grid can suggest if the not-self memory is a prior role, a prior group experience, a prior individual experience from an old culture or closing an old play. Two quotes by the former New Yankee baseball player, Yogi Berra, are also relevant: “it’s déjà vu all over again,” and “you can observe a lot just by watching.” The person is repeating the memory or the story and it is showing up in their life.

Dowsing or other intuitive means such as dreams to obtain the memory or the story are also helpful.

Warrior memories or stories can reoccur in the phi proportion according to the Semper Phi Warrior sequence. (See below the case of Sara Willis’ multiple sclerosis.)

The underlying “dis-ease” can manifest both as medical and social dis-ease. The onset of the auto-immune (medical) dis-ease is often accompanied by traumatic events in the person’s life (social dis-ease).

Step Two is to non-attach to the not-self memory that is in the person’s life but does not belong.

There are many ways to do this, but having the intent to do this seems essential. This can involve changing long standing behavior patterns such as learning to speak your truth as in the case of thyroid dis-ease on the 5th chakra.

One approach that we are implementing in Windber, PA and in two places in Vermont is what we call “Spin Out –Open Your Heart – Spin In.” This is a spiritual vision quest that incorporates two classic seven path labyrinths – a right-handed labyrinth part way up a hill to spin out prior roles, segments or stories that are in one’s life but do not belong, and a left-handed labyrinth at the top of the Hill to spin in a spiritual Destiny that is not in one’s life but belongs.

Some examples

We have been applying this MASH approach to auto-immune dis-eases with a handful of people. To date, the best example is Sara Willis - a woman now in her 50's who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at age 14.

Using her Grid and the approach of looking for something in her life that did not belong and the idea of warrior not-self on her myelin, we found that she was attached to the memory of a prior group warrior experience from the 1860's involving the Apaches and the Geronimo period. This is what was in her life but did not belong. This prior group warrior experience occurred about 84 years before her birth in 1947, which is an example of the Semper Phi Warrior sequence.

By being strongly attached to that prior group warrior experience that occurred about 84 years before her birth, she was still fighting that battle on her myelin, and her immune system recognized that memory as “not- self” and was attacking her myelin. When she non-attached to that prior group warrior experience – by reading books about that period that her husband bought for her, and by grieving over those events over a three month period – the not-self stopped resonating with her myelin, her immune system backed off and her autoimmune process stopped. She has shown sustained partial recovery during the past nine years.

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