Yuku free message boards

Accurately diagnosing the assorted maladies of the "physical" body has long been an ongoing work in progress, and some of the older [once cutting edge] material associated with this can make for very interesting reading indeed, especially when one juxtaposes it with what is now commonly known about the human body by many a contemporary layman....let alone a contemporary medical practitioner.

For example:

The Four Humors

Essentially, this theory held that the human body was filled with four basic substances, called four humors, which are in balance when a person is healthy. All diseases and disabilities resulted from an excess or deficit of one of these four humors. The four humors were identified as black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood. Greeks and Romans, and the later Muslim and Western European medical establishments that adopted and adapted classical medical philosophy, believed that each of these humors would wax and wane in the body, depending on diet and activity. When a patient was suffering from a surplus or imbalance of one fluid, then his or her personality and physical health would be affected. This theory was closely related to the theory of the four elements: earth, fire, water and air - earth was predominantly present in the black bile, fire in the yellow bile, water in the phlegm, and all four elements were present in the blood.^[1]

Theophrastus and others developed a set of characters based on the humors. Those with too much blood were sanguine. Those with too much phlegm were phlegmatic. Those with too much yellow bile were choleric, and those with too much black bile were melancholic. The idea of human personality based on humors contributed to the character comedies of Menander and, later, Plautus.

Through the neo-classical revival in Europe, the humor theory dominated medical practice, and the theory of humoral types made periodic appearances in drama. Such typically "eighteenth-century" practices as bleeding a sick person or applying hot cups to a person were, in fact, based on the humor theory of surpluses of fluids (blood and bile in those cases). Ben Jonson wrote humor plays, where types were based on their humoral complexion.

Additionally, because people believed that there were finite amounts of humors in the body, there were folk/medical beliefs that the loss of fluids was a form of death.

Wikipedia

Obviously, the more knowledge and experience humanity has gained with " physical " bodies, the more it has come to understand how they function, and how best to nourish and maintain them throughout the course of their limited duration.

What about "spiritual" bodies though?

Does a glance back through documented history reveal a similar trail of discovery?

Instances which suggest that endeavours to accurately understand their function..... has also been very much a work in progress?

Or is there perchance one singular, hereditary Magnum Opus..... a book which discloses all known aspects of spiritual function, care and maintenance.....to any who might wish to learn of such things?

whytebyrd2 {Sharon} wrote:

---

....maybe some of those old dudes had an inkling of something but then in explaining it they only had their ethnocentrism as a frame of reference to explain it.

* Emphasis mine

The medical outline cited above gives retrospective discourse about The Four Humors.....and at one time, medical science [such as it was] likely pivoted on such theoretical discourses.

I reiterate part of the text's main body: [no pun intended]

Through the neo-classical revival in Europe, the humor theory dominated medical practice,..

* Emphasis mine

If nought else, it's fairly obvious that great efforts were being made to understand the "physical" body at that time. Great efforts which persisted throughout successive generations and brought us to the level and depth of medical knowledge we now all enjoy today.


In your concluding comments you wrote:

" God is not angry with those who at least try to get some understanding.."

* Emphasis mine

It would appear that in his infinite wisdom 'God' assesses humanity for it's ongoing effort rather than for it's current degree of accurate understanding at any point in the finite time-line.

Obviously this accuracy is ever-evolving, but it's the effort which ultimately drives this forward.

Mapping and understanding the "physical" body took effort...and much that was once dominant in man's understanding had to be disregarded to make way for that which was eventually discovered.

One would assume that mapping and better understanding the "spiritual" body will take effort also.

Whether anything outmoded will need to be disregarded in that quest remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain.

Healing "physical" and "spiritual" bodies can only ever occur when a truly accurate diagnosis of the malady is available.

However, I think that it can now be officially confirmed that bloodsucking 'leeches' are no good whatsoever for either of these two 'bodies.'


*small moves*



Mick