Biogenealogy
Decoding the Psychic Roots of Illness - Freedom from the Ancestral Roots of Illness
by Patrick Obissier
Patrick Obissier has written a book with a powerful central thesis that is impossible to dismiss and that is capable of changing profoundly the way we think of and seek to treat illness and disease. Simply put, any individual life cannot be understood without taking into account the critical and formative experiences of earlier generations. These earlier generations play an important role in determining the physical and mental health and well-being of the lives that follow with their genetic heritage.
This is stated early and clearly with the declaration that it has become obvious that:
· All illnesses have distress as their starting point, which causes ‘biological conflict’
· All illnesses begin upon receiving an order from the brain
· As genes contain imprinted memories of ancient adaptations to old conflicts, all illnesses are genetic and epigenetic
It makes it explicit that advanced technology has played a critical role in establishing ‘precise correlations between intense feelings, cerebral focal points, and illness’.
At the same time, the book concludes with an angry condemnation of some fashionable mainstream conceptual habits:
No social plan of any duration can be crafted today as long as mindless beliefs (the germ is wicked, the aberrant and cancerous cell is insane, nature is crazy, the Evil One is tempting humankind, and so on) are maintained by sects, lobbies, and/or political parties. How can we see the harmony of the world if we continue to wear distorting lenses over our eyes?
Obissier’s book is particularly beneficial in pointing out the way in which illness is often part of an essential healing process. It would have been more effective if it had also provided a more nuanced and detailed account of actual evidence of generational forces at work and actual practices that can be deployed to provide practical remedies. While Obissier might be criticised for tending to revert too often to general, if instructive, restatements of his central thesis this is not to dismiss its value.
Obissier argues credibly that the identification of critical and harmful legacies from past generations and the direction of therapeutic and healing attention to these forces is critical if we are to improve upon present primitive social practices. He explains how our physical illnesses are healing processes necessary to protect and restore us given the damage we carry in our genetic makeup. Consequently, he argues, much of our medical theory and practice is flawed at the level of its fundamental paradigms.
The gives the impression that Obissier is at the beginning of a challenging adventure of exploration and discovery and that he is seeking to establish the major principles that should be relied upon for guidance as he ventures into difficult and little charted territory. There can be little doubt in the minds of those who have studied contemporary health and medical practices that our world needs such boldness and daring if it is to escape the destructive character of many of our false certainties.
Biogenealogy: Decoding the Psychic Roots of Illness – Freedom from the Ancestral Origins of Disease is probably most open to serious criticism, however, in its failure to pay more serious attention to non-Western traditions that seek to address related concerns. These usually are free from much of the harsh and distorting conceptualisation of modern Western science. Obissier displays a tendency to remain trapped in the very structures of habit and thought that are the target of his criticism.
There is now available a substantial body of work that has explored alternative traditions of science, medicine and health therapy and has begun to highlight the frightening failings and corruptions of contemporary Western thought and practice in all these areas. Admittedly, these almost always confront the educated Western intelligence with a daunting abundance of inscrutability, mystery and evasiveness. Even so, they frequently succeed in revealing powerful and fulfilling ways of living in this world and of exploring the types of reality that are the concern of Obissier.
Unfortunately, the type of approach used by Obissier can tend to confirm the hype of contemporary scientific language and activity to distract from these ancient forms of wisdom, which are beginning to reveal the limited and dangerous character of so much of our modern research and discovery. In this context, Obissier has further to travel before the treasures uncovered by his adventures begin to rival in value many that have long been utilised to help mankind ensure that the robust and coherent integrity of body, mind and spirit is preserved from generation to generation.
Having said this, Obissier displays qualities of integrity, intelligence, curiosity and sensitivity that can make an important contribution to human understanding when so much related work on genetic influence is corrupted by personal ambition and corporate calculation.