Transcript:Hossain Danesh/Spiritual Dimensions of Health Sciences
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[0:05] Earlier David asked, or posed the question that he didn't know why he has been asked to be the chairman of this first meeting, now you know why. I had to think very hard. The title of the talk this morning is "Spiritual Dimensions of Health Sciences". And in order to understand these dimensions, we need to first focus upon few concepts. These concepts are quite unique and I would begin with the most important of them as far as this address is concerned, and gradually in the course of my talk would refer to others. One of the insights given to Baháʼís, regardless of their profession, through the writings of the Baháʼí faith, is that the growth of humanity and development of humanity collectively parallel the growth of the individual. Therefore, humanity collectively goes through the stages of infancy, childhood, adolescence, and maturity. Now, applying this framework to the development of science and art of medicine and its relationship to religion and the spiritual dimensions of life of man, reveal several very interesting insights. Therefore allow me to look, however briefly, at the relationship between religion and medicine throughout the recorded history. We can identify at least five eras in that relationship.
[3:14] The first era was the era of union and superstition. The union refers to union of religion and medical practice. The first medical practitioner was also the religious leader. He was the healer of both the soul and the body. However, by virtue of his own development and growth, and definitely by virtue of the state of being of mankind at that stage of growth, his thoughts, his understandings, his concepts of both the causes and the reasons of illness and the ways of health on the one hand, and the purpose of life of man and his place in this universe on the other hand, were primitive and imbued with much superstition. After all, superstition is nothing but the thinking of the human child, of the human infant, of that era of our growth that reason hasn't developed yet to its fullest degree. And therefore the fear, the agony, the ignorances, the imagination, the fantasy, all mix with facts that are known to the person, and create in state of being, a state of belief that at best, from the light of reason, to be described as superstition. But for the person or for the nation, or the group who are at that level, those superstitions are indeed realities, the best way that they can understand. And therefore it is so important that we do not become ignorant and arrogant in our attempt to understand the way that other people understand the causes of illness and health and all other issues. This is of paramount importance if Baháʼís, and definitely are going to, be involved in an international global level with all people of all backgrounds, of all races, of all levels of development and growth. Therefore, the first era was the era of the union and superstition.
[6:59] However, gradually a separation began to take place. And the era of this separation and distinction between religion and medicine dawned upon the history of man. During that long period, man became both more sophisticated in respect to his understanding of the causes of health and illness and also became more aware of the spiritual dimension of his being and his place in the universe, and the purpose of his existence, and his understanding of the Creator. And then a third era came upon us. And that was the era of scientific inquiry and religious dominance. It is an era that in different parts of the world, and the different cultural settings, religion became the dominant force. And as such, it was the institutionalized religion, the dogmatic religion, the religion that was rigid, the religion that could not change, the religion that was casted and molded in the fashion that was not possible to change it. But at the same time while this religious practice was dominating the culture, the human reasoning was at work as well. The human inquiry, the profound desire of man to know and to discover was at work as well. And consequently there was an undercurrent of scientific inquiry.
[9:24] And this brought us to the next era which was the era of dominance of science and rejection of religion. This is the era that we are living in by and large. It is an era that, especially sometimes earlier, a few decades earlier, but even now, believe that indeed all the problems of humanity are going to be solved through scientific inquiry and through the reasoning of man, that he does not need the intervention on the part of God, that indeed we were able, in this era, to proclaim God dead. And the proof of it was that it was the headline on the cover page of the Time magazine. You cannot have better a proof of that, in our time. However, from vantage view of Baháʼís, there is a new era already in progress which would replace the era of the dominance of science and rejection of religion, and this is the era of the unity of religion and science. It is an era of the Baháʼí faith. The Baháʼí era would see into it, and we are responsible for that, that indeed a true unity of religion and science would take place.
[11:27] Now, in the light of this history, allow me now to look at the present situation as far as the health sciences are concerned. And I want to specifically focus on three dimensions. I want to focus on the crisis of the health sciences. I want to focus on what the world at large is doing to deal with these crisis. And finally, I want to focus on what the challenge is before the Baháʼís in response to this crisis on the one hand, and the remedies that the world is trying to provide for this crisis on the other hand. There are several major crises facing humanity as far as health sciences are concerned.
[12:55] The first of these is the crisis of orientation. And I like here to mention at least three of them. The first and the most important by far is the perception of man by medical sciences as an object, a machine or a threat, an animal. All the inquiries in medical and health sciences deal with human being in one way or another along those three lines that I outlined. Consequently, we find ourselves with a very sophisticated machinery of health, very sophisticated tools, very sophisticated techniques, and very inhuman methods of healing. The second crisis of orientation in medicine is the crisis of being disease-oriented. There is a tendency to wait until people become sick and then provide the remedy. Consequently, by that attitude we promote disease. We encourage people to become ill. And this is especially important at a time when mankind has no refuge, when humanity is alienated, when people are isolated, when people are lonely, when they cannot communicate and relate. At these times in history people need someone to relate to, to go and to talk to, to open their hearts, to make a human connection. So the result is that from sixty to seventy percent of all the patients that the general practitioners see in his office, and by that matter, many specialists see in their offices are there simply to make a human contact and nothing else. But because you cannot make a human contact with a physician without being ill, therefore you develop symptoms and pains and aches. And then it's legitimate to go to the doctor. This disease-orientation also has cause in the development of a health delivery system which spends most of its finances and energies and resources in establishing hospitals and places where acute disease is taken care of and no mention of prevention is made.
[17:09] The third crisis that is facing medicine and the health sciences at this stage is the crisis of fear of change. Rigidity, traditionalism, and exclusiveness are some of the main characteristics of the health professions. These characteristics have evolved over the years based on a historical background which have made it legitimate in the past due to what I mentioned already very briefly about the history of the relationship between medicine and religion. However, at this stage in history of mankind where the change is fast, when the new vistas of knowledge are being opened to mankind everyday, when we are discovering that we are more than our body, and by that matter more than our feelings, and by that matter more than our emotions and mind. At this era in history of mankind, that rigidity, that traditionalism, and that exclusiveness is not useful any longer. And therefore there is a crisis that has to be met by the health profession and this is the crisis of change. Now these are the three crises in the realm of orientation that I chose to mention here.
[19:12] The second set of crises are the crisis in respect to medical practice. In keeping with the first crises and with the orientation of man as an animal and an object, the most important crisis in medical practice is that the physicians have become technicians of body. And if they are in psychiatry, they are technicians of man. Therefore physicians have lost some of those basic fundamental qualities and characteristics that over the centuries, over the history of mankind has made medicine such a noble profession and such a noble science and art. To be a technician does not make you to be able to practice that nobility to the utmost level that is necessary in dealing with those who suffer. But the orientation of human being as an animal or an object or a machine makes it possible to become a technician.
[20:49] Very closely related to this, of course, is the crisis in the area of the treatment in the medical practice, because the treatment becomes a mechanical activity. The most important, the most famous, the most acknowledged physician are those that they are the most technically capable, that they can change hearts and kidneys and brains in future. Those that could actually perform feats of miraculous, technical competence. These are very important. They are extremely important, but they are not enough by themselves. And I would refer to this theme again in the course of this presentation.
[21:57] The third crisis in the medical practice that I like to mention here is the medical practice as an economic enterprise. The whole relationship between money and medicine has clouded the horizon of this noble of all professions. And these crisis manifest itself not only in the rising cost of health, not only in the manner that doctors and patients are relating to one another, the lawsuits that are ensuing, and the whole tremendous attempt at bringing some rational conditions to this whole situation, but also it has distributed the wealth that is available to mankind in the most inhuman and unhealthy manner possible. Allow me to give you some examples. We have the largest number of deaths in the world, not as a result of disease, but as a result of malnutrition. You see, medicine and death are closely related. Okay? We have the largest number of deaths in the world, not as a result of lack of knowledge of how to prevent most of the diseases that afflict mankind, but because, one of the reasons, because the economic processes don't allow the use of the economic resources for prevention and education. The whole relationship between money and medicine is in a very unspiritual and unhealthy level.
[24:28] Now the third crisis facing the health sciences is the crisis of medical ethics. There are several areas here. One is ethics of research. We are facing with the dilemma of the genetic jinx. What are we going to do with our genetic research? And people are asking who is going to decide whether we could get involved in that kind of research that could by mistake or on purpose cause an increase in diseases, an increase in deformities, or even worse, in decreasing the diversity of human race. After all, the most important, the most potent, the most valuable resource of humanity is the diversity of the world of humanity and not the sameness of the people of the world. Look at this audience. If in this audience we had all the men and women exactly the same and the most beautiful, and the most intelligent, and the most marvelous but all of them exactly the same and identical, and no change, this would have been the most uninspiring, unexciting, boring place to be in. Because no one would have been anyone. And this whole idea of creating the super race and the superman is one of the most, greatest of the ethical challenges facing humanity. Because as you know, as Baháʼís, what is necessary for mankind is not the sameness but is unity and diversity.
[26:58] The second of these crisis in ethics of medical research is related to dilemma of human experimentation. You know whenever you want to develop a new technique or new medicine you have to test it on people eventually. But it is one thing to test it on people when they are informed, they are aware, they have a loving relationship and trusting relationship. It is another thing to test it on people who are prisoners, people who are mentally ill, people who are crippled, people who don't have any ability to defend their own rights. And the third problem in the ethics of medical research is again the economic strings that are attached. You cannot get funding for the research if your research is not keeping with the opinion, wishes, and desires of the body that is going to fund that research, be it a pharmaceutical company, or a behaviorist, or a person that thinks man is an animal, or a professor that thinks man is a machine, or whatever.
[28:35] The second crisis in medical ethics is related to ethics of the practice of medicine, the most important of which is prejudice. Physicians, and all other people who are in the health profession, by virtue of being human beings they are subject to prejudice. But there is no other place in life of human experience that prejudice could be more devastating than in practice of medicine because you are dealing with the question of life and death, the question of pain and suffering, the question of happiness and joy, the question of the individual, the family, and the community. We have seen the effects of use of prejudice in medicine on individual basis if we have been subject to it, if you belong to a race that you are not liked by your physician, if you happen to be a woman to go to a man that doesn't like women or vice versa, if happen to go to a person who doesn't like old people, if you happen to go to a person who doesn't like teenagers because he had difficulty with his own teenagers. Prejudices of all kinds are rampant and they always affect the judgment of the person who provides help. Another dilemma in the ethic of medical practice is the decision, who is going to live? Because you have many that need kidneys and you have few kidneys, many who need hearts and you have few hearts, or not enough money, or the person is not important enough, or the person doesn't have a high status or whatever. And another of the same dilemma is who should die and how that person should be allowed to die? These are the crises facing medical practice and these crises are closely related to the whole question of place of life and death in the medical practice. And that covers the range from abortion all the way to euthanasia. These are the crises that medical practice, the medical profession, the health profession are facing.
[31:46] There are another set of crises, the fourth set of crises, are related the crisis of being a patient. One of them is that people have a no disease-orientation rather than being-well orientation. In other words, people simply try to live a life that doesn't give them much pain, and they don't feel all that bad. But is they are fat, and if they are smoking, and if they cannot walk fast, and if they cannot talk without going out of breath, and all of those things it really doesn't matter, they are not ill. And then consequently you have a population that is simply not well. The North American population is a good example of it. Just go to one of the holy places of the cities: supermarket, shopping centers... [Audience laughter] I have taken that from Glen [?], and watch people passing by and you see that you don't see the well people, you just simply see people who don't feel they are ill.
[33:29] The second problem or crisis of being a patient is related to the immoderate and animal-like lifestyle. Life of people by and large doesn't follow the lines of moderation. And whenever we don't live a live a life of moderation, we endanger our health as a whole. And the animal-like life simply means that people do what they do, when they do, how they do, without consideration of anything except that it feels good, animal instincts. But human beings are not animals. The third problem, related to the crisis of being the patient is our attitude toward pain and suffering. We simply are afraid to have pain, and we consider having pain as a shor-term. Consequently, we avoid pain at all costs. We are also very self-centered, and therefore whenever we feel pain, we feel it much more than in reality it is. You know that if you have a headache and if you sit in a corner and say, "Oh my god, I have such a lousy headache. Oh, it hurts. It's throbbing so badly. Oh it is the left side, now it's going to the right side. Oh I feel it in my neck also. Isn't that awful that I have such a lousy headache? And look at that sun. It's shining in my eyes and just makes me so sick." You just continue to do that because you are self-centered, and you headaches would just get worse. So a society that tries to avoid suffering and is self-centered spends millions and billions of dollars in those remedies that take away, temporarily, the pain and gives the illusion of being free from suffering, while at the same time the person is poisoning himself by taking the remedy.
[36:36] And the final crisis that I want to mention to you in regard to and in respect to being a patient, is the crisis of seductiveness of the unusual, of the magical. After all we are living in the age of nonsense. The most prevalent idea, the most talked-about idea, the most commonly accepted idea, the ideas that would make you rich overnight, that make you be heroes on the televisions and radios and newspapers and movie scenes are the ideals that are far-out, that they don't make sense, that follow the laws of nonsense. This is indeed the age of nonsense that applies to all aspects of our lives, including our health. And nonsense my dear friends is very seductive. And we become immediately and completely seduced by it, unless we safeguard ourselves against it.
[38:11] Now the fifth crisis that the health sciences is facing in our time is the crisis of the patient-doctor relationship. The trust, the confidence, the hope that the patients used to have towards their physician is disappearing fast. After all, it is very difficult to relate to technicians with those sentiments. The spirit of service, the idealism, the optimism that characterized the physician of the past is disappearing fast also. And consequently, we see in front of us the profile of the materialistic man. The materialistic physician and the materialistic patient, both devoid of ideals of the spiritual identity of man, relating to one another as robots who have also emotion. This is a major crisis and it manifests itself in all areas of our relationship with the people who are supposed to take care of us at the time of illness.
[40:08] And finally, I want to mention the crisis of medical education. Medical sciences and health sciences include a vast area and a vast vista of knowledge. And this area of knowledge is beyond the capacity of a human being to incorporate all of them. Consequently the process of specialization becomes ever more important. And even in the process of a specialization, that best the focus would be on the organ that that person is going to be with, rather than the organism, the human being that he has to deal with. The new physicians are going to become able to emphasize mechanics, facts, learn all of the techniques but they hardly have the time or the opportunity to learn about the human being, the patient as a person, as a whole being. This is a major crisis taking the educational system. The medical students are chosen according to the level of competitiveness, to their level of IQ, rather than having a high level of HQ, which is human qualities. These are very important crises facing us.
[42:19] Now I like to focus on the question of what the world is trying to do about these crises. And I would follow the same outline as I did before. Here I am not referring to any efforts on the part of the Baháʼís, but on the part of the humanity as a whole. And here I'd like to mention another principle and concept that is extremely important. As you know, this is a new age in the history of mankind. This is a ritual springtime. We do not know, and humanity doesn't know how fortunate it is to live at the beginnings of the coming of the Manifestation of God, at the beginning of the springtime. You know how exciting it is to observe and experience the coming of spring. One of the reasons I [?] in Canada is to have a lengthy winter [Laughter] so that I can experience the coming of spring. It is the most exciting thing. You see? I yearn for it for six months. When the springtime comes then the whole of humanity, the whole of creation comes to life. Some knowingly, some not knowingly. Those bushes that have already come out of the ground they directly experience the spring breeze. They directly experience the rays of the sun at the time of spring. And therefore they behold and experience consciously the process of coming of a new spiritual springtime in life of the man. However those seeds that are growing and still are covered with the veils of the dark, of the material existence, these beings also experience the world of the sun, also experience the life-giving effects of the breeze of the spring, and they begin to grow also. Therefore we should not be surprised, rather we should be delighted that movement are taking place all over the world, amongst all the people of the world, regardless of whether even they know about the Baháʼí faith or not. That focuses and aims towards solution of these crises along the new lines that we as Baháʼís are familiar with.
[46:11] So with this concept in mind I like to go over those crises one by one again and share with you what is happening, very briefly. First of all, I mentioned to you that the most urgent crisis is the crisis of medical orientation. And with respect to medical orientation [...static...] getting to talk of human beings as psychological beings. Saying such as patients are people and people have feelings, I made it up. But it is the kind of orientation of this nature emerging, it is one step beyond the level of looking at the human being as an animal or as a machine. At least we are acknowledging the human being as a psychological being. Still we have to go further, but at least the movement, the direction is right. The second aspect related to this, I mentioned to you, was disease orientation. As you know, we are becoming more prevention-oriented. The governments are focusing more on prevention. People in general are focusing more on prevention. The direction is correct. The crisis is there, but the direction is in the right direction. And the third one is the whole issue of fear of change that I mentioned to you. And again in this area there is gradually, but very gradually, an awareness on the part of some people in the health profession that we need to be able to change according to the requirement of the age in which we live. After all, isn't that one of the major pronouncements of Bahá’u’lláh and guidance of Bahá’u’lláh to mankind? Of course it is. And this gradual movement is so gradual that you probably wouldn't see it all that easily, except that you can identify somebody who is far out, a physician who is far out here or there or there and everybody says, "Have you heard of so and so?" And then you have a fringe kind of medical community creating, but that is not really desirable. What would be desirable ultimately is that change takes place, growth takes place in the body of the profession as a whole.
[50:04] The second crisis that I mentioned was the crisis of medical practice. Here again, although physicians are active by and large as technicians, nevertheless there is more focus being paid on the emotional aspects of people's lives, on social aspects, on intellectual aspects. There is a movement into that direction. The other aspect is that our methods of treatment is changing. You see if you are dealing with a machine, you really don't need to have methods that are very humane. By that method if you are dealing with an animal, you don't have humane methods. You need humane methods for human beings. Gradually, as we are becoming aware that we are dealing with human beings, gradually, the methods of treatments are becoming more humane. But that again is a very gradual process. And economic aspects, as far as the practice as I mentioned earlier, again to some extent it's improving. The example of it is the insurance system. For example in Canada, as you could compare it to other lands, or to number of years before. So as you see there is a gradual movement toward changing the medical practice and decreasing the crisis that I mentioned.
[51:55] The crises of medical ethics were the third crisis. Here I think we are dealing with the most difficult, the most challenging area of crisis. It is an area that I feel medical practice at this stage has not been able to fix. The simple reason is that there are no candles. A humanity without thunder is like a number of people wandering in the darkness. And while you wander in the darkness, you cannot set those guidelines, because if there are guidelines you cannot see them. Consequently in the ethical area we have tremendous difficulty at this stage. The number four was the crisis of being a patient. I feel this is the area that the greatest advancement has been made. And this is primarily due to people who are not in the health profession, like most of you here. People are becoming more informed. People are becoming more health-oriented. We are trying to eat better. We are trying to eat less. You know, Prophet Muhammad gave a dictum about health, with respect to eating which is extremely, extremely practical and easy to follow. He says, "Do not eat unless you are hungry, and stop eating while you are still hungry." People are either following that dictum to a large degree or to a "large" degree, depending on how they do it. They either become large or follow it to a large degree. The habits of people gradually, to some extent, are changing. At least people know that they could cause difficulties for themselves when they smoke, but nevertheless they do it, or when they drink or whatever it is. The lifestyles in general are changing towards a very encouraging direction. Also, people are becoming more informed about their rights. People are becoming more aware that they can demand justice. And to a lesser or greater degree they do. But by and large people are still afraid of physicians. They are afraid of hospitals. They are afraid of people with the white robes on and all of those things. And it was going to take time and energy on both sides to remedy this situation. At the same time people are becoming again more interested in the nontraditional, in paramedical, in pseudo-medical, in the pseudo-scientific way of treatment. So consequently people are mixing fact and fiction, what is reasonable and what is unreasonable, what is healthy and what is unhealthy. Is a life of paradoxes that we live.
[56:16] The fifth area of crisis that I dealt with earlier was the area of the patient-doctor relationship. Again here some, some improvements are being made, at least some awareness is there. These improvements however are in the area of emotions and feelings, trying to create a good atmosphere and adjust yourself to the emotions of the person; in the area of giving information to greater or lesser degrees; and in the area of trying to reestablishing the trust. But the spiritual dimension does not come in.
[57:07] Finally the sixth challenge, the challenge of medical education is probably the second most difficult challenge. But in that respect at least there have been some improvements in recent years. The whole idea of the development of psychology, medicine, medical psychology, the whole idea of focusing on diets and diets taking an important place in health practices, the whole area focusing on death, on birth, on the diet of the mother at the time of pregnancy, before the time of pregnancy on the part of the mother and father. There are many areas of exciting research that indicates how important the orientation of the person, the lifestyle of the person is in respect to these matters. There's a greater tendency toward reestablishing the family practice of the past. There is an attempt to treat the patient as a whole human being. But there is much change needs to be done in this respect.
[58:52] Now the third part of my talk would focus on future of medicine. And here the future from the vantage view of the Baháʼí community, of the Baháʼí faith. And again I follow the same order as I did for the previous two. The orientation with respect to nature of man is a very easy solution for the Baháʼí. According to the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh, human beings are created as noble and spiritual beings. All our activities and endeavors should increase this nobility, to safeguard his spiritual reality, and to make sure that it would not debase his most noble of all created beings. Again if we review the writings of the Baháʼí faith, and I invite you to read the review that was made by myself on writing of the Baháʼí faith in this respect, health and healing, which was published on the World Order, Spring of 1979 issue, you would see that the teachings and statements of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, of Bahá’u’lláh, of Shoghi Effendi all encourage prevention. All encourage a lifestyle that eventually would result in being well rather than not being ill or being ill. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says, "The immoderate lifestyle that we have..." I'm paraphrasing here, "the immoderation that we have, the excessive practices that we get engaged in has resulted", and this is both in respect of our lifestyle and our food and diet, and so forth, "has resulted in increasing both the number of the diseases and their intensity. That once the life of human beings becomes less complex, more simple, less burdened with all of the unnecessary artificialities of our existence, that both the incidents and the intensity of diseases are going to decrease."
[1:02:22] The third area in this respect, you remember, was about the rigidity, the traditionalism, and the exclusiveness of the medical health profession. And here again in the Baháʼí faith every individual is asked, and that includes the physicians and all of the people who are in the health profession, to search for truth. The spirit of search for truth doesn't allow for rigidity, doesn't allow for dogmatism, doesn't allow for traditionalism. It invites an atmosphere of openness, of frankness, of exchange of ideals, in a milieu of encouragement and love. And that is the kind of milieu that we will establish.
[1:03:28] The second crisis was the crisis of medical practice and how would it be the medical practice in the future, in a Baháʼí era? Well in that time the physician would become a healer of the body, and of the mind, and of the whole being. His spiritual orientation, his turning to God at the time of encountering his patient. Prayer, all those processes were put into motion, new forces that are totally unknown at this stage in our development.
[1:04:26] You know after years of being in medical practice, it dawned to me that I should follow these practices. It never had dawned to me before and then one day, bingo, I said, "You know, isn't that interesting ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said those things and Bahá’u’lláh said those things, probably those apply to me as well." Consequently I began to say prayer, by myself whenever I would encounter my patient. I do not know how it works but I know that it definitely cleared my mind from everything else that I have been preoccupied with before, and puts me in a kind of state of being that I would be able, with all my capacity, to relay, to love, to communicate with the individual that I'm dealing with. And that helps to deal with ones prejudices, because we have a lot of prejudices. And that is really helpful. It helps also establish a state of calmness, communication, and so forth. It works.
[1:06:07] So, in medical practice the physician is going to become a healer. You know, one of the problems that we had with this conference was that we called it "First Baháʼí International Conference on Health and Healing" and a number of our Baháʼí friends who are in this field attempted to take time off and to come to the conference. And their supervisors would not allow them because of the word "healing", because they thought that "healing" means [?]. Because that is the concept that exists today. You talk about treatment and cure, which are basically mechanical activities. A healer has a different quality. A healer is an individual who not only has the knowledge, not only has the technique, not only has the ability, but he with his own being, with all of his capacity, intellectually and spiritually, tries and attempts to fulfill his responsibility. So we are going to have a resurgence of the healer, but a rational healer: a healer who is able to bring together the science and the religion, the spiritual dimension of man and the intellectual dimension of man. Not the superstitious, not the fictitious, but the healer in this new life. Consequently, the medical practitioner and the health practitioner as he gets engaged in his activity in this process, he approaches it as Bahá’u’lláh has told him to approach his practice, in a spirit of service, and in a spirit of worship, free from prejudice. These are specific statements and guidance given to a physician, a Baháʼí physician. That we have to see our act as an act of worship, that we have to approach it in a spirit of service. And we have to be free from prejudice. And we have to turn to God in the process of doing that, knowing well that ultimately it is God who heals and not man. And this is the statement very clearly mentioned both by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the beloved Guardian. And again the references you can find in that paper.
[1:09:39] The third area of crisis is the ethics, medical ethics. And here really all I can say is that science under the guidance and influence of the spiritual teachings of faith of Bahá’u’lláh would be the process of search for truth, in which the use of knowledge would be to serve humanity, to advance an ever-advancing civilization, to be the cause of unity and concord, and to bring comfort to the masses. And it is within this concept and with this framework, and the framework of nobility of man, the integrity of the human being, the sacredness of human life, the joy of death and going to the other realms of existence and continuing one's process and growth and ever ongoing forces of getting closer and closer to object of our adoration and love, which is God, that process would make it much easier, that framework makes it much easier to establish the new ethics of the new age for the new medicine. The absence of prejudice, the spiritual solution to economic problems would allow to alleviate the masses of people suffering, and death because of malnutrition, because of lack of application of knowledge, medical knowledge to all aspects of prevention and treatment. The legal aspect would be dealt with in the principle of justice. As you know the most beloved of all things in the sight of Bahá’u’lláh is justice. And as such justice have to become a hallmark of the new medicine.
[1:12:15] The fourth crisis was the crisis of being the patient. Here again there is a wealth of guidance. First of all Bahá’u’lláh unequivocally has stated when you are ill, go to the best physician possible. There is no exception. Shoghi Effendi says even if you are the most renowned physician yourself and even if you are slightly ill, go to the best physician. The problem is how to find the best physician, well that is not in the writings. However, the guidance is there. Our dear beloved friend who is in Abhá Kingdom and I'm sure is hovering around here, Alan Reiner[sp?], was facing with this dilemma at the time of his illness and he wrote to the Universal House of Justice and asked: What should I do? You know, I go to the most best physician, this one, and he says one thing. And the other best physician says another thing. And the third best physician says a third thing. What should I do? And of course the guidance was given that you seek consultation and see what is the majority of the opinions, because you see the principle of consultation applies in all aspects of our life, be it in health, or illness, or whatever. Okay.
[1:14:06] The spiritual lifestyle would make us less ill. It would make us less in need of doctors. It would bring moderation to our existence. It would bring less anxiety. It causes calmness. And now we have the body of research appearing, that relates these dimensions of human existence to development of serious illnesses, such as heart problems, cardiovascular problems, cancer, and a number of other problems of enormous difficulties. The relationship between the patient and the doctor in the atmosphere of the Baháʼí faith in which nobility of the being of both is accepted, in which they are united in their love for God and therefore they are close together, there is no problem in that process. One last thing in respect to being the patient as a Baháʼí, Bahá’u’lláh says you should obey your physician.
[1:15:37] Number five, the crisis already I have dealt with in the concept of number four, the doctor-patient relationship, and therefore becomes the sixth one and that's the medical education. Medical education no doubt in the Baháʼí community is going to be closely related to the spiritual dimension of man. After all, envision the human society, the Baháʼí society of the future. In each city there would be a house of worship. The house of worship would be the center around which a number of institutions would be erected. Those institutions are: medical schools, universities, hospitals, the home for the aged, the home for the disabled, the home for the elderly, the home for the orphans, and all other facilities of that nature that a society should provide. See how as a part of the whole thing is a total complete constant reminder of the spiritual reality of man, on the one hand, and the unity of science and religion, on the other hand. Okay. In that context the crisis of education that I mentioned before would be [?].
[1:17:32] Now, what are our immediate challenge as individual Baháʼís, and on a collective level? As individual Baháʼís it's very clear: follow. Follow the reality given to us and provided to us at two levels. One, the spiritual reality. Second, the scientific reality. Do not be seduced by the superstition, the magical, the supernatural, and all others that are in existence now and they would come. This is clearly what I find to be the guidance given in the writings of the Faith. Second, live a life of moderation and spiritual orientation. In a collective level we are facing with the challenge of history that I reviewed with you. And the last challenge was to bring the science and the religion together. Once again we want to bring that union that was at the beginning, but that beginning union was the union of superstition. Now it would be unity of science and religion. While we are attempting to do, then we want to develop in practical ways and means of being service to mankind and provide humanity with the insights that are given to us, and therefore we are repositories of insights, we are the holders of that insight given to us through this Manifestation of God for this age that would help the medical, the health profession to fulfill its destiny of becoming that noble profession that indeed it is.
[1:20:15] And my hope and the hope of the Canadian Association for Studies on the Baháʼí Faith in organizing this conference for these few days is that during the course of our deliberations and presentations and so forth, we would eventually come up, especially on the last day, with those recommendations and suggestions that would allow us to develop and establish an agency, a vehicle, through which we can gradually but surely put into action and reality the concepts, some of which that I have been able to mention to you here. Thank you very much.