HYDROTHERAPY TODAY AND IN THE PAST

by Dr. Lawrence Wilson

All information in this article is solely the opinion of the author and for educational purposes only. It is not for the diagnosis, treatment, prescription or cure of any disease or health condition.

Definition. Hydrotherapy is the use of water for healing. It consists of a set of methods such as baths, enemas, douches, showers, walking in water, and other ways to use water to assist in healing and cleansing the body.

The hydrotherapy literature. There is a significant body of medical literature about hydrotherapy. Most stems from Germany and Austria and was written between 100 and 200 years ago. Among the leaders were Victor Preissnitz and Father Sebastian Kneip in Europe, and Herbert Shelton, Benedict Lust and John Harvey Kellogg, MD in the United States. More recently, Max Gerson, MD (dates) developed the coffee enema, which is hydrotherapy procedure that we find extremely helpful.

In designing development programs, we read all of the books of these men and a number of others. We experimented with their therapies and we have carefully chosen only those that we find most helpful, simple, safe and effective for the situation on earth today.

AN ANCIENT THERAPY THAT NEEDS UPDATING

Hydrotherapy is very ancient and mentioned in the Bible and other older books. While some of the methods still work very well, such as taking baths and showers to keep the body clean, other hydrotherapy methods are in dire need of updating. The reasons are explained below.

COLDER BODIES

The main reason that hydrotherapy methods must change or they don’t work as well today as in the past is because the bodies are much more toxic, more nutritionally depleted and out of balance in a particular way today.

We call this imbalance Yin Disease or coldness. It is the result of:

- Intense toxic metal and toxic chemical exposure due to industrial pollution

- Mineral-depleted food and hybridized and to a degree, genetically modified food.

- Refined or “’junk” food diets

- Bad eating habits that damage nutrition such as eating on the run, eating in the car, or eating in noisy restaurants.

- Too much regular sex, in some cases, which depletes the sexual fluid and weakens the body. Down Sex is excellent, however.

- Taking medical drugs that are all poisonous, no matter how many good effects they may have.

- Taking over-the-counter remedies that are often toxic.

- Exposure to ionizing radiation from A-bomb tests and nuclear power plants and x-rays, mainly

- Massive exposure in the past 30 years or so to electromagnetic stress from computer screens, cell phones, cell phone towers and other newer sources of stray electromagnetic fields that are everywhere and inescapable today.

- The recent decline in the traditional Judeo-Christian values that have shaped Western civilization for the past 1000 years or longer. This may seem to be irrelevant, but it is not because beliefs and thoughts are also either warmer or cooler, and one’s thoughts powerfully influence behavior, such as sexual behavior, eating habits and more.

- Congenital changes that are the result of all of the above. This means changes in the bodies of the newborn children as a result of the condition or situation of their mothers and fathers. The babies are not the same today and need different care than in the past.

HOW THIS AFFECTS HYDROTHERAPY

Water is a very cooling or yin substance in macrobiotic terminology. If a body is more yin, as is the case today, one must be much more careful using any yin remedy.

For example, we only allow two baths of any kind per week. The reason is that ANY exposure to water makes the body a little more yin, and this is very harmful today, no matter what other effects or healing properties a method offers.

Also, we must have people drink a fair amount of water for detoxification, so we don’t want to add a lot more water to the body system.

Cold water. Much of hydrotherapy uses cold water. An old saying in the hydrotherapy literature is that “cold water is live water, while warm or hot water is dead water.” This is absolutely false and causes many problems today. The reason is that cold temperature is also more yin.

For this reason, the hydrotherapy methods of the past often do not work as well today as in the past, and they are more dangerous. They still have great value, but they must be re-examined in light of the rather severe changes in the human bodies of the 21^st century.

To be continued …

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