Help from Organisms

Now that we have had some time to come to terms with the idea that the human species, like every other species, is in truth and fact an organism our next step is to apply all we have learned, especially through medical science, of the ways in which an organism maintains its health in nature.

Health is not a static condition. Organisms are always struggling to maintain their health because they are always under attack from alien forces. Some of you may have heard about homeostasis. Each organism must maintain homeostasis to survive and whenever the body gets out of balance the body immediately moves into action to restore homeostasis. There are a few obvious examples. When the body lacks nutrition we feel the hunger pangs that alert us of the need to eat. When the body’s temperature is to cold shivers result to help to restore the body’s optimal temperature. The most extreme example is seen after death. These reflexes are under the control of the immune system, whose sole responsibility is to maintain the health of the organism.

The immune system defends against the millions of bacteria, microbes, viruses, toxins and parasites that want to invade the organism. The magnitude of this work is best demonstrated by what happens after an organism dies and the immune system goes off line. Within a few days these bacteria, microbes, viruses, toxins and parasites overrun the body and reduce it to dust.

The immune system receives its instructions from the DNA molecule in each cell. These instructions enable the immune system to distinguish these pathogens from the organism's own healthy cells and tissues in order to function properly and protect the body. In a few cases mutations in the organism’s DNA result in instructions that cause otherwise healthy cells to so misuse meiosis that they present a threat to the existence of the organism itself, or cause the organism's immune system to misidentify the body's own cells as being alien particles to be attacked and destroyed. The body has no natural defense against these attacks because the instructions come from the body itself. We could cure cancers and autoimmune diseases if we could find a way to reverse these mutations in the body’s DNA. Until such a time, we must continue to resort to invasive and destructive methods of healing.

It is this latter case that represents our present condition. The human race has become a threat to the environment that nurtures it, and through wars and violence we treat our brothers as if they were alien intruders to be attacked and destroyed. We are not being attacked by alien forces. Our only recourse is to continue the futile effort of seeking peace through war or find a way to reverse the instructions coming from our DNA that result in this self-destructive behavior.

Because the human race is an organism we should expect that, as is true of every other species it has an immune system and a set of instructions that determine the parameters of its behavior.