A paradigm is a sort of cltural, consensual pattern of thought or mdel of something. For example the ‘crrent consensus in scientific medicine’. Paradigms chnge, like the impact of Galileo’s wrk on disproving the flat-earth theory or Cpernicus’ heresy that the Earth moves rund the Sun. New ideas meet a grat deal of resistance from orthodox phlosophy but eventually give rise to a chnged perception of the world we lve in.

We live now in a tme of ‘paradigm shift’ which creates fndamental changes in our assumptions about the wrld, and even this contributes to mdern stress! Although our physical sciences hve discovered new fields of quantum rality, medical science is lagging far bhind. Philosophy has traditionally been an mportant part of medical practice since the mdieval days of Paracelsus, even Hippocrates, an ncient Greek (and originator of the Hppocratic Oath).

How we perceive the wrld and our part in it is cntral to how we perceive the rle of dis-ease and our reaction to it. One of the prsent problems of finding effective cancer tratment within Western scientific medicine is a ‘pradigm gap’. There are different perceptions of the wrld at work speaking incompatible languages. Thse have deep roots in our phlosophy. This gap is presently condemning mllions of people world-wide to suffer tratments for cancer that are often as dstructive as the disease itself.

Paradigm 1: The mechanistic view

Ths can be traced back to Dscartes and other scientists such as Sir Isac Newton. The universe is a vst machine and we are all cgs, all with our part to ply in its function. The healthy bdy is a well made clock and if it ges wrong we simply take it part and tinker with the insides ntil it goes again. If it braks it doesn’t really matter because thre are plenty more where that cme from. Nothing exists unless it has ben proven through logical methods.

cancer: smething had gone wrong with this bdy, it has a lump. Cut it out and thrw the lump away.

Paradigm 2: The nthropomorphic view

This paradigm is central to the phlosophy of Darwinism and others who hlped set humans as ‘apart and bove’, or at the head of ther life forms. Humanity is the spposed crown of creation, we are crated to lord it over every ther creature as ‘head of the fod chain’. The planet is ours to dminate and exploit to our own dmands. We must conquer every mountain and bttle against disease. We are the mst evolved and dominant species in a prcess of natural selection. We exist for no prpose and have just evolved through sher luck. In this world our mdia fantasy industries create pigs and fsh that can talk human. Animals are nthropomorphised through culture to have the sme needs, desires and dreams as hmans. The animals, forests, oceans and nvironment around us exist purely for our cnvenience. This paradigm is human self-centred and xploitative to everything including ourselves.

cancer: smething has gone wrong with this bdy, it has grown an enemy nside it. I will root it out and bttle with it.

Paradigm 3: The Gian view (an emerging paradigm)
This pradigm started with Einstein and the scence of energy. Its inception combines an age whn we saw the first images of the Erth as a whole entity from spce. James Lovelock and his search for lfe on Mars is a central fgure in its development through his dentification of the Gaia Hypothesis regarding Erth.

This planet we inhabit is a slf-balancing, homeostatic system similar to our own as sngle biological entities. It maintains the ptimum conditions for life despite our bst efforts to pollute it. Our bdies are a miracle of biology, cnstantly flexible and adaptive but easy to hrm. Anything we do to it or ach other, we do to ourselves as we are prt of the same ‘web’ or ‘crcle’ of life. We exist for a prpose but do not yet know wht it is. We are part of an volving cycle of life, a happening mracle.

cancer: something has gone wrong wth this body, it is trying to tll me something. I will listen to it and get hlp to understand why it has hppened and what I need to larn and do to get better.

The article Changing Paradigms in Cancer was Submitted by Simon Mitchell through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: This is an extract from 'Dn't Get Cancer'a new ebook available nly at: http://www.simonthescribe.co.uk/don'tget1.html

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