>     There are two stories headlining CNN’s homepage this afternoon that relate to drugs and depression. I am quite familiar with one of the stories and not surprised by the other. The first is a report by Michael Chernoff about Jordan Burnham, a seemingly well-rounded and high- performing high school senior in Pennsylvania who jumped nine stories from his family’s apartment in an attempted suicide. The other story is a report about recent findings by Harvard University that in 47 clinical trials, anti-depressants were no more effective than placebos, although those results were deliberately misreported by the drug companies performing them to physicians dispensing them to highlight the benefits of prescribing anti-depressants.
    I’m familiar with Jordan Burnham’s story because I live nearby and not too long ago spoke with the Philadelphia Inquirer reporter, Michael Vitez, who wrote extensively on Jordan’s story and who interviewed Jordan and his family as he was released from the hospital after 80 days of care and moved to a physical rehabilitation facility.
    These topics of depression, anti-depressants and attempted suicide are ones for which I have a particular sensitivity. I have personally experienced all of them in my lifetime.
    The Harvard report comes as no surprise to me. I have written before and expressed my feelings about the over-prescribed, and resulting, over-medicated Western world. What the Harvard report does is to give credibility to a fundamental truth which is that in most cases, the drugs are not needed.
    What is needed is not profitable to the pharmaceutical industry and others who have made trillions of dollars off of masking the root causes of so much of our illness and disease…both psychological as well as physiological.
    A truth is that we insist upon defying Nature, no to mention our own good sense, by trying to live at an impossible pace. We have thrown personal relationships and quality of life upon the sacrificial altar to paying homage to acquisition and, oftentimes, meaningless accomplishment.
    Having for the sake of having.
    Doing for the sake of doing.
    Trading inner guidance for other-based direction.
    Whether a flower, a fish, centipede or a human, it cannot be lacking in the fundamental and necessary conditions for growth without distorting and, ultimately,mutating the end product.
    In our case, humans are not designed to live at the rapid rate of speed at which advanced technology performs. But heaven knows, we keep trying. And what we sacrifice in our efforts is all that makes us uniquely and magnificently human.
    Such a sacrifice is painful.
    Hence, the dis-ease and the drugs.
    Dis-ease is the result of mis-alignment. It’s from being out of balance with our true nature. The easy way is to sedate or mask the symptoms, rather than deal with the root cause. Make no mistake about it, even medications that appear to cure dis-ease do not reach to the core of where that dis-ease first manifested. The “seed level” is in our thought forms which then move into our physical body. The real cure is the opposite path from medicating and sedating. The real cure is to get at those thoughts and patterns of thought that are in direct opposition to creating harmony within oneself and in relation to others.
    It’s a daunting task, I’ll give you that. And we’re far from fully understanding how it all works and even farther from mastering this approach so I’m not saying that if your child needs a transfusion you should help her or him change their thought forms and skip the transfusion.
    I am saying that the road to both understanding and mastering alternative ways to intentionally create illness, as opposed to creating dis-ease by default, necessarily leads us inward to an honest examination of our thoughts, our intentions and our priorities.
    Jordan Burnham survived the nine-story jump. Hopefully, as his body heals so will his trust and faith in himself. Hopefully, he will come to realize that all the accomplishments and all the accolades are not only meaningless but also detrimental if we are dong them for someone else’s vision of how life should be lived…rather than our own.
    As for the drug companies, they’re unlikely to voluntarily change as they are driven by greed. So, this change is up to us. We must turn down the quick and easy pills for the slower and more challenging route to self-awareness, integrity and congruence by living lives that truly reflect our inner selves rather than the conforming to the outer demands of others.
    I know we are on the cusp of making this change. I know it because dissatisfaction is everywhere. Not despair. Dissatisfaction. This is a very good sign.
    We have been asleep…a culturally drug-induced sleep. In the darkness of that sleep we have been co-opted. I see and hear more and more people awakening each day. Out of that darkness and into the light.
    If the awakened ones need a motto, might I suggest “Rise and Shine.”

P.S.   Remember to click here to download my FREE e-book “TOO MANY SECRETS”

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