Overcoming the Habit of Illness of the Body

The first time we experience something it starts to create a “groove” in our neural network, nerves or responsive centers. As the experience recurs, the groove becomes a ‘pathway’. Eventually, the pathway becomes an embedded habit. When a similar vibration is experienced, it ‘automatically’ follows the established patterns, which is why it is harder to break a habit than to avoid starting one to begin with.

Many of these habits are embedded deadly in human dna through many millennia, as well as in the patterns we create as we educate our children and socialize them into the society and its established ways of doing things.

Illness follows a similar pattern. As a vibration repeats itself, if there is a past experience, the body immediately knows what kind of illness it is going to be and the very cells of the body begin vibrating to that pattern. We see certain individuals seem to be prone to certain types of illnesses, as they have deeply entrenched patterns of reaction in their bodies that convert the vibration into that form affecting a specific area of the body. Thus, some people are prone to sinus issues, some to lung issues, some to throat issues, some to digestive issues, some to headaches, etc.

To overcome these patterns requires conscious awareness. First one establishes the separate witness consciousness observing the nature, including the reactions of the body. Then one can observe how these vibrations arrive, what action they take to come through the protective aura, where they tend to embed themselves and how they set up their pattern to create what we then call an illness.

Once one can observe these various stages, it becomes a matter of finding methods to break the chain of the reaction or pattern at some early point in the process. It is interesting to note that the action of mind and will can play a considerable role in strengthening and supporting both the vital envelope and the physical body. We have historical instances where certain doctors had such a strong will that they entered fearlessly into areas of epidemics and treated patients without themselves becoming ill. There are also instances where certain physicians exhibit such a strength of healing energy that, by their very presence and aura, they help to cure patients of various types of illnesses.

Sri Aurobindo recounted the story of how a wandering Sannyasi cured his brother of a serious illness. The Sannyasi requested a glass of water, cut it with a knife while intoning a powerful mantra over the water. After drinking the water, the brother was quickly cured of the illness. In this case, even a full-blown serious illness could be reversed through the power of consciousness setting up a new vibrational pattern in the patient. The ‘habit of illness is capable of being changed. People who have a history of certain weakness of the body have shown that over time they can transform this weakness into an indomitable strength.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “What I meant was that the body consciousness through old habit of consciousness admits the force of illness and goes through the experiences which are associated with it — e.g., congestion of phlegm in the chest and feeling of suffocation or difficulty of breathing, etc. To get rid of that one must awaken a will and consciousness in the body itself that refuses to allow these things to impose themselves upon it. But to get that, still more to get it completely is difficult. One step towards it is to get the inner consciousness separate from the body — to feel that it is not you who are ill, but it is only something taking place in the body and affecting your consciousness. It is then possible to see this separate body consciousness, what it feels, what are its reactions to things, how it works. One can then act on it to change its consciousness and reactions.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 4, Ordeals and Difficulties, pp..106-107