be wise
hygiene, the principles of health
Part One: Light
I used to think hygiene was about making sure I had clean underwear on. Turns out, it is much more than that. Good hygiene is the application of principles of health that safeguard our well-being by establishing, building, and maintaining inner harmony. Harmony within cannot help but extend to and positively affect the without - the context we find ourselves existing in at this moment in time.
For thousands of years, sunlight has been known across different cultures to be the great liberator from the threefold sufferings known to humanity: mental illness, physical illness, and spiritual ignorance.
Current information on light and the critical role it plays in health is backed up by a plethora of historical documentation. Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD), considered sunlight to be the best of all self-administered therapies. Greek physician Soranus of Ephesus (110 AD) prescribed sunlight therapy, as did Arabic philosopher and physician Avicenna (980-1037) for the treatment of chronic illnesses including asthma, epilepsy, jaundice, sciatica, diseases of the bladder, paralysis, and more.
With the rise of certain religious factions, sunlight therapy became conflated with sun worship and fell out of favour. It re-emerged as medicine with the scientific experiments of Dr. Arthur Downes and Thomas Blunt (1877), Professor Erik Johan Widmark (1889), and Nobel Prize winner in medicine Niels Finsen (1903).
Here are a few quotes from wise elders about the vital role sun exposure plays in health and well-being:
The feeble one should press out into the sunshine as earnestly and naturally as do the shaded plants and vines. The pale and sickly grain blade that has struggled up out of the cold of early spring puts out the natural and healthy deep green after enjoying, for a few days, the health-and-life-giving rays of the sun. Go out into the light and warmth of the glorious sun, you pale and sickly ones, and share with vegetation its life-giving, health-dealing power. Ellen White: The Health Reformer, 1871
In the deep valleys among the Alps of Switzerland, the sun shines only a few hours each day. In consequence, the inhabitants suffer terribly from diseases indicative of poor nutrition. The women, almost without exception, are deformed by huge goiters. A considerable portion of the males are idiots.
Higher up on the sides of the mountains, the inhabitants are remarkably hardy and are well developed, physically and mentally. The only difference in their modes of life is the greater amount of sunshine higher up the mountainside. When the poor unfortunates below are taken up the mountain, they rapidly improve. JH Kellog, MD, The Monitor of Health, 1891
As I entered the hospital one beautiful morning, and the sun shone warmly through the open window, while a refreshing and stimulating atmosphere filled the whole ward, the thought suddenly occurred to me of exposing this large wound to the sun and air… Then, to the astonishment of the staff, I had the bed put to the open window and laid the large wound open. By the end of the first hour and a half’s exposure, there was a marked improvement noticeable, and the wound presented quite a different appearance. The granulations became visibly more normal and healthy, and the enormous wound skinned over quickly under the treatment. Oskar Bernhard, MD, Light Treatment in Surgery, 1898
The direct action of sun rays on the whole of the patient’s naked body, combined with the beneficent effects of the sun and bracing mountain air, constitutes the best of tonics and health restorers. Auguste A. Rollier, MD, world-renowned for his sun-care clinic established in 1903
Various muscular tests have been conducted on exposed and unexposed athletes, and from these tests it has been concluded that the athletes pigmented under the ultraviolet radiant light show more energy and persistence, which is estimated to be approximately twenty percent greater than the un-irradiated competitors. Coincident with this increase in muscular vigor and endurance, mental alertness has also been noted as measured by the scholastic attainment of those athletes who had previously shown some difficulty with their studies. M. Luckiesh and A. J. Pacini, Light and Health, 1926
In two large outdoor gymnasiums, one for men and one for women, patients get close to nature, sunbathe, exercise, play, and swim encumbered with much less clothing than the most abbreviated swimming suit. This has long been one of the most effective treatments given here. JH Kellog, MD: Battle Creek Sanitarium, 1933
The more a man lives in sunlight, other things being equal, the more vigorous will his brain be. James C. Jackson, MD
Due to the fact that sunshine is an essential of healthy nutrition, being necessary to growth, development, and repair of tissue, it is of value in all states or conditions of the body. It is not a specific “cure” for one or two so-called “specific diseases,” as the medical profession teaches. It is a hygienic, not a therapeutic agent, and is needed as well in health as in conditions of impaired health. Herbert Shelton, MD
Encouraged as an effective measure for public health in the 1930s, sunlight therapy again fell out of fashion with the introduction and widespread use of antibiotics in the 1950s. In recent years, and thanks to many good humanitarians out there, the amazing (and free!) healing properties of the sun have been brought back out into the light.
Exposing ourselves regularly to the balancing and healing information encoded in natural sunlight is one of the foundational principles of hygienic practices that ensures our good health:
...remember that your foundation is energetic. You come from, are derived from, and return to Light. You have a basis of order and Truth established within you, and honoring those spaces and opening and receiving and aligning those circuits is very, very important.
Sadhana:
Not-so-fun fact: The vast majority of Americans now spend ninety percent of their day indoors. Notice how this disconnect from our environment coincides with the drastic and steady decline in overall physical, mental, and spiritual public health.
If you spend most of your days inside, your battery is low. You can go a long way in keeping your system charged, balanced, and functioning optimally with a daily dose of sunlight therapy. One such therapy is known as harmonizing with the sun, or sun-gazing. Practiced for centuries in some cultures, it is simple to do (unless you happen to be a night owl) and incredibly healing.
Harmonization with the Sun:
Sun-gazing is done during the first hour of sunrise and/or sunset only to avoid damage to the retina.
Stand in the open, under the sky, barefoot when possible. Avoid tile, concrete, and lawn.
Gaze softly at the rising or setting sun for 5 to 10 seconds the first day. Increase sun-gazing by 5 to 10 seconds every day. Gradually increase the practice time to one that you can sustain on a daily basis. Consistency is more important and effective than length of time spent gazing.
While gazing at the sun, allow the light energy to enter through and bathe the eyes, the brain, and the entire mind/body. Feel the light balancing, aligning, and healing you.
Prayers to enhance harmonization:
Prayer at Sunrise
With the opening of the earliest dawn, I open softly to receive your Light. Bathe each petal of my mind with your radiant rays! I saturate myself with the perfume of Your Presence, and I hear Your message of Love for all. Bless me, that with the spreading of the dawn I may spread Your Love everywhere. Bless me, that with the awakening dawn, I may awaken all souls with my own and bring them to You.
Prayer at Noon
The sun shines high in the heavens: everything is fully awake. Awaken me likewise! You are invisible, yet Your energy flows through the rays of the sunshine. Fill my veins with Your invisible rays, making me strong and tireless. As the sun shines, in the busiest streets, may I behold Your rays of protecting Love, in the crowded places of my life's activities. As the Light shines steadily, undisturbed, on the street, whether crowded or empty, so may I hold my calmness and my strength steadily, while I move through the crowded and empty streets of life. Give me strength, and what I receive teach me to share with others.
Canticle of the Sun
Praise to You, O Lord our God, for all Your creatures, especially our dear Brother Sun Who is the day through whom you give us Light. Fair is he, in Splendour radiant, Of You, Most High, he bears the likeness. St Francis
Additional Practices:
Palming:
Palming is a gentle practice that can be done by everyone at any time. An excellent practice after sun-gazing, it is effective for nourishing and resetting the nervous system, reducing eye strain, and reducing stress in general.
Rub the palms of the hands together vigorously until you feel a strong heat in them. It is an excellent practice to do after sun-gazing.
Cup the hands and cover your closed eyes, being careful not to press or apply any pressure to the eyeballs themselves.
Take a few deep breaths, inhaling the warmth of the palms, and imagine that warmth spreading through your entire body.
Repeat three times, and then sit quietly for a few moments, noting how you feel.
Sun Charged Water:
In ancient texts sun charged water is known as a supreme antioxidant.
In the morning, fill a half or full gallon clear glass (not plastic) jar with filtered, or distilled, water.
Place it outside one the ground with a glass cover on it.
Leave for five to eight hours. Less time has less effect, more time is not needed.
Drink throughout the day.
Pets and houseplants love it too!
No need to refrigerate.
Recommended Reading:
The Healing Sun, Sunlight and the 21st Century, Richard Hobday
Light, Medicine of the Future, Jacob Liberman OD, PhD