Introduction
- Lindlahr was born on March 1, 1862 in Cologne, Germany.
- He devoted himself to healing after being helped by Father Sebastian Kneipp
- He graduated from the National Medical University in Illinois. In 1902, he opened his practice in Chicago. In 1914, he founded the Lindlahr Sanitarium, in Elmhurst, Illinois
Disease according to Henry Lindlahr
Henry Lindlahr defined disease as “The natural and inevitable result of violation of Nature’s laws.”
In his early life, Lindlahr tried to ignore Mother Nature by stuffing himself with unhealthy food, consuming stimulants, and ignoring the symptoms and his weight was over 250 pounds. It was a perfect storm for chronic disease to emerge.
He describes his brush with chronic disease: “I reached the limits of Nature’s endurance and began to suffer greatly from the results of my ignorance and foolishness. He found himself a physical and mental wreck without faith in God, in Nature or himself. He was diagnosed with diabetes at the end of 19th century . (Insulin had not been discovered. There was no cure for diabetes).
Lindlahr came across Louis Kuhne’s book, The New Science of Healing . The impact of its knowledge and guidance were such that, Lindlahr resolved to radically change his life. His life was forever changed. Lindlahr went on to contribute hugely to the Naturopathic profession.
His meeting with Father Kneipp
Finally he moved to Vienna in such a cure for his deep rooted ailment, but various cures and treatment at different spas gave him no results proved unavailing, then through the continuous advice of childhood friend he was persuaded by the service of a famous natural healer Sebastian Kneipp.
Kneipp had no medical training but in his famous clinic in Bavaria, he prescribed the water cure treatments, strict dieting and other natural methods of treatment with eminent success.
Henry Lindlahr had to wait for 10 days for his appointment with father Kneipp. He heard the stories of spectacular cure of the priest who treat with nature. He made patients healed with diet, bath and sunshine. He consulted father Kneipp and he looked at his body and smelled his breath and then said, ”you are a Glutten (pig) “you ate too much, you are too fat, you have sugar disease, you will take hip bath and live on fruits and green leafy vegetables alone. No bread, no cereals, no meat, no alcohol of any kind. He gave a full detail of a strict diet regimen which consisted of fruit and vegetables and cured Lindlahr complains.
His sugar complain was gone and he had lost over 40 pounds. His life had been saved. He came back to America but no longer had any interest for business. The miracle of diet absorbed him, his body and his soul.
His major Books were
- The Philosophy of Nature Cure
- The Practice of Nature Cure
- The Lindlahr Cook Book
- Iris diagnosis
What is Nature Cure?
Nature Cure is a system of building the entire being in harmony with the constructive principle in Nature on the physical, mental, moral and spiritual planes of being.
Treatment through Sunlight and water
- Dr. Lindlahr reduces the complex natural laws to a simple, easily understoodable principles .
- He formulated complete philosophy of natural methods and propounded such truth and principles as “ The primary cause of germ activity is the morbid soil in which bacteria get feeded, grow and multiply”.
According to Dr. Lindlahr “Nature’s remedy are the best”.
He compelled the patients to take sun baths.
It was Dr.Lindlahr who first successfully discovered the green colour, killing power of sunlight in a glass of water .
The sunlight water was prepared by him each morning at his sanatorium.
It was given to the patient to drink particularly when they had stomach and intestinal infection, Typhoid fever and other such diseases.
Today science had recognised Dr. Lindlahr and his sun bath, an ordinary water which has been sterilised and cleaned by ordinary methods.
May be chemically pure ,but syringe full of typhoid germ, injected into the water will thrived and grow and become complex countless billion of typhoid germs in the short span time, but when a little quantity of water is exposed to the sun for an hour.
It is kept on shelf for a time, when injected with syringe full of typhoid germs not a germ will grow or reproduced and all the germs will die.
Dr. Lindlahr desired that his son Victor should become a Nutritionist and Dietician. His teachings helped his son in his formal studies.
According to Lindlahr the value of a Nutrition lay in the prevention of disease, in the building of super health and in the prolongation of life span.
And he thought that the most successful and needed service that a practising nutritionist could render would be to teach people how to eat, to have health, to insist the importance of nutrition into expectant mothers, so that they could have better bodies and feed their children for optimum health.
By 1922, Lindlahr was definitely convinced that it was time to bring the newer knowledge of nutrition directly to the public.
Dr. Lindlahr demanded a planning, eating and an entire redistribution of the foods in the diet of an average person, with more vegetables and fruits and less of starches and proteins.
So, Lindlahr began to prepare for the new work. But then an accident intervened which later caused his death
And this way, the great master, the Naturopath, the extraordinary passed away on March 26th 1924.
The UPAS tree of Disease
Interestingly, his contributions to our understanding of disease and its origins have been symbolized by using a facsimile of the ‘Upas Tree’. In the mid-18th century, folklore circulated about this mythical tree found in a remote area in Java or Madagascar. The Upas Tree was so toxic to life that it was claimed that should any animal and human come near it, they would die on the spot. Lindlahr’s Upas Tree of disease illustrated that the soil that bred disease began by violating Nature’s laws.
A counter image to the UPAS Tree can be the image of a person eating healthy food and drinking pure water, breathing clean air, having meaningful work, getting plenty of physical exercise, adequate rest, and sunshine exposure.
Such practices would counter the pernicious effects of the UPAS Tree.
Unity of Disease and Treatment
Causes of disease may be classified as given below:
Violations of Nature’s Laws in thinking, breathing, eating, drinking, dressing, working, resting and in moral, sexual and social conduct result in the following:
Primary and Secondary Causes of Disease
Primary Cause of Disease
1.Lowered vitality
2.Abnormal composition of blood and lymph
3.Accumulation of waste matter, morbid matter and poisons
Lowered vitality
Lowered vitality due to overwork, night work, excesses, overstimulation, poisonous drugs and ill-advised surgical operations.
Abnormal composition of blood and lymph
Abnormal composition of blood and lymph due to the improper selection and combination of food, and especially the lack of organic mineral salts and other essential nutritional elements.
Accumulation of waste matter, morbid matter and poison
Accumulation of waste matter, morbid matter and poisons due to the first two causes, as well as to faulty diet, overeating, the use of alcoholic and narcotic stimulants, drugs vaccines, accidental poisoning and, last but not least, to the suppression of acute diseases by poisonous drugs and surgical operations
Secondary causes of disease
Hereditary and constitutional taints of, syphilis, iodism and many other forms of chronic poisoning. Fevers, inflammations, skin eruptions, chronic sinus discharges, ulcers, abscesses, germs, bacteria, parasites, etc. Mechanical subluxations, displacements of bony structures, muscles and ligaments; weakening and loss of reason, will, and self-control resulting in negative, sensitive and subjective conditions which open the way to nervous prostration, control by other personalities (hypnotic influence, obsession, possession); the different forms of insanity, epilepsy etc.
In correspondence with the three primary causes of disease, Nature Cure recognizes the following:
Natural Methods of Treatment
- Return to Nature
- Economy of Vital Force
- Elimination
Return to Nature
- Establishment of normal habits and surroundings.
- A return to natural habits of life in thinking, breathing, eating, dressing, working, resting and in moral, sexual and social conduct.
- Correction of mechanical defects and injuries by means of massage, chiropractic or osteopathy, surgery and other mechanical methods of treatment
Economy of Vital force
- Prevention of waste of vital force by the stoppage of all leaks.
- Scientific relaxation, proper rest and sleep. Proper food selection, magnetic treatment, etc.
- The right mental attitude.
Elimination
- Scientific selection and combination of food and drink.
- Judicious fasting, Hydrotherapy (water cure), Light and air baths, friction, Chiropractic or osteopathy, massage, and other manipulative treatment, Correct breathing, curative gymnastics.