This is the most beautiful, powerful essay I have ever read. I will save it and reread it from time to time. How I wish people understood this wisdom. We have created a Brave New World that is killing us. The so-called experts do not understand that the human being is a divine and mysterious creation of nature that cannot be manipulated artificially. All the greatest writers of world literature have always understood the sacred connection between human life and nature. They are one and the same. To violate this connection, to see ourselves as separate from nature is to bring on needless suffering. The modern world is ignorant and blind. And the revenge of Nature is powerful and swift.
Here’s to not overcomplicating or over-commodifying everyday wellness. It really is the basics, over time, that make the biggest, most predictable impact. Thanks for your voice, Dr. McFillin!
The most physically healing thing I have ever done is sit in a cathedral and listen to professional organ music with Latin singing. A few months of that and my doctor was totally astonished at my improvement.
As part of our psychiatry residency, we had to train in psychodynamic therapy by following a patient for a year. I had a lovely man in his 60s who struggled a bit with anxious tendencies and the traumatic stuff he had witnessed as a police officer.
There are aspects of the psychodynamic approach that I very much like and incorporate into my practice to this day, but with this patient, after a while I just felt like we were beating a dead horse and sometimes even making the anxiety worse. I mean, there's only so much to be said about an immature defense mechanism and how an alcoholic parent may have contributed to it.
Eventually I said fuck it, what's in the past is gone, and all we have is you, here, right now. And I asked him, "alright, so let's say you have another 20 good years left in you. How do you want to spend the time you've got left?" Like Carlos and Maria, I wanted to know how he wanted to LIVE.
He started with bogus answers like, "well, I'd like to exercise more to increase my healthspan and be around more for my family." But he had no genuine interest in that, and his body and voice told me that. So, I pressed and challenged, and after about an hour of psychological wrestling, he finally interrupted and said, "know what, doc? I wanna travel. Yeah. I wanna travel." The tension in his shoulders disappeared, as did his frown.
"Go home and book a trip today," I said.
And he did. A couple weeks later, he took a road trip to visit an old friend. And when he came back, it's like his anxiety had never existed.
"Doc, all we did was clear the trees on his property because that storm had passed through. In the evenings, we'd just eat delicious meals, and we hardly even talked, really. It was one of the best trips I ever took."
I chuckled and said, "a week away did more than eight months of weekly visits to me." He also laughed.
You Frick'n Rock ! If this speech and info doesn't wake anybody up and give them gumption to rebel and use their minds---I think there is no hope for common sense ever again. Either you have it or it will never be.
Darn good that you screw'd up you peaceful Va-Ca, (which sounded wonderful btw) but you got an awesome article from the fury of "Fear Porn".
I would like to understand what all of the sudden made people think they are more special and worth all this 'fluff' of fake caring. It's bizarre! Whoever came up with the 'snow flake' term, was so spot on.
You are my kind of doctor. Kick ass. Wish I had one here.
I find peace in the fucking truth of this piece, and relief that someone else shares the anger about all the hucksters, who are on both the traditional, corporate medicine side, and on what I now think of as the "supplements side." Lately I'm most angry about finally learning that my Hashimoto's is an immune disease (and no doctor ever told me that!--I had to learn that important fact myself) and at all those who use fear to sell their non-traditional "solutions."
There have always been “snake oil” salesmen promising miracle cures. These are just the latest, using buzzwords and the reach of the internet. It’s easy to get sucked in gradually. If “this” sounds good and “that” sounds better, then there we go down the rabbit hole.
The authenticity and energy connection is something I’ve been thinking of recently and haven’t been able to clarify. It’s really cool to read about here regarding health.
Rock and Roll, Dr. M!!!! One of the BEST ever!! Loved the energy and the swirling truth bombs contained in this TRANSMISSION of love and sanity!! Shout out to your reference to Dr. Zach Bush, too who was one of the Earth Angels who helped get me all through the plandemic nonsense!!
Keep it rolling -- this is the kind of energy that HEALS! Sending BIG LOVE.
Following the heart and living in harmony with nature wins every time, in every context. Applying the Hawkins scale to this, you could say that the medical establishment largely exists at 100 (fear) and 125 (desire and inner lack), where any level below 200 is life-weakening. Whereas living from a place of love and trust can reach 500+, which is where miracles become commonplace.
Fascinating that as someone who saw through the charades of conventional medicine for a decade, I still bought into the alternative health movement without seeing the issues behind it. I do think that targeted alternative treatments can sometimes be beneficial, but we need to rely on our inner wisdom and connection first and foremost - which is difficult to explain in a society where the vast majority are so disconnected from themselves.
I wholeheartedly believe in the core ideas of your view, but disagree with your insistence that the problem lies with our tendency to obsess over the irrelevant details. Our ancestors didn't worry about what to eat exactly because all food was food back then. They didn't need fitness programs and meditation sessions because they worked in the fields, went to church and gathered to sing and dance on the holydays with others like them. Primary issue is not within our heads, it's the environment we live in. Our cities are anxiety treadmills and our countryside is awash with agricultural poison. Our society is so f-d up, living a simple life is a constant fight. That is an objective reality, not a delusion. For absolute majority of us real food, clean air, healthy community and even silence and a view of a starry sky is a luxury. That's why we break down and cling to anything that promise life. I wish it was otherwise but trust in healthy nature won't bring it back. It's paywalled now.
This is an interesting perspective... which I will debate. Everything available to our ancestors is available to you and I. Nature is free. We do not require meditation apps, treadmills or text messaging when we can run/walk outside, meditate/pray on our own and eat real food. I would certainly not choose to live in a city and many of our ancestors had to take extreme measures to leave their homeland to adapt and survive. I will probably push back against any idea of helplessness and the fact we are slaves to our environment. In fact, I probably secretly worry about the future of humanity if we continue to give up our autonomy... which is fairly evident in my writing. Regardless, thank you for taking the time to read and comment.
I think you underestimate the growing scarcity of natural environments and the challenge of actually being able to afford such a thing as real food. It's possible that your bubble is significantly different than mine. I don't know a single person who resembles Darren, Jennifer or David. I know many who eat whatever they could get at the grocery shop, avoid doctors as long as they are able to do honest work and provide their families, dutifully maintain their social connections and are generally normal people. They would laugh about the idea of a mindfulness app if they even knew such things exist. They still get diabetes, cancer and heart conditions way too often. Their children grow sickly with weird autoimmune diseases, their elders are deceived into overmedicating and wither away in hospitals. I think it's their normalcy that turns into weakness in an abnormal world. Being healthy now requires a slightly obsessive attitude to things we didn't need to think about in the past. I agree that there is a real risk of going crazy with that. Actually, I can imagine myself spiraling into mindset like those you describe. Thank you for the fair warning. :)
I still believe that maintaining agency in the system that tries to turn us into mindless slaves and staying healthy in a toxic environment is no less of a challenge than the difficulties our ancestors faced. And many of us have no more freedom to start with than indentured servants in the past. It's just that our bonds are different. So yes, we must strive for autonomy, but no to the idea that the goal is somehow easy to reach.
Praise God for seeding us with this divine inner intelligence that you thankfully testify about, Roger. Much appreciation! Wetiko (the demonic mind virus so prevalent today) seeks to obfuscate and destroy this God-given wisdom we are born with but forget. It is in the exposure of the lies we are told—and then tell ourselves—that we can alchemize, first, our inner energy, and then ultimately this sick and twisted culture we have made. We CAN transform ourselves and make the world anew… but we cannot change what we do not atone for… “Wetiko”: let’s look it up and explore its insidious power (falseness)—call it the shadow, the dark forces, whatever name we give it, we must wake up from it to truly live as our souls intended…otherwise, it destroys us.
I’m from Florida and I wouldn’t think of romanticizing the life Carlos and Maria live. They are not healthier than other people and suffer from cancer and other illnesses just like the rest of us. I bet Maria would love to be the tourist and not the waitress and Carlos just wants a quiet day without rich tourists but he desperately needs the money and tips. You’re just rocking a post rich person vacation vibe. Tourists are so righteous and loud. Like oh I travel and know more than other people! Great humble brag by the way.
And it’s so jarring to hear you say FUCK every third sentence. I’m trying to live a peaceful life with beauty so I’d really appreciate you toning it down 5 notches because you’re raising my blood pressure with all the yelling. For freaking sake, chill out.
I am sensing you probably missed the point of this article. I understand that strong language isn't for everyone, and I respect that preference. I use profanity deliberately when it serves the tone I'm trying to create. I understand it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it's an intentional stylistic choice. Profanity can convey raw emotion, urgency, or frustration in ways that euphemisms simply can't match. It's simply the way people talk when in a certain state of mind. How a person hears it in their own mind is often related to their own history. Whether or not Carlos or Maria die of cancer is certainly not the point of the article. We will ALL die of something. This was commentary on HOW we live... which I will argue will produces better health outcomes.
This is the most beautiful, powerful essay I have ever read. I will save it and reread it from time to time. How I wish people understood this wisdom. We have created a Brave New World that is killing us. The so-called experts do not understand that the human being is a divine and mysterious creation of nature that cannot be manipulated artificially. All the greatest writers of world literature have always understood the sacred connection between human life and nature. They are one and the same. To violate this connection, to see ourselves as separate from nature is to bring on needless suffering. The modern world is ignorant and blind. And the revenge of Nature is powerful and swift.
Agree and I am saving also. Chef’s kiss of an essay.
They DO understand it.. that's the problem... they are steering the non critical thinkers away from this truth.
I will save this one as well. Great comment.
Here’s to not overcomplicating or over-commodifying everyday wellness. It really is the basics, over time, that make the biggest, most predictable impact. Thanks for your voice, Dr. McFillin!
The most physically healing thing I have ever done is sit in a cathedral and listen to professional organ music with Latin singing. A few months of that and my doctor was totally astonished at my improvement.
Gotta find what does it for ya. To each their own, huh.
Do I have a perfect story for you, then!
As part of our psychiatry residency, we had to train in psychodynamic therapy by following a patient for a year. I had a lovely man in his 60s who struggled a bit with anxious tendencies and the traumatic stuff he had witnessed as a police officer.
There are aspects of the psychodynamic approach that I very much like and incorporate into my practice to this day, but with this patient, after a while I just felt like we were beating a dead horse and sometimes even making the anxiety worse. I mean, there's only so much to be said about an immature defense mechanism and how an alcoholic parent may have contributed to it.
Eventually I said fuck it, what's in the past is gone, and all we have is you, here, right now. And I asked him, "alright, so let's say you have another 20 good years left in you. How do you want to spend the time you've got left?" Like Carlos and Maria, I wanted to know how he wanted to LIVE.
He started with bogus answers like, "well, I'd like to exercise more to increase my healthspan and be around more for my family." But he had no genuine interest in that, and his body and voice told me that. So, I pressed and challenged, and after about an hour of psychological wrestling, he finally interrupted and said, "know what, doc? I wanna travel. Yeah. I wanna travel." The tension in his shoulders disappeared, as did his frown.
"Go home and book a trip today," I said.
And he did. A couple weeks later, he took a road trip to visit an old friend. And when he came back, it's like his anxiety had never existed.
"Doc, all we did was clear the trees on his property because that storm had passed through. In the evenings, we'd just eat delicious meals, and we hardly even talked, really. It was one of the best trips I ever took."
I chuckled and said, "a week away did more than eight months of weekly visits to me." He also laughed.
Love it!!!
wow <3
I hope this goes viral... thank you. So much wisdom
I like your stuff, man. We’re on the same page about a lot. Would love to upgrade to a paid subscription but I don’t see how.
You should see an upgrade button at the end of the article
You Frick'n Rock ! If this speech and info doesn't wake anybody up and give them gumption to rebel and use their minds---I think there is no hope for common sense ever again. Either you have it or it will never be.
Darn good that you screw'd up you peaceful Va-Ca, (which sounded wonderful btw) but you got an awesome article from the fury of "Fear Porn".
I would like to understand what all of the sudden made people think they are more special and worth all this 'fluff' of fake caring. It's bizarre! Whoever came up with the 'snow flake' term, was so spot on.
You are my kind of doctor. Kick ass. Wish I had one here.
I find peace in the fucking truth of this piece, and relief that someone else shares the anger about all the hucksters, who are on both the traditional, corporate medicine side, and on what I now think of as the "supplements side." Lately I'm most angry about finally learning that my Hashimoto's is an immune disease (and no doctor ever told me that!--I had to learn that important fact myself) and at all those who use fear to sell their non-traditional "solutions."
There have always been “snake oil” salesmen promising miracle cures. These are just the latest, using buzzwords and the reach of the internet. It’s easy to get sucked in gradually. If “this” sounds good and “that” sounds better, then there we go down the rabbit hole.
The authenticity and energy connection is something I’ve been thinking of recently and haven’t been able to clarify. It’s really cool to read about here regarding health.
Rock and Roll, Dr. M!!!! One of the BEST ever!! Loved the energy and the swirling truth bombs contained in this TRANSMISSION of love and sanity!! Shout out to your reference to Dr. Zach Bush, too who was one of the Earth Angels who helped get me all through the plandemic nonsense!!
Keep it rolling -- this is the kind of energy that HEALS! Sending BIG LOVE.
Following the heart and living in harmony with nature wins every time, in every context. Applying the Hawkins scale to this, you could say that the medical establishment largely exists at 100 (fear) and 125 (desire and inner lack), where any level below 200 is life-weakening. Whereas living from a place of love and trust can reach 500+, which is where miracles become commonplace.
Fascinating that as someone who saw through the charades of conventional medicine for a decade, I still bought into the alternative health movement without seeing the issues behind it. I do think that targeted alternative treatments can sometimes be beneficial, but we need to rely on our inner wisdom and connection first and foremost - which is difficult to explain in a society where the vast majority are so disconnected from themselves.
I wholeheartedly believe in the core ideas of your view, but disagree with your insistence that the problem lies with our tendency to obsess over the irrelevant details. Our ancestors didn't worry about what to eat exactly because all food was food back then. They didn't need fitness programs and meditation sessions because they worked in the fields, went to church and gathered to sing and dance on the holydays with others like them. Primary issue is not within our heads, it's the environment we live in. Our cities are anxiety treadmills and our countryside is awash with agricultural poison. Our society is so f-d up, living a simple life is a constant fight. That is an objective reality, not a delusion. For absolute majority of us real food, clean air, healthy community and even silence and a view of a starry sky is a luxury. That's why we break down and cling to anything that promise life. I wish it was otherwise but trust in healthy nature won't bring it back. It's paywalled now.
This is an interesting perspective... which I will debate. Everything available to our ancestors is available to you and I. Nature is free. We do not require meditation apps, treadmills or text messaging when we can run/walk outside, meditate/pray on our own and eat real food. I would certainly not choose to live in a city and many of our ancestors had to take extreme measures to leave their homeland to adapt and survive. I will probably push back against any idea of helplessness and the fact we are slaves to our environment. In fact, I probably secretly worry about the future of humanity if we continue to give up our autonomy... which is fairly evident in my writing. Regardless, thank you for taking the time to read and comment.
I think you underestimate the growing scarcity of natural environments and the challenge of actually being able to afford such a thing as real food. It's possible that your bubble is significantly different than mine. I don't know a single person who resembles Darren, Jennifer or David. I know many who eat whatever they could get at the grocery shop, avoid doctors as long as they are able to do honest work and provide their families, dutifully maintain their social connections and are generally normal people. They would laugh about the idea of a mindfulness app if they even knew such things exist. They still get diabetes, cancer and heart conditions way too often. Their children grow sickly with weird autoimmune diseases, their elders are deceived into overmedicating and wither away in hospitals. I think it's their normalcy that turns into weakness in an abnormal world. Being healthy now requires a slightly obsessive attitude to things we didn't need to think about in the past. I agree that there is a real risk of going crazy with that. Actually, I can imagine myself spiraling into mindset like those you describe. Thank you for the fair warning. :)
I still believe that maintaining agency in the system that tries to turn us into mindless slaves and staying healthy in a toxic environment is no less of a challenge than the difficulties our ancestors faced. And many of us have no more freedom to start with than indentured servants in the past. It's just that our bonds are different. So yes, we must strive for autonomy, but no to the idea that the goal is somehow easy to reach.
L O V E this one!!!! Well expressed. You nailed "how to" health, inviting us to remember and return. Best "medicine" I have read.
Yes, Well expressed but would have been even better without the unnecessary profanity - even if our healthy predecessors used it frequently.
Wow, great read, thank you for this!
Praise God for seeding us with this divine inner intelligence that you thankfully testify about, Roger. Much appreciation! Wetiko (the demonic mind virus so prevalent today) seeks to obfuscate and destroy this God-given wisdom we are born with but forget. It is in the exposure of the lies we are told—and then tell ourselves—that we can alchemize, first, our inner energy, and then ultimately this sick and twisted culture we have made. We CAN transform ourselves and make the world anew… but we cannot change what we do not atone for… “Wetiko”: let’s look it up and explore its insidious power (falseness)—call it the shadow, the dark forces, whatever name we give it, we must wake up from it to truly live as our souls intended…otherwise, it destroys us.
I’m from Florida and I wouldn’t think of romanticizing the life Carlos and Maria live. They are not healthier than other people and suffer from cancer and other illnesses just like the rest of us. I bet Maria would love to be the tourist and not the waitress and Carlos just wants a quiet day without rich tourists but he desperately needs the money and tips. You’re just rocking a post rich person vacation vibe. Tourists are so righteous and loud. Like oh I travel and know more than other people! Great humble brag by the way.
And it’s so jarring to hear you say FUCK every third sentence. I’m trying to live a peaceful life with beauty so I’d really appreciate you toning it down 5 notches because you’re raising my blood pressure with all the yelling. For freaking sake, chill out.
I am sensing you probably missed the point of this article. I understand that strong language isn't for everyone, and I respect that preference. I use profanity deliberately when it serves the tone I'm trying to create. I understand it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it's an intentional stylistic choice. Profanity can convey raw emotion, urgency, or frustration in ways that euphemisms simply can't match. It's simply the way people talk when in a certain state of mind. How a person hears it in their own mind is often related to their own history. Whether or not Carlos or Maria die of cancer is certainly not the point of the article. We will ALL die of something. This was commentary on HOW we live... which I will argue will produces better health outcomes.
No, I’m not missing anything about the meaning of the article. You may have missed the point of my comment though.
You are so sweet for trying to explain it. Most do not need the explanation tho.
We got it.