This is Part 2 of a 3-part article. (Go back to Part 1.)
As the Law of Reverse Effect extended itself into the dimension of time in my mind, I began to comprehend its connection to other events.
From science again, there was Newton's law of physics that every action is followed by an equal and opposite reaction, the basic principle used to drive rockets.
To journey further into this mystery, I looked at the death of the dinosaurs. Some 65 million years ago a giant meteor struck earth, and the resulting dust-clouds blocked out the sun and severely chilled the planet for a time. According to archeologists, this wiped out at least 75% of the lifeforms that existed at that period.
If we were to go back and observe during that time, we would call it an unmitigated catastrophe. In theological terms, we could ask how God could be so cruet as to allow three-quarters of the life on earth to be wiped out.
Yet the extinction of the dinosaurs and other life had a very interesting secondary effect. Up until then the tiny mammals had occupied only a slight niche in the ecological space, because the space was filled by the dominant dinosaurs.
The death of the dinosaurs bestowed a great empty ecological space upon the mammals, allowing them to expand and flourish and multiply and develop. That, in turn, led to the rise of the primates and ultimately to us humans being here.
In short, we wouldn't be here but for the catastrophe of the extinction of the dinosaurs. That catastrophe was the primary effect, the short-term one. That you and I and other humans are here in existence葉hat's the secondary, longer-term effect.
In other words, the "bad" catastrophe allowed something to happen which we would probably label as a great "good," namely that the mammals and primates and humans flourished. Something "bad" led to and was followed by something "good."
Then I began to see that this principle exists everywhere and extends into everything.
For instance, when we fast to allow the body to rebalance itself, we often go through what are known as "healing crises," where our symptoms seem to get worse at first, whatever they might be. That's the primary effect葉he immediate, short-term one. But longer-term, as our body cleanses itself of toxins, we experience greater vitality and health葉hat's the secondary effect. (For articles on this subject, Search on the word "fasting," button at left.)
The same thing happens at a slower pace, for instance, if we adopt a natural fruitarian diet (Search on "fruitarian"). As our body experiences a more natural, cleaner-burning diet, it naturally begins throwing off accumulated toxins, which then circulate in the bloodstream until the body can eliminate them.
During this time our conditions or symptoms, whatever they may be, can seem to become worse葉hat's the primary effect. But on a fruitarian or raw-food diet, an extraordinary sense of well-being gradually begins to come over us葉hat's the long-term, secondary effect.
Notice that, at first, going more in a natural direction and letting nature do the healing seems to make things worse, but long-term they tend to get much better. Conversely, the more we take drugs to suppress our symptoms (the short-term fix), the worse the long-term underlying toxification and pollution of the body (which we call our "conditions" or "diseases") becomes.
Let's take a few more brief examples:
Overfishing of the world's oceans:
Primary effect: Much higher catches of fish
Secondary effect: Lower catches of fish, extinctions
Rampant use of pesticides on produce:
Primary effect: Fewer & weaker insects
Secondary effect: More & stronger insects
Rampant use of antibiotics on livestock in factory farms:
Primary effect: Keeping sick livestock alive
Secondary effect Increasingly virulent strains of bacteria in humans
Note that the only thing that ever truly works is to work at the level of the cause.
In the last example, for instance, working on the cause would be to raise livestock in healthy conditions, outside in the air, instead of tightly confined in pens in buildings where they can't move and never see the light of day.
The same phenomenon was demonstrated in nutritional research conducted on animals early in the 20th century. It was noticed that when animals were fed high-protein diets that they grew faster and larger. This is how the current "cult of protein" began.
So the primary effect was, seemingly, greater life. And what was the secondary effect? Much later in the century, it was noticed that the very same animals who grew faster and larger also died much sooner. But by then the current cult of protein was well established.
As a final example, this same principle would hold true if we humans wanted to help heal the world ecologically. Given current trends, at some point we humans will perceive that most life on earth, including ourselves, is likely to go extinct.
At that time we may drastically alter, in a more organic and natural direction, our ways of farming, our ways of eating, our ways of living together, our whole approach to the earth.
If this is done en masse, it's important to remember that the environment will seem to get worse at first as the earth excavates and neutralizes its built-up toxic load葉he primary effect. And the temptation will be to apply short-term fixes to make things seem to get better.
But long-term, if things haven't gone too far, and if we persevere in a return to organic processes, the earth will be able to heal itself. And that will be the secondary effect.
So the primary effect, the immediate and apparent one, is in effect the illusion. The secondary one, the opposite, "hidden" and gradual one, is the effect that becomes the actual reality.
Now let's apply this Law of Reverse Effect to a current situation. As a good example, let's apply it to the current suicidal conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
This ends Part 2. (Go to Part 3.)
曜im sloman, for 5/10/02
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