Developing a satyagraha for the medical freedom movement

Gandhi understood that overthrowing empires requires an entire metaphysics

It seems to me that the medical freedom movement is about so much more than any one individual battle. We operate from a set of shared, yet often unspoken, principles that cover everything from philosophy to tactics. But I’ve never seen them written out in one place. I think it would serve us well to get specific — both to deepen the bonds between us but also to provide a set of guiding principles as we welcome millions of new people into the movement each year. This will require extensive dialogue over the course of many months or years. I think the process of identifying our shared values is essential and I would like to contribute to the conversation with this article.

As you know, many of the most successful movements for social change in the twentieth century were inspired by the work of Gandhi who endeavored to end British control over India. For Gandhi, kicking the British out was just one piece of a larger philosophical movement toward the health and well-being of all people. To that end, Gandhi developed a philosophy called satyagraha — satya is “truth which equals love”, āgraha means “holding firm”, so satyagraha is “holding firm to the truth that is love”. Satyagraha has a number of core principles including:

1. Nonviolence (ahimsa)

2. Truth — this includes honesty, but goes beyond it to mean living fully in accord with and in devotion to that which is true

3. Not stealing

4. Non-attachment

5. Dignity of manual labor

6. Control of desires

7. Fearlessness

8. Equal respect for all religions

9. Economic strategies such as boycotts of imported goods (swadeshi)

I think there are important differences between the challenges we face and the challenges faced by Gandhi (specifically, defeating global Pharma totalitarianism is a much bigger task than expelling the British from India). But I think Gandhi gives us a starting point for developing our own vision and statement of values.

Satyagraha for medical freedom

If we were going to spell out a satyagraha for the medical freedom movement, what might be our principles? It seems to me that we are trying to get back to the foundational principles that should be guiding our society but that have somehow been lost along the way (as predatory monopoly capitalism has corroded all values and institutions in America). Here is my initial list:

1. First do no harm.

2. Total resistance against Pharma’s total war. Divest from Pharma stocks, boycott any businesses that require shots or passports, never comply with any mandates, replace elected officials and regulators who work for the cartel, and more.

3. Speak truth in all instances, regardless of the costs.

4. Respect. Respect for God, respect for the earth, respect for one’s own body, respect for one’s spouse, respect for family, respect for elders, respect for children, respect for animals, and respect for our country.

5. Right livelihood. No participation in any aspect of the Pharma genocide. We must build a parallel economy based on mutual autonomy.

6. Personal sovereignty, self-determination, and personal responsibility are the foundation of good health and a thriving society.

7. Purity of body, clarity of mind, harmony of emotions, integrity in our actions. Keep toxic chemicals out of one’s body, engage in meditation and prayer, know that means and ends are one and the same.

8. No vaccines, no circumcision, no Tylenol, no SSRIs.

9. Real food.

10. Actual science.

11. Eschew idols and simulacra (toxic mimics of the real).

12. In all things be guided by love.

In the comments please let me know what principles you would add, subtract, or revise from this list?

---

Update: I want to add a few more based on the conversations in the comments.

13. The universe appears to be made up of holons (this is an idea popularized by Ken Wilber that has ancient roots). A holon is something that is simultaneously an entity unto itself and a part of something larger (e.g. a cell has its own properties but it is also part of tissues, organs, bodies, etc.) Healthy holons require a balance of agency (individual action) and communion (exchange/connection with others). Pathological holons are characterized by too much agency (cancer cells that replicate without regard for the whole) or too much communion (fusing with another). U.S. society right now is characterized by both too much agency (Pharma believes that it can do whatever it wants to whoever it wants whenever it wants — the logic of a cancer cell) and too much communion (barbaric one-size-fits-all medicine forced on the entire population). Our challenge is to return to holonic balance (by restoring agency for individuals and basing any exchange on mutual respect).

14. All knowledge is imperfect. The universe and our understanding of it are constantly changing. This requires humility and a relinquishing of the impulse to control and categorize. Indeed many of the most delightful things in life (love, joy, connection, meaning) cannot be categorized nor quantified. Reductionism is to be avoided. Even the best scientific methods are just one way of knowing; additional ways of knowing are essential to the human experience (even though all ways of knowing are imperfect).

15. There seems to be a larger something in the universe that is ineffable and unquantifiable. This something goes by various names — God, love, the river, conscious awareness. We seek to experience and honor that which is greater than and different than us but at the same time in us and universal. Science is unlikely to help us understand or experience these realities beyond the material world; other ways of knowing, being, and experiencing are also to be cherished.

16. We each have innate wisdom/body intelligence within us and when we are within nature. As we detoxify from the pathologies of the modern world — chemical, physical, emotional, mental — we come back to an innate clarity, which lets us be our true selves and make compassionate decisions/actions. (hat tip The Barefoot Healer).

17. We are in the midst of the largest threat to humanity since the Cold War threat of nuclear annihilation. Pharma and their allies in Big Tech and government are aggressively moving to enslave the world in a Matrix of chronic illness, addiction, dependency, surveillance, and control. Pharma seeks a high tech totalitarian dark ages based on junk science and contempt for life itself. Our challenge is to defend humanity and dismantle the incentives, values, and structures that led to Pharma’s unprecedented assault on humankind.

---