Vaccinations: An Alternative Perspective

by Peeka Trenkle, AHG

 “Where would we be without vaccinations?” is a rhetorical question often asked as a way of lauding this medical practice and attributing to it the improvement of the world’s health. I have often seriously wondered where we might be without them and think that we might be a far healthier population with more of a respect for the process of illness and inflammation. As a culture we might learn how to support the body’s inherent healing capabilities instead of trying to eliminate the possibility of disease altogether. I agree absolutely with Richard Moskowitz M. D. when he writes, “At bottom, I have always felt that the attempt to eradicate entire microbial species from the biosphere must inevitably upset the balance of nature in fundamental ways that we can as yet scarcely imagine. Such concerns loom ever larger as new vaccines continue to be developed, seemingly for no better reason than that we have the technical capacity to make them and thereby to demonstrate our power, as a civilization, to manipulate the evolutionary process itself”. (The Case Against Immunizations, 1983)

Vaccinations affect us not only on a personal level but in our relationships, in our communities and also globally. Likewise they impact our lives physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. This article explores some thoughts about what is happening on these many levels of experience based on my research and interactions with many parents of young children.

PHYSICAL/PERSONAL ASPECTS

Babies are born with very little active immune system function and are entirely dependent on mother’s milk for their immunities to environmental challenges. This information is not new and is available to doctors and immunologists and even policy makers and yet vaccinations for Hepatitis B are routinely given to newborn infants at birth in the hospitals. check where The question needs to be addressed: “How can a vaccine stimulate an immune system that is not yet functioning?”

7The immune system of a child grows and matures at a steady rate but is not completely functioning until age 6. Nevertheless, most children are given multiple doses of an ever-increasing number of different vaccines during their first few years without regard to what is happening to the developing immune system. These vaccines carry genetically engineered DNA and viruses along with a multitude of toxic materials (stabilizers) into the deepest recesses of the child’s body. Could this possibly be why we are seeing a tremendous increase in chronic disease patterns in children?

Vaccinations are a violation of the body’s natural boundaries. Dietrich Gumbel in his book Principles of Holistic Therapy with Herbal Essences writes that a person “experiences himself as an inner world and an outer world. He can have his inner world be influenced by the outer world or the environment, but also vice versa, he can influence the outer world, the environment by his inner world, he can mold it. The skin is the boundary membrane between two worlds, separating an inner world in biological body function from the outer world”. As a culture we are so careful as to how our children are touched and yet we never question this particular violation or even identify it as a violation at all.

Inflammation is a natural body process. It is the process through which the immature immune system learns what to do and how to do it. Millions of years of evolution have brought us to the point as a species where we have what used to be known as common childhood illnesses. These illnesses have the potential to strengthen the child and allow the child to build up a well-functioning immune system. Now diseases that were once considered commonplace and instrumental in strengthening immune function (measles and mumps for example) are considered to be dangerous and life-threatening - to be avoided at all cost. (It will be interesting to watch what happens to chicken pox in the media during the next few years now that the chickenpox vaccine is available to the general public. It is sure to become much more ‘dangerous’ and has already been linked with deaths in the news since the vaccine was put on the market)

Vaccinations have the potential to produce serious short- and long-term side effects. As a culture we have collectively denied this because we have accepted that vaccines are a form of preventive health care. Recent research questions the connection between overuse of vaccines and the increase in attention deficit disorders, hyperactivity, minimal brain dysfunction, as well as a host of chronic physical conditions including childhood arthritis, diabetes, chronic ear infections, decreased immune function and childhood leukemia. There is also evidence to suggest that vaccines might interrupt the proper development of the brain, particularly the process of myelinization of the neurons and axons, a process that is nowhere near complete at birth. This possibility has led some researchers to believe that vaccines could be a direct cause of autism! (See Harris Coulter’s “Vaccination, Social Violence and Criminality: The Medical Assault on the American Brain”.)

Because vaccines inject toxic substances deep into the body they disrupt the internal ecology of the body. The developing immune system does not necessarily know how to process these substances. The natural way of exposure to viruses and bacteria is through the respiratory or digestive systems of a child or through the surface skin via cuts and abrasions. The child’s body then responds to these challenges with an intricate and multilevel system of protection through the mucous membranes, lymph, thymus, and all the components of the immune system. When a vaccine is injected directly into the bloodstream or muscle it bypasses the natural screening process whereby the body will often eliminate or neutralize the foreign substance.

On a personal level, the child may have an experience of not feeling well or have fever or inflammation as a “normal” reaction to the shot. As the child grows and has language to understand what is happening the message that is integrated on a fundamental level is “I must suffer to be well”. Most children (and mothers for that matter) have an experience of violation. Regardless of the belief in the efficacy of the vaccines there is usually a gut feeling that something is not right. Most mothers and children would much prefer never having to experience this procedure. Intuition and instinct are generally swept aside in favor of the “greater good of society”.

EMOTIONAL/RELATIONSHIP ASPECTS

There is an enormous amount of fear surrounding the issue of vaccination. There is the cultural fear of disease and the fear of vaccine reactions. There is the immediate fear the child has of the shot itself. And there is a pervasive fear and distrust of the natural order of the world. The world is viewed as a dangerous place filled with organisms and pathogens whose sole purpose is to seek out humans and destroy them.

A child quickly learns not to trust nature or natural processes. The child learns to distrust the doctor or nurse who administers the shot (how could a trustworthy person do something like this to me?) and at the same time learns to fear and respect this person who knows better than nature. A young child cannot understand the underlying theory of vaccines and is disempowered by the belief that his/her own body is insufficient and weak and requires an injection in order to be strong.

I feel very deeply that vaccines have an effect of separating the mother and child. Any mother who has given birth to a baby and nursed that baby for a period of months or years will know that with each new food or challenge from the environment the baby becomes ever more autonomous and there is a biological separation from the mother who until then had been all nourishment, all life. Because vaccines disrupt the internal ecology of the baby, the strong biological connection between mother and child is shifted. I see the injection of vaccines as an interruption of the basic biological synchrony between mother and child. I believe this also affects the emotional relationship between mother and child. The mother until this time has provided for all of the baby’s physical needs. The sense of personal power inherent in gestation, birth and lactation is extraordinary. The experience of creating a new being, feeding, nourishing and providing everything necessary to the baby through her own body is an experience a mother can compare with no other. It is an empowering experience and carries over to all aspects of her life. The practice of vaccinating the young baby seriously undermines a mother’s confidence in her ability to protect her child. If she wants her child to be well and strong she must turn to a doctor’s expertise. She, by herself, our culture says, is not sufficient for her child. And what happens to the mother who is faced with a severe vaccine reaction in her child? How do the feelings of rage, guilt or depression impact upon their relationship? What about a mild reaction that a mother will worry about for years to come as her child goes through the normal worrisome changes of childhood? She might ask herself again and again ‘Is this behaviour related to the vaccines?’ and never feel sure one way or another. (See “A Shot in the Dark” by Barbara Loe Fisher and Harris Coulter for personal accounts of parents whose children were severely impaired or died after DPT vaccination)

7On a broader level, vaccines are an emotional issue. Few people can discuss the pros or cons of vaccination calmly or logically. Fear, anger and paranoia are common reactions when people engage in discussion. Relationships between mother and father (and between the parents and extended family members) are often strained as the parents attempt to make a well-informed choice for their child. Those who believe in vaccines have anger towards those who choose not to vaccinate and vice versa. Many who choose not to vaccinate their children become fearful and often paranoid that they will be ‘found out’ and punished in some way. (Some would say ‘Paranoia is simply having all the facts’ - read Walene James’ “Immunization: the Reality Behind the Myth” for her personal account of the how the government challenged her daughter’s right to choose not to vaccinate her grandson.)

Because vaccines are the cornerstone in a fear-based culturally- held paradigm of healthcare it is natural that as people start to break away from this paradigm they will have to move through the fear to be free of it. Once free, they can then begin thinking logically.

BELIEF/POLITICAL ASPECTS

What is it that we think about vaccines? The prevailing culture in our country (which I will call Eurocentric/Allopathic for the purposes of this article) holds the belief that vaccines promote health, that without vaccines we are doomed to be constantly bombarded with dangerous, life-threatening infectious diseases and that the purpose of vaccines is to wipe out the possibility of disease no matter the risk. Anyone who logically researches all the literature on this subject will sooner or later come to a place of doubt as to the truth of this. In general, upon scrutiny, it becomes clear that the statistics used to bolster the pro-vaccine view have been radically manipulated in favor of the vaccines (See Neil Miller’s “Vaccines: Are They Really Safe and Effective” for a thorough analysis of the statistics on this subject).

Parents of young children are now being told that measles is a potentially life threatening disease and that they would be wise to have their children vaccinated against this dangerous scourge. Having been born in the 1950’s, I and all my brothers and sisters had measles and I remember my mother putting us all in bed together so that we would all get it at once and be done with it. I don’t even remember itching or having a fever - it was simply a matter of course: we were sick for a while and then we were well. Because I have a natural, lifelong immunity to measles, my children have all inherited constitutional resilience to measles and passive immunity to it throughout the period of time that they nurse. Younger mothers having children now have no natural immunity to measles and so their children inherit no natural immunity at all. When these children come in contact with measles it is similar to measles being introduced to a virgin population ie: when the Europeans brought measles to this continent and many Native people were exposed and died. They had no natural resilience. So, through the practice of using vaccines to eradicate disease we have in effect left our children more at risk of severe complications by virtually wiping out ‘herd’ immunity.

Our culture still holds tight to the belief that vaccines are good and safe and effective. This paradigm is beginning to shift. We are coming to the end of the “Magic Bullet” era where one medicine per disease has been the method of cure. We are now seeing new illnesses, emerging viruses, megaviruses, superviruses, AIDS, chronic hepatitis, antibiotic-resistant TB, etc. - general breakdown of the immune system and diseases for which there are no vaccines (yet) and for which the use of vaccines is highly questionable. This kind of medicine is not up to the task of creating wellness, which is what is needed now.

On a political and economical level, however, this issue is not going to go away. The pharmaceutical industry is a multi-billion dollar industry, second only to the military in this country. As more and more people become informed and opt out of the vaccine routine there will probably be more and more vaccines on the market and more shots will become mandatory (this is already beginning to happen). Vaccine researchers announced in 1996 that they are working on a genetically engineered supervaccine that they refer to as “The Holy Grail” to wipe out all infectious disease from the earth (!). This vaccine will contain raw DNA from 30 to 40 different kinds of bacteria and viruses and will be squirted directly into a newborn’s mouth and have a time release component that will release future doses at timed intervals throughout a person’s life. No research is being done to address the questions: What if there is a reaction to the first dose? How can future doses be stopped from being released? How will the injection of raw DNA affect our genetic coding for future generations?

It is a kind of enslavement for a government to insist on a particular medical procedure for an entire population. Fundamentally, on a political level, vaccinations need to be a freedom of choice issue. Freedom of choice is not possible without sufficient information. As long as the culture touts vaccines as entirely safe and effective and continues to make them mandatory for enrollment in school, parents are not truly free to choose. When there is no choice there is no freedom.

WORLD VIEW/GLOBAL ASPECTS

Global industries continue to destroy natural habitats worldwide. As this occurs the viruses , bacteria, spirochetes, fungi, and microbes that once lived in synchrony in a system of balance in these areas are dispersed throughout the world. Because of the presence of these viruses, etc in regions where they have been unknown until now, there is no natural resilience in the human populations who come in contact with them (eg: Lyme Disease). We now face challenges and illnesses that we have never seen before, some quite deadly.

The loss of nutrients from our food through chemical farming combined with the vast overuse of pesticides and herbicides contribute to weakening our immune systems. More and more toxins in our air, water and land make our world less of a life-sustaining environment and one in which we actively need to engage in enlivening, healing and bio-remediation. We must now consciously raise the vital force in our bodies, our relationships, our communities and our world.

We are at a point in time where the real challenge is how to create vibrant health in a toxic environment. I believe we will come to look upon vaccines as we now look upon blood-letting or leeches...”How backward they were in the 20th century!”. We, as human beings, are part of this earth. If we would hope to cleanse her and heal her wouldn’t we do best to first stop polluting our own internal rivers of blood with genetically engineered substances that might alter our DNA and have serious repercussions and echo patterns for generations?

If we raise our children with the belief that the way to wellness is through the injection of poisons into the body we are contributing to a way of being that also believes that the only road to peace is through a strong military defense. Our children need to be actively engaged in their own healing as they grow and not learn to be phobic about fevers, ear infections and diseases that lurk in the shadows. The preservation of peace and a faith in the wisdom of the body is central to a world view that supports a natural way of coping with illness. Paramount in this view is the honoring of the natural healing capability of organisms and the awareness of the eternal flow of life present in every being.

Our children need to know that nature is not a foe. They need to be taught about the natural cycles of birth, life and death; the cycles of the year, the garden, the tides, the stars; that all life exhibits polarities, including wellness and illness. We as their parents and teachers, especially those of us in the “alternative” fields must guide them on their path of self discovery by first fostering wellness in their physical bodies. Above all we must question the practice of putting anything into their bodies that might inhibit or obstruct the full expression of who they naturally are.

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