ENTERING the world as a young doctor afforded me my first real choice from the infinite possibilities in the medicine and healing realms. I had followed a solidly traditional educational path in my medical training and internship in order to build a strong foundation. Early in my career I chose to balance my life between city and country living, and between a conventional Western hospital practice with a continuing education in health. However, I discovered that I was drawn more and more to the natural, ancient, and spiritually oriented healing traditions. I began studying herbs and working with herbal therapy, with Chinese medicine and acupuncture, including sonopuncture (using sound vibrations applied to acupuncture points), with Jungian therapy, dream work and visual imagery, as well as with various methods of stress reduction and relaxation. I also made a personal study of the interrelationships within the intuitively based metaphysical sciences that focus on experience and knowledge beyond the purely biological realm. I believe this analysis helped me to begin to bond with the part of me that has a deep, inner knowing.
To this day, I continue to explore the truths in Nature’s cycles and how they relate to human life, as well as the causes and relationships that determine health and illness. What makes us tick? What affects our subtle balance? Why do some people get sick often and others rarely? What are the well ones doing (or not doing)? My studies moved me from my left brain (rational, linear thinking with a vast array of medical details) toward my right brain (the imaginative, intuitive, spatial, and creative). What emerged for me, in part due to my own healing process, was the realization that disease is conflict (primarily mental/ emotional, male/female, and right/left brain) and results from the stagnation or congestion of energy circulation which generates physical symptoms.
My interest in the effects of balance, contrast, and conflict grew out of my study of acupuncture. The understanding of imbalance is reflected in the flow of life-force energy called chi and in the theory of yin-yang, which is the dual nature of the universe and the potential for polarity or conflict. If this chi energy is flowing freely throughout our being, every organ, tissue, and cell will be nourished and work optimally. These theories left me with questions like, “How do we keep this energy moving?” and equally importantly, “What are we doing that blocks it?”
Synchronistically tied to my interest in bioenergetics (the movement of physical, mental, and emotional energy) was the second positive learning process for me: nutritional awareness and the experience of fasting, or more specifically, juice cleansing. This brought the beginnings of needed changes to the 40–50 pounds of excess weight I carried and that I realized caused my congestive symptoms: persistent low back pain, digestive problems, sinus clogging and daily allergies, early morning lethargy, and late afternoon fatigue. And what was I congested from? You name it. By the age of 27, my past had caught up with me—a rich diet, excessive and undigested food, as well as psychological stuff, such as old experiences, thoughts, fears and other unexpressed emotions, including the turmoil from the intense evolutionary changes during the early to mid-1970s. This accumulation of physical and psychological sludge got in the way of me being totally present, totally in my own body. Juice cleansing started things moving with the healthful flow of chi through all levels of my being. In a relatively short period of time, this process resulted in peak physical energy, mental clarity, emotional awareness and expression, and new spiritual sensitivity. As my intuitive self balanced my rational self, I began to write, draw, play music, breathe, study tai chi, and more. This was a beginning for me. I was so profoundly affected by my cleansing and healing experiences that this area of medicine has become a focal point in my own personal seasonal health care, in my writing, and in my practice.
Periodic juice cleansing led me to an awareness that my diet had to change. I now cared about and was making an effort to learn more about what I put into my body, how to nourish myself and others. I believe that being overweight is primarily an emotional problem. It is very hard to change the body without dealing with the insecurities (or lack of knowing) that cause us to reach for our most familiar and convenient, comfort FOOD, most often sugary treats. By doing so we are trying to reconnect with our primary nourishing relationship—our MOTHER—the one who feeds us. This relates both to our biological mother and our planetary Mother EARTH. In Chinese medicine, sweet flavors represent the maternal energy. Thus, a craving for sweets is a reaching out for the comfort and security of our mother. I have seen only a small percentage of overweight or food-addicted people who do not crave sweet treats and carbohydrates, especially bread and flour products.
Before embarking on any journey, each of us should be blessed with the right kind of guidance. I was soon to find mine when I met my friend and long-time associate, Bethany Argisle, known then as the Princess of Argisle, storyteller to children. Bethany is an artist, children’s writer, producer and performer, poetess, and dancer/drummer. She is a person with such emotional fortitude and intensity, she could make you cry and shine all at once. This is a lady who really feels things deeply, a sensitive who stimulates others to feel deeply as well. Bethany is a dream gardener; she sees people’s spirits and potential and supports their specific plan to hu-manifest their dreams. She is a woman who knows what all the way is and has been there. She is here on Earth to spread the healing message—save the whales, save the trees, save the planet. Now I have become dedicated to helping heal Mother Earth as one of her planetary doctors. With Bethany’s encouragement, enthusiasm, and persevering support, I began improving my discipline around food and eating as well as exploring physical disciplines like yoga. I balanced a very active, outward life with more receptivity and reflection. I played my flute or took long hikes instead of eating as much or as frequently. I also chose better foods. I learned how to go deeper within myself and tapped the inner stores that I had consumed, digested, assimilated and hidden away through the years—and I started to really write.
Staying Healthy With the Seasons began with a deal I made with Bethany to serve the planet. It first took shape as a local news column called “On the Natch”, with tips on how to stay healthy at different times of the year and how to handle the stress of seasonal change. I shared my experience of personal transformation and worked with individuals and with groups. I began teaching cleansing workshops to help others move toward a more vital existence through personal evolution and growth. Learning to adapt to life’s changes is a key to healing and the maintenance of optimum health.
Staying Healthy With the Seasons spanned five years from conception to publication. It was a complete creative process and discipline with many mini-cycles within the greater one. The five Chinese elements of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water represent the total creative cycle and relate respectively to the life processes of idea, action, manifestation, communication, and reflection; and from reflection comes new ideas, and thus, the cycle continues.
Bethany worked with me the entire five years as I wrote and rewrote, refined, experienced, and worked with many artists and editors. She questioned me, shared ideas, and protected me from the outside world of phone calls, patients, and other distractions, and even protected me from myself. She once threw herself between me and my refrigerator, which she knew was threatening to her life. I loved food and was very dependent on it emotionally. Yet, she was fearless in the face of duty. “Go back to your desk and write, it’s not time to eat.” I was experiencing real artistic pain and emotional inner chaos. In the past when all this turbulent energy welled up within me, I would eat, stuffing my feelings. (“Mother, comfort me, nourish me, tell me everything is alright!”) Now I was finally, thank God and Goddess, letting it out and letting it go. The writing began to flow from me, and the process became a little easier as the focus that was needed began to grow. And believe me, I was resistant at first.
Bethany and I also used our creative energies to start our business, Health Harvest Unlimited. We conceived, designed, and produced new health educational products like Sole-Sox (anatomical reflexology socks), the Acupuncture, Chakra, and then the I-Ching designs for T-shirts and decals.
Health Harvest Unlimited (now Argisle Enterprises, Inc.) created a support system for us while we worked on the book. Going to stores and meeting many people ultimately became invaluable to future sales of this book. I maintained my medical practice two to three days a week by seeing just a few people a day and taking time with each person for healing—doing body therapy, relaxation, sonopuncture, and guided imagery. (It was extremely rewarding to explore the inner world of healing.) Bethany refined and organized her writings (volumes!) and began her new art form, Echolauge, environmental collage works. She also created artwork and poems for each of the seasons while I was writing.
The process of getting Seasons ready to be published required faith and perseverance. There were so many chances to give up before its true completion. We tried to sell it to many publishers and even received a couple of offers, but weren’t ready to give up creative control. We saw a book laid out simply with lots of art, a book that had spaces to reflect and room to breathe. We wouldn’t accept a “words-on-paper” book. We would publish it ourselves if need be, or wait for the right publisher who matched our vision. And while we waited, there was work to be done. I raised some money from a close friend and began the next phase.
Bethany and I were performing in schools around Northern California, doing shows about health and dental care, including our Friendly Flossing song and The Anatomy Strip. While in Calistoga we met Neil Murray, a young Englishman with an expansive and insightful mind, a true student interested in the elements. Bethany and I connected with him at the grand opening of the Calistoga Bookstore, which he later owned with his wife. Neil was able to see our message clearly and had the vision and the design skills to produce a balance of right and left brain information. We still joke about the first conversation about the Five Element theory, and Neil’s question, “What’s wrong with four elements?” We formed a great working relationship with Neil as the designer, and our new Staying Healthy With the Seasons was underway.
To enhance and clarify the writing, I acquired the services of a precise and inquisitive editor, Penny Post. Her input was just what I needed to motivate me to rewrite, reorganize, and add loads of explanations and practical information to the text. Now the process of creating Staying Healthy With the Seasons was moving along quite well.
For visual beauty, we also hired Richard Moffett, a meticulous graphic artist that we met through our printer friend, Al “Hercules” Howell. Richard began the first illustrations, particularly the all-important opening and end plates for each seasonal section. By 1980, we had a beautiful, thrice-typed (this was before personal computers) and twice-edited manuscript with introduction, basic information, five seasonal sections (including spring, summer, late summer, autumn, and winter), along with the conclusion and most of the major illustrations. It was ready to go!
Bethany often brought home animals and humans who needed care. One day, she came back from an ocean walk with a dapper, white-haired and kind-hearted gentleman named Hal Kramer. During dinner it became clear that our paths were destined to cross. Our new friend just happened to have recently owned Celestial Arts Publishing, and with no time wasted, he encouraged us to meet with the current editor-in-chief, who was immediately interested in our project.
Bethany and I knew that we wanted creative input with our own designer to work with theirs, an art budget, and a beautifully illustrated, spacious and informative finished book, blending East and West, left and right brain, and the linear, rational with the visual, intuitive. I really wanted the type of text I loved as a schoolboy with lots of visuals and not too many all-word pages.
Celestial Arts said yes! And we all went for it. Now Bethany, Neil, and I worked diligently with the text, design and layout, and with our two illustrators, the second one being Neil’s friend, Pam Twachtmann. David Hinds, my new comrade at Celestial Arts, found and hired the perfect cover artist. When I first saw the painting—with the beautiful trees and flowers, the seasonal landscapes, and the many animals and insects—I cried. I loved the haase (rabbit/hare in German) leaping across the back cover, and the deer hidden in the woods above.
And in another nine months, by May 1981, we finally had a new baby BOOK!
In July, we had a wonderful catered celebration at the spacious Omphale houseboat on the Sausalito shore (with healthy, high-vitality food, of course). All those who had worked on the book along with friends and associates attended. Staying Healthy With the Seasons was launched! That was the coming out party for me and my career, and for David Hinds as well, the new acquisitions editor at Celestial Arts, and a man who became my close friend over the next eighteen years before his early death in 1998. Bethany, Neil, and I later worked together with David on our magnum opus, Staying Healthy With Nutrition. David needed great optimism (beyond mine and his employer’s) for this massive labor of love which we were finally able to pare down to under 1200 pages and publish in 1992. In the years following, we also published three books inspired from Nutrition, including A Diet for All Seasons (1995) (now A Cookbook for All Seasons, 2000), The Detox Diet (1997), and The Staying Healthy Shopper’s Guide (1999).
What has happened since the publication of Seasons? Our book came out at the beginning of the “back-to-Nature” movement in medicine. I have continued to pursue this development in my own career. The exponential increase in the natural foods and nutritional supplements industries, which have paralleled the growth of natural medicine during the past 20 years, is rather amazing.
Prior to Seasons, primarily what was available were bulk herbs from distributors or what we could gather ourselves. I acquired a large variety of herbs both ways and put together my own formulas for patients based on their needs and conditions. It was a bit primitive (and traditional), but it worked. I had bottles of herbal leaves, berries, roots, flowers, and seeds. I made up small bags of herbal combinations and guided each person on how to prepare their herbs. I wrote about this process in the Seasons book, focusing on it in the Winter section. Today, there are thousands of products (individual nutrients and herbs as well as formulas) available in natural food stores, pharmacies, and by mail order that address virtually every health concern imaginable.
Staying Healthy With the Seasons launched my career as writer and teacher. What I learned about healing came first through my personal process and from the transformation of my body and life—balancing my weight, clearing my allergies, and becoming more vital. This process helped me to see how our health care system could be better for my patients—more healing, more nourishing, more educational—indeed, more integrated. On this journey I also learned that the creative process is synchronistic with being healthy and that the transformative process of healing is inseparable from the experience of opening to and expressing our inner self. Thus, for me the experience of writing Staying Healthy With the Seasons was healing. I was also able to tap into the ancient wisdom that is still current and relevant today, and this has helped me to learn how to better care for myself and my patients.
With the early popularity of the concepts reflected in Staying Healthy With the Seasons, the media and health care system became very interested in the changing face of medicine. We became one of the voices of the New Medicine that has brought a greater integration into the new millennium.
In the early 1980s, I teamed up with Joyce Lechuga and Jan Adrian, two professional women, who started the Center for Health Awareness in San Jose, California. We ran a multidisciplinary clinic and they also had an active business providing Continuing Medical Education (CME) classes for registered nurses. I began teaching Staying Healthy With the Seasons workshops, which blended Chinese medicine and the Five Element principles into Western medicine. I introduced many nurses to herbal therapies, seasonal exercise activities, dietary harmony with Nature, and a new way of looking at mind-body health through guided imagery and dream interaction. It was fascinating work. The nurses loved it! “It makes so much sense,” many told me.
In early 1984, the Center for Health Awareness created a trip to China as a CME course for nurses. I was the instructor and health guide that accompanied 25 health care workers, a few spouses, and a couple of my close friends. It was an incredibly inspiring and educational journey for several weeks in October 1984, shortly after China opened her doors to foreigners from the West. We were welcomed everywhere we went. We flew from San Francisco to Shanghai (a busy industrial city), then on to Beijing, Chengdu, Xian, and continued south to Guilin and the beautiful Li River Valley. We traveled by plane and bus, visiting hospitals, barefoot doctor clinics, herbal pharmacies, and ancient historical sites.
I was most impressed with the warmth of the people, the millions of bicycles used for transportation, the fascinating local markets, and the incredible strategic use of the land for growing food for the near billion population in this astonishing country. Every available plot of land was used. Crops were planted along hillsides, river valleys, open lots, and most surprisingly, throughout the cities.
When we began our journey, only my friend James “Pistachio” Roberts and I were vegetarians. We had good meals prepared most everywhere, always with some fresh cooked greens. By the end of the journey, we had ten converts eating at the vegetarian table. Pistachio brought his guitar and sang some of his “health” songs, and I brought my Shakahatchi flutes and played mainly for myself and the Nature spirits at the Great Wall, the Black Forest, the relics at the Museum of the Warriors and Horses, and in the parks under great trees while the elders practiced Tai Chi. I loved this trip and plan to return in 2004 for the 20th anniversary. Let me know if you want to go.
After my return from the Orient, I settled into a newly disciplined life that blended my medical practice with a new family. My partner Tara and I delivered our first child, Orion, at home during a wild spring storm in the Berkeley hills. Family life stabilized me. I also purchased the clinic I was working in, and thus began the new Marin Clinic of Preventive Medicine and Health Education in 1985. I hired Bethany to oversee the health education program, and we created many wonderful newsletters for the practice. After some years, I incorporated my business and in the early 1990s, it became the Preventive Medical Center of Marin, Inc. It is still a very busy clinic in San Rafael, California.
Over the years, my practice, like my life, evolved. We have used many modern and ancient systems to create a new kind of health care. I have never referred to myself or my practice as “alternative” or “holistic” because those names lacked clear definition and because I wanted to use a more mainstream term. Since the early 1980s I began referring to my practice as Integrated Medicine. I continue to incorporate Western medicine to handle crises and trauma, and certain acute illnesses. I also employ basic medical tests, such as blood tests and x-rays, as well as the advanced technology available to evaluate the functional state of the body, including the digestion, mineral status, and food reactions. All of these tests are valuable assets to medical practice, and in my opinion, they address more causative levels of poor health. The heart of my work is to help people find the underlying causes of their problems, which are most often related to lifestyle, and to support behavioral changes, in addition to the application of natural remedies.
After promoting and marketing Seasons and teaching workshops for several years, my writing career came back to me. Bethany, Neil, and I began on another journey that would take just over five years—the second book in the Staying Healthy series—Staying Healthy With Nutrition. I fully believed that both health practitioners and the American public needed an extensive and in-depth compendium of nutritional information contained in a single volume. After all, I didn’t get any of this in medical school, and it is so important. This Nutrition treatise was followed by three more books mentioned earlier—the first a recipe book, then one on detoxification, and another about healthy shopping and food chemicals.
My books have been translated into several languages, including Spanish, German, Portuguese, and Taiwanese. They are also used extensively by health educators, and as references for health writers. Over the years, I have continued to write and give interviews. This ongoing interest makes me feel ecstatic and blessed that all of our efforts to create these books have been, and continues to be worthwhile.
I truly hope you are inspired and motivated to take greater care of yourselves. Staying Healthy With the Seasons was written in a clear and vital state, when I was very open to the wise healing muses. We have integrated a number of healing systems and philosophies to make this information unique. I believe the information is timeless and can help anyone improve their state of health. The new text and additional material is the result of my continuing interest and respect for Nature’s cycles and the Earth’s inherent wisdom.
Enjoy each season of each year for your entire life. Review the season as you enter it and allow the wisdom passed on in this text to support and guide your journey. Continued blessings and healthy regards.
Dr. Elson Haas
Sebastopol, CA
January, 2003