QA240A QUESTION: Could you comment on the use of pain killers in dentistry and medicine, things as simple as aspirin, to general anesthesia for surgery.
ANSWER: Yes. It would be extremely foolish if I were to say that this should be discontinued. There are indeed painful conditions that can become so strong that it prohibits any further possibility of exploration, recognition, openness – for without openness, no exploration, no recognitions are possible.
So if the painful condition is stronger than the system can in any way endure – and even if it is not that strong – to relieve a pain for a specific purpose is not wrong. It depends when, to what degree, and how much and so on and so forth. There is no hard rule about this – there is hardly ever any rule. There are times when this is very important and there are other times when it is preferable to really experience it. But the times where it is important, that does not mean you cannot experience it.
Let us say you have a severe headache and you have a task to fulfill. And with this headache you are unable to fulfill this task. If it is not a habitual condition and a habit of always taking a pill against your headache, then to do it this once will not prevent you from making the connections. For even with the pill, your body is still in a condition that you can connect with its own inner language – and certainly when you have surgery.
It is a gift of God to make it possible to have the state of unconsciousness here and anesthesia. So let us beware of any kind of exaggeration and fanaticism. I’m speaking of painful conditions that can be borne, that do not prevent you from fulfilling your tasks, and certainly you should not avoid seeking medical help. The symptoms too must be treated. And that will not prevent you in the course of such treatment to do what I suggested here. It is not the prevention of symptoms that prevents you from finding your inner cause.
