From The Universal Man radio show
Dr. Norberto Keppe and Dr. Claudia B. S. Pacheco, Sept. 30, 2003
Why doing good is necessary for our mental and physical health.
Dr. Keppe: When someone is sick they have to want to get better, of course. But the cure doesn’t come from the unconscious, as Freud believed. The patient must accept awareness, he must accept consciousness. And for someone to have a good result in therapy they have to have a certain enthusiasm for goodness. They ought to desire to experience goodness. And the best way for them to experience goodness is to do good. Whether someone is sick or whether they are well depends mostly on what they do. If a person doesn’t do what is correct, they will not manage to be a sane, healthy individual. In this case, our will is fundamental to our health. A person should use their will contrary to how they have been using it. That is, they should use their will to dedicate themselves to the well being of humanity, to the well being of their fellow man. Practically speaking, they should devote their life to others. When we say this, people think, we are talking in a religious sense, that we should do good to go to heaven, and not that we must do good here on earth. If an individual does not do good they will not manage to be mentally well-balanced, and they will not manage to see the mistakes they commit or the errors in society. This conscientization of errors, and mainly this attitude of doing good, is fundamental so the person doesn’t do too much damage to himself.
Claudia: We can see that generally people are dominated by a self-centered, egocentric attitude.
So when you talk about the necessity of doing good in order for a person to become psychologically well-balanced and physically and socially healthy, etc, I can see this clearly. When a person’s interests are directed toward himself, when they are self-centered, they alienate themselves from everything else. This generates a certain intellectual anemia. We are fed by the essential energy that comes from nature, from God. And through consciousness and good action, we are better able to nourish ourselves with this energy. If a person doesn’t turn his energy toward life, toward improving society, this person won’t be able to nourish himself. People should look at everything with this attitude: how can I do better, how can I do the best I can do, how can I take better care of the planet, how can I take better care of others? Then they will be healthier.
Dr. Keppe: So what we’re saying is that an egocentric type of life causes illness – and not just mental illness. This attitude also causes physical illness, problems in the circulatory system, digestive system, brain, bones. For a person to have a healthy body and a healthy mind they have to want to dedicate their life to others. To have a better understanding of things, to feel better in general, to be more intelligent, to have a better love life, even a better sex life, a person has to dedicate his life to helping mankind.
