The Incarnations of Copper
Copper and the Healing Arts
My grandmother
wore a copper
bracelet, I think, and even if she didn’t
I can recall her contemporaries (we’re talking the 1950’s) discussing
their arthritis and other infirmities of ‘venerable age’ being
alleviated by the wearing of copper bracelets.
And on rainy
summer days up
at Balsam Lake we had these coppercraft
kits that occupied us until the sun came out again. The cottage,
furnished with copper this-and-that’s, lamps and so forth are a source
of wonderful memories. So perhaps my positive associations for copper
has made me subconsciously well disposed towards it. Otherwise I had no
thoughts on the matter at all. As far as I was generally concerned for
most of my life, I might just as well stuff sacred cow dung under my
armpits and carry on smiling.
My personal
experience with
the health benefits of copper came quite
‘accidentally’ as a result of an occupational injury.
For about five
years I have
been working with salvaged metals which
require a lot of physical preparation before it can be used. As a
result, I developed my own ‘venerable infirmity’, a chronic pain in my
shoulder joint that eventually inflamed my arm and the whole shoulder
area, both front and back. I finally went to see the doctor and he
thought it was bursitis and suggested I go to a physiotherapist. Just
before I called for an appointment I tripped and reached up with that arm
to catch myself – excruciating! Almost immediately, after the initial #&*@!!, the
pain began to disappear and by the end of the day I would estimate that
it was almost gone. I had 95% pain free mobility! Cool! No cost and
drug-free! I could live with that, and so I did for a month or so.
Now the “accident” that I’m
really talking about is truly ironic.
Marie at that time was designing jewellery from the copper and we were
trying to promote it to guys. So for the lack of a model, I wore some
copper chain bracelets – unintentionally on that arm. I only realized
what I had done when I could actually feel the pain change and then
‘dissolve’! That’s a good word for it! I was impressed, very relieved
and truly thankful.
Now that’s not the end of it.
I don’t want to sound like a nut, but a
year later I started getting a pain in the hip joint and eventually
became chronic I went to the Doc. All I got was this look of pity, read: headed for a
hip operation one of these
days. I got quietly
angry and when I got home I made a chain
anklet. It took about a week before I started to feel the change in the
pain and eventually it, and the weakness completely disappeared! So
there!
All in the mind? In the first
case, perhaps it was my association with
positive memories. In the second case, perhaps because of the intense
negativity. Either way, positive
and
negative seem to indicate energy and perhaps there is something
more to it than the pharmaceutical industry is letting on. Consider
this:
“The
American Arthritis Foundation
calls copper bracelets an "unproven remedy". I consider this expression
an oxymoron. A remedy is or is not.
They probably refer to the fact that the clinical trials for copper
bracelets have not been conducted yet to the satisfaction of the Food
and Drug Administration. One of America's foremost expert in this
matter, Professor of Biology Helmar H.A. Dollwet, Ph.D., from the
University of Akron, Ohio and author of The Copper Bracelet and
Arthritis explained to me that there was no economic incentive for drug
companies to
make the large investment needed to conduct the long trials demanded by
the FDA. Copper is a natural element
and cannot be patented. How could a drug company make money on
it? Instead, they profitably sell anti-inflammatory drugs for the
relief of arthritis.
The
situation is different in Canada,
Western Europe, and other countries. In London and Barcelona, for
example, I have bought copper bracelets from pharmacist who adjusted
the bracelets to my wrist and explained that when I saw a green mark on
my skin I would know the remedy was working.
(Cultural
Beliefs, Scientific Data,
Esoteric Ideas - by Sergio Lub 1995)
Leaving aside the subject of corporate behaviour for
now, copper plays an important part in traditional medicine documented
from Ancient Egypt through to the modern age. It has been all but
ignored by western medicine particularly since the incredible advances
of modern science and technology around the mid 20th century. But it is
once again being used and studied as alternative medicine and therapies
have provided some answers where current science has not – at least not
yet.
As copper is found not only
in its metallic state and prized for its
beauty and prestige (see Copper,
Gold, and Diamonds are Timeless
-
http://alter-eco.net/About/Lost.html), it is also found in consumable
plants and animals as trace elements. For tens of thousands of years
these natural elements have contributed to the survival of all species.
Humans - by trial and error – had a unique attribute to apply
‘intelligent’ observation and survived for the most part, otherwise we
would have become extinct or have been mutated in unimaginable
Darwinian fashion.
The first Egyptian record of
the metal's medicinal use can be found in
the Smith Papyrus, an ancient text written between 2600 and 2200 BC.
Although some kind of medicine was already practiced in Egypt in the
earliest prehistoric days, (the use of malachite as an eye paint in the
Badarian age) around 4000 BC. Prescriptions for dental treatment
mentioned in the Ebers papyrus contained copper sulphate, an astringent
still used for chronic gum inflammation. Hesy Re is the earliest known
dentist (2600 B.C.), with the title of Chief of the Toothers and of
Physicians in a tomb in Saqqara. The treatment of most infectious teeth
consisted of applying medications aimed at drawing out "worms". This
idea of worms as a cause of toothaches continued in Western medicine
throughout the Middle Ages and even into recent centuries.
The green color in eye makeup
came mainly from malachite, which is
copper carbonate, found in the eastern desert and the Sinai. This
natural substance was inherently antiseptic, and interestingly, copper
preparations are the main agents of the present century against
trachoma, the blinding infection very common in Egypt.
Writings from the Greek,
Roman, Aztec and Hindu civilizations
illustrate a range of remedies, with copper used in drinks and
dressings for injuries or shaped into jewelry and magnets. As early as
1000 B.C. foods containing copper and copper bracelets were thought to
be beneficial in treating arthritic conditions.
Greek warriors would go into
combat stripped naked to achieve maximum
movement but wear copper bracelets as it gave them extra and sustained
energy. Roman Gladiators wore heavy cuffs when they fought in the
Coliseum. They believed that the bracelets made them stronger and gave
them more confidence. As copper is an essential nutrient for the
functioning of the body, today, athletic and health-conscious adults
will prefer jewelry rather than supplements to boost their intake of
copper due to concerns about over-medicating and side effects.
Today in the Himalayan
countries, some Sherpas wear layered copper
jewellery and believe that the copper will absorb energy from the body
when available and release it when the body requires it.
Quite
simply, it is always a matter of
energy, whether it is
the Eastern ‘chi’ or its parallel in
Western ‘particle physics’, it is the source of all life and whatever
else you would like to believe. And to put it in terms of accepted
biochemistry, copper is a required element for the healthy functioning
of living organisms.
* It is vital to the
absorption and transport of iron, which is crucial
to the efficiency of red blood cells.
*
For the normal functioning
of the cardiovascular system.
* Helps body produce energy –
oxidizes and breaks down fat tissue to
produce energy.
* It participates in
approximately 50 enzymatic reactions.
* It helps build elastin and
collagen for healthy bone and connective
tissue – protects against degeneration and osteoporosis.
* Key mineral for the immune
system – promotes wound healing
* Protects nervous system by
maintaining myelin, an insulating sheath
around nerve cells.
* Copper is a good
antioxidant. It works together with an antioxidant
enzyme, superoxide dismutase (SOD), to protect cell membranes form
being destroyed by free radicals. Like other antioxidants, copper
scavenges or cleans up these highly reactive radicals and changes them
into inactive, less harmful compounds. Therefore, it can help prevent
cancer and many other degenerative diseases or conditions such as
premature aging, heart disease, auto-immune diseases, arthritis,
cataracts, Alzheimer's disease, or diabetes.
In short, it is quite
possible to see now, with more long overdue
research, that the universal rule, ‘What
goes round comes round.’
will re-affirm the wisdom of many
snubbed traditions. As the hippies of the sixties rejected the status
quo of materialism and the military/industrial complex and embraced
Eastern mysticism and other natural philosophies there was a persistent
core that further studied and explored the gifts of ‘the elders’. Now,
once again, we find ourselves in the mixed blessing of high tech and
the systematic control of a discredited corporate/military complex and
the natural reaction to this is a greater
search for understanding that will ensure the survival of the planet
and all that is part of it.
“For many African tribes, a
bracelet marks the passage to adulthood and
gives the wearer a sense of belonging and identity. The fitting of a
bracelet often culminates lengthy initiation ceremonies, and those
bracelets are then worn for life. In several tribes I visited, the
design of a bracelet is entrusted to the Shaman since they believe that
the one who is in contact with the invisible world could better select
the metals and techniques that will enhance the virtues of a particular
person of the tribe.
Paramahansa Yogananda [1946]
wrote in his classic book Autobiography of
a Yogi: "Just as a house may be fitted with a copper rod to absorb the
shock of lightning, so the bodily temple can be protected in certain
ways. Electrical and magnetic radiations are ceaselessly circulating in
the universe; they affect man's body for good and ill. Ages ago our
rishis pondered the problem of combating the adverse effects of subtle
cosmic influences. The sages discovered that pure metals emit an astral
light which is powerfully counteractive to negative pull of the
planets..."
(Ibid. Sergio Lub 1995)
Or...
“The possible explanation
here is that metals resonate at a certain
frequency that amplifies the vibrations produced by different astral
bodies as they rotate in space. These vibrations in turn affect our
environment and our bodies changing our perceptions, feelings and
mental attitudes. As strange as it may sound, it seems warranted that
such an amazing synchronicity of beliefs shared by such disparate
cultures be given further investigation and scientific inquiry.”
(Ibid. Sergio Lub 1995)
I began my thinking about the
role of energy when reading “The Tao of
Physics – An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and
Eastern Mysticism” by Fritjof Capra, Flamingo Edition (Fontana Books),
16th edition/1989. Actually, even long before that, it all began with
grade 10 Chemistry and Physics that picked the “G” string of deep
‘thought’, something that was a quiet epiphany for me then and only
made itself felt about 35 years later resulting in a chain bracelet
that I made titled, “Journey”. This
was the bracelet that introduced me to the healing energy properties of
copper…
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