Is essentially summed up in these timeless words of truth: *'had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that [-]he had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse'

The aforementioned words - ascribed to the 'certain woman with an issue of blood' who was then and there healed by the Great Physician Himself (see Mark's gospel: 5: 25/26 etc) - could hardly be more relevant to my own life experience...

So much so in fact that I oftentimes find myself, however inadvertently, returning to the following statement, uttered by a (long-past) former leader of a major New Zealand political party about his erstwhile leader, whom he proposed shortly replacing (and indeed did, if by the barest of margins):
reworking it to fit into my own (alluded to) situation, let me simply say:

I've nothing constructive to say about [the orthodox/conventional 'health' fraternity].

But more in days/weeks to come (alongside a proper reworking of **blogposts 4-6) when I finally ***get around to it.

*Mark 5:26 (King James Bible); the New King James Bible puts/renders it thusly:

had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse.

**The three (July 22nd, 24th and 25th) which all deal with a 'missing mineral in my diet', dis/uncovered by me, myself and I - no thanks to ye orthodox medical establishment, that's for sure!

***Far as I know, my oldest sister's the only one I've ever known who's ever been given 'a round tu-it' (as in a t-shirt emblazoned with and declaring such, in her later youth).

...confirms for me the inestimable, invaluable worth of a good night's 'beauty sleep'

-which, to requote the bard best I can, so effectively/efficiently 'closes up the ravelled sleeve of care'

Among numerous, even innumerable - certainly hard to briefly itemize/catalog - blessings galore... 

Epilogue: With it one can do a heckuva lot, without it stuff all; as I'm proving - in both instances - in my own ever fraught life-experience at present!

...Has Come Via the inspirational pen of Ellen G White - and Invariably been Confirmed through my own lifetime experience/observation...Convincing me in No Uncertain Terms that so-called 'modern' drugs are Nothing Other than a form of latter-day, Sophisticated Voodoo (hocus-pocus)...

'Drugs do not cure sickness, they simply change the form and location [thereof]'...temporarily obscuring/diffusing it throughout the body but ultimately not resolving it; enabling it to re-manifest itself at a later date and stage in forms ever more injurious and difficult to deal with...

By thus effectively 'glossing over' the real issue, they not only obscure and temporarily shunt it from visible notice, but by thus 'hiding' it enable it to ultimately re-manifest in ever more deadly and sinister ways...

And thus are so-called 'modern medicines' - potions et al - which themselves often contain highly suspect substances/ingredients which themselves contribute to either exacerbated issues or other, new problems down the track, often even worse than the original presenting problems...

What has ever so intrigued Yours Truly is how the Good Book Itself - amidst one of its various enumerated lists of sins, in the Book of the Apocalypse, itself dealing with 'last days' events, i.e. 'stuff' occurring from the days of Jesus' surviving Apostles through to the long-foretold Second Coming of Jesus in great glory to our inglorious globe - uses the term 'pharmakeia', translated 'sorcery', in Revelation: 9.21(cf 18:23; Isaiah 47:9,12).

Under numerals '5331' and '5332' (and '5333', the same as 5332), the 'Greek Dictionary of the New Testament', in the extensive indices to the New American Standard Bible: Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible, has the following (listings):

5331: pharmakeia...medication ("pharmacy") i.e. (by extens.) magic (lit. or fig.): -sorcery, witchcraft.

5332: pharmakeus...from pharmakon (a drug, i.e. spell-giving potion); a druggist ("pharmacist") or poisoner, i.e. (by extens.) a magician; -sorcerer.

Nuff Said?

Well, admittedly, maybe not, insofar as we are presently living through what is popularly known as a 'drug epidemic', not only in God's Own/Godzone, but throughout the Western world...which term (in that particular context) clearly, obviously is in specific reference, not to the various pills and potions upon pharmacy shelves but to the plethora of narcotics, illicit substances and/or legal but deadly alcoholic beverages, one and all, so readily available to one and all these days...

Nevertheless I'm sure the point is well taken, and is nonetheless an indication - and of as graphic a variety as is pretty well possible, surely - of the etymology of such commonly-accepted terms/concepts as 'pharmacy' and 'pharmacist'...

...suggesting the shadier side of their longstanding, even seriously ancient history...

-and I for one, given the absolute lack/dearth of ingredients oftentimes 'revealed' upon the containers of variously concocted 'medications' for this, that and the other, the simultaneous lack of transparency by so-called 'health professionals' over, let alone even knowledge concerning the contents therein... alongside the sole focus upon the treatment of readily observable symptoms with nary a discussion over, much less an intention to deal to, the underlying causes giving rise to said symptoms...

...am far from convinced that the various and sundry drugs, pills and potions presently being so freely and readily dispensed to one and all by the orthodox health establishment...via the 'neighborhood pharmacy'...are not indeed the selfsame sort of exceedingly questionable hocus-pocus, magical 'puff 'n stuff'' that in a former age were the stock 'n trade of ye garden-variety sorcerers/magicians/witches.

Has, however unorthodox/unconventional/unacceptable to the 'healthcare' establishment, proven a wonderful boon & blessing

People tend to assume that a 'miracle', much like beauty I suppose, is all in the eye (of faith - or *credulity!) of the particular beholder/'believer'...

...and since I've neither the time nor the inclination to argue or belabour the point just now, I'll simply let that interesting hypothesis/conundrum stand for the present...

But as One has well said, 'wisdom is known by her actions', and likewise, I'd suggest, is the actual **truth or falsehood of any particular 'proposition' confronting one during her or his earthly tenure.
Anyhow, with life experience and (hopefully) a better, keener sense of judgment with time - and moreover an intuitive, gut feeling/instinct for 'what passes the smell test', i.e. what carries the actual 'ring of truth' and credibility in one's life experience - most of us instinctively 'know' whether something is true or otherwise in our own particular lived experience...

To Be Continued...

*'credulousness:disposition to believe on insufficient evidence' according to the Chambers Concise Dictionary (Cambridge, 1988).

**For further investigation, I reckon you could do - far - worse than look up three of my earliest blogposts, entitled 'What is Truth?' (Parts One/Two/Three etcetera) upon my original blogsite, i.e. http://nuffsaid:consideryourself-frombothsidesnow.blogspot.co.nz/ (or .com/). 

...Was first - and foremost - 'taught' me (as if by osmosis) and simultaneously 'caught' by me...from my beloved 'Grandma Billie' [Wilhelmina Pipkin]: (born 116 years ago today)

And thus and so I dedicate this blogpost today to her memory...incidentally the person (whether relative or otherwise) who most frequently turns up in my dreams (i.e. those I recollect)...

...a person whose 'powers of longevity' were such that a one-time close friend once (or, more likely, several times) remarked upon how very young she (ever) looked...

...so much so in fact that when she was entering her eighties (or possibly even mid-eighties) this person commented upon how she looked like someone in her fifties*!

*Yes, 'scuse my **'poor internet manners' thereabouts, but if ever an exclamation mark were deserved - and then some - this would be the unrivalled occasion, surely...

**As a member of our 'extended family' once informed me, to wit that "it's considered impolite" (or suchlike) to employ either !s or CAPITALIZATIONS...

...but this pleb will continue to 'buck the trend', so to speak, as it's one of the ***very few ways one can express emotion/tone/emphasis online...

***Those 'emoji' ****thingamies/thingummies being wholly unworthy of even a mention...

****Either variant (I'm assuming) being the proper plural of 'thingamy'/'thingummy' (the latter getting a citation in my ever handy *****Chambers Concise Dictionary. 

*****Whilst my Gram's long-treasured gift (on my 16th birthday/birth-anniversary) of a Concise Oxford Dictionary contains the following reference: 'thingamy, thingumajig, thingum(a)bob, thingummy, n(oun)s. (colloq(uially)): 'Person or thing whose name one forgets or does not know or does not wish to mention; what's-his-name, what-d'you-call-it'.

...Was Never Spoon-Fed to Me By Those Well-Meaning 'Men in their White Coats' Traipsing over the Mountaintops ...as ye ole Poet Cynic 'Laureate' Philip Larkin might have put things...

No, however 'nice', 'decent' and otherwise well-meaning, the modern-day 'medics' and associated 'health professionals' undoubtedly - generally - are, their various and assorted 'scientific certainties' are - more often than not - anything but...and are far more usually nothing more (nor less, admittedly) than the conventionally accepted 'truisms' of their own particular day and age...

But what would I know - you might well ask? Pretty much everything about my own body - and its multifaceted workings - as a matter of fact...for I've carefully observed and followed its' variegated machinations now...for well-nigh upon fifty-five years...

No, this particular pleb has none of the fancy lettered emblems of 'wisdom' and attainment after his name, but what's, I'd wager, of infinitely greater value: invaluable personal experience of myself...