Spirituality, poetry and medicine Whereas medicine, already from Hippocrates, has the mission to protect health and defend the life of the people, independently of their conditions of race, sex, ethnic group, nationality, etc.; Poetry seeks for the elevation of life. Poetry, like other arts, each one with its language, looks for the generation of emotions. It looks for the reaction of our body to the expressions of pain, love, joy, exaltation of the nature, history, or concerning our own identity… Our body reacts with changes in its sanguineous pressure, temperature, brightness of the eyes, muscles of the face, excretion of hormones, production of tears and saliva, tension of the sexual organs, breathing… all the body. Lately we faced the discovery of the existence of endorphins that are internal substances that produce those corporal emotional reactions. Poetry, music, dance, painting, sculpture… each one, as I said, with a different language of expression, tries to stimulate our emotions and for that they look for to touch the fibers of our more intimate and deep feelings of our life. For those reasons poetry is a key value in life and medicine is a key value in life.
After 46 years from my doctorate in medicine; and at the arrival to my 7th decade; my thoughts acquire form of legacies and testaments, in special for my students who I love deeply. It is indeed their existence, the reason for me to write this present message, which is the result of a life dedicated to the health of the people and to humanism from my medical profession and as a poet.
In most essays about poetry, it is used an historical approach because in each historical period the form and content of poetry follows the related particular characteristics. And… What a special period is the present one!
Our current society is at a transcendental crossroads. On one hand, the use of natural resources is very efficient, but on the other, that same use is endangering the continuity of life on our planet. On one hand, new technology and systems of intensive production permit us to obtain an elevation in the quality of life for all humanity, but on the other, new conflicts are threatening to use weapons of mass destruction, mainly atomic, and with it the potential destruction of our civilization and life on Earth. On one hand, the massive development of the media is carrying all the social-economic-political-cultural events to the television screens and Internet of the private computers of the inhabitants of all corners of the world, but on the other, financial or governmental interests are manipulating these same media, deforming the news, creating nonexistent realities and “brain-washing” the audience. On one hand, human rights have gained the power of international law, and democracy is the most accepted form of government, but on the other, individuals are in danger of losing their dignity completely by being transformed into “cogs in a machine” by the economic corporations and the dominant governments. On one hand, the fall of the absolutist states has provided people of different countries with the opportunity to dissent, but on the other, the new techniques of propaganda via communication are transforming them into manipulated “flocks of sheep”. On one hand, science penetrates into the “secrets” of life and the universe, but on the other, the pseudo sciences, superstition, fraud and fundamentalist and irrational thought have acquired economic and political power, and promote fanaticism and intolerance. Terrorist movements, which are proclaiming the arrival of the “end of times”, are using extremist fanaticism in order to be justified and to create panic.
We should find in spirituality and humanism, the potentiality to orient the dialogue between science and art, through ways that will guide the present globalized society towards rails of survival and progress. We also, writers in general and poets in particular, have be the lyric voice of the peoples and be part of their reality, participating in such a dialogue. How can we scientists manage to contribute to the development of science and technology for the progress of humanity, if we are separated from the main philosophical, cultural, and social dilemmas? We need such a dialogue and inter discipline collaboration.
Both, scientists and the artists should be responsible and free thinkers, ethically and socially. Both must sustain mutual dialogues and proposals for a more secure and dignified society. The focus is anthropocentric.
I, as professor of medicine and poet, sustain that all doctors must be humanist and promote spiritualism and peace. We must love deeply and generously all the individual patients and the population of all countries, ethnic groups, sexes, races, beliefs and social condition. We must love and respect any healthy and ill human body. We must ask every day for our knowledge and to learn more. We must ask every day for the factors that put in danger the health and life of our patients and all humankind and, we must participate with responsibly, both ethical as social, in the generation of dialogues and proposals for a better worthy and safe life for the human race. I see this also as a great challenge for modern medicine. Health professionals and specially those who are obliged by the Hippocratic Oath must have a more comprehensive and ecological vision.
In the current world, after all the greatest technological and scientific advancements, there is still much inequality of opportunities and terrible misery. Today, we write and publish in Web pages and magazines of literature, but we do not reach at the population, since only a very small part of it can read and write and have access to Internet.
Due to the separation between the scientific objectivism and the artistic subjectivism that occurred during the modern epoch, each of these groups began to analyze the problems of society in an independent angle and without interacting among them. Furthermore, the different methodology utilized and the separated development of linguistic expressions of communication, were factors for the current lack of dialogue between science and art.
This Astana Conference summarize the year after conclusion of World Forum of Spiritual Culture, and is devoted to 20 years of independence of the Republic of Kazakhstan, a champion of the idea of Spiritual and harmony between countries and peoples of the world. In the invitation, Mr. T. Mukhamedzhanov, Co-Chairman of the World Forum of Spiritual Culture, Member of Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, wrote to me "Taking into consideration your recognized position in the scientific community, active work in the field of spiritual culture, commitment to the ideals of peace and harmony, we are confident that your participation will contribute to the success of the conference and will serve to develop constructive solutions…" In order to fulfill this challenge I propose, in my condition of Secretary General & 1st Vice President- World Academy of Arts and Culture (affiliated to UNESCO), to evaluate together with you, the possibility to organize a World Congress of Poets, in the Republic of Kazakhstan, dedicated to Spirituality, poetry and medicine.