In early times, there were many societies that considered illnesses to be caused by evil spirits that could only be dealt with by using ritual practices performed by a shaman or medicine man. As science progressed to discover microbiology, it was found that many diseases are actually caused by malevolent viruses or bacterial cultures invading the human body and causing damage. Medicine then began to join the battle against these tiny invaders by creating chemical compounds that controlled symptoms or killed the strains of bad bugs that were determined to be responsible for diseases. More time and research soon discovered that the enemy adapted to our efforts to eradicate them from our bodies, and started mutating to become resistant to the various types of chemical compounds we threw at them, and fire up even more harmful strains. In addition to the harmful microbes, there are other types of bacteria and agents that have been found to be both beneficial and even essential to maintaining the balance of human health.

Suspending the current medical approach in curing diseases for the moment, there are a number of intriguing possibilities that surface in examining the nature of these life forms, and the presently accepted approach to dealing with them. Though microbes are definitely a variation from our own physical form, there are some similarities worth noting. It has been observed that all life seems capable of some sort of social structure beyond the scope of individual members of a group, and within the confines of a collective communication with members of like kind. Survival depends on adaptation to hostile environmental changes, and the instinct for survival is intrinsic even in the lowest forms of life. When any sort of life is threatened with eradication, it takes whatever measures are within its capacity to preserve as much of its own kind as possible. This sort of natural function is true for both plants and animals, and has certainly proven equally true for even the microscopic forms of life. For years, modern medicine has approached the cure of diseases by launching attacks against microbes with chemicals aimed at killing the disease without harming the host. As the battle for our own survival continues, medicines intended for controlling illnesses have moved into categories that just treat symptoms while our own natural defenses battle for supremacy, or introducing cures that cause side effects which can be more harmful than the disease.

» Read more: Future Medicine – Controlling Disease With Communication