Living in the Age of Information, we are constantly bombarded with bits of information. The trouble with information, however, is that it can be false or true. The world is full of false information, false theories and false ways of being. Much information is simply backwards or out of context.

Most people don't challenge incoming information to discover if it is true or false. Our mind is open to suggestion. We are information-accepting beings because information excites the brain. Much of the time we believe what we read or hear. Why? Because everyone else believes it. We are social creatures. Not questioning the reality of what we believe, we conclude that if everyone else believes it, then it must be true.

When the "war on cancer" started over 30 years ago, the heroes of science began searching for the "magic bullet" - a drug that would kill cancer. Inspired by the media, most everyone got on the bandwagon and supported this search, believing there really was a magic bullet.

The medical profession and scientific community have been looking for that bullet for a long time. They have developed many poisons that they hope will do the job. The trouble is that their magic bullets aren't magic at all; indeed, the magic bullets often kill the person the scientists seek to save.

What we all need to know is that drugs are toxic. Drugs work against nature, as they are designed to suppress and destroy. In truth, science abandoned the magic bullet scenario early on in their "war." Realizing that one drug alone couldn't kill cancer, they began to develop drug protocols - combinations of drugs. How many magic bullets could be put into a person or child before he or she was irreparably damaged or died? Scientists also factored into the equation the side effects of drugs, and developed more drugs to suppress bodily damage from the initial drugs. Even though medical society abandoned the magic bullet theory, the media hyped the search and the magic bullet became a part of the way we deal with our bodies.

Magic bullet mentality is very closely related to the instant gratification mentality that we have developed by agreement as a society. We want it fast and we want it now! Television commercials make expert use of this conditioning. Magic bullet promises sell products and drugs. Even the most popular heath supplements and multilevel health products are sold with the magic bullet/instant fix mentality.

Unfortunately, this mentality works against us. We want any sign of illness to be gone now; we want to feel better immediately. We still want the magic bullet and we expect our doctors to provide it. We have created a society in which we don't allow ourselves time off work for healing - be it merely feeling under the weather or suffering with chronic conditions. Antibiotics are widely prescribed to get people back to work or kids back to school fast. This mentality contributes to making the drug industry the second largest industry in the world. Medicine is big business. Why? Because it will give you what you want when you want it - though most often at the expense of your body.

Our current health care system most often offers two options in treatment: drugs or surgery. All medical treatments boil down to one or the other.

Drugs don't really heal the body. Rather, drugs merely suppress our symptoms, which in turn make disease conditions multiply in the body. Drugs rob us of our health. Multiple diseases mean multiple drugs. I recently met a woman who was on 12 different medications, none of which were working anymore. Medicine had no options for her and she was mystified. She never noticed that the doctors didn't really heal her body - they medicated it. Drugs are like plugging a hole in the dam with your finger. Sooner or later you run out of fingers.

The old medical system is one of those backwards social systems based on the war mentality so prevalent in this world. Drugs and surgery invade, divide and conquer. Unfortunately, you can't traumatize and conquer a body and expect it to work correctly. And you really can't fool Mother Nature. To heal a body, you need to work with nature, not against her. The magic bullet is just that - a bullet, and all bullets destroy.

Bodies can be healed. They are self-healing mechanisms. Holistic health offers thousands of effective treatments. Every alternative health care practitioner is trying to retrain people out of the magic bullet/instant gratification mentality. The way to heal a body is to build health, not destroy illness. Alternative therapies assist the body by balancing and correcting it, by feeding it natural substances that enhance its own healing power. Over time, through bodywork and nutrition, bodies can become powerfully healthy.

Don't expect any alternative healer to heal you in one session. That's like going to the doctor for the magic bullet. You may have to do ten acupuncture sessions to correct a condition; you may need to take herbs, vitamin supplements too. Anyone with a serious health problem should immediately look at his or her nutrition and stress level. Choose healing sessions that focus around those issues. Holistic professionals empower clients to create their own health protocols. Allow yourself to investigate a variety of therapies and healers. Believing just one individual or therapy can cure you is regressing to the magic bullet mentality.

I know of many people who have successfully conquered their health problems through alternative methods. From working with cancer to fibromyalgia, people are healing themselves and employing others to help them. More people than ever before are healing all kinds of disease through seeking information, educating themselves and employing trained professionals to help.

The truth is that in our society health costs money. Again, the medical healthcare system is backwards, for it incorporates 'health care insurance' as its method of payment. It guarantees that we will have no debt from the sickness we create through bad health habits. Our healthcare debts are paid for when our health fails. It should be called disease insurance instead of health insurance!

True health care insurance - insurance against sickness - would pay for alternative care treatments so that we would never become sick in the first place. Imbalances would be corrected before the body crashed. Prevention would be strongly encouraged. People would take better care of themselves if they knew they had to pay for their own cure to their disease!

We have to pay for our health one way or another. We may pay for it in good foods and yoga class, or in vitamin supplements and trips to the gym. When we are having a tough time in life, we may want to see our massage therapist, hypnotherapist or visit an energy medicine practitioner along with our chiropractor to preserve our health.

It's time to rethink our health care system and review our social health care beliefs. We need to understand that health has great value in the quality of our life. Without our health, we cannot be happy. We need to move away from thinking that insurance will take care of our disease, that the doctor will fix our problems. In case you haven't noticed, there is a lot the doctor can't fix! It's time to take back our health into our own hands.