Age Should Bring Wisdom
By Joseph Dispenza

Hazel Parcells (1889-1996) was a pioneer in the field of nutrition and the chemistry of foods. If you did the arithmetic after her name, you know that she lived into her 107th year-remarkable for anyone, but especially remarkable for a woman who had been given up for nearly dead from tuberculosis and associated diseases when she was 40.

I met Dr. Parcells-she brought herself back from "terminal" illness and went on to become a doctor of naturopathy, probably one of the first-when she was 104. After several visits over a number of months, I asked if I could write a book about her and her natural healing methods. She agreed. I moved into a vacant room at her ranch in a secluded valley in northern New Mexico and conducted interviews with her for four months.

Dr. Parcells died peacefully in her sleep before I had the opportunity to get the book published under her name. My publisher, HarperCollins, asked me to take the material and reframe it as a third-person account. The book appeared the next year under the title Live Better Longer.

What follows is an excerpt from the original notes I made sitting across from Dr. Parcells in her living room in the mid-1990s. I hope you will be able to hear her voice in the words, as I did on those long afternoons in the mountains of New Mexico.

-JD



When you think of it, aging begins at birth, and continues until we leave our earthly vehicle.

Aging is related to growth, development, and maturity. A complete life cycle is operating in us, and it is doing so on two levels-the physical and the spiritual.

On the physical plane, the life cycle I speak about is the same sequence of life we see in all living things. It has a predetermined ending. I believe that what we term aging could be classified in the same way, as our bodies having a predetermined living cycle.

When we come into this world, we already have a determined period to be here. I have seen it so many times: no matter what the proficiency of a health professional attempting to save the life of a person, that life will depart if the person's time has come. No amount of reviving will be effective if the person has completed the predetermined life cycle.

We have been schooled to accept certain concepts which operate according to certain standards, and have given all these names. The concept we term aging seems to take dominance over the evidence of regeneration-the fact that every cell in our body is remade every year. As we yield to the old teachings connected with years and life, we accept them, and appear to "age." It is natural that we respond to the constant suggestion of aging by appearing to grow old. 

Our general state of health determines what may be called aging. Some people look old, and actually are old physically, because they have ignored the natural rules for good health. Their bodies show evidence of wear and tear. If we live healthy lifestyles, and support the living energies in us, age should bring wisdom, not defeat.

I've never felt that I went through an aging process. I have tried to stay in the present all the time. The past does not interest me at all. The future, with all its tremendous promise, is much more interesting.

Everything in nature has a timing for sowing, for growing, for maturing and for reaping. If all things are in balance, life goes on. Even a rose can enjoy material expression for a very long time if its environment supports it.

Our time on this plane is intended to provide growth and development for the soul. Instead of regarding problems as a form of persecution, the soul comes to realize that its problems are its builders. When a problem is conquered, the soul has learned a lesson, has acquired more strength, and has established a foundation of integrity. This is what the earthly journey is all about.

The soul has no beginning and no end. It moves in and out of time, and when it does, it seems to have a beginning and an end. We do not control this activity; we merely accept it and live it.

The soul comes onto this plane to learn lessons for its advancement and spiritual growth. Each experience will provide the wisdom for the next phase of its development. 

To the person who does not see the spiritual side of life, I have to say, you have not come very far in your lesson work-look into it, and you will find the truth. I believe we all know about these things on some level. Not all have experienced a great deal in the spiritual realm; there are areas where most people have no knowledge. Some stubbornly cling to world-views stuck in only material reality; like people who still believe the earth is flat, their ideas about life are based on what can be grasped by the physical senses alone. But something in us must be aware of our soul's activity, and the paths it takes, here and elsewhere.

We are taught that death is the end of life, but it is only the beginning of life in another place.

Physical aging will take a natural course, and will even be accelerated, if we are not in touch with the greater truths about the nature of the soul and the purpose of its sojourn in the flesh. 

I said there are two aspects of the life cycle, one physical, the other spiritual. If we operate solely from a physical premise, we are subject to the laws of the physical world. But if we operate from a spiritual perspective, we are under the law of the spiritual, which does not accept the law of boundaries or limitation. The spiritual does not include the idea of aging, since it is outside of time. 

The spiritual law of life is higher than the physical law. It creates the physical law. When we function under the jurisdiction of the spiritual, we live free from the effects of time on the life cycle. Aging, then, can become another way of looking at the process of maturing, and a metaphor for the progress of the soul from the shadows of ignorance to the bright light of knowledge.