It is recognized that the health of the individual is determined not only by the physical factors that are the main focus of the current medical system, but also by more far-reaching psychophysiological, social, and environmental factors. The Natural Law Party's health programme encompasses the full range of factors that influence health, as found in the 40 areas of the Veda and Vedic Literature. This includes the following essential aspects of health care, which have previously been neglected by modern medicine:

Consciousness

The basis of human physiology is the field of intelligence or consciousness - the field of Natural Law. Because this basis of health - consciousness - has not been included in the theme of prevention and cure, the effectiveness of health care has been seriously restricted.

The development of consciousness as a means to improve health has been missing from health care due to the absence of a technology of consciousness. The Natural Law Party will supply this missing element by introducing the science and technology of consciousness - Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programme - into all aspects of health care.

Extensive research has demonstrated that these simple techniques improve all aspects of human health. This overall effect of balance and integration is graphically demonstrated by research documenting numerous effects that are directly opposite to the deterioration that occur with ageing (please see section 10)

The Natural Law Party's health programmes promote activity in accord with Nature's principle of least action, which does not allow stress, strain, or disorder to accumulate in the physiology.

Self-pulse reading for good health

Health means wholeness - the whole is more than the collection of parts. A perfect approach to health must take care of the parts and the whole simultaneously. In this context, the key concept is homeostasis or balance: balance between the whole and the parts; balance between the holistic value of life and individual values of life; balance between consciousness and its expression, the physiology; balance between different qualities of consciousness and their divisions and subdivisions; and balance among all the various expressions of consciousness, the different parts of the physiology. Existing health care systems do not consider health in this way and this is why they ultimately fail to serve their purpose.

The Natural Law Party will make available to the whole population courses in reading their own pulse according to the special principles laid out in Maharishi's Vedic Approach to Health. Through this procedure of self-pulse reading, the individual is able not only to assess accurately the degree of balance in every aspect of the body, but at the same time to contribute a balancing influence from the level of consciousness where the parts are connected to the whole.

Pulse reading provides a unique means for diagnosis of the condition of the whole and its relation to the parts. The quality of the pulse is thus the indicator of the degree of health or ill-health - the degree of balance in the relationship of the whole with the parts.

Pulse reading assesses not only the effects of such factors as diet and behaviour on the physiology, but also the influence of the entire environment, from the immediate environment of the home to the cosmic influence of the planets, stars and galaxies. All these influences contribute to balance or imbalance. The quality of the pulse therefore reflects the extent to which a person is able to live according to the laws of nature that govern consciousness, physiology, and indeed all levels of existence - individual and cosmic.