Medical science and surgical skill have advanced by leaps and bounds, so much so, that what is today known and somewhat grasped is of so vast a nature and so intricate in its scientific and therapeutic aspects that they have given rise to specialists. All this is good, in spite of what cranks and people with a pet method of cure may say, or even those who have no use for the medical profession and prefer some cult or some of the newer approaches to the problem of health. 

The reason that these newer approaches exist is that medical science has made such progress that it has now reached the limits of its purely physical area and is now on the verge of advancing into the realm of the intangible and is thus drawn nearer to the world of causes. 

There are latent causes of disease (tuberculosis, syphilis, and cancer) inherent in the individual man, in humanity as a whole, and also in our planet.1 For ages individuals with such diseases have been buried in the earth. As a result, the soil has been contaminated. There are other reasons also, besides the contamination of the earth. 

When the psychological basis of disease can be realized and its factual nature is admitted by the orthodox physician, the surgeon, the psychologist and the priest, then all will work together in this developing area of understanding, and what is today called "preventive medicine" will come into its own. 

In spite of mistakes, faulty diagnosis and much error, humanity cannot do without its doctors, its surgeons and its hospitals. They will be needed for centuries to come. Humanity cannot be brought into a condition of perfect physical health immediately, though correct psychological training from infancy will do much in the course of a few decades. Modern medicine must become far more open-minded, more ready to endorse (after due professional proof) that which is new, which is in the nature of innovation and which is unusual. The barriers erected by specialized medicine must come down, and the new schools must be sought, instructed and investigated, and finally be included in the orthodox ranks. The new schools, such as those concerned with electro-therapy, the dieticians who claim to cure all diseases through right foods, and the rather eccentric naturopaths, plus many other cults and schools, must not be so arrogantly sure that they have the whole story, that their approach is the only one or that they have a universal cure -all which is unique and definitely sure. 

The psychological effects of war will greatly hasten the recognition of the psychological basis for disease and other troubles. Modern medicine faces its major opportunity in breaking down the barriers to the new schools of healing.

A combination of true medical science (as produced by man down the ages under the inspiration of his divine nature), of the newer aspects of treatment as formulated by the many emerging schools of thought, of practice and experiment, the recognition of the energies which condition man, working through the seven centers in his vital body, and of the astrological influences which equally condition him, via the inner man, will eventually produce the new medical approach which will keep man in good health, which will arrest disease in its earliest stages and which will finally inaugurate that cycle in human affairs wherein disease and ill health will be exceptions and not the rule, as is the case today, and wherein death will be regarded as a happy and destined release and not, as is the case today, a dreaded enemy.

It is a fortunate thing that cremation is becoming increasingly the rule.2 Before so very long, burial in the ground will be against the law and cremation will be enforced, and this is a health and sanitation measure. Those unhealthy, psychic spots, called cemeteries, will eventually disappear, just as ancestor worship is passing out, both in the Orient--with its ancestor cults--and in the Occident--with its equally foolish cult of hereditary position. 

By the use of fire, all forms are dissolved. The quicker the human physical vehicle is destroyed, the quicker is its hold upon the withdrawing soul broken. A great deal of nonsense has been told in current theosophical literature about the time equation in relation to the sequential destruction of the subtle bodies. It should be stated, however, that the moment that true death is scientifically established (by the orthodox doctor in charge of the case), and it has been ascertained that no spark of life remains in the physical body, cremation is then possible. This true death eventuates when the thread of consciousness and the thread of life area completely withdrawn from the head and the heart. At the same time, reverence and an unhurried attitude have their rightful place in the process. 

The claim that the etheric body must not be rushed into the cremating flames for a stated period of several days, have also no true basis at all. There is no etheric need for delay. When the inner man withdraws from his physical vehicle he withdraws simultaneously from the etheric body. It is true that the etheric body is apt to linger for a long time on the "field of emanation" when the physical body is interred, and it will frequently persist until complete disintegration of the dense body has taken place. The process of mummifying, as practiced in Egypt, and of embalming, as practiced in the West, have been responsible for the perpetuation of the etheric body, sometimes for centuries. This is particularly the case when the mummy or embalmed person was of an evil character during life. The hovering etheric body is then often "possessed" by an evil entity or evil force. This is the cause of the attacks and disasters which often dog the steps of those who discover ancient tombs and their inhabitants, ancient mummies, and bring them and their possessions to light. Where cremation is the rule, there is not only the immediate destruction of the physical body and its restitution to the fount of substance, but the vital body is also promptly dissolved and its forces swept away by the current of flame into the reservoir of vital energies. Of that reservoir it has ever been an inherent part, either in form or in a formless condition. After death and cremation, these forces still exist but are absorbed into the analogous whole. If delay is necessary from family feeling, cremation should follow death within 36 hours. Where no reason for delay exists, cremation can be rightly permitted in 12 hours. it is wise, however, to wait 12 hours in order to ensure true death.