Julie: How is this Ayurveda?

Dr. Simon: I have this basic assumption that if we are suffering, it is because there is some retained undigested experience. That’s what ama is. It's not just, I ate a double cheeseburger and I'm now feeling indigestion. There is something else that is not completely digested. So I feel that it is our responsibility as healers to help a person identify what is undigested, to loosen it from the system, to bring it into circulation, to help eliminate it and then to replace it with something that is rejuvenative.

Julie: The Chopra Center, you, as Medical Director, actively acknowledge the spiritual aspects in healing, do you not?

Dr. Simon: When somebody is going through a challenge they start to forget the fact that their central nature is one of wholeness and holiness and forgetting this is what causes all the pain. All we have to do is remind people that this too will pass and that your central nature is unborn and undying and unbounded infinite and eternal. Then whatever the issue is in their face right now goes back into its normal proportion.

Julie: Can the massive, violent fires occurring in Southern California be explained from an Ayurvedic perspective?

Dr. Simon: The reason that forest fires are in Southern California is a perfect example of not enough kapha - there wasn't a soothing, nourishing, lubricating effect. All the dryness ended up inhibiting the natural flow of ojas so all the trees are vulnerable and all the bark and needles. Then there is a little spark of fire with vata blowing it so the whole thing gets combusted. Now, suddenly all that kapha that was retained in the trees, is in the air and so everyone breathing is getting kapha imbalance in their system. And ultimately what happens, is nature now has to come back with kapha, cool off the fire, ground the vata and reestablish the balance. So everything can be seen in those terms.

Julie: What are allergies?

Dr. Simon: Allergies go back to core immune confusion because what happens when there is a lot of chaos is there is question as to who is friend and who is not. That is often what chaos is. The safety that you felt is no longer present. So there tends to be either over- reactivity or under- reactivity of the immune system. An analogy is that we have troops in Iraq right now and they are obviously nervous. If a disturbance is heard they may over react and fire their machine guns. It may turn out it was just a cat in the garbage cans. That is the same as an allergy and so it's really vata driving pitta to respond aggressively. On the other hand, having gone over in that direction to fight the cat, they left open their flank and some enemy came into the flank and attacked them. That is cancer. Their immune system was diverted and it wasn’t paying attention. It was over reacting when it didn't need to and therefore it left itself vulnerable.

Julie: Can you talk about western pharmaceuticals?

Dr. Simon: The problem with all of our medicines is that they are too good at eliminating symptoms. We can control depression with Prozac. We can put you to sleep with Ambien or Resteril; but it doesn't deal with why are you not falling asleep at night. Gandhi lamented that the problem with western medicine is that it is too effective and it doesn’t compel people - either doctors or patients - to look to the underlying cause. Charaka defines a quack as a doctor who treats the symptoms of disease without looking to the underlying origins of the disease.