Politics: Rush Limbaugh’s Hearing Loss

I’m sure that right wing media maven Rush Limbaugh doesn’t know it, and he would be appalled at the suggestion, but he could become a poster child for the New Age. His recent hearing loss is almost a textbook example of how many alternative medical practitioners believe that diseases manifest on a physical level.

According to many schools of holistic medicine, physical diseases rarely begin in the body but are a manifestation of unresolved emotional, mental and spiritual imbalances. A person who has spent a lifetime being inflexible and intolerant, for example, might expect to eventually develop arthritis or other stiffness of the joints. Or a person who never stands-up for themselves might expect to develop back or leg problems. Do you have trouble saying what’s on your mind? Then you might eventually develop problems with your throat.

Many alternative practitioners believe that to effectively treat chronic physical ailments, you must treat both the physical manifestation of the disease as well as the underlying emotional, mental or spiritual cause. Treating the disease alone will only bring about a temporary cure, since the underlying emotional or mental cause is still there and ready to manifest again as a physical ailment. This means that a person who suffers from arthritis might find it necessary to learn to be more open to change and to become more tolerant of other’s lifestyles and choices in order to find permanent relief.

Deepak Chopra, the most visible proponent of the ancient Indian techniques of Ayurvedic medicine, claims that there are five stages of the disease process. All physical diseases, he says, begin in the outer auric, or energy, bodies that surround the physical self, then move down into the physical body. If you can catch and correct an emotional or physical imbalance before it manifests as an actual physical disease, it’s possible to keep the disease from ever developing on a physical level. When a disease finally manifests physically, however, medical intervention becomes necessary. In other words, if you’ve already developed arthritis, you’re not going to be able to make it go away by suddenly becoming more mentally and emotionally flexible – you’re still going to have to take your glucosamine to help the body repair the damage that’s been done.

Which brings us to Rush Limbaugh and his recent bout with deafness.

Limbaugh, in case you don’t know, became something of a phenomena on talk radio a dozen or so years ago, during the administration of Bush the first. To say that he’s a right-winger would be a gross understatement. Indeed, since his program hit the airways he’s become the very definition of intellectual thought on the far right. In his favor, he throws political correctness to the wind, but he often does so in a mean-spirited way, referring to feminists as “femi-nazis” for example. Whenever a hated Democrat makes a speech it won’t matter what’s said, for they will be wrong. Limbaugh, with his infinite wisdom, has decided that before the words are actually spoken.

Last fall, when he announced that he had completely lost his hearing, many of us with an understanding of alternative medical ideas nodded knowingly, for here was a classic example of emotional and/or mental imbalances manifesting as a physical ailment. Of course he lost his hearing! He didn’t need it, for he doesn’t listen to anybody anyway. He already knows the truth, so why should he listen? Even when speaking to “ditto-heads,” the cult of listeners who regard his every word as gospel, he doesn’t listen. If they disagree with him on the smallest point, they are wrong and he attempts to straighten them out. There is never the possibility for him to listen and adjust his thinking.

According to reports, Limbaugh lost complete hearing in his left ear but retained a miniscule amount of hearing in his right. This, too, makes perfect sense, as Limbaugh has never, ever listened to a single word spoken by those on the left, but will sometimes listen a bit to words spoken by those on the right. It was also reported that his hearing loss was caused by his immune system attacking his hearing nerves. Since the immune system can be seen as being part of the “physical unconscious,” it would seem that his unconscious was deciding that he didn’t need his hearing since he wasn’t listening to a word anyone said.

Limbaugh has regained his hearing through the use of coclear implants, sort of artificial ears that convert sound into impulses that the hearing nerves can understand. Evidently, these implants have been highly successful in this case, greatly exceeding his doctor’s expectations. Again, this is not surprising, since Limbaugh has never met a technology he doesn’t like and feels that technology holds the key to cure all of mankind’s ills.

None of this is meant to belittle or demean this tragic loss in Rush Limbaugh’s life. Whether you love him or hate him, this type of tragedy should not be wished on anyone. However, it’s interesting to note how thoroughly his condition matches current alternative medical thought.

©Copyright 2002 by AlternativeApproaches.com