18
New Leadership for California
"As Governor I would make a fundamental shift from a costly crisis management approach to a cost-effective, prevention-oriented government. Our dollars would be invested in developing the health and creative genius of each one of our citizens using scientifically proven solutions." - Harold H. Bloomfield, M.D. Natural Law Party candidate for Governor of California
Dr. Harold Bloomfield figured he had a genuine reason not to run for Governor of California in 1998: time-or rather, a shortage of it. The much-in-demand psychiatrist, author, and lecturer was putting the finishing touches on his sixteenth book, Healing Anxiety with Herbs-Featuring a Natural Self-Healing Program to Relieve Stress, Promote Health, and Maximize Performance. He will then crisscross America on a book tour that will take him to over a dozen cities in two months. He has a packed schedule of speaking engagements around the world not related to the book launch. And he has a busy private psychiatric medicine practice in Del Mar, California, 20 miles north of San Diego. How would he find the time to run an aggressive campaign?
So when John Hagelin broached the subject to him during a meeting at his home in late January, he was all ready to say, "Thank you very much for the offer, but no thank you-not this time." Instead, given a day to think it over, he said, "Yes, absolutely."
Dr. Bloomfield will make an excellent candidate. He is a Yale-trained psychiatrist, a leader in the fields of integrative psychiatry and natural medicine, respected and trusted for his common- sense, down-to-earth, forward-looking views on life, relationships, and health care. His recent bestseller, Hypericum (St. John's Wort) & Depression, put him in the national spotlight for the umpteenth time. He was featured on 20/20, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, as well as in Time, Newsweek, New York Times, People, and USA Today. He has also appeared on Oprah, Larry King, and ABC News.
Dr. Bloomfield has been a prolific author. His books have sold more than six and a half million copies, have been translated into 26 languages, and include How to Survive the Loss of A Love, How to Heal Depression, The Holistic Way to Health and Happiness, Making Peace with Your Parents, and Making Peace with Yourself.
Dr. Bloomfield, 53, is wearing baggy blue shorts and a baggy color-splashed Hawaiian shirt when he greets me with a huge smile at the side gate to his house, which sits up on a gentle hillside a long stone's throw from the Pacific Ocean, in Del Mar. He gives me a bear hug. I am not singled out. This is how he greets everyone. He has been called "the psychiatrist everyone trusts"-and it's easy to see why. He is a genuinely warm, wise, happy, easy-going person. He has a beautiful home, but not in the slightest ostentatious. I get a quick tour of the premises. This is a family with fine taste, I think, but California casual is the byword. His wife, Sirah, a therapist herself, is out of town, his 14-year-old daughter, Shazara, has yet to awaken. We settle into separate sofas in his living room. It is a gorgeous sunny January day, but a bit brisk for my tastes. Dr. Bloomfield is comfortable in his summer attire; I am muffling a shiver in my long pants and sweater.
Time is short; he has a patient in 45 minutes. So I plunge in with the questions. Why did he decide to run for Governor with the Natural Law Party?
"I was extremely impressed with this independent, fresh voice in politics-a voice that was talking about, first and foremost, prevention programs and natural medicines. We all know that 'an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.' And that's how I read the Natural Law Party platform in every area. So when I looked at what the Natural Law Party stood for, and I found that it resonated with the deepest levels of my own experience, I knew I had to run. I like the idea of people listening to new ideas. People can agree, they can disagree, but the point is that we have a dialogue."
Why not just run as a Republican or a Democrat? I ask. The structure is already there, the system is in place.
"Sclerosis," Dr. Bloomfield says, smiling. "There's so much structure in the Democratic and Republican parties that there has been a tendency for sclerosis to set in. Sclerosis in medicine means 'hardening,' as in arteriosclerosis, which is hardening of the arteries. There has been a codifying and rigidifying of the Republican and Democratic parties that often does not make room for new ideas and new solutions, and this creates frustration among voters. What I like about the Natural Law Party is that it's 'highest first.' It focuses first and foremost on prevention, which is in clear contrast to the crisis management approach of the Republicans and Democrats. The Natural Law Party has the fresh creative energy, freedom, and determination to bring reliable new programs and solutions to create a better world."
I describe to Dr. Bloomfield the book that I am writing. I say that one of my hopes is to awaken voters from a false sense of security that all is well under the leadership of the two main parties. Because the economy is strong, inflation is down, and crime is starting to go down, everyone thinks that everything is fine. So why bother about politics, why bother about what goes on in Washington or our state capitals? I point out that because of the unholy alliance between big business and government, there are dangerous precedents being set in our agricultural policies, health care policies, energy policies, and foreign policies that bode ill for generations to come. So my conclusion is "We better wake up. We better care."
Dr. Bloomfield nods and agrees with me that such an approach is necessary to awaken many people from a slumber, but he likes the Natural Law Party's other tactic as well, one which emphasizes unfolding and actualizing our full potential.
"What I like about this party is that it not only uses sharp words, when appropriate, to get a point across, such as the potential dangers of genetic engineered foods, but it also takes an approach that is unique in politics-and that is a positive one. The Natural Law Party says, 'Look what we can be.' That's what I resonate with most strongly. It's that fresh, "Let's step back from the chaos and rigidity of life as it has been in the past, and let's take a look at what realistically we can be. Let's find ways of educating ourselves and our children to grow up to be healthy, creative, sharing, cooperative human beings. I am convinced this will bring the second American revolution, but this time it will be creative evolution, not revolution."
Dr. Bloomfield turns the discussion back to his area of expertise, health, a theme that surfaces regularly among Natural Law Party candidates, and one that is a metaphor for every area of society.
"We spend 98% of our almost one trillion dollars annually in the United States on what is called health care, but it is really disease care," he says, echoing Barry Charles' words. "And half of that amount is spent on end-stage illness-on extending the lives of people by few months or a year at best. We only spend two percent of that trillion dollars on anything that can be called health education or teaching people preventative skills. Our health care system has to shift its emphasis to prevention, otherwise we will be buried in illness and bankrupted by health costs."
Now he focuses in on emotional health, an area he believes is clearly not being properly addressed by the current health care system.
"We have seen in our lifetime epidemic levels of anxiety, depression, insomnia, and stress. Over 60 million people suffer from anxiety-30 million of them have anxiety disorders, which is severe anxiety, and the other 30 million have persistent symptoms of mild to moderate anxiety. It's not severe, but it still gets in the way of living life. Another 70 million Americans suffer from insomnia on a regular basis, which interferes with their work life, causing them to make more mistakes and have more car accidents. Seventeen million Americans suffer from depressive illnesses and another 15 or 16 million have what we call minor depression.
"Despite the fact that so many millions of people suffer from anxiety and depression, fewer than 25% receive adequate help. This means that tens of millions of people continue to suffer unnecessarily, and that creates a tremendous burden in society as well. We are also seeing an increase in stress-related disorders. According to a 1997 Gallup Poll, as much as 25% of our U.S. workforce suffers from chronic stress, which is estimated to cost U.S. business sixty to seventy-five billion dollars a year. Stress is excessive wear and tear on the mind and body, and it takes its toll both in the short-term and over a 20- or 30-year period. Depending on where the weak spot is in your psychophysiological makeup, that's where disease and disorder show up. For example, if you have a genetic vulnerability to depression, and you are under severe stress, there is a higher chance of you developing depressive illness."
Dr. Bloomfield says health care needs to look at new ways to strengthen the individual.
"If we teach people cost-effective strategies to promote health and reduce stress then individuals can avoid these vulnerabilities and, more importantly, develop a strong nervous system that allows them to unfold their full potential," he says. "The more individuals in a society are living up to their full potential, the less vulnerable we are going to be to problems, both individually and in society as a whole."
I ask Dr. Bloomfield, a psychiatrist, his opinion about research on group meditation positively influencing society. He says that it's a matter of perspective.
"If you come from the old paradigm which is, 'I am not a part of nature, I am an individual, and I don't pay attention to nature,' then the whole idea would sound ridiculous, because how can other individuals influence you? If, however, you come from the emerging new paradigm, not only in physics but also in social psychology, then it makes perfectly good sense. And that paradigm is that our individuality, on one level, is an illusion. That in truth we are part of a whole, and even though we're not attached skin to skin, each of us are members of a larger social being, a larger collective consciousness. So the greater number of individuals who are, as if, a conduit for that level of pure consciousness-that wholeness that underlies all individuality-the greater will be that positive influence on all the individual members in society."
I'm interested in Dr. Bloomfield's vision of California under his leadership. Pick a few areas, I say, and comment.
"As Governor I want to make a fundamental shift in where we place our emphasis in government. For example, we should have the best prenatal care in the world, where any pregnancy is protected and provided for. We must provide Head-Start programs-with private sector support-that ensures that every child is raised in an atmosphere of acceptance and nurturance. When that child goes to school, we want to make sure that we have the best public school system possible, where kids love to go to school because they are creative and inspiring places to go. And there should be great extracurricular activities that help each individual develop his or her full potential.
"In health care, as I said, the first order of business will be primary prevention.
I would reverse priorities so that our health care system profits when it keeps people well-so that the less medical care people need the more profitable the system becomes.
"I would build more emphasis on developing the creativity of our citizens. We can foster more think-tanks to look at scientific solutions to specific problems, such as drug abuse, for example. What is it that we can teach those of our citizenry who have looked for pleasure in all the wrong places? What kind of programs really work? As a physician working in government, I would come back to John Dewey's definition of science, which is 'a systematic means of gaining reliable knowledge.' That means we have to transcend bipartisan or multipartisan politics, and take a look at what are the programs that can really make a difference in promoting health and developing creativity and potential.
"I would create committees of independent scientists to conduct research into the best programs for human development. I want the great state of California to lead the way-to have the healthiest, most productive, and most creative people on earth."
I ask him if he sees a sizeable voter base for the Natural Law Party?
"Absolutely. I'm amazed at how rapidly the Natural Law Party has taken root, and the good people the Party is drawing to itself. There are tens of millions of people who, in their personal lives and in their work, support programs the Natural Law Party supports. I think that in the '98 campaign and in the 2000 presidential campaign, we are going to see these people coming to the Natural Law Party. Then the party will move away from a 'Gee, isn't that interesting, isn't that nice' response from the press and public, and be taken seriously as a platform for the people who want to see a healthier, more prevention-oriented approach to government. This is exactly what we need for the twenty-first century."
It's time to wrap up the interview. We part company on a cautionary note, with Dr. Bloomfield saying that in order to have an impact on the political system we have to get big money out of politics.
"Corporations have been allowed to buy up the two main parties through lobbying efforts and other fundraising schemes. We are in danger of creating a Disneyland-like political landscape where the really crucial ideas for creating a new society-natural medicines, renewable energy, organic agriculture, and real educational reform-never see the light of day because of the old entrenched ways of doing things. We have to get away from the idea that we only have two choices at the polls, which, in reality, is one choice with a little variation. We need to support new parties as a way of reawakening democracy."