Dr. Mickey Mehta, visionary mentor for holistic health, healing and wellness on serious ailment management.
A very good afternoon, everybody. Who other than my bade bhai, Dr. Mukesh Batra, who I’ve known for 40 years, and I truly consider him a veteran of the business of, I will not say medical science, but health and wellness. He’s been a friend, philosopher and guide always. Thankfully, he’s been a part of my life — and he had no choice but to make me a part of his life! And here we are.
My topic today is serious ailment management. Serious health and management is all about — a quote comes to my mind by poet William Blake.
“We are led to believe a lie
When we see from and not through the eye;
For we are born in the night to perish in the night,
While our souls rest in the beams of light.”
Whatever that means. But the bottom line of this is that most of us sitting here in this room and under the sky live our lives in absolute ignorance.
If you were to see what brings death to humanity — of course, disease brings death. But death and disease both shouldn’t be your destiny. You should have ichcha with you — ichcha jeevan — to breathe your last with a smile and pass away. Transmigrate. Transform. Reform. But not die of diseases and pins and needles on hospital beds, being helpless, with nurses supporting you. Is that the way you want to end? No.
The choice is ours.
Death typically comes with the forces of entropy. As physics says, the universal law of orderliness breaks into disorderliness with time — matter, space, light, motion, mass, causation, effect, and gravity. Now, that can be countered by the eight limbs of yoga: Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi — whatever they mean. I can tell you later. But they neutralise your kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, maya, matsara — so that desire, anger, greed, delusion, pride, illusion, and envy, that entire slot. And literally, what gets annihilated is avidya, asmita, raga, dvesha, abhinivesha.
Now I’m going to put all that behind — it was important to impress you because this is the Rotary Club of Bombay. And this is my third time here.
Having started the business of fitness and health 45 years ago, I pioneered the scene of holistic health. The word “holistic” existed in the thesaurus, but I put the “health” suffix to it. And worldwide, people did carry on the lingo.
I started writing literally 40 years ago in newspapers. Today, I’ve written seven books — and thankfully, many more to come.
Now, we never grow old. When we stop growing, we become old. We shouldn’t become old. Every disease is born out of ignorance and a lack of awareness.
If, at 60, people walk with a little difficulty, we think it’s normal. If, at 70, a little more difficulty, we still feel it’s normal. If, at 80, there is discoordinated movement or behaviour, we feel it’s “natural”. And then you sit in the chair, you don’t get off the chair. You get into the bed. You get bedridden.
Now, that’s not normal.
If at 60, you make sure that your gait is corrected, your spine is aligned, your joints are mobilised, your lungs are empowered with breath — because your five lobes of lungs and your five lobes of the brain correlate, correspond and wire together with your whole body — then obviously, you are going to be independent all your life and never get bound to a chair or a bed.
I’ll show you a few videos, and I’ll expand on the kind of work I do and why nobody should die of disease. Even at 90, we’ve had bedridden people out in three years, walking two to three kilometres a day.
VIDEO
There was a 92-year-old gentleman with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Within six months of good work, we could literally bring it down by 40% and stabilise him. One who could not get out of bed often started moving around twice a day, taking walks in the park. With so many treatments put together, I know of many senior citizens today who literally look after themselves all day — because that should be their business. Once you’re doing nothing, revelling in well-being is the only thing that you should be doing, and you will certainly not die of disease. When many people ask me, “How come, brother? Most of your clients are doing so well and we aren’t?” I tell them:
“Heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained in sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upwards in the night.”
So don’t waste your life. Don’t let it wither away. Don’t say, “This is my destiny. These are my genes.” You can have genes [jeans] of Levi’s, Pepe, Armani, Hugo Boss… But other genes are changing. 95% of your genes are indeterministic. Only 5% of your genes are deterministic. Don’t be a prey to that 5%, because genes hold the gun, and your environment and your choices pull the trigger. So make the right choices. Make noise about good things in life — and there you go!
Now, when people ask me, “What about congenital diseases?” We also work with congenital patients — and those diseases can also be changed. Every child is born with a predetermined genetic disposition, and when scientifically intervened with, we can change the medical metrics of the outcome of the therapies.
I always say: spend your time and invest your money more in therapies, so that you save on hospital ICU beds later.
VIDEO
Independence. Initialise. Special children. Super-specialise mankind. Minimise. And yes, we work with very many such children with special needs. And when doctors say that nothing more is possible, I tell them: the Jo pure hai, woh adhure hai aur jo adhure hai woh jyada pure hai; the potential in them to become more complete than you always remains so hidden. You just have to tap in to the potential of the spirit — and champions are born out of challenges. And extraordinary are those who know there is something within them which is superior to circumstance.
Now, this superiority can come with your discipline of thought, deed, and attitude. And there is one very powerful tool for you to excel in every form of wellness — yoga.
People who go to gym, I ask them a simple thing:
“Is there any exercise for kidneys?”
They say, “No.”
People who do heavyweight training — I ask them:
“Is there any exercise for liver?”
They say, “No.”
People who run a lot and do heavy bodybuilding — I ask them:
“Is there any exercise for gut health, pancreas management?”
They say, “No.”
So I say, “Then why do you go to the gym?”
Do yoga. You will transcend. You will transform. Alchemy will happen.
Your organs will renew themselves.
The science of age renewal is:
- It takes 7 days for your stomach lining to change for you
- 30 days for your skin to change for you
- 90 days for your musculoskeletal structure to change for you
- And in one whole year, you can entirely change yourself anew — provided the dying cell and the birthing cell are simultaneous.
That happens with breath work, movement, yoga, food, dhyana, sadhana, and much more.
So, many people practise medicine here. How many of you have heard something called coherence of your head and your heart? That’s the medicine of the future — which was also the medicine of ancient times.
How many of you have heard about the consonance of your prefrontal cortex?
How many of you have heard about the limbic resonance of your reptilian brain?
How many of you realise that the electrical charges of your brain and the magnetic field of your heart, put together, can manifest anything you want — at the blink of an eyelid?
Nevertheless, life starts from east to west. So, 7 asanas for vanvasa.
Paschimottanasana
As they move and get into paschimottanasana, they will squeeze their stomach. The organs will ooze out all the toxins. The core becomes stronger. And when the core becomes strong, the confidence grows.
When core and confidence improve, the correlation is that your creativity grows. Your digestion, assimilation — everything gets better and lifts up.
And lie down completely, then stretch back. What happens is: oxygen-laden blood, nutrient-laden blood, gets into your core again and all your organs. Your organs stop ageing and renew themselves.
Now, as life moves in front, life moves backwards. So:
Halasana
If you do this, your spine opens up. Your thyroid gland — which is the Vishanti gland — gets squeezed. Your metabolic activity gets regulated. Your organs hang downwards against gravity, so they are relaxed. The strain and stress from the organs is gone.
Maximum blood gush happens with the brain and organs, and we rejuvenate.
The flavour of yoga should burn bright. So:
Sarvangasana.
With this, by the virtue of gravity, all blood goes to the brain and your spine also relaxes. Here, you find a sense of balance.
When you do Sambhavi Mudra, when you put both the eyes right into the pineal gland, that is the time — whatever you think, you decide, you want to — it’s manifested. So your laksha becomes your sankalpa, your siddhi, your sakshi bal gets improved upon.
Now we will do:
Chakrasana (Bridge Pose)
Yoga is also about congruency of your geometry with the sacred geometry of the cosmos. So when you become bridge — a typical hypotenuse that goes right down to the gravity and up — your spine gets trending, your abdomen gets lengthened, your diaphragm opens up (which otherwise is always constricted).
The five lobes of your lungs empty the carbon dioxide, and you can fill them up again — so that you don’t age, you don’t pant, and your cardiovascular fitness also improves.
Dhanurasana (Bow Pose)
And on the pinpoint surface of the stomach to balance is equanimity, equilibrium, and homeostasis of the stomach. And this is when you become resilient, tenacious in your joints, your bones, your spine.
Now, we all heard that yoga is about oneness with yourself. So we’ll turn around and do:
Karnapidasana
In this oneness with yourself, you create a reservoir of energy and you create a perfectly synchronised, coordinated psycho-neurophysiology — bio-muscular equilibrium.
Come on, get into Karnapidasana.
This is becoming one with yourself.
Your ENT becomes very sharp.
You would never get Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson’s — and if you have it, we will correct it.
Lastly, become a snake:
Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose)
Now humans came from the Pashu Varg, and above Pashu Varg is the Purush Varg. But in between, they are humans.
So when we were on all fours, our left and right brain worked differently. But when we came back up on our toes and our spine became straight, the left-right synchronicity of brain functions happened. And humans created.
Then, they went to the moon. They created the wheel. They came up with the Sūnya, the decimal. And everything else — including quantum physics.
So like a cobra, with spine straight — be bright, but don’t bite.
This reflects responsiveness and alertness. Stretching the stomach, contraction in the spine — this is one of the perfect anti-ageing exercises.
So yoga, to look at, might seem very boring. But to do it — it is extremely dynamic.
It can make superhumans. The story today is that Olympians are being trained in yoga. Olympians are being trained in meditation.
I went to a military camp and trained the sharpshooters there — and we got gold medals only because they practised meditation, breath work, and they could align with the target better.
Now, what do we do with people who are almost dying? It started in my own home, 22–23 years ago. My mother was dying of grade 4 cancer, and I was only into fitness until then.
Thereafter, with that experience, I got into serious healing management.
VIDEO
Champions are born out of challenges, and this is the story of once a champion — my mother, Katie Mehta, 88 today.
Eighteen years ago, she was detected with cancer in her stomach — a huge tumour that needed to be brought out a few weeks down the line. I was advised that she needed chemotherapy and radiation. The doctor said, “With or without chemo, she may not survive for more than six months because it’s cancer.”
But I said — no chemo, no radiation. Because I knew that, at the age of 70, eighteen years back, for her to have taken such harsh chemo and radiation would have been very dangerous. So we started simple treatments at home: Consumption of herbs, prayers, meditation, yoga, breathing, wheeling around in the sun, and embracing nature.
It’s been eighteen years now — she does yoga every day.
What happened exactly a year and a quarter back: she had a fall. She broke her right hip. The orthopaedic surgeon said, “She may not walk.”
We said, “Do the surgery nevertheless.”
After the surgery, of course, she was bedridden for quite some time. But we started physiotherapy, yoga twice a day, breathing, meditation, prayers, vegetarian diet, and lots of sunshine. And now — she walks again. This is the story of the champion. When doctors say “not possible,” don’t give up — because the human spirit can triumph against all odds.
Remember:
Yoga, meditation, and naturopathy can make a dead man walk—and a dumb man talk.
Now, we don’t work against medical science — we work with medical science. We never encourage anyone to stop their treatments. We work alongside them. And today, you’ll be glad to know that I have partnered with Jaslok Hospital officially as their Holistic Health Partner, and the first clinic is opening at Jaslok CCI, which is happening in two to three weeks. We’ve also been running a centre at Tata Memorial Hospital for almost seven years. We’ve looked after the nurses of Breach Candy Hospital and have been doing this kind of work. All you need for this is: faith. And the religion of tomorrow is optimism.
Do you know that when George Bush wanted to go to the Gulf War, they invited Colin Powell, right? Colin Powell was the leader of the Allied disciplines.
They asked him: “What do you think? Do you think we can win this war?”
And he said something very simple:
“Spare me the litany of the realist, and give me the optimism of the unrealist any time — and I will win this war for you.”
So we don’t need intellectualising fools — debating, discussing everything. We need heartfelt people — people full of lion’s strength, a vision of an eagle, and faith that can move mountains. With that, ladies and gentlemen — literally any case which is most challenging can be turned around to a great extent. Because remember — till the time a person is breathing, there’s an opportunity for life to extend.
Thankfully, with divine grace, I’ve been blessed. There was one patient — airlifted from Orissa and brought to Medanta. Doctors had given up hope in Orissa, but the wife didn’t give up. She called me — she had heard about me. She called, told me everything. I told the wife, “This Medanta team may not allow me to do anything, but you tell the physical department and your doctors to do this and this.
And you go inside and talk to him. Abuse him! Say:
‘You idiot, don’t you have any shame? You’re leaving me and going?
What about all the plans we made? Let’s go out for honeymoon again.
Our children are waiting outside. Come out!
I want to meet you — we want to be together as a family!’”
Trust me — within seven days, he opened his eyes. He is now back in Bhubaneswar, walking around completely well and fine. There are a couple of other cases also — who were completely ruined, almost dead. Thankfully, we got them back.
So — don’t give up when doctors say no. Say YES.
Instead of just giving them medicines, give them your time, your love, your optimism, your faith. Repurpose their lives. When you repurpose their lives, the reason for the perpetuity of the breath gets established. The flow and the rhythm. All they need is just a trigger point. And those triggers are in emotions. In emotions, there is enthusiasm. With emotion and enthusiasm, there is energy rise. And with that, your endocrine begins to behave better. Your life force gets established.
Well, now — this August, I’m going to be 64. But I still think my biology is that of 36 — because I’m 63 till now! My physiology is that of 36. My anatomy is that of 36. And now — I would like to show off a little bit. One minute — what I can do or what I do.
This is how I’m super fit, super sexy. Creative workouts — don’t just lift weights.
Lift your body, your mind, and your spirit too. Buildings are built. Humans are cultured, polished, sharpened. Believe.
Don’t be mean. Plug out from the machine. Plug into your heart. Go green.
Each HI workout is so HI! HI stands for Human Intelligence workouts — when done creatively, they make you super-conscious. Routines are for animals and machines. Creative consciousness can transform, transfigure, transcend into dimensions. Workouts should move from activity to passivity. Oscillate. Find your centre. Be balanced. Get anchored. Don’t count your steps. Don’t count your reps.
Don’t overdo. Don’t push yourself.
Workouts should be a celebration, never a punishment.
So whether you’re 16 or 60-plus — you can always remain sexy. Refine your body, refine your mind, refine your spirit. The martial artist in me is still alive. Be subservient to yourself. Once your body obeys, your mind will. Once your mind obeys, your spirit will. Super fitness specialised at 60-plus? Get Mickey-mised.
So the point I want to drive home is: never resign to the idea that “this is my destiny.” No — we are the co-creators of our own destiny. Only human consciousness can rise above gods or fall below animals. Remember that. And typically, we are on the bridge — the cusp — of neither divinity (Purusharth) nor the animal class (Pashutva).
Sound bath – exercise
It is sound that can transform the landscape of your attitude, your mindset, your behavioural patterns. It can disrupt your personality — and change it for the better. Soak yourself into this sound — and you will see the synchronisation of your head, your heart, your musculoskeletal structure. Your synaptic connections will grow. Your neural firing will become sharper.
Relax. Get yourself absorbed in the healing sounds.
The vibratory moments of the sounds have neural correlates for activating your hormones. Your autonomic nervous system. Your brainwaves get balanced and perfect. The confluence of both energies — Yin and Yang — get into a perfect equilibrium. That reverberation is transforming. That reverberation is the transformation state.
Every cell in your body responds to sound. We all vibrate at various frequencies — so does our head, so does our heart, and so does our entire being. Stilling. Silencing. Calming. This reorganises, reorients, and resets it all.
Harmony harmonises. Hormones respond to harmony. Now, very slowly, seed any desire you have in your heart — deep into your subconscious. Collective subconscious. Cosmic subconscious.
All desires will manifest.
Leave them on the banks of time. Seat them with your heart and your head. And in time to come, they will grow into fragrant gardens, sweet orchards, enchanting forests. And whatever else you want in life.
Let me introduce my two ladies to you.
That’s Deepa. She’s doing her MSc in Therapeutic Yoga for Disease Management. She’s one of my star coaches — she heads the team of almost 20 coaches. We do home-to-home. We have teams in other cities also. Bindu is also part of my team. She’s also a Yogini. Thank you very much, girls.
So, my signature last lines are: The Ten Commandments of Wellness
Commandment #1
Let wellness be the religion number one — because religions divide, wellness unites.
Commandment #2
Join Dr Mickey Mehta’s Wellness Revolution — for human evolution, and not just for “how to lose weight from here and here and here.”
Commandment #3
Which is the best exercise for strong biceps? Uplift the poor. (Rotarians believe in that.)
Commandment #4
The best exercise for strong shoulders is: Take responsibility for the underprivileged.
Commandment #5
The best exercise for strong legs is: Be rooted in humility — to be better rooted in humanity.
Commandment #6
Sleep every night with a wish to heal yourself.
Wake up every morning with a promise to heal the world.
And then you will:
● Energise.
● Maximise.
● Optimise.
● Naturalise.
● Internalise.
● Revolutionise.
● Revitalise.
● Regularise.
● Humanis
With Rotary Club of Bombay, everyone gets mesmerised. With Dr Mukesh “Bruce Lee” Mehta — we get hypnotised. And all get Mickey-mised.