Herbs
Curative herbs with medicinal effects can be used[edit]
"Regarding the use of traditional curative herbs, any herb known to have medicinal effects can surely be used by the friends, and those administering such medicaments should be left entirely free to carry out their profession. However, it must be borne in mind that this is different from traditional fetishist practices which involve communication with departed spirits."
- (On behalf of the Universal House of Justice to a National Spiritual Assembly, 23 December 1991, in Cultural Diversity in the Age of Maturity, no. 229)
If medicine is necessary, use a single herb if possible[edit]
"Treat disease first of all through diet, and refrain from medicine. If you can find what you need for healing in a single herb do not use a compound medicine. Leave off medicine when the health is good, and use it in case of necessity."
Animals know by their sense of smell to find agreeable herbs which replenish their body's decreased constituents[edit]
Observe how an animal will graze in a field where there are a hundred thousand kinds of herbs and grasses, and how, with its sense of smell, it snuffeth up the odours of the plants, and tasteth them with its sense of taste; then it consumeth whatever herb is pleasurable to these senses, and benefiteth therefrom. Were it not for this power of selectivity, the animals would all be dead in a single day; for there are a great many poisonous plants, and animals know nothing of the pharmacopoeia. And yet, observe what a reliable set of scales they have, by means of which to differentiate the good from the injurious. Whatever constituent of their body hath decreased, they can rehabilitate by seeking out and consuming some plant that hath an abundant store of that diminished element; and thus the equilibrium of their bodily components is re-established, and they are rid of their disease.
- ('Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, sec. 134, p. 155-156)
