Imagine a massive elephant standing in the middle of your living room. Everyone tiptoes around it, pretending it’s not there, focusing instead on the scratches it’s left on the floor or the dust it’s kicked up. You could spend hours polishing the floors or wiping down surfaces, but until you address the elephant itself—why it’s there and how to gently guide it out—the mess will keep piling up.
This, in essence, is the perspective of German New Medicine (GNM) when it comes to health and healing. According to GNM (the Biological Laws, GHK), symptoms are not random malfunctions to be scrubbed away with drugs or surgery; they’re signals of a deeper conflict, and the only lasting cure lies in resolving the root cause—found not in a pill bottle, but in life itself.
The Biological Laws of Nature, discovered by Dr. Ryke Geerd Hamer in the late 20th century, uncover the truth of how our bodies work and how symptoms and disease manifest in a framework that ties physical symptoms directly to biological conflicts, proposing that every disease begins with a “conflict shock”—an unexpected, distressing event that catches us off guard and registers in both the psyche and the body. This isn’t just stress in the vague, everyday sense; it’s a specific, acute moment of overwhelm, like losing a loved one, facing betrayal, or experiencing a threat to survival. When this happens, the brain triggers a biological response in a corresponding organ or system, launching a “meaningful special biological program” to help us adapt to the crisis. The symptoms we later notice—be it a rash, a tumour, or chronic pain—are part of this process, either aiding survival during the conflict or repairing the body once it’s resolved.
Here’s where the elephant comes in:
Conventional and alternative medicine often fixates on the scratches and dust—the symptoms—without ever looking up at the actual hulking cause, maybe even mistaking a cause as an external influence. A cough might be treated with syrup or tincture, a tumour with radiation, high dose supplement or other natural substance, but if the underlying conflict remains unaddressed, the body stays stuck in its biological program.
The cough might quiet down temporarily, or the tumour might shrink, but the elephant hasn’t moved.
Sooner or later, the mess returns, perhaps in a different form, because the real issue—the conflict shock—was never escorted out the door.
Take, for example, a woman who develops breast cancer after discovering her partner’s infidelity. In GNM, this might be traced to a “nest conflict”—a deep, instinctual wound tied to her sense of home and security. The body responds by altering breast tissue, in evolutionary terms to biologically “protect” those in her nest by increasing milk production to nurture her flock in times of distress. Traditional treatments might remove the tumor, but if she’s still grappling with the betrayal—reliving the shock every time she sees her partner or feels that trust fracture—the conflict persists.
The elephant stomps around unchecked, and the body, sensing the threat hasn’t lifted, may keep signaling distress.
Healing, in GNM’s view, comes not from the scalpel or bottle, but from life’s circumstances: resolving the emotional wound, whether through confrontation, forgiveness, walking away or even changing life’s circumstances.
This isn’t to say the process is simple or that every symptom has an obvious trigger. Conflicts can be subtle, layered, or even tied to events we’ve buried. A child with eczema might be reacting to a separation conflict—feeling “torn away” from a parent during a divorce—while a man with digestive issues could be holding onto an “indigestible anger” from a workplace humiliation. The symptoms are the body’s way of speaking, and GNM insists we listen rather than silence it. Covering them up with medication might muffle the message, but it doesn’t change the story.
“I’ve tried everything and nothing has helped”
“Everything” most often means “everything that others have suggested who don’t know of the Biological Laws and that the cause is actually a shock that has occured” – thereby also ignoring the Elephant – or more accurately, not recognising the Elephant as they don’t even know what an Elephant is.
The cure lies in facing the Elephant: identifying the conflict, understanding its impact, and finding a way to resolve it in the real world.
Critics might argue this sounds too neat, too psychological for the messy reality of biology. And GNM doesn’t deny the physical. After all, Dr Hamer mapped specific brain regions to organs, showing how conflict shocks leave measurable marks in both. But where mainstream medicine sees disease as an enemy to battle, GNM sees it as a partner in survival, a response with purpose. The catch? That purpose only completes its cycle when the conflict lifts. Until then, treating symptoms alone is like mopping the floor during a rainstorm with the windows wide open.
So, how do you heal?
You don’t “fight” the disease; you investigate the elephant. What shocked you? What’s unresolved? Sometimes it’s practical—a job change, a conversation, a boundary set. Sometimes it’s internal—reframing a past trauma or letting go of guilt.
The cure isn’t a prescription; it’s a shift in life’s circumstances that tells your body, “The danger’s passed.” Only then, can the biological program wind down, the symptoms fade, and the room clear.
Anything less—pills, procedures, quick fixes—ignores the elephant in the room. You might tidy up the edges, but the source of the chaos remains.
German New Medicine challenges us to stop tiptoeing and start asking: What’s really standing in my living room, and how do I help it find the door? The answer, it turns out, isn’t in a doctor’s office but in the raw, unpredictable terrain of life itself.