The Cause of Bacterial Colitis
Recently, a post circulated on Instagram about a local surfer who was diagnosed with bacterial colitis after spending time in the ocean. The story quickly gained traction, and soon the blame was placed squarely on the water — citing pollution, bacteria, and environmental conditions as the cause.
But let’s pause for a moment.
There were many surfers, swimmers, and fishermen in the water that day. Why did only one person fall ill?
From the lens of GHK, this isn’t just an epidemiological mystery — it’s a fundamental misunderstanding of how the body truly works.
Beyond Germs: What Actually Causes Bacterial Colitis?
According to GHK, diseases don’t begin with bacteria, viruses, or toxins. They begin with a conflict shock — a highly stressful, isolating event that catches the person off guard. In the case of bacterial colitis, this conflict is known as an "indigestible anger conflict."
This type of conflict involves:
Something emotionally hard to digest — like a betrayal, a sudden unfair situation, or a moral outrage.
A sense of isolation, meaning the person felt alone in the experience or couldn’t talk about it.
A feeling of disgust, anger, or revulsion, metaphorically experienced in the same way we’d say, "I can’t stomach this."
This conflict doesn’t need to be dramatic from the outside — it only matters how the person experiences it internally.
Two Phases of Disease: The Conflict and the Healing
GHK outlines a two-phase model for all disease:
Conflict-Active Phase:
The moment the shock occurs, specific tissues in the colon begin to ulcerate.
There are typically no symptoms, though the person may feel stressed, cold, anxious, or have trouble sleeping.
Healing Phase (What We Call “Sickness”):
Once the conflict is resolved — consciously or unconsciously — the body begins to repair.
This healing process involves inflammation, swelling, and the activity of bacteria such as E. coli.
These bacteria are not “invaders” — they are helpers tasked with rebuilding tissue.
In short: the presence of bacteria during bacterial colitis is not the cause of the disease — it's a sign of healing already underway.
So Why Did Only One Surfer Get Sick?
This is the key question. If the ocean were truly the cause, wouldn’t we see a widespread outbreak?
But instead, only one person developed bacterial colitis. From the GHK perspective, this tells us that:
Only that person experienced an internal conflict that matched the pattern of "indigestible anger."
The water may have symbolically represented something else — a reminder, a trigger, or the setting in which an emotional conflict was processed.
Or the timing was simply right: the healing phase began after a conflict was resolved, and the body used the bacteria (already present or introduced) as part of the repair.
The rest of the surfers? No conflict, no biological program. Same waves, different perception.
Reframing Our Understanding of Health
We’ve been taught to fear symptoms, to fight bacteria, and to look outside ourselves for the cause of illness.
But Germanic Healing Knowledge flips that script.
It teaches us that:
Symptoms are meaningful — not random, not dangerous, but intelligent responses to unresolved emotional conflicts.
Healing is a process, not something to suppress.
Each body tells a unique story, and healing starts when we listen — not when we blame the environment, the food, or the germs.
A Call to Look Deeper
Instead of blaming nature, what if we asked more curious questions?
What emotional conflicts might this person have recently experienced?
Did they feel disgusted by something in their life?
Did they resolve a long-standing anger right before symptoms began?
Was the ocean merely the backdrop, not the cause?
Understanding bacterial colitis — and all so-called “illness” — from this perspective shifts the focus from fear to empowerment, from victimhood to ownership.
Final Thoughts
This isn’t about denying environmental concerns or pretending water quality doesn’t matter. It’s about context. It’s about understanding that biology responds to perception, not just particles.
As more people awaken to the insights of GHK we may begin to see that our bodies are not broken or under attack — they are responding intelligently to our lived experience.
So next time you hear, “This person got sick because of the water,” ask:
“What was going on in their life at the time?”
The answers may surprise you — and bring you closer to truth than any lab report ever could.
