A belief is simply a
feeling of certainty about something. However, once accepted, our beliefs
become unquestioned commands to our nervous systems, and they have the power to
expand or impair the possibilities for our present and future health and
healing.
What
bearing does this have on health?
Well, we all hold thousands
of beliefs about whom and what we are, and about the situation we find
ourselves in. Many of these however are
false or limiting beliefs and have the effect of cutting off options and
possibilities from our life. You now
understand that whatever we hold to be true is true to us. Unfortunately, many people focus on a
particular situation or illness and believe that things will never change
(chronic condition). So long as this
(often subconscious) belief is held, there is a much reduced chance of that
person getting any better. Our chronic health problems often become embedded in our personality, becoming part of who we are, subconsciously making them hard
to let go of.
Scientists now concur
that there is a very strong mind-body link, and that we would be in total
control of our own health if we were able to use that link fully. If the mind-body link did not have such a
powerful influence, then medical trials would not need to use placebos when
researching the effect of drugs or procedures.
By needing to use placebos, scientists repeatedly acknowledge the
powerful effects the state of someone’s mind has upon their health. In fact, it
is well know within medical circles that on average 35% of any treatments
success is due to the placebo effect, so strong is our inborn ability to heal
ourselves that to truly believe we
are going to get well can often mean that we will!
THE VALUE OF
VISUALISATION
Visualisation has also been found to be extremely powerful: One story that this
brings to mind is the story of “Frank” who was diagnosed as having a fatal type
of throat cancer. He was extremely
weak. Indeed his doctors had deliberated
long and hard, as to whether to expose him to any radiation therapy at all, as
there was a distinct possibility that it would overwhelm his body even
quicker. They decided to proceed
anyway. Then to Franks great good
fortune, Dr Carl Simonton, a radiation oncologist and medical director of the Cancer
Counselling & Research Centre was asked to participate in his treatment. Simonton suggested that Frank could influence
the course of his own disease and began to teach Frank some mental-imagery
techniques. He visualised his cancer cells as weaker and more confused than his
normal cells, and thus unable to repair the damage they suffered from the
radiation. Then he visualised his body’s
white blood cells, the soldiers of the immune system, swarming over the dead
and dying cancer cells, and carrying them to his liver and kidneys to be flushed
out of the body. The results were dramatic, far exceeding the usual outcome for
radiotherapy. Frank experienced none of
the usual side effects such as hair loss and damage to skin. He regained his strength and in a mere 2
months all signs of his cancer had vanished.
In a follow-up study, Simonton taught his mental imagery techniques to
159 cancer patients who were deemed incurable.
The expected life expectancy of these people was less than 12 months. Four
years later 40% were still alive, 9% showed no evidence of disease, the cancer
was regressing or stable in
18%.
