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When people say that thoughts don’t matter, I think about those people with so-called terminal illnesses who defy the textbook description of their disease progression and the prognoses of their doctors and beat it virtually overnight, without the aid of the tools of modern medicine.
The Institute of Noetic Sciences has gathered together all scientifically recorded cases of so-called miracle cures into a database of spontaneous remission. Although the received wisdom is that these cases are rare, a scan of the medical literature is instructive.
One in eight skin cancers spontaneously heal, as do nearly one in five of genitourinary cancers. Virtually all types of illnesses, including diabetes, Addison’s disease, and atherosclerosis, where vital organs or body parts are supposedly irretrievably damaged, have spontaneously healed. A small body of research concerns terminal cancer patients, who with little or no medical intervention, end up beating the odds.
Although these cases are labeled instances of ‘spontaneous remission’, as though the illness has suddenly decided to go into hiding but might suddenly spring out at any moment, in many instances they represent another example of the body’s ability to self-correct, through the power of intention.
We all marvel at cases of SRs because even the most enlightened among us still subscribe to the body-as-machine paradigm. Under this model, what is broken stays broken, until a seasoned mechanic comes along with the right monkey wrench or spare part.
The sheer volume of SRs shows that self-repair and renewal is natural to the human body. Case after case of spontaneous remission describes people up against a major roadblock in their lives: unremitting stress, unresolved trauma, prolonged hostility, marked isolation, profound dissatisfaction or quiet despair. (Am J Psychother, 1958; 12: 723). They often describe people who have lost their role as the central protagonist of their own life drama.
Many cases of spontaneous remission seem to occur after someone makes a massive psychological shift, to recreate a life that is engaging and purposeful. In most instances the patient gets rid of the source of the psychological heartache and takes full responsibility for his illness and treatment. Some people, this would suggest, get ill because they lose all hope of life ever being good—because they are thinking the wrong thoughts.
They find the lost meaning in their lives. They play the piano or go trekking in Tibet . They find a path back to their joie de vivre. That illness can be cured through a simple change of thought patterns also implies something more profound: that the casual thoughts running through our minds every day together become our life’s intention. If changing our internal ‘tape’ enables us to gain control over life-threatening illnesses, it’s likely that our life’s script about ourselves becomes our reality in many other, less significant ways.
But what about the life script we write for our loved ones? When we think of our husband as uncaring or our children as poor at math, are we unconsciously writing their script for them? Do our thoughts have the same effect on others that we do upon ourselves?
Psychologist William Braud is one of the few scientists to have examined this question. He gathered a group of volunteers and asked them to carry out biofeedback on themselves. After pairing off the group, he attached one member of each pair to the biofeedback equipment, but asked the other partner to respond to the readings and carry out the sending of mental instructions.
According to Braud’s evidence, the results were equivalent to those achieved when the patient on the eqipment used biofeedback on himself. In other words, the mind-over-matter effect of thoughts had the same physical effect, whether used on the thinker’s own body or somebody else’s.
This suggests that another person’s intentions about you, and even their daily thoughts about you, your habits and capabilities, may become a self-fulfilling prophesy, and indeed be just as powerful as your own ‘script’ about yourself. Even our casual thought about others, as well the ‘script’ we’ve written about them, may become an intention, and so should be approached with care.
The most interesting evidence of thought-as-illness comes from the work of a husband-and-wife team, psychiatrist Jan Kiecolt-Glaser and Ronald Glaser, a professor of virology at Ohio State University . Recently, they recruited 42 married couples, aged between 22 and 77, and used a suction device to create eight tiny blisters on their arms, then monitored the healing of these wounds over 24 hours.
Initially, the couples were asked to discuss any characteristics of their married relationship they’d like to change, assisted by a psychologist who ensured the encounter was positive and supportive. At the second study visit, they were asked to, in a sense, relive a time when they’d had a major disagreement that had sparked strong emotions - and, this time, there was no professional referee.
After examining their findings, the Glasers found that the wounds from the second visit took a whole day longer to heal. Among couples who were usually argumentative and hostile, the wounds took 40 per cent even longer.
Production of cytokine - the key element in the immune system that triggers healing - was far lower at wound sites when the participants had argued with their spouses than when they’d been supportive. Furthermore, chronic hostility produced far more proinflammatory circulating cytokines, which can lead to degenerative diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and cancer (Arch Gen Psychiatry, 2005; 62: 1377-84).
The Glasers offer solid biological proof - if we needed any - that a person surrounded by psychological conflict is not as healthy as someone who is generally surrounded by supportive, loving relationships.
What cases of SR suggest is that the thoughts we think and what others around us are thinking most of the time are either healing us or killing us.
Lately, I’ve been reading studies showing how profoundly and quickly the brain alters its function and even its physical structure from certain types of thinking – specifically meditation. (Psychosom Med, 2003; 65: 564-70; NeuroReport, 2000; 11:1581-5). In a matter of weeks, people thinking certain thoughts alter certain areas of the brain.
What this research suggests is that our physicality is like Play-Doh, to be molded from our conscious thoughts. Consciousness forms our physical self and not the other way around. If the brain can be physically revised throughout life just by thinking better thoughts, so too can the rest of the body.
Spontaneous repair can only occur from the dynamic and energetic plasticity of the body as a maidservant of consciousness. The best New Year’s health resolution is incredibly simple: to resolve to start thinking happy thoughts.
Much has been written about the so-called ‘cancer personality’. Perhaps the real question is getting to the heart of the cancer in your soul.
Lynne McTaggart is a journalist and the award-winning author of the bestselling book The Field
