The Power of the Mind
Mr Wright was dying from cancer of the lymph nodes. Orange-size tumours had invaded his neck, groin, chest and abdomen, and his doctors had exhausted all available treatments. Nevertheless, Mr. Wright was confident that a new anticancer drug called Krebiozen would cure him according to a report by psychologist Bruno Klopfer of the University of California in Los Angeles, entitled 'Psychological Variables in Human Cancer'.1
Mr. Wright was bedridden and fighting for each breath when he received his first injection. But three days later he was cheerfully ambling around the unit, joking with the nurses. His tumours had shrunk by half, and after 10 more days of treatment he was discharged from the hospital. And yet the other patients in the hospital who had received Krebiozen showed no improvement.
Over the next two months, however, Mr. Wright became troubled by press reports questioning the efficacy of Krebiozen and suffered a relapse. His doctors decided to lie to him: an improved, doubly effective version of the drug was due to arrive the next day, they told him. Mr. Wright was ecstatic. The doctors then gave him an injection that contained not one molecule of the drug, and he improved even more than he had the last time. Soon he walked out of the hospital symptom-free. He remained healthy until two months later, when, after reading reports that exposed Krebiozen as worthless, he died within days.
As Mr. Wright’s experience illustrates, a persona expectations and beliefs can greatly affect the course of an illness. When psychological factors tied to an inactive substance such as Krebiozen lead to recovery, doctors call the improvement a placebo effect. And when a psychological factor causes a health issue it is called a nocebo effect
As dramatic this case was about the power of the mind in healing, it worth looking as some research to established that this is applicable to the wider public.
An example is a research study carried out by orthopedic surgeon Bruce Moseley who compared the effects of genuine and placebo surgery on 180 patients with knee osteoarthritis. The real treatment involved a standard arthroscopic surgical procedure, whereas the fake treatment involved a small, superficial skin incision behind the knee (made to appear as though they received surgery). Despite receiving a sham procedure, the placebo group experienced the same reductions in pain and improvements in knee function as those who underwent real surgery. Importantly, both groups were blind to the nature of the treatment they had received until 24 months after the trial 2
These case studies do not mean that all health issues are just from the power of the mind. Health is far more complex, but it does suggest how powerful our thoughts are for overall health. Some tips to help are;
Look after the basics first by having a healthy lifestyle covering the food eaten, lowering life style toxins, reducing stress and clearing old emotional wounds. This give grounds to challenge negative expectations and cultivate positive ones such as “I won’t get sick. I’m doing all the right things, so I have the best chance of staying well”. Any progress allows for further thoughts of hope and optimism, forming a positive feedback loop with psychological inertia. It enables people to be active agents shaping their destiny, rather than passive victims awaiting an inevitable demise.
With health issues be as fully informed as possible before making decisions. Information can come from many sources including medical doctors, holistic practitioners, books on the subject and the internet. Sometimes the information may be in conflict and that could lead to confusion. The power of the internet can help. So, for example, if turmeric was being considered to strengthen the immune system against cancer you could type into the search engine or into an AI tool "turmeric cancer research" and several medical research studies would be presented with evidence of its effectiveness, and they would point out it was more powerful if combined with black pepper and taken with a meal containing fat because turmeric is not a water soluble supplement.
Information from the wisdom of the universe can be tapped into. This can be done with kinesiology (involuntary finger or arm movement) or by using a pendulum to find out the cause of a health problem or the approach to take. For those without pendulum skills a free course is available on https://www.pioneeringnewconsciousness.com/offers/pFCzgoXm/checkout
Sometimes with this approach when an important decision needs to be made its helpful to have an independent therapist to confirm it.
Have friends who can provide social support with a positive non judgement attitude and able to say for example, “Your doing the right things so you will make it through”.
Any comments of other insights about this article can be shared below
Love Andy and Reena
References
1 http://biopsychosocialmedicine.com/projects/rd-international-projects-2/placebo-rd/cases/the-1957-placebo-case-the-krebozen-story/
2 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12110735/
further research areas in https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37848293/
