Online Musings: Belief-Based Healing
Happy New Year to all those celebrating Earth-based traditions! Spring has arrived! Let your enthusiasm run wild a little in this season of new sprouts and inspiration.
For all of my 30 years publishing Spirit of Change, and especially the past decade, I’ve stewed over how much of our body’s healing is belief-based. Can the mind completely cure the body? The human brain is said to have more synapses than the Milky Way has stars, so that’s a miraculous amount of intelligence the brain is channeling from birth to death. Anything is possible.
Placebo studies at Harvard Medical School plainly document that fake medical treatments using drugs, acupuncture and even surgeries are often as successful as the real ones. The conclusion drawn from these studies is that the patient’s belief in the treatment has effected the cure. If some human brains are capable of belief-based healing, doesn’t this mean inherently that we all are?
Just as you are what you eat, you are what you think. You can use your brainpower to enhance your healing abilities in small ways and large. In his book Whole Body Dentistry, Mark Breiner, DDS, writes, "You are 100% programmable consciousness. Everything has intelligence. So, for example, if you have a toothache, talk to the pain, talk to the tooth, talk to the nerves, talk to various aspects of the consciousness and invoke healing from everywhere.”
The March 2016 AARP Bulletin “Beating The Odds” feature on cancer included the story of John Whitley, a stage 4 pancreatic cancer patient with an inoperable 2-centimeter tumor and a prognosis of less than a year to live. Alongside chemotherapy, John participated in an experimental drug trial where patients were told some would be receiving a placebo. He reported that “Every afternoon, I sat in my little attic apartment and took this drug, and told myself, ‘This is a miracle drug that is going to save my life.’” Within two months, John’s tumor had disappeared, yet he also learned at that time that he had received the placebo drug. Determined to beat the odds, John credits his “patient activism” for his remission.
Scientists have now mapped out over 90% of our genetic code in the hopes of being able to identify specific genes to turn on and off to better control our health. But even if every single marker, telomere and pair in our DNA code is identified, understanding the central role of the brain in the healing process remains but a crack in the cosmic egg.
Speaking of eggs, for those who will be peeling and cracking their hard boiled eggs this Easter weekend — a nod to the old pagan fertility rites of Spring — I just discovered (courtesy of Martha Stewart) the trick to peeling hard boiled eggs without nicks is to use the side of your thumb, not the tip, to peel the eggs. Gently tap the eggs all over with the back of a tablespoon, then start peeling by using the side of your thumb at the end of the egg with the hollow in it. Go slowly until you get enough practice and before you know it you’ll be pulling off eggshells in whole pieces. Happy cracking!
Carol Bedrosian is the publisher of Spirit of Change holistic magazine. Email carol@spiritofchange.org.
See also:
Musings: What If The Brain Is The Only Healer We Really Need?
Musings: The Original Healing Tradition
