Changing Our Personal Reality; Part 4 (Health and Healing)

Hello Groovers

I hope your weekend was spectacular because you chose to make it that way. In reference to today’s post, depending on where you’re at, some of you might need to open your mind a teensy-weensy bit if you’re to benefit in any way from this installment here at me-dot-com. You don’t need to agree with it, but you might want to consider it and leave your self-limiting thinking at the door. As a scientist, pragmatist and career skeptic, I have had to unlearn many things over the years in my quest for personal growth, truth, enlightenment and a deeper level of understanding of certain things. Many times I have had to acknowledge that (1) I don’t know the truth or (2) my current beliefs are either totally wrong, self-limiting, founded on questionable logic or adopted from other people; such as when our parents beliefs become our own by default. In order to explore a subject like healing from a different and non-traditional perspective and to do it in a productive, open and meaningful way, I have had to overcome (for want of a better term) my traditional academic learning, my numerous years of religiosity and the accepted societal norms I’ve had shoved down my throat – or should I say, into my brain – for a lifetime. Not to mention dealing with the mountain of pre-existing, self-limiting beliefs that I allowed to stop me from growing, learning, changing, evolving and exploring my potential. Having said all of that, let’s get under way. 

PNI

Courtesy of a field of scientific study called Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) – and yep, it’s all one word – we now know with absolute certainty that the way you and I think has a direct and often measurable effect on our immune system. That is, how weak or strong it will be and how effectively it will combat sickness and disease. It has been said that beyond genetics, our head (and what happens in there) is one of the greatest determinants of health. The practical reality of this means that the way that we process information and the way we deal (emotionally and mentally) with the events, situations and happenings of our life has a very real impact on our immune system and therefore our body’s ability to fight disease and to deal with general illness. In many ways we have the potential to “think” ourselves into sickness or into better health. And we do it all the time; one way or the other. We’ve all seen people worry themselves sick. Literally. Just as we all know of people who have recovered from, or lived with, conditions that “should have killed them” long ago. Fortunately these people chose to create their own reality (health, survival) rather than accept a less-than-desirable reality that someone else may have tried to impose on them. Sometimes conventional wisdom is actually conventional stupidity.

Here’s a practical example of how this stuff can work:

1. A healthy person becomes “stressed” because of an event or circumstance in their world. In this instance, stress being a personal (that is, self-created) mental and emotional response to a situation or perceived situation. And of course, situations don’t create stress, people do. You and me. There are no good or bad situations, only different interpretations of, and reactions to, the same thing. The moment we label something (good, bad, hard, easy, tragic), is the moment we hand over our personal power to that thing (again) and the moment we step into a mindset of inevitability (about what will happen) and helplessness. Things only have the meaning we give them, so if we decide that something will be stressful and terrifying, it will be – because we create that personal reality.

2. The immediate consequence of this state of stress is that we see changes in the individual’s physiology; increased cortisol production, increased blood pressure, increased respiration and often, an overall feeling of illness and weaknesses. All of these undesirable changes being self-created. Not intentionally, but self-created nonetheless.

3. The medium-term consequence (one day to one week) of un-managed, on-going inner turmoil is to see a decrease in “performance” of the immune system. It becomes less effective and less able to deal with the constant barrage of physical challenges that is thrown at the typical human body. The net result of this is that the individual will then become more susceptible to illness, disease and injury, she will recover slower from existing conditions, her energy levels will decrease and her emotional state will be impacted even further by her declining physical condition. It becomes a vicious cycle.

4. The long-term consequence of prolonged inner turmoil is physical illness and eventually, disease. Without some kind of intervention, it’s inevitable. But panic not, the good news is that our bodies have an amazing capacity to heal – we just need to learn how to “drive” them. Contrary to popular thinking, the psychological, emotional and physical are in fact not three separate systems, but one. One incredible integrated system that is dependant on all three components for function, health and survival – if only we in the West weren’t so compelled to treat things (bodies for example) in isolation. For many (many) years I have taught that for the majority of us, obesity (to use a specific and common example) is merely a by-product of, or reflection of, an individual’s level of emotional and psychological health. In most situations, once we “fix” what’s happening above the shoulders, the physical transformation will be rapid and permanent. If only we could see more health professionals treating their patients as though they were multi-dimensional, amazing beings, rather than a bunch of bones, muscles, organs and nerves with a particular physical condition. Then we might inhabit a totally different landscape – in terms of our overall health as a society.

An Internal Environment of Healing

Know it or not, believe or not, understand it or not, you and I have the ability to create an internal environment of healing. I can’t tell you exactly how it works (in every case) and fortunately I don’t need to. I’m not that clever. Just like I don’t need to be a mechanic or an engineer to be able to drive a car and to benefit from what it can do and where it can take me. And just like I don’t need to be able to explain how this computer I’m currently using works (on a technical level) to be able to share this message with you. I just need to be able to take advantage of its considerable potential. Hmm… what a thought.

It Works… How?

If you’re anything like me, then you have absolutely no idea how you can pick up your mobile (cell) phone and be talking with someone on the other side of the planet in a matter of seconds. My creative brain can’t even begin to fathom how that actually happens. I just know it’s possible, so I exploit it. What was once an incredible and seemingly impossible notion – to talk with someone in another country as you drive your car that cost more than your parent’s first house – is now common place. We don’t need to understand technology to benefit from it. Thankfully. Otherwise, I’d never be able to leave the house!

The Placebo Effect

We know that in a very real and practical way our beliefs determine our reality, so with this in mind, could it be possible that our beliefs determine – or at the very least, impact on – our health in a significant way? Consider the use of the double-blind study; a standard scientific practice. In order to test the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of a drug, two groups of people are given identical (looking) tablets; one being the trial drug, the other a placebo – a whole lot of nothing. Neither group knows what they are taking and while we will usually see the expected changes (physical responses) in the drug-taking group, what is amazing is that invariably we see significant changes in a surprisingly high percentage of the control group also; the people who are taking… nothing. Even in the placebo group it’s common to witness results like – feelings of improved health, more energy, better sleep, better recovery and increased muscle mass. While on the negative side we might see outcomes like increased anxiety, restlessness, poor sleep and even things like rashes, swelling and nausea; all self-created. The good and the bad. Time and time again we see the participants who think they are taking a drug (but in reality are not) produce significant biochemical and physical changes. They (literally) change their physiology – for better or worse – because of their beliefs. Their thinking.

So Much to Learn

The body is an incredible and still largely misunderstood and mysterious machine and all too often we allow our lack of understanding and lack of belief, inhibit our body’s ability to heal itself (and not just from minor cuts and infections). Our thinking (personal reality) can be the very thing that stands in the way of what some might call a miracle. Despite our incredible scientific advancements and our brilliant researchers and medical folk (and they are brilliant), there’s still way more that we don’t know about the human body and its potential, than we do. I can’t sit here at my keyboard and give you a step by step prescription to heal yourself from a particular disease but I can tell you that you and I have a far greater potential to heal ourselves than most science and “group thinking” might suggest. And that’s coming from a scientist. Not a particularly good one, but a scientist nonetheless.  Just because you and I (or even the “experts”) don’t understand how or why certain things happen – spontaneous healing for example – doesn’t mean it can’t happen, it just means that at this point in time, our body’s ability to heal itself is beyond our current level of understanding.

A Story of Spontaneous Healing

In his book ‘Health and Healing’, Doctor Andrew Weil tells the story of a patient in his fifties who had lived for years with cutaneous warts covering most of his body. Understandably, this condition was a great source of social and emotional discomfort for the poor man. Years of conventional methods of treatment had only multiplied the number of warts on his body and the constant embarrassment of the highly visible viral infection had made his life a very unpleasant place to be at times. The man’s doctor (a colleague of Doctor Weil), who clearly understood the relationship between the psychological and the physiological – that is, the ability we have to heal ourselves – decided to offer the patient a last-resort extreme form of new treatment; a powerful form of radiation that was somewhat risky, but incredibly effective. Without hesitation, the patient agreed to the sure-fire treatment, happy in the belief that a life without warts was worth the risk of any potential side effects that may accompany the cutting-edge therapy. The man was given the treatment and sure enough, within days all of the warts (many hundreds) had fallen off his body. They never returned. The healing was complete and permanent but the totally cool part of this story, is that patient actually cured himself. There was no breakthrough radiation treatment. The doctor and a radiologist colleague had simply taken the man into the special “treatment room” (in fact a darkened X-ray room), asked him to disrobe and made him stand in front of some very impressive looking, state-of-the-art machines which made a loud humming noise but actually emitted zero radiation. All show and no go, you might say. So great was his belief in his impending healing that he created it. His internal reality created a very real physical transformation. So the man who had endured years of pain, the man who couldn’t be cured by conventional medicine, healed himself in a few days. Now, some people will read stories like this and their very intellectual and scientific minds will discount this result as some kind of inexplicable medical anomaly; these are the people who also close the door on their own unexplored potential and power. What a pity. And so unnecessary. It’s crucial that you and I don’t let fear, arrogance, ignorance or lack of understanding stand in the way of the truly incredible and the truly possible. When we learn to drive our bodies and we begin to explore their potential, then we open the door to a whole new world of possibilities and self-created realities. With physical health and healing being just two of the potential benefits.

Now THAT is exciting.

Scientific Fact?

Over the years and as our understanding has grown, we have continued to watch scientific “fact” become science-fiction. So to speak. Some of what was considered to be non-negotiable science and medical fact in the 1950′s is now considered to be laughable and extremely naive. But the truth is that at that time, they knew no better. One hundred years from now how do you think the great minds of the twenty second century will view the way we currently approach health, healing and disease? Do you think they might look at the “scientific and medical fact” of 2009 and have a little chuckle to themselves?

To be honest, I still don’t completely understand this stuff and I probably never will. I will however continue to learn, explore, ask the hard questions and challenge what I consider to be self-limiting, conventional thinking. My advice to you is to enjoy your body and your mind and to allow the two to work together in harmony.

Love your thoughts on this topic – even you long-time Lurkers.

Ciao x

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