There is another aspect to the new findings.

If someone goes to the doctor and receives a diagnosis for a serious or terminal illness, such as cancer or congestive heart failure, this negative diagnosis may turn into the same self-fulfilling prophesy that the test subjects in the aforementioned study experienced when they were told the painkiller was discontinued, even though this wasnt the case. A diagnosis of such an illness can practically shut down any remaining healing abilities the body may still have, including intrinsic hope. The uncertainty of not knowing what I have is based on fear of the unknown, where I may expect the worst case scenario, such as dying from it. This negative expectation, which is usually confirmed by the doctors diagnosis, can shatter all hope. Hope is just another word for positive expectation. Why is it so necessary for a doctor to take this proven healing opportunity away from someone, simply because we dont want to give him false hope? There is no false hope. If hope is there, its a good thing. Hope can never be false. Telling the patient that there is no hope can just be as disappointing at the point of a doctors diagnosis and prognosis as it can be when a cure eventually does not come about. Taking away hope is a crime committed against the patient. Hope can make the difference between dying from a terminal illness and recovering from it. As can be expected, the mechanism to heal from pain, cancer, or a heart condition is practically destroyed by instilling some kind of panic or death fright in a patient. A person of authority, which a medical doctor undoubtedly is, can pass on to the patient his own misguided conviction that he (or she) suffers from a terminal cancer, even though there are many examples of patients who have recovered from it. Yet, even if the doctor knew of an alternative method that could be helpful and save the patients life, he is legally prohibited from making such a recommendation. If the patient is already very vulnerable because of a preexisting condition, financial hardship, social isolation, depression, anxiety, emotional stress, etc., then it is relatively easy to convince this person that he is caught in a trap from which he cannot escape. The fearful expectation of death can have dire consequences and, as implied by this research, actually prevent the patient from recovering and surviving. In other words, the certainty of a diagnosis can turn out to be far worse than the uncertainty of an undiagnosed disease. There are numerous examples that support this. It has been a medical mystery for many decades why people can comfortably live with a large malignant lung tumor for many years, but then die within a few days after receiving the diagnosis. While the death certificates will blame cancer for their death, in reality its the diagnosis of cancer that kills them. Death fright is about the strongest fight or flight situation one can experience. It shuts down the bodys digestive functions and waste removal, prevents sleep, causes wasting and rapid weight loss, and triggers many other serious physical imbalances. Modern medicine is still so far removed from understanding and applying the intricate relationship that exists between mind, body and spirit, that it cannot make any sense of these unexplainable

phenomena where patients die from the diagnosis, not the disease or survive a terminal diagnosis because their positive expectations are profoundly strong, stable and effective. Miracle of Spontaneous Remission The mind/body/spirit triad connection is clearly demonstrated in the now thousands of cancer patients who experience spontaneous remissions of their cancers. Research has shown that the size of a tumor can be reduced dramatically within a few hours of holistic health treatment, when the patient is highly motivated by personal development. Perceiving a spiritual purpose in the disease that affects them, can also be enough to achieve remission. This usually happens when the disease is no longer perceived as a threat, but as a blessing in disguise. In other words, instead of being helpless victims of a senseless disease, they become active participants in the process of becoming whole again. The expectation of being blessed by something they might have previously seen as a dreadful curse evokes some of the most powerful healing responses the body has at its disposal. The mechanism of expecting, and subsequently experiencing, pain relief from a saline solution placebo is no different than the mechanism that turns a big tumor to powder in less than a minute. I once saw a live ultrasound image where a cancerous bladder tumor, the size of a grapefruit, completely disintegrated and vanished during a 15-second sound-energy-healing session by a group of Chinese Qigong masters. Of course, without the patients hopeful and receptive expectation that healing would occur, nothing would happen. Nobody can enter your home as long as you keep the door closed. Instead of instilling death fright in a patient, a doctor ought to help the patient to develop hope-filled expectations that can then translate into the necessary biochemical responses in the brain and heart that are required for the patients body to actually and fully heal itself. On the other hand, telling the patient that he (or she) is suffering from a terminal illness introduces a factor of expectancy that is undeniably capable of executing the doctors unintended death sentence. If the doctor or, even worse, a diagnostic machine like a CT scanner (machines dont lie) passes a death sentence on a patient, it is the natural expectation of the patient that the sentence will be carried out that actually kills him, not the disease. When feeling this vulnerable, patients often see their doctor as their savior, their God. If God tells me I am dying, then it must be true. Relinquishing ones power to someone who plays God makes one a slave, where the expectation is one of worthlessness and dependency. Letting a diagnosis, or rather the negative interpretation of it, rule ones life, lies at the core of todays health crisis. Just the title of my book, Cancer is Not a Disease Its a Survival Mechanism, has helped thousands of people restore their confidence in themselves and their bodies. Transforming a negative expectation into a positive one is what practicing medicine ought to be about. The aforementioned research should

be studied by every doctor and applied to every field of modern medicine, but this would most certainly make most of modern medicine obsolete. Still, thanks to these brilliant researchers, we now have the model to scientifically explain that healing is largely up to the expectation, state of mind, and attitude of the patient, not necessarily to the doctor and his pharmaceutical treatments. So far, most medical dogma has turned everything upside down. I sincerely hope, for the sake of the survival of humankind, that modern medicine undergoes a revolution that will turn it all upside down again. I am encouraged to see there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Expectations Shape Reality Both negative and positive expectations can lead to very unusual events. Many people have heard about the studies that showed heart attacks occurring more often on Mondays, usually at 9AM, to be more exact. It is presumed this is due to the expected difficulties and stress that may occur during the work week. Also, fewer people die during the days before Christmas, and more people die right after Christmas. Another phenomenon, discovered by the Yale School of Public Health and the National Institute of Aging, is that young people who have positive expectations about aging are less likely to have a heart attack or stroke when they grow older. In a study on aging conducted at Yale and also Miami University, middle aged and elderly people lived seven years longer when they had a positive attitude about aging. In a classical study, 100 individuals over 80 years of age were placed in an environment that put them back 30 years in time from old time music playing on the radio, to era-appropriate clothing. Within a few weeks all their physiological and biochemical markers of aging had dropped by an average of 15 years. When they returned to their current homes and living environments, however, they aged forward by 15 years in just one day. In a piece posted on CNN.com, Elizabeth Cohen, CNN Senior Medical Correspondent, wrote about the self-induced, spontaneous remission of cancer in David Seidler, who won an Oscar this year for best original screenplay for The Kings Speech. Mr. Seidler, age 73, suffered from bladder cancer and used a simple method of visualization to completely disintegrate his large tumor in less than two weeks, just in time before his scheduled operation, much to his physicians shock. There are literally thousands of examples where imagination, expectation, visualization, perception, attitude, etc., have shown to manifest whatever is being seriously entertained by the mind. Mind-body medicine is not some kind of woo-woo or wishful thinking, it is true science, as the following research further confirms.

Would you believe that just looking at the photograph of a romantic partner is enough to significantly dull pain, in the same way that paracetamol or narcotics, such as cocaine, can? Well, a research study by Stanford University published discovered just that. In the study, which was published in the journal PLoS ONE in October 13, 2010, (doi:10.1371), researchers took MRI scans of the brains of love-struck students who were asked to focus on photographs of partners while varying levels of heat pain were applied to their skin. On average, the pain reduction was reduced between 36 and 44 percent, according to neuroscientist Jarred Younger. Pain drugs dont perform much better than that. According to a report in the September 2006 issue of the Hospitalist, many patients will only experience a 30%-50% reduction in pain relief. Besides, pharmaceutical painkillers can have sideeffects, including nausea, dizziness, somnolence, constipation, dry mouth, increased sweating, liver failure and death. In other words, you dont have to rely on drugs to get good pain relief. In yet another study, published in the journal Psychological Science in November 2009, psychologists from the University of California Los Angeles studied 25 women and their boyfriends for a period of six months, subjecting them to different levels of pain. While experiencing the pain, the women were told to either hold their boyfriends hand or the hand of a male stranger, both of whom were hidden behind a curtain. The women experienced significantly less pain while holding their partners or a strangers hand. When asked to view a photograph of their boyfriend, or a picture of a male stranger while being subjected to discomfort, the women experienced at least the same pain reduction. In fact, the relief was even greater when a stranger was involved. This means that pain relief doesnt necessarily involve loveinduced analgesia. The feeling of closeness or security that the women expected to receive from looking at their lovers picture, or touching someones hand, is all thats needed for the brain to send out the necessary opiates that bring on the relief. These studies are invaluable in that they show how healing is closely connected to how we feel. We are not robots. To heal from a cancer, we require the support, encouragement, and assurance from the world around us, so that we can generate the kind of (positive) expectations necessary for the healing to occur. A negative diagnosis or prognosis, threatening a person with if you dont take this medicine you will die, or making him feel that he is a helpless victim of a terrible disease, wont help but may actually be responsible for his declining health or ultimate demise. Many pharmaceuticals only work because people expect them to work, not because they have any significant biochemical effect on the body. Without the belief of receiving a substantive benefit, the brain will simply block the medication from doing its job. As we have seen in the first study, giving a person a painkiller while telling him its not a painkiller, proved to be completely worthless. Mind power either overrides the potential benefit of the drug, or it

triggers the same biochemical responses the drug is designed to produce. In other words, the mind tells the brain whether or not to initiate the biochemical responses necessary for healing to take place. We know from brain research that all healing in the body is regulated by the brain. This has repeatedly been confirmed by many studies, including those on antidepressant drugs, which have consistently failed to outperform the placebo. Whats so encouraging about all this is that we are in charge of our brain. The brain carries out our instructions in the form of beliefs and expectations, positive and negative, conscious and subconscious. In one expression, we are what we believe. So, perhaps, its now time to change the way we think about the power we have over our own healing ability.

888888888888888888888888 Articles / Health & Mind Body Connection How the Mind Helps to Heal the Body April 2003 In her office in Little Rock, Arkansas, a thirty-nine-year-old woman sits deep in meditation. A regular meditator, she has been practicing for almost nine years and invariably finds it helps her relax. Today, however, her practice will take on a new twist. Using a simple visualization technique she will attempt to control her immune system under the watchful eyes of several researchers from the University of Arkansas Medical faculty. Its part of an experiment to further understand the remarkable mind/body connection. The team is headed by psychiatrist G. Richard Smith, who wants to see if the woman can turn her immune systems response up or down like the volume of a radio. The experiment begins with a simple injection of chicken pox virus on the underside of the womans arm. Because she has already had chicken pox, the researchers know she cant develop the disease from the injection. But they also know that her immune system will "recognize" the virus and respond to it by causing a small bump to rise at the injection site within 48 hours. Sure enough, a nickel-size bump appears and then slowly fades over the next four to five days. Blood samples confirm the skin test: Her white blood cell count increases as her immune system confronts the virus. After the researchers repeat this test twice, the real experiment begins. Can the woman actually lessen her white blood cells reaction to the virus? The virus is injected three more times over the next three weeks. Each time, the woman conjures up mental images depicting fewer white blood cells and a smaller bump. And each time blood tests confirm smaller counts of white cells, and the bump is one half to one third the original size. Finally, the woman is instructed to let her immune response return to normal for a few more injections. It does, and the bumps become nickel-sized again. "We were startled by the outcome," says Dr. Smith.

But the Arkansas experiment is just one of thousands of new studies exploring the methods by which visualization can assist in fighting illness and enhancing health. Cell biologist Joan Borysenko was a twenty-four-year-old cancer researcher at Harvard Medical School when she started to use meditation and guided imagery. A strict scientist, she was doubtful, but she had a personal need. The rigors of divorced motherhood and lab work had taken their toll: migraines, spastic colon, bronchitis and high blood pressure. Medicine helped, but not enough. Desperate, she took meditation training and practiced visualization. The first time she tried it she struggled, but she persisted and in time the pain subsided. "I was left with a feeling of having been washed clean, like the earth after a heavy rain," she said. Today, Dr. Borysenko is founder and director at the Mind/Body Group working at Bostons New England Deaconess Hospital. She and her colleagues use meditation, guided imagery, and other techniques in taking patients, including those with AIDS, referred to them by Boston physicians who want to add this dimension to standard treatments. Exactly how imagery and relaxation exert their effects on the body is still a source of speculation. But the answers may lie in exciting new discoveries about brain chemicals made by such researchers as neuroscientist Candace Pert, Section Chief of Brain Biochemistry at the National Institute of Mental Health. Brain cells, or neurons have long been known to communicate with each other through chemical signals. But in the past, these signals were thought to move only in paths present between cells. In recent years, however, Pert and other scientists have uncovered another communication system: chemicals that work like free-floating telegrams, sending messages between cells in different parts of the brain, and between the brain and other parts of the body. Some of these substances, such as insulin, have been known for years, but scientists are now discovering that they are produced by the brain, not just by organs like the pancreas. So far, about forty to fifty of these chemicals are known to be manufactured by the brain. Technically theyre called neuropeptides, though Pert refers to them as "molecules of emotion" because so many are directly linked to emotional states. Its possible, even probable that visualization techniques cause such chemicals to be released in the body. The idea that the mind and body are engaged in two-way conversation is nothing new. Even the most skeptical doctors will usually acknowledge that sheer willpower often pulls patients through lifethreatening illnesses or injuries. Now, with the realization that the brain can actually jumpstart and enhance the bodys immune system, we are in a whole new dimension of possibility. With over thirty years of extensive, rigorous testing to appease the most scientific mind, the proof is in it works! The opportunities to exploit this remarkable connection are as wide and varied as our imaginations. Your thoughts used creatively will affect your body in a very noticeable and beneficial way.

John Kehoe