How many of us have had this experience? We had (or still have) a chronic or debilitating illness that the doctors can’t find specific symptoms of and/or they have no name for it, so we’re told (or it’s implied): “It’s all in your head” and “Learn to live with it.”
Women seem to have these new, unidentified afflictions more than men or, most likely, we’re just paying closer attention to our bodies. Or, certainly another possible factor, is that male doctors dismiss the ailments of female patients more readily than male patients. You be the judge.

Now scientists all over the globe are discovering that, in fact (i.e., they can measure it), we cure ourselves with our thoughts or intent to be well. So, while the Disease may not be “all in your head”, the Cure is!

For eons, the prophets, mystics, metaphysicians, and pop psychologists (and an occasional scientist, to be fair) have been telling us: It is done unto you as You Believe, What you See (with your Mind’s eye) is what you Get, and You’ll See it when you Believe it. And so on.

Measuring Physiological Response to Thoughts
Neurologist Jon-Kar Zubeita at the University of Michigan is using an EEG machine in clinical trials to view how the body’s natural painkillers and endorphins bond with the brain’s receptors. Tests with healthy patients whose pain was induced shows that expectation causes physiological changes in the body. In other words, the power of suggestion causes a biochemical response in the brain.

In Italy, Fabrizio Benedetti and his colleagues at the University of Turin are studying the power of suggestion in treating patients with Parkinson’s disease. With this illness neuron activity increases in parts of the brain causing trembling hands. Benedetti administered a saline solution to his patients, assuring them it was a highly effective medicine. His assurances so convinced the patients that the neurological activity decreased in the affected parts of the brain, and the hand trembling stopped.

The healing effects of a placebo (pretend medicine) was first noticed (or reported) during WWII when morphine supplies were depleted, and doctors often injected saline solution, telling the patient it was morphine that would stop the pain. And the patients reported the pain was reduced or stopped.

Now medical science is recognizing that “placebo” (or thoughts) contributes to 30-40 percent of all medical effects. Historically physicians have attributed the “placebo effect” to hysterical, pretending, or psychologically disturbed people, “but now it has suddenly caught the attention of the medical field,” reports medical writer Jorg Blech.

Make-believe Knee Surgery Cures, too
My favorite placebo experiment is the only one involving surgery. Orthopedic surgeon Bruce Moseley randomly divided 180 knee surgery patients at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Houston, into two groups, one of which actually was given the usual arthroscopic knee surgery, and the others were put through the motions but didn’t actually have the surgery.

In the initial post-operative reports, everyone reported improvement of their knee. Dr. Moseley reported in the New England Journal of Medicine (7/11/2002) that two years later nearly all the patients were happy with the intervention, and many proclaimed they were free of pain altogether—whether they’d actually had surgery or not!
Question: so why are insurance companies or policymakers (e.g., Medicare) continuing to pay over $1 billion a year for some 200,000 knee surgeries—in the US alone? Germany’s medical establishment is also doing another 190,000 such cases.

Imagination can replace pills, scalpel
Larger question: Who do we have to hear it from that we are well or healed? In traditional societies there’s always been a union of body and spirit in the healing arts—the shaman and the witch-doctor are the most commonly known, but it was true in all assemblages of human kind.

Now modern science has the technology to prove what the prophets, mystics and metaphysicians have been saying is, indeed, true. Many of us didn’t need the EEG to show us, we’ve demonstrated or experienced the healing process ourselves.
It’s highly unlikely that M.D.s are going to become our healers. Their pills and scalpels can be replaced by IMAGINATION! In a 7-minute office visit, they’re not going to hold your hand and proclaim, “You are well.” And, given our history with modern MDs, how many would believe him/her if they did?

Unless you have a health practitioner you have total faith in, our only healing agent in modern life, is the Source whether you refer to that Divine Intelligence as God, Allah, Jehovah, Krishna or the Force. Scientists have now confirmed what we practitioners have known for eons. May the Force be with You!
Salud!
Beverly A. Jensen, Ph.D.
President, www.WomensMedicineBowl.com