How Healing Happens

Have you ever wondered how many methods there are to affect healing? The national Guide to Holistic Health has health care practitioners listed under fifty separate headings. This refers only to the "holistic" community. The local phone directory also contains 44 yellow pages listing those who practice Western allopathic medicine.

Then there are the non-professional healing methods. Once known as old wives' tales, these unusual, but sometimes effective cures have jumped age and gender barriers to be passed around everywhere from the workplace break room to cyberspace. Such folk remedies usually come complete with their own testimonials.

"I know this sounds strange, but...," the stories almost always begin with some such disclaimer, "Floyd's wife Mabel's second cousin hopped three times in a circle on her right leg while whistling "Simple Gifts" every day at 3 p.m. for 3 days in a row with an onion stuck on her left thumb, and on the fourth day, her sinuses cleared up!"

Well, who are we to argue with success? There are many different paths to healing. Think of the multitude of cultures spread across the globe in this time, and then add in healing practices from times and cultures past, and you begin to see that humankind probably has as many different ways to heal as there are people. Which is exactly my point.

There are as many different ways to heal as there are people because all healing begins with the individual. Different modalities may work better for certain individuals and/or situations, but ultimately, all healing begins within. Whether the tools of choice are plants or hands or words or scalpels or lasers or chemicals or colors or songs or chicken bones, a healer can only assist a person in self-healing.

Years ago, I knew two men who had cancer. One had received a very grim prognosis. His brother had died of the same deadly form of Hodgkin's Disease. Science and experience indicated that he should plan his funeral...quickly. Yet this young man was determined to live. So he did, and he continues to do so some 15 years later.

The other man had two relatively minor, localized cancerous tumors. One tumor completely disappeared and the other was significantly reduced in size. Surgery was scheduled to remove the shrunken tumor. Before entering the hospital, the man called his young son and learned, to his dismay, that the boy was very happy with his new step-dad. This man became demoralized. He felt he was no longer needed. His operation was successful and uneventful. Doctors predicted a speedy recovery. As he recuperated, a "minister" paid the man a visit, and told him that he should prepare to die. The visitor helped this man visualize his own funeral, asking what kind of songs he wanted played, where he wanted to be buried, etc. Although this man had no cancer in his body, he contracted pneumonia and died in the hospital.

Both men were treated with prayer, the laying on of hands, and the best modern allopathic science had to offer. The man who "should have" died, lived. The one who "should have" lived, died. I'm certain most readers know of similar cases. I share these stories here, because I think they illustrate an important concept in any type of healing.

Belief is powerful medicine. It can be good medicine or it can be bad medicine, but an individual's beliefs about the nature and origin of their discomfort, as well as their beliefs about their ability to heal (with or without assistance) are fundamental to health and healing on all levels.

There is no one way, no singular path, no miracle process that works for everyone, every time. Yet belief is an important and often overlooked ingredient in all healing.

This becomes evident when one examines the FDA control studies on new drugs. Usually, the dis-eased are divided into three groups for a study. One group is given nothing, one group is given the new drug, and the third group is given a placebo -- an innocuous "sugar pill" masquerading as a powerful drug. If there is a measurable change in the health status of members of the group taking the trial drug, press releases are issued to the media, and our radios and newspapers dutifully tout the potential benefits of the next hopeful new wonder drug.

What often goes unreported, however, are the amazing results achieved by certain members of the placebo group. Convinced that they have received a powerful new cure which will alleviate their particular condition, certain members of the placebo group always seem to confound the drug companies' researchers by getting well. Why? Belief is a powerful thing.

What makes any type of healing effective is the ability of both the healer and the individual seeking treatment to believe in the client's ability to be healed. Without this belief, no lasting results are possible. One condition of dis-ease may disappear only to be replaced by another. If, however, the healer and the one receiving the healing cooperate together, co-creating healing and balance on all levels, remarkable results can be achieved.

I am not suggesting that belief will always save a body from death. Eventually, we all must follow the natural rhythms of life, leave our bodies behind, and move on to the next adventure. But, as long as we are here in these bodies, studies have proven that we can affect our physical, mental and emotional health with the thoughts we choose to feed upon. And when it does come time to "graduate" to the next level, I think we can make that transition either easier or more difficult according to our beliefs.

Jesus, Solomon, Buddha, Mohammed, Jiminy Cricket and many others have taught that our beliefs create tangible physical results. Modern science now has the ability to verify that our biochemical systems respond to thoughts. Think about the beliefs you are choosing today to create your tomorrows. What messages are you sending your body, your heart, your self? What messages are you sending to those around you?

Whether or not you work as a teacher, your life can serve as a teaching. Whether or not you work as health care practitioner, your words, eyes and attitudes can communicate healing to others. You can collaborate with others to create and reinforce healing beliefs.

One of my beliefs is that as we learn to heal ourselves and our own little worlds, we can begin to affect healing on a more global level. Care to join me?

el 1997