Originally Posted by
Anton Chigurh
This is one thing that's really been eroded over time - the power of the mind to heal and to prevent sickness, disease and disorders.
They start teaching you to not be self reliant in kindergarten now. Every little ache and pain is a major deal you have to see the nurse for. Training us to be dependent on the quacks completely, at a very early age.
Dr. Sarno is teaching, literally, the power of positive thinking - planting positive seeds, the Pygmalion Effect. The power of the self fulfilling prophesy. He correctly points out that if the placebo effect is real, then so is the Pygmalion Effect. Yes, you CAN literally "think" yourself healthy. Millions do.
My grandad taught me this at a early age when he was smoking a pipe and drinking whiskey from a flask in his workshop, out of site of gramma... He told me, "Jazzbo, if you believe something will hurt you or make you sick, don't eat/drink/smoke it. Because then, it certainly will. If there is even the slightest doubt in your mind, then don't do it."
He smoked and drank in moderation for more than 70 years, died at the ripe old age of 96 of what his doctor told me must have been a broken heart - gramma had passed a couple of years before. The doc said his liver, lungs, heart and kidneys were near pristine and he couldn't find any specific cause of death - the man was in perfect health.
By contrast, my mother died relatively young, of lung cancer and emphysema. She always used to comment to us kids or anyone who might be around, as she lit another cigarette, "These things are gonna kill me someday." Clearly she didn't listen to her dad, or he never told her. More than likely he did tell her, but she listened to gramma instead.
The self fulfilling prophesy - if you plant negative seeds about your health, it is guaranteed you will have health problems. If you eschew the negative and always plant positive seeds - you might just have the health my grandpa had. The man was never sick, very seldom ever went to see the doc, and could still whup all our asses right up until the day he died.
I have been sick all of.... Once in my life. I haven't been to see a doctor since I was old enough to make that decision myself, at age 17. I have no need for them.
NOT saying you can just wish away illness, just pointing out that the Pygmalion Effect does work, IS real, and IS a good tool in the health arsenal. And one they definitely would never teach - in fact it's just the opposite.
Mankind knows about as much about the power of our own brains as a amoeba knows about smart phones.