Life Changing Mindset

Do you believe that positive thinking and positive visualizing can cure illness?

I do and i have so much confidence that through constant repetive positive thoughts, affirmations and guided imagery along with a strong faith in GOD ( by the way i am not religious i just acknowledge the existence of a higher power ) that we can overcome anything.
Patients have baffled doctors who told them they had weeks to live but lived for years, some even healed of cancer :)

Public Comments

1. I do believe in this form of healing. Prayer and positive thinking have worked where medicine has failed. Try it along with meds.-

2. no.

staying positive may help with the mental side, but theres no "brain medicine" that will actually treat a legitimate illness outside of the mental realm. i also dont believe in the socalled 'miracles' that you mentioned, such as people being cured of cancer. in all of those cases, the cancer was treated within another means but the credit goes to "God". some people are crazy.

3. Studies have shown that people who are positive and happy outlive people who are negative and depressed. The mind controls the body. No doctor has a crystal ball that empowers them to tell patients how long they have to live. Fact is that people who refused to have chemotherapy for cancer far outlived people who got sucked into it. The medical industry's idea of a "success rate" is a 5 year survival... It stands to reason that if you don't poison your body with toxic chemo treatments you'll live longer. It's not rocket science.
You're on the right track.

4. Positive thinking and visualizing can create a healthier immune system, I know from my experience with doing a Yoga practice for over ten years now, my body is healthier but happiness and love are the best ways to avoid disease and heal more rapidly, it increases your faith and there have been some amazing recoveries from people who had a great deal of faith, even results that were unexpected from the teacher/therapist who gave them. The faith and love give you better health and a vigor to do what is necessary.

5. I believe in God, however you want to define that - and so do a lot of dying people - and think it's a total load of crap to say that someone wasn't healed because "they didn't have faith", or the right kind, or in the right thing, blah, blah, blah - or worse, that "bad things happen to teach us lessons" etc, etc. That's nonsense - and I see it happen ALL the time

There is no spirituality there - and that "think good and you'll be healed" is totally a trap filled with shame and disappointment...

I'll be the first person to say I would love the placebo effect to work, and I would love to know how to make it work 'on command' because then we could treat all of those "contemptible poor" in the third world that the "have's" of the first world can't be bothered with - and we could do it for free - and we would have the chance to heal those who have conditions that are barely manageable with our strongest drugs and most radical sugeries ....that would be absolutely incredible. It is however, the stuff of fairy tales and wishful thinking - and it genuinely insults anyone who has 1) watched a loved one suffer 2) suffered themselves 3) had faith destroyed and/or 4) common sense.

Merry Christmas.....to all.....even the crazy cat lover.....

6. No I don't. And there is no scientific evidence to back up such an idea - if you have proof that people have been healed of cancer by positive thinking etc, then please post it here. I suspect you are simply repeating hearsay or something you would like to be true - much as Nosey is when she claims that cancer patients who refuse chemo live longer than those who have chemo; it's bollocks, she made it up.

I have survived a diagnosis of stage 3 breast cancer by 8 years; the credit goes to my medical team - I did nothing. I certainly didn't think positive - it's really hard to do when you're faced with a life-threatening illness anyway; I felt guilty (and therefore worse) because I just couldn't be as positive as people were urging me to be. And I'm an unshakable atheist

And yes, as Tink says, it's an insult to those who don't survive to suggest they could have done if they tried harder. I've known many people through cancer support groups who tried to think positive, and/or put faith in god, who died of their cancer.

Cancer doesn't care what you believe, or how positive or negative your thinking, or how much time you spend on affirmations or guided imaging.

This report in the British Medical Journal explodes the theory that a ‘fighting spirit’ is associated with longer survival from cancer or that ‘hopelessness and helplessness’ means poorer outcomes. The researchers analysed existing studies from1979 onwards; their conclusion is:

‘There is little consistent evidence that psychological coping styles play an important part in survival from or recurrence of cancer. People with cancer should not feel pressured into adopting particular coping styles to improve survival or reduce the risk of recurrence.’

http://www.bmj.com/content/325/7372/1066.1.full

7. With some minor illnesses the placebo effect can have a noticeable difference, even causing improved recovery, unfortunately, cancer isn't one of these.