Before I decided to enter the profession of Psychology, I was very interested in the field of medicine. As a matter of fact, I have continued my interest and have been a student of health and healing for many years. One of the things I discovered in my studies is that it is well known in the medical profession that a positive attitude is critical for recovery. It is so well known that part of the prognosis is based on the attitude of the patient!

The reason this is so important is that the Mind is a critical part of the healing process. It doesn’t really matter what is wrong with the patient as the following true story indicates.

A man’s elderly father was slowly dying from tuberculosis. This was in the days before antibiotics were available to treat the disease. The elderly gentleman was very religious.

One day, his son presented him with an odd ring. The setting of the ring, rather than a gem, held a simple piece of wood. The son told his father that he had met an old monk. The monk told him that this ring contained a piece of the cross on which Jesus was crucified and had incredible healing powers. The son had given the monk a donation and received the ring to give to his father.

The elderly man was elated and immediately put on the ring. The very next morning, the elderly man woke up completely free of TB; his lung damage was healed and there was no trace of the disease in his body! The old man lived another 15 years before finally passing away from old age in his 90s.

Now this is the interesting part, there was no monk. The son had found the piece of wood on a sidewalk and had it set in a ring. Knowing his father’s strong religious conviction, the son had created, what we call in Social Psychology, a cover story using elements that would appeal to his father.

So, because his father BELIEVED the story, a miracle occurred. A deadly pathogen was purged from his body and years of lung damaged disappeared, literally overnight! A simple piece of wood off the sidewalk activated the POWER of the MIND!

Our beliefs affect every aspect of our lives, including our health! The field of Quantum Physics has experimentally demonstrated this reality.