How powerful is the Mind and it’s effects on health? That’s a good question. The evidence appears to indicate that health can be totally controlled by the Mind!

The effect of the Mind on health is so well documented, that drug companies, in testing a new drug, have to account for it: it’s called the Placebo Effect.

The Placebo Effect is when a person is told they are taking the drug being tested but in reality are taking an inert substance. For some people, the effects or benefits of the inert substance are more powerful than the actual drug! In other words, the people believed they were taking the drug and that it was suppose to have an effect. Their Mind created the effect.

Beliefs about health can be powerful and in some cases, fatal. Dr. Joseph Murphy, in his excellent book, The Power of Your Subconscious Mind, related an incident that had happened to a relative that was living in India. The man had gone to see a local mystic with a very large reputation for accuracy. To his shock, the mystic told him that he would die of a heart attack in 30 days! The man was in excellent health.

However, he believed the mystic. He went home and put his affairs in order. Nothing that anyone could tell him could convince him that it was not true. He would tell them the mystic was always accurate. As the several weeks passed, the man became withdrawn and started wasting away. Thirty days later, he dropped dead of a heart attack!

Was he a victim of heart disease? No. He was a victim of believing a negative outcome that had been told to him. His own mind created the circumstances for him to have a heart attack to fulfill the prophecy. Had he not believed what he had been told, he would not have died.

We may think we are immune to such silliness, but are we?

An old office gag is getting everyone in the office to tell a co-worker they don’t look well. At first, the person denies it but as person after person comments on it, after a while, the person really is feeling bad and likely has to go home.  Their reality was shaped by mis-information but because they believed it, they created the condition! What would happen if a group of people kept telling someone they were going to have a heart attack?

The Placebo Effect is not harmless! What you believe about your health will manifest in physiological reality.

I will write about this further in later posts.