Health
Mind and Body Medicine
"The mind steadfastly refuses to behave locally, as contemporary scientific evidence is beginning to show ..... even from the conservative perspective of modern neurochemistry, it is difficult if not impossible to follow a strictly local view of the brain." Larry Dossey, MD
The Mind/Body Medical Institute of Folsom California, where Dr Petty gained certification says that:
- "Mind/body medicine is based on the recognition of the relationship between mind and body, the body's innate healing potential, and the partnership of patient and healer in restoring the body to health."
- "Mind/body medicine is an approach to healing that uses the power of thoughts and emotions to influence physical health."
- Mind and body are one.
"The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well." - Hippocrates
"Ironically, the very scientific methods championed by mainstream medicine in the testing of drugs have provided the greatest scientific support for the existence and power of the mind/body connection. In fact, the mechanisms involved are so formidable that the standard research procedure requires separating out their effects from those of the drug."
The power of mind/body mechanisms has been examined and measured in virtually thousands of drug studies. Mind/Body medicine is now part of mainstream medicine.
The Power of the Mind/Body Connection
Dr William Collinge recounts the following well known example of how the mind can heal the body:
One of the most stirring stories about the power of the mind/body connection concerns a man diagnosed with terminal cancer. Reported by Dr. Bruno Klopfer in the Journal of Projective Techniques in 1957, it involved a man with metastatic cancer and tumors that had spread throughout his body. The patient had tried every available form of medicine and his condition had hopelessly deteriorated to the point where he was bedridden and gasping for air. His doctors agreed that he had only a few days to live. Then the man heard about an experimental drug called Krebiozen, which was in the process of being tested. He insisted on being included in the experimental trials. His doctors, feeling he had nothing to lose and would soon be dead anyway, out of compassion agreed to give him the experimental drug. To their amazement, the man's tumors soon began to shrink dramatically and he was discharged from the hospital.
Meditation and Health
There is a great deal of evidence to show that meditation results in improved health. Dr Herbert Benson wrote about the use of a mantra or simple phrase in inducing the Relaxation Response1 in 1974 and his work provided the impetus for work on mind body medicine that continues at Harvard Medical School to this day.
The seminal nook by Herbert Benson stripped away the Eastern mysticism from meditation and showed that the simple mental repetition of a word such as 'one' or 'peace' results after about 20 minutes in the relaxation response.
Stress is endemic in America and stress is a state of mind that causes ill health. The Relaxation Response of meditation reduces stress and promotes good health.
Meditation is so powerful that studies have shown that beginning meditators are 5 years younger, in a physiological sense, than people who do not meditate and long term meditators, who have meditated for 5 years or more, are 12 years younger in physiological age.
Meditation is simple to understand but difficult to do. The Neural however, makes meditation easy with soundtracks that take you down to a deep alpha state, and once you are more advanced, to a theta state.
Practise meditation with the Neural for 15 minutes a day and reap the many benefits of meditation, including a powerful mind and eternal youth within days.