All in Your Head?: The Cause of Illnesses and Diseases
Many individuals who subscribe to New Age ideas believe that all illnesses and all diseases have a basis in our thoughts. In other words, illnesses and diseases are caused by negative thought patterns. Does this premise have any basis in reality?
I’ve been reading a lot of New Age material on health and illness lately—perhaps too much, actually. The main premise of the New Agers is that our thoughts create our reality—positive or negative. So, by extension, our thoughts make us sick or well. On an elementary level, that seems easy enough to accept. After all, we all know people who are stuck in a quagmire of self-pity, depression, and anger who exhibit physical symptoms that mirror their mental state.
Does Negativity Equate to Illness?
However, do all illnesses have a psychological basis? Many New Agers believe that all physical symptoms point to a negative thought pattern. For example, headaches are caused by self-criticism and fear. Arthritis is caused by self-criticism and lack of love. Cancer is caused by deep hurt and resentment. (See Heal Your Body: The Mental Causes of Physical Illness and the Metaphysical Way to Overcome Them by Louise L. Hay.) Even hereditary illnesses have a basis in our thinking because the problematic thought patterns of our parents are passed down to us, though our parents did not intend to do this.
A Scientific Basis for this Belief?
Quantum theory, which many scientists have difficulty explaining and accepting, has shown us that at the most fundamental level, particles are influenced by our thoughts. Did you see the movie What the Bleep Do We know?! That movie explores the connections between thinking and reality and how our thoughts generate our reality. Our consciousness affects the physical world. Many scientists have refuted the movie’s claims, however, asserting that the movie sensationalizes and twists science to fit its claims.
Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life
The best approach to understanding illness is probably to be open to the idea that illness does have some basis in our mental state. There’s a plethora of material on how positive thinking can improve your life. There’s also a substantial amount of research that has been done on how a positive attitude can reduce stress, lower your blood pressure, and protect you from some illnesses. Take a look at this article from the Mayo Clinic on how positive thinking can help you live a happier, healthier life: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/positive-thinking/SR00009.
The well-known “placebo effect” is also common knowledge in the medical community. All well-executed scientific studies on drug efficacy include a control group that is given a placebo instead of the active drug. It has been documented time and again that the placebo group often improves along with the group taking the active drug, suggesting that the brain has an amazing ability to heal itself via its mental outlook, expectations, and hopeful attitude.
Revolutionizing Medicine
If all illnesses are in your head, that would completely revolutionize how we should treat disease. It is not even necessary to completely subscribe to this New Age premise to incorporate some of the ideas. Consider, for example, how many doctors are now integrating alternative and complementary therapies into their practices. Some of these practices include acupuncture, herbs, music therapy, and thought mortification. Western medicine has made great strides in the understanding and treatment of diseases, but it has not yet presented us with a comprehensive model of how the body works and how to cure diseases. Perhaps by studying the mind’s role in illness and disease in greater depth, western medicine can offer a more holistic, nuanced, and effective approach to treatment.
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REPuckett | Jun 20, 2009 | Reply
Thank you for this article. This is a subject that has held great interest for throughout the years. I believe that many illnesses are caused by our thought patterns, but not all. If someone infected with the H1N1 virus happens to sneeze on me and the virus reaches my mucus membranes, I will be infected and affected adversely by it. I would suggest that my thought patters, no metter how negative or positive, could change that fact. However, I do believe that thought patterns could have a great determination on how severely it affects me and for how long. There have been recorded instances that have shown how people can sign their own death sentence with cancer by ‘giving in’ to it and simply giving up. There are also many examples of people beating it sinply by maintaining a will to live. My father was diagnosed with a very aggressive type of lung cancer about four years ago. He wasn’t expected to live more than six months. Then, I provided him with his first grandson. My son became his reason to live. He beat the cancer. He was then diagnosed with a degenerative virus in his brain due to his weakened immune system called PML. Again, he was epxpected to be in a vegetative state within six months. This diagnosis was two years ago and he is just as mentally sharp as he ever was. There is a very good book called “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Victor Frankl. I may have spelled that last name wrong. Anyhow, he was a prisoner in a concentration camp during WWII. The basic premise of the book is that one must have meaning for their life, the will to survive. For those that lost any true meaning to survive lmost always perished. In summary, yes thought patterns affect illnesses, their longevity, possible mortality and even is the cause in some cases. It would be foolish, however, to say that they are the cause of all illnesses. Once again, thank your for this. I now have thoughts and concepts running though my brain that will keep me up for another couple hours. lol
By the way, I have seen “What the Bleep do We Know?” It was an amazing documentary. You may or may not be aware that there is a second part to it called “Down the Rabbit Hole”. I strongly suggest it if you have not already seen it.
Aimee Larsen Stoddard | Jun 22, 2009 | Reply
Hi, REPuckett. Thank you very much for your thoughtful comments. I appreciate your insight. What an amazing story about your father. I’m glad to hear that he is doing well.
I love the book Man’s Search for Meaning. I think of it often. Frankl’s point that the only freedom we ultimately have is what we choose to think is a truly remarkable realization for someone who went through so much. The Holocaust has consumed a lot of my thinking for many years because it strips away all illusions and forces us to ask the very hard questions about life and about humanity’s capacity for evil.
I haven’t seen Down the Rabbit Hole. I’ll have to check that out.
Shelly Barclay | Jul 13, 2009 | Reply
Very interesting article WSE. I agree and disagree with New Agers. Like REP said, if you catch a virus, no amount of positive thinking is going to stop it from effecting you. Positive thinking can have a very positive effect on our lives, but I personally do not think it can cure disease. On the other hand, negative thinking is the base of some health issues, i.e. mental health. These have very physical symptoms that are fueled by negativity. So I guess both sides of this coin have a basis in reality. I really liked this, btw. It’s written very objectively. I can respect that.