One of the most exciting developments in the history of healing is the growing recognition that the mind can influence, even control, the functions of the body. Since the 1960s the emphasis has been on ‘redefining the mind’ for if this implies  only the ordinary, everyday process of thinking then it is ridiculous to believe that it can make even minor changes in one’s body.

During the Sermon on the Mount, Christ asked, “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?” Most people would agree this is indeed impossible. Yet primitive tribal communities have always realized that if ‘mind’ includes the emotions then miracles can happen – through ‘mind’ power alone.  A tribal standard of healing is to put a sick person into a trance, which frequently culminates in convulsions. In this uninhibited state the subject can release his repressed feelings and tensions letting out ‘unclean spirits.’ In most cases this seems to work. This ancient, ritualized trance method is now back in vogue in our sophisticated society as the foundation of many cults and encounter groups. In fact, Christ’s own method of healing relied to a certain extent on the same shock-release principle, although judging by the Gospel accounts he had no need to induce trances. His approach was simple, even blunt … “take up our bed and walk” spoken with what one must assume was considerable authority shocking the victims of paralysis so profoundly that their useless limbs were literally galvanized into action. Frequently, the exhortation to rise from their sick beds was prefixed by the phrase, “thy sins are forgiven thee,” a potent shock healing method. Exorcism also followed this pattern (and still does) as did ‘stroking’, the secular version of the Church’s laying on of hands.

During the 18^th century, miracles came to be regarded with suspicion, and although Anton Mesmer’s  animal magnetism retained the traditional healing principle (including trances and convulsions), it could not win orthodox medicine’s acceptance. Its successor, hypnotism, was also to emphasize that patients were not responsible for their own recovery. The hypnotist alone, it was thought, was instrumental in effecting the cure, through the power of suggestion.

In the 1880s, a young French chemist, Emile Coué, had been impressed by the curious phenomena of his customers who were cured by drinking what they thought was medicine but was in fact colored water. The secret he discovered? Auto-Suggestion. He also realized that it was not a question of sick people wiling themselves to get well.  The customers who recovered after drinking the colored water were after all not exercising their will power or making any kind of conscious effort. It was their imagination that was being activated.  In the 1920s he popularized the saying,  “every day, in every way,  I get better and better.” It was not designed to express the will to get better; it was simply an incantation, a ritual aid to be used daily in programming one’s imaginative faculties.

The medical establishment would have nothing of this gimmickry. Students were taught as usual, that organic ailments had organic origins. Imagination had nothing to do with it at all. Ironically, just when Coueism was losing popularity, certain evidence came along that proved it right. Two young British cardiologists, William Evans and Clifford Hoyle, were conducting tests on the efficacy of various brands of drugs used in the treatment of angina at a London Hospital. To make sure the tests were fair, they divided the participants into two groups, both of whom were told they were taking the same drug. Only one group was taking it, while the other was taking bicarbonate of soda – and the later drug was most successful!

By the end of the 1960s, it had been established that humans could control their own nervous systems using a technique known as biofeedback. It was auto-suggestion plus hardware whereby students learned to use machines that monitored their reactions (emotional and psychological). If they were positive, then they learned to take full advantage of them – if negative they learned to destroy them.  Despite the revolutionary implications of the discoveries of auto-suggestion, biofeedback, and endorphin, the scientific establishment seems to be hardly aware of them. However despite official apathy, ordinary people are beginning to get the message.

Since the 1970s, there has been a massive proliferation of groups that use in one form or another, the benefits of auto-suggestion. There is also a growing realization that the power of auto-suggestion can account for many well attested ‘miracles of healing.’

Resource: The Healer Within,  Mysteries of Mind, Space and Time, vol. 12, pgs. 1460-1462