How negative thoughts can harm your health

“One person with a belief is equal to a force of ninety-nine who have only interests.” 
― John Stuart Mill

Our beliefs are so powerful they drive our behaviours, control our actions and ultimately shape our destinies. Have you ever considered why you believe what you believe? Where do your beliefs come from? Most of us go around on auto pilot with our lives being controlled by a set of beliefs that may be limiting us or empowering us. It doesn`t matter whether they are "right"or "wrong", "true" or "false". It only matters whether they are helping or hindering us. Since the majority of our beliefs were instilled in us at a very young age don`t you think it might be a good idea to occasionally question their validity? If perception is reality and we become what we think about. What are you thinking about? What do you believe about your world and yourself? Before you answer, think very carefully. It`s very possible your beliefs could kill or cure you. Check out the following article and video by Dr. Lissa Rankin and make your own mind up.

"Most of us have heard of “the placebo effect”—the heal-inducing effect patients in clinical trials experience when they believe they’re getting a fancy new drug or surgery but are actually getting fake treatment. The placebo effect is real. It works about eighteen to eighty percent of the time, and it’s not just in your head—it actually dilates bronchi, heals ulcers, makes warts disappear, drops your blood pressure, and even makes bald men who think they’re getting Rogaine grow hair!

Unwanted Side Effects

But the placebo effect has a shadow side. The same mind-body power that can heal you can also harm you. When patients in double-blinded clinical trials are warned about the side effects they may experience if they’re given the real drug, approximately twenty-five percent experience sometimes severe side effects, even when they’re only taking sugar pills.

Those treated with nothing more than placebos often report fatigue, vomiting, muscle weakness, colds, ringing in the ears, taste disturbances, memory disturbances, and other symptoms that shouldn’t result from a sugar pill.

Interestingly, these “nocebo” complaints aren’t random; they tend to arise in response to the side effect warnings on the actual drug or treatment. The mere suggestion that a patient may experience negative symptoms in response to a medication (or a sugar pill) may be a self-fulfilling prophecy. For example, if you tell a patient treated with a placebo he might experience nausea, he’s likely to feel nauseous. If you suggest that he might get a headache, he may. Patients given nothing but saline who thought it was chemotherapy actually threw up and lost their hair!

When You Think You’re Going to Die

In another study, patients about to undergo surgery who were “convinced” of their impending death were compared to another group of patients who were merely “unusually apprehensive” about death. While the apprehensive bunch fared pretty well, those who were convinced they were going to die usually did.

Similarly, women who believed they were prone to heart disease were four times more likely to die. It’s not because these women had poorer diets, higher blood pressure, higher cholesterol, or stronger family histories than the women who didn’t get heart disease. The only difference between the two groups was their beliefs.

The nocebo effect is probably most obvious in “voodoo death”—when a person is cursed, told they will die, and then dies. The notion of voodoo death doesn’t just apply to witch doctors in tribal cultures. The literature shows that patients believed to be terminal who are mistakenly informed that they have only a few months to live have died within their given time frame, even when autopsy findings reveal no physiological explanation for the early death.

Dr. Steve’s Story

In response to what I said in my latest TEDx talk about the placebo effect’s evil twin, “the nocebo effect,” L. Chas sent me an email, telling me the story of her brother Steve, who was a physician diagnosed with the exact same illness that was his specialty. When he was diagnosed with malignant tumors in both lungs, his doctors told him that he had five years to live, and knowing what he knew about the disease, Steve believed this.

Exactly five years later, to the day, he was snorkeling in Maui when he was found unconscious on the shore. Steve was resuscitated, but he had been without oxygen to the brain for over four minutes and wound up in a coma until his family chose to withdraw life support.

L. Chas wrote, “More than anything else, I think my brother believed that, when diagnosed with his disease, a patient has ‘five good years left.’ Just as you’ve said in your videos: the nocebo effect. So sad it had to go this way.”

Medical Hexing

Every time your doctor tells you that you have an “incurable” illness or that you’ll be on medication for the rest of your life or that you have a five-percent five-year survival, they’re essentially cursing you with a form of “medical hexing.” They don’t mean to. They’re not trying to harm you. They know not what they do.

Doctors think they’re telling it to you straight, that you deserve to know, that you should be realistic and make arrangements, if necessary. But when they say such things, they instill in your conscious and subconscious mind a belief that you won’t get well, and as long as the mind holds this negative belief, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you believe you’ll never recover, you won’t.

The Moral of This Story

After reading through the 3500+ case studies documented in the medical literature in the Spontaneous Remission Project, which was compiled by the Institute of Noetic Sciences, I now believe there’s no such thing as an incurable illness. If you or someone you love is suffering from a “chronic,” “incurable,” or “terminal” illness and you want to optimize the chance for spontaneous remission, you have to start by cleansing your mind of any negative beliefs that will sabotage your self-healing efforts. My upcoming book Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof That You Can Heal Yourself offers tips for how you can change your negative beliefs to positive ones in order to optimize your chances".

What do you think? What do you believe?

Unleash your potential by getting rid of your false beliefs

Why do we have limited potential?

Have you been to the circus lately?
I know it's an odd question to ask in a self-development article but just be patient. In the circus you'll find clowns, gymnasts and animals of all sorts and sizes, but there is one animal that you're almost guaranteed to find. It's the elephant. If you think about it, you'll find that the elephant is a huge animal. If it ever decides to run away, it could cause serious chaos and disruption in the whole neighborhood. The question is: Why doesn't the elephant try to escape?

Whenever a new elephant is brought to the circus, it is chained to a heavy iron ball. The elephant struggles in vain to escape. Everyday, the elephant repeatedly tries to escape until it finally loses hope of ever being free. The elephant has built up a false belief of the impossibility to escape. Even when the chains are removed, it will never try to escape again.

You've been Brainwashed

All of us have been in that elephant's situation at some point of our life. It's not our fault. We're being brainwashed everyday by our friends, colleagues and the media. Society is always creating certain 'barriers' that are supposedly impenetrable to any normal human being. They are simply out of reach, except if you're a genius or very lucky. Here is a list of some false beliefs that you may have acquired throughout your life:

• I can't learn a new sport now, I should have started when I was a kid.
• It's very hard to find a decent job these days, there is no way I could ever have a proper job.
• No one gets everything in life. You have to choose.
• When you get married you won't have time for any activities.
• I can't quit smoking. Even if I could, it will only be temporarily.
• I'm not lucky. If I had been lucky I would have had everything that I wanted.
• Luck DOES exist!

How false beliefs change people's lives

If you're still taking the issue lightheartedly, let me tell you a story that will change your perspective of things. It revolves around two friends: Joe and Bob, who were used to hang out and play basketball together regularly.

Joe, in particular, was taught by his parents that no one gets everything in life.
Joe and Bob started applying for jobs, and - by coincidence - they both got an interview at the same company. After passing the interview, they were told that the job requires them to work 12 hours a day with only one day off per week. This meant that whoever accepted the job would have to quit playing basketball, because he won't have enough time. Joe thought: "Well, I can't get everything in life. I'll accept the job and give up basketball" and so he took the job. Bob, on the other hand thought: "No, thanks. I'm sure there's a better job somewhere that suits my schedule. After all, I don't want to give up my favorite sport." and didn't accept the job.

After few months, Joe started to feel that something was missing in his life. He`d got used to the good mood that accompanies regular exercising and his brain had got used to getting more oxygen.

As a result, Joe started to feel depressed without knowing why. He even left his job, thinking that it was the reason for his unhappiness.

When people live in a Virtual World

Stories such as these happen everyday because there are people who have similar false beliefs. Most people are unaware of their powers. Some people are held back only by these false beliefs, even though they have many abilities and opportunities for advancement. They convince themselves that they are fine and that this is the way life was meant to be. Those people describe life from their own unique perspective without paying any attention to the real reality.

Lots of people do not take enough actions to improve their lives

Some people do not try to learn anything new and they believe that it's so hard to get a decent job, regardless of how well you're skilled. They indulge in bad habits like smoking and drugs and think that they can never give it up. Some people quit sports and get fat, thinking that their marriage and career should consume their whole time. "Well, you can't get everything in life, can you?" they say.

Some people even go a step further and stay broken for years after breaking up just because of false beliefs, in my book How to get over anyone in few days I described how false beliefs like "He is the one" or "He is my soul mate" can prevent you from recovering fast. A key element in getting over breakups in a short period of time is identifying these false beliefs then dealing with them.

Challenge Your Beliefs

It gets really funny when people start spreading false beliefs without even TESTING them. I was once seeking a certain computer certification and whenever I asked someone about it I was told that it's very hard to pass the exam.

I admit that at the beginning I was about to believe them but then I decided to ask those people "What is so difficult about the exam?". You'll be astonished by the reply: "We don't know. We never tried to take it." These people believed that the exam was so hard just because other people told them so!

So most people say things and spread beliefs that they haven't even tested!!
What's the correct action to take when you get to deal with such people?

First, you should test those opinions. If someone told you that you can't lift that box over there then don't just take his word for it, go and try it by yourself. Just because he couldn't lift it doesn't mean that you can't either. Similarly, if someone didn't have the qualities required to land a job, it doesn't mean that you don't have these qualities. People differ in their qualities, strengths and weaknesses. To sum it up:

"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." - Henry Ford

Written by M.Farouk Radwan, MSc. 

Laughter is the best medicine!