Mind-body exercises: healing a physical health issue by healing the mind. Any stories?

I finished Gabor Maté’s new book ‘Myth of Normal’ a while back and it’s rejuvenated my interest in mind-body healing. He gave tons of examples of people improving their health by dealing with trauma. There are other popular books that go into the evidence for this such as ‘The Body Keeps The Score’.

Reading the book reminded me that when I first started having symptoms of Crohn’s disease I was quite aware of a mind-body connection. I was 14 and I would get diarrhea after mowing the lawn…only….no diarrhea for a week until I mowed again. To keep this post from getting too long, I won’t go into detail as to why mowing the lawn was so stressful. Just know there was a specific reason.

The doctor said I was probably just dehydrated. Hydrating didn’t help. Turns out I had giardiasis, but why did I only get diarrhea after mowing the lawn week by week for several weeks until it got worse? Then I was given antibiotics and the diarrhea got worse, which lead to a generalized “colitis” diagnosis at the time.

In high school I would get a flare up before every music performance. Tests, sometimes. And when I moved to California and only saw my parents at Christmas, I would have a flare every Christmas. I could even feel my intestines clenching up the first day I would be around my parents. I could go on and on with observations like this. Over the years I’ve come to feel that clenching of my intestines quite clearly on certain occasions.

I have a few interesting stories(well, I think they’re interesting) about times in my life when I seemed to go into remission from a therapy which either had a mental/emotional component to it, or, was purely mind focused. In retrospect, I wish I listened to my instinct more. I wish I made meditation a higher priority. Other methods too, everything from psycho therapy, breathing exercises, socializing with like minded people, to simply getting out in nature more.

I’m curious if anyone has found relief from a physical health issue through emotional healing.

Everyone is different, but, for me I am aware of some anxiety troubles that I have which count towards your question. They manifest in a lot of ways. Sometimes they manifest quite physically - intestinal discomfort, diarrhea, headaches, chest pains, odd pains in various body parts. But knowing that I have these anxieties gives me the edge. I often remember that in my case if I can manage the anxiety part of my brain then I might get some relief from the physical things too.

The reverse is true too. If I can, for example, eat slowly and eat well, then I tend to have fewer anxious episodes. I assume this is part of the mind-gut connection that I've heard about recently. Maybe though it's just the focusing on the present in a meditative sense.

In any case I think for me, it goes both ways.

Guided meditations helped me a lot. Breathing also helps me a lot. Exercise helps a lot. Yoga helps a lot. Goal oriented forward planning helps a lot. Permies have helped a lot in the past too!

I grew up in a religion that taught these principles.

I am sorry I have no story to tell other than knowing these principles have kept me healthy without needing to see a physician.

I only see a physician to refill my blood pressure meds every couple of years.

I try to drink lots of water and do breathing exercises.  And T-Touch massage.

This:

L Johnson said, "Guided meditations helped me a lot. Breathing also helps me a lot. Exercise helps a lot. Yoga helps a lot. Goal oriented forward planning helps a lot. Permies have helped a lot in the past too!

Keeping a positive attitude at all times also has kept me healthy.

Some years ago I was in a bizzaar car accident. Black ice, 70mph, hit dry dirt on median, truck launched into the air like a spiral foot ball, hit the door so hard with side of my head that it popped open in flight. Had my seat belt on, truck landed back on wheels. This resulted in a concussion and side-ways whip lash. The area impacted in my spine was between my shoulder blades. If I  went to the chiropractor to keep the spot in line...it was sort of do-able. But, I moved, lost the insurance coverage and was becoming horridly impaired. It hurt to sit, to sleep,  exercise.etc... One night as I was in tears trying to get any comfort, I sort of remembered someone had told me once about "breathing into pain". At the time I thought "that's crazy". I did not know exactly what they had meant but started focusing on "breath", as if the inhaled air was a live being. I took several deep breaths focused the air-being into the injured spine, holding it there in my mind,  the whole time thinking the word "Peace" on the inhale and exhale.. Then imagining that peace filled "air-being" rushing down my arm and turning to little air bubbles as it came out my finger tips with a slow exhale....Like the little bubbles through a scuba regulator. It took exactly 7 breaths like this and the nasty pain was totally gone. It was the first time in 3 years that I got a good nights sleep. I was pain free for about 7 months, then did some untowards lifting that set it off again...This time it only took 3 focused "Peace filled breaths" and the pain was gone. I use this technique to get rid of hiccups, head aches and severe leg cramps. Something like this might help you since you can "feel" when/where the trouble in your gut starts??
For hiccups I focus the "Peace air-being" into the back of my throat on the inhale and blow it out my mouth. For leg cramps I inhale "peace" into the screaming muscles, hold it there for a couple seconds and blow it out the bottom of my foot...in imagination, little bubbles. Head aches, same sort of process but blow it out the top of my head. Works like a charm for me. May be worth a try??

Not healing per se, but my wife was part of a biofeedback study at the university she attended in the early 70’s.   Anyway, years later she was a patient at Mayo Clinic in MN.   One day, when she was having her Vitals taken, she amused herself by raising and lowering her B/P.  Without hesitation, the MD, who was present, looked at her and said “Cut that out!”.

John F Dean wrote:Not healing per se, but my wife was part of a biofeedback study at the university she attended in the early 70’s. Anyway, years later she was a patient at Mayo Clinic in MN.   One day, when she was having her Vitals taken, she amused herself by raising and lowering her B/P.  Without hesitation, the MD, who was present, looked at her and said “Cut that out!”.

This made me laugh, thank you

Jackie, thank you for sharing this story. I have done something similar in the past to manage pain. Reading your story increases my belief that I should prioritize mind-body practices, which—to echo what L. Johnson said about permies helping with mental health—is probably fundamentally why I started this thread. Motivation is key. Hearing stories like this and getting positive feedback from others can make a big difference for me.

I’m recalling what made me lose interest in these practices. It was when I started getting really bloated due to strictures partially blocking my intestines. I had been having great success with hypnosis and guided imagery until the bloating took over. It’s continued to be an issue, and so I feel I need something physical to go along with the mental component. Yoga postures that will help move the food through my intestines. Doing somethig like Jackie described while standing in a qigong stance known as golden turtle has been helpful before.

I think I could modify the stance so that my hands put pressure deeply into my abdomen. I learned a Japanese massage years ago specifically for the abdomen called hara. Hara simply means stomach if I’m not mistaken. I’ve considered finding a massage therapist willing to let me teach them how to give me this hara massage.

My point is, when bloating is down the mind body practices seem to work better. Sometimes there is a physical aspect that has to be dealt with physically so that the mind can actually do it’s thing.

Thank you all for the feedback. Every post is appreciated.

A question. Have you ever thought about  your saliva? Things can seriously run amuck if you do not  have all of the digestive enzymes needed to initiate proper digestion. But the Cortisol issue can be very "impactful".
https://www.thoughtco.com/salivary-amylase-other-enzymes-in-saliva-4586549
I have low bile/gall bladder issues and liver damage from a detox gone wrong. I battle this daily. My best "results" towards normal...was after a year long "slow/gentle" detox with Calcium d-glucarate.  
Stress creates a hormone reaction releasing cortisol.
This is a very good over view of cortisol issues:
https://www.drlamcoaching.com/blog/cortisol-and-the-digestive-system/https://www.drlamcoaching.com/blog/cortisol-and-the-digestive-system/
This may be helpful??

This is very interesting topic, great stories everyone! I have been reading about this, there has been a lot of people healing from allergies through the mind. The theory is that the ”allergy” (or other symptom) is actually bodys reaction for a misintrepreted threat.

For example, if you almost choke to piece of apple, the body reads the apple as a threat and you could develop an allergy for apple because the next time you eat apple your body goes ”DANGER, DANGER!”.

Fun thing is that these go way past you and your parents and who knows how far. There is a mouse experiment where they gave a mouse electric shock at the same time with a cherry scent. Soon they could read stress signals from the mouse just from the cherry scent.

Then the mouse had babies, and those mice also had babies. They gave the great grandchildren of the cherryshocked mouse just the scent of cherries, and the mice got stressed.

The book I have been reading hasn’t been translated to english yet and the course is on pause while the author makes it better, but if you want to check it out it’s freetoheal.org .

I have issues with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from afore mention auto accident and a former spouse who thought he would cure me of that PTSD by terrorizing me on mountain cliff-side roads w/o guardrails. It only made things worse. It was living hell for me to be a passenger in a moving vehicle. The adrenaline and cortisol increases make me physically ill. Sick to my stomach and sometimes diarrhea. If I drive , no problem. Hormones can be "tricky" things in our bodies. My liver disfunction results in a re-circulation  and build up of hormones to a toxic level. This is where the Calcium d-glucarate detox has been very helpful...it takes fat soluble toxins/excess hormones that get in a negative feed back loop in the enterohepatic re-circulation and alters them so they can be flushed out in urine. Calcium d-Glucarate is a natural substance found in fruits. It was interesting to me that when I started on this detox, my PTSD was greatly diminished...and I also lost 25 pounds! The body does not know what to do with toxins, so it often stashes them in inflammation and fat stores. I still have PTSD as a passenger but I can now back it down "mentally", I think I had it so long that it became a "learned response".
An interesting thing I stumbled upon about digestive enzymes: https://draxe.com/nutrition/lipase/
*(Note, I am giving you "lay-person" articles because the scientific papers can be hard to follow, if anyone wants the more scientific "versions" I can send links.)
The "Lipase" issue could play a roll in VISITING YOUR PARENTS...if they have Floridated Drinking water???
Brainstorming...

I’ve never noticed enzymes to do much for me. I do take enzymes because my chiropractor recommends Cellcore enzymes with humic and fulvic acids. I’ve taken ox bile, gall bladder, papaya enzymes, and probably a lot of other types over the years. Infection(gut dysbiosis) seems to be a big factor for me. The herbal antimictobials my chiropractor gives me seem to be helping.

Fun thing is that these go way past you and your parents and who knows how far. There is a mouse experiment where they gave a mouse electric shock at the same time with a cherry scent. Soon they could read stress signals from the mouse just from the cherry scent.

Then the mouse had babies, and those mice also had babies. They gave the great grandchildren of the cherryshocked mouse just the scent of cherries, and the mice got stressed.

I’ve heard about this, although maybe not because of the study you referenced. I’ve heard of some people getting into remission of crohns seemingly by just working through trauma. Some of what they work on is their association of foods with feelings. It’s easy to have a negative association with a large number of foods when one has crohn’s. So when someone begins to heal, these associations may be inaccurate and the digestive reaction may switch from being of a biological source to an emotional source. In other cases, it may be an emotional source all along.

From reading in this thread I can see that there are two topics being addressed:

1. How can we deal with psychological or emotional problems that affect our health?
I guess everybody knows the more trivial occurrences of headache or diarrhea and gut cramping before stressful events. For me those have gotten better, not sure if it has to do with age or a better self-confidence. I could not drive a car for many decades but read a book on driving fear and have taken lessons again and am comfortable with everything now except Autobahn.

Fortunately I don't have further psychological traumas so can't comment on these.

2. Can we willfully influence physical issues?
This is something I have taken up again lately. In my twenties I bought a book on autogenic training (which was en vogue back then) and took up the simple relaxation techniques. I found I can get that "heavy, warm limbs" sensation quite quickly and was a bit surprised that this exercise seemed somewhat engrained in memory. I do it in bed in the evening and it helps with feeling warm and relaxed and gives me a good sleep.
Edit: I have just realized that Autogenic Training might not be a familiar term outside of Germany so I am leaving this Wikipedia link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autogenic_training

Then I also apply a kind of technique that I learned from a friend some twenty years ago. I used to suffer from frequently recurring cystitis and I was suffering a lot. She told me how to fill up with golden energy while breathing in (similar to what Jackie relates) and direct that energy to my fingertips, and then apply the fingers to whichever part of your body that is aching. She did this while in a restaurant and I could feel a warm and tingling sensation when she neared her fingers to my hand (I have to say that I am not an esoteric person in general but believe in science).
Well, I have not suffered from a relapse where I had to take antibiotics and I think there is something to it.

If someone has a more guided (written-down) approach to this technique I would be interested.

Anita Martin wrote:From reading in this thread I can see that there are two topics being addressed:

1. I could not drive a car for many decades but read a book on driving fear and have taken lessons again and am comfortable with everything now except Autobahn.

Is this book on overcoming driving fears in English? If so, I’d like to know the title.

Then I also apply a kind of technique that I learned from a friend some twenty years ago. I used to suffer from frequently recurring cystitis and I was suffering a lot. She told me how to fill up with golden energy while breathing in (similar to what Jackie relates) and direct that energy to my fingertips, and then apply the fingers to whichever part of your body that is aching. She did this while in a restaurant and I could feel a warm and tingling sensation when she neared her fingers to my hand (I have to say that I am not an esoteric person in general but believe in science).
Well, I have not suffered from a relapse where I had to take antibiotics and I think there is something to it.

If someone has a more guided (written-down) approach to this technique I would be interested.

I would also like a more detailed instruction of how to this. Now that I think of it, I probably have a few sources for detailed instructions. I should reach out to one in particular.

I’ll have to look into this autogenic thing as well. Thanks for all this info.

Jackie said, 'I have issues with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from afore mention auto accident

Jackie, have you used your mind or positive thinking to try to heal your PTSD?

In order for the mind to heal there must be faith and understanding.

I was taught to use practice, growth in grace, and understanding through thoughts.

My favorite is "The Power of Positive Thinking" by Norman Vincent Peale.

His wife, Ruth Stafford Peale also wrote a book "The Adventure of Being a Wife" based on her and her husband's philosophy of positive thinking.

Another author, Napoleon Hill wrote "Think and Grow Rich", a book that is credited to have influenced more people into success than anyone in history.

For folks who are having problems achieving success with positive thinking, I would recommend the books by Dr. Wayne Dyer.  My favorite is "Your Erroneous Zones" and "Pulling your own Strings"

https://permies.com/t/208014/Enjoy#1740022

In that same thread is a recommendation for "If you would be happy" by Ruth Stout.  I have not read this one.

There are help that will help with PTSD.

I would highly recommend making a tea made with lemon balm when you are feeling stressed and anxious.

Teas made with Chamomile, Lavender, or Peppermint would also help.

Have you found that exercise helps to decrease cortisol levels?

I would highly recommend being outside with nature while practicing mind exercises using grace and understanding.

Try doing the deep breathing exercise while sitting or even laying in a quiet serene place.

It is easy to learn how to do them.

https://permies.com/t/206008/personal-care/purity/Breathing-exercises-techniques-health

It is my hope that this thread and the one on the breathing exercises will bring you some peace.

Ann Miller,
Yes, I try to keep the PTSD  in "a box"...it is a funny thing though...we can be driving along and all is fine, then seemingly out of the blue I get floored with a huge adrenaline dump. I have tried to keep track of any similarities from time to time so I can nip it in the bud, but so far it is pretty random, seems to be "flash back" triggered. Like a weird parallel road trip that was horrific and floods into the moment. Sometimes it is almost like something in the corner of my eye or just a slight weave on the road. Once it hits, I am scrambling to back it off and nail the box shut again, takes some serious focus. Thanks for the info, I will check it out. If I drive there is no issue.

Kevin David wrote:

Anita Martin wrote:From reading in this thread I can see that there are two topics being addressed:

1. I could not drive a car for many decades but read a book on driving fear and have taken lessons again and am comfortable with everything now except Autobahn.

Is this book on overcoming driving fears in English? If so, I’d like to know the title.

No, sorry, the book is in German by an German author. I bet there are similar books in English.

I went to University many, many years ago, and remember clearly a Sociology course that included an assignment to do "an experiment". I felt that the experiment really didn't have a large enough sample size to draw any conclusion, despite the model we were basing it on, suggesting that it was a clear conclusion, and the Prof insisting that our version of it, was equally conclusive.
My conclusion: humans just don't fit into boxes the way the establishment likes to pretend they do.

Fast forward to kids and friends with kids, one of whom used Homeopathy a lot. Many experts will tell you that there's so little active ingredient, that it can't possibly work. (Mind you they made similar comments about acupuncture, and now they're not so sure...) So with my background and access to a medical library, I looked for quality research papers that evaluated Homeopathy. First off, the conditions the Doctors had chosen to study with a full-blown double-blind study, was asthma. Asthma isn't exactly considered a "curable" condition 30 years later, so evaluating "improvement" was a little subjective.

However the *really* interesting part, was that the lead Doctor was sooo.... sure that homeopathy was nothing but a placebo, that when it showed 60% improvement from the baseline, his conclusion was that there are faults in the theory of double-blind studies and that the placebo effect was clearly *much* larger that previously accepted. With my previous experience with experiments, I was willing to accept that double-blind studies had issues, but this bit about placebos...

So I ask, what's the difference between a placebo vs "healing a physical health issue by healing the mind". The direction of travel? Generally, doctors speak of "placebos" as a bad thing, or as a thing that doesn't count, or doesn't last. But if we harness its short-term effect, do the brain healing, do the body healing, do the body/brain connection thing (there's a US doctor using naturally fermented and organic foods to heal the gut to decrease the level of meds that her psychiatric patients need as an example) all without the risk of side effects from some pretty powerful chemicals we call "medication", I'm good with that. If people can learn to control their blood pressure intentionally, as John F Dean tells us, why are we using dangerous drugs to do so?

Many experts will tell you that there's so little active ingredient, that it can't possibly work. (Mind you they made similar comments about acupuncture, and now they're not so sure...) So with my background and access to a medical library, I looked for quality research papers that evaluated Homeopathy. First off, the conditions the Doctors had chosen to study with a full-blown double-blind study, was asthma. Asthma isn't exactly considered a "curable" condition 30 years later, so evaluating "improvement" was a little subjective.  

This post speaks to my heart. I’ve spent decades being treated like I’m stupid for trying all sorts of alternative medicine, even when I provide scientific literature. And it’s had consequences, big consequences. It’s made feel isolated, dumb, and worst of all I’ve second guessed myself so much I’ve stopped doing things which I now clearly see were helping me. Acupuncture is one of those things I was told doesn’t work even when I mentioned studies. I’ve been thinking I need to start giving myself acupuncture again(I went to a Chinese medicine school, mainly for massage to be clear).

So I ask, what's the difference between a placebo vs "healing a physical health issue by healing the mind". The direction of travel? Generally, doctors speak of "placebos" as a bad thing, or as a thing that doesn't count, or doesn't last. But if we harness its short-term effect, do the brain healing, do the body healing, do the body/brain connection thing

I’ve had conversations where I say something along these lines to someone who says “it’s probably a placebo”. The word placebo gets used in several different ways. I learned a lot about this at a lecture by the Chinese medicine doctor Ted Kaptchuck. Ted wrote a great book which explains the practicality of Chinese medical theory called the ‘The Web That Has No Weaver’. Ted was also an associate professor at Harvard, hired to conduct research on acupuncture. In the lecture he went through all the studies he did(and proposed) at Harvard, and how his colleagues always said “it was probably placebo”.

He got fed up and decided to study the placebo effect instead. The topic of the lecture was indeed placebos. He clarified what a true placebo is, what the other things people call placebo (like no-cebo, don’t know if I spelt that right) are, and mentioned some attempts to rule out placebo in acupuncture studies. For example, the sham acupuncture needles. The guide tube is left on so people can’t tell if they got a real needle. The fake gives a poke too via the mechanism hidden inside the tube.

The way I would explain qigong to skeptics(back when I used to even bother) was that it’s a standing, moving meditation/imagery. You increase the power of the minds imagery by actually acting out the imagery. For example, if you want to imagine a ball of yellow healing light entering your abdomen, why not actually move your arms as if you are pulling a ball in front of you into your abdomen? I think adding movement to imagery greatly increases the power of the mind’s imagination. With all the buzz on “mindfulness” people tend to like that explanation.

It isn’t so controversial to talk about physical health benefits of meditation anymore. So much research has made it to the mainstream. Like I touched on earlier, it hurts me to see alternatives go mainstream with no acknowledge that the skeptics were wrong. They criticize, they insult, they’re demeaning, and then when proven wrong they just go “who knew!”…well, I knew. And I won’t get any points for being right. I also won’t get the time back where I doubted myself. Then there is the stress it caused. The conflicts with doctors. Afraid to see the gastroenterologist because he’s going to shame me(I finally found a nice one).

Some people think skepticism is the safe bet, but there are consequences. And we are all skeptics. The person who thinks the earth is flat is skeptical that the earth is round. The person who thinks the earth is round is skeptical that the earth is flat. I think what is really going on with a lot of hardcore skeptics who turn it into a hobby is that they are conventionalists. They favor conventional ideas, the status quo. I thinks it’s born of ego. They are afraid of being wrong in a minority opinion. Because if the majority is wrong, there is no punishment, it’s simply “who knew!”. But when a small group is wrong, they are shamed. If you want to avoid shame, just go along with the popular viewpoint, even when you are wrong there is no shaming. It’s just “we didn’t know better”

The irony of all this is that the topic is mind body healing, healing via emotions in a sense. And yet my attempts at this have led to many negative emotions. This is one reason I post on permies so much more lately. When I was in California  I knew like minded people. In India, lots of people are very open and aware of this stuff. I’d say it’s the norm. It’s one thing I desperately miss about India: their awareness and respect for mental states and their power. Here, I don’t know any like minded people to talk to in person. So I go to permies.

Kevin said, "This post speaks to my heart. I’ve spent decades being treated like I’m stupid for trying all sorts of alternative medicine, even when I provide scientific literature.

Having grown up in a religion that teaches using the mind to heal and knowing that these principles have kept me healthy, I also have learned not to discuss this openly.

I feel I can discuss this here since this is a safe place.

As I mentioned earlier, in order for the mind to heal there must be faith and understanding.

I was taught to use practice, growth in grace, and understanding through thoughts.

Whatever the alternatives that are used to heal, there are always going to be people who disbelieve.  It is best to heal yourself and be thankful that you have learned.


source

Anne Miller wrote:

Kevin said, "This post speaks to my heart. I’ve spent decades being treated like I’m stupid for trying all sorts of alternative medicine, even when I provide scientific literature.

Having grown up in a religion that teaches using the mind to heal and knowing that these principles have kept me healthy, I also have learned not to discuss this openly.

I feel I can discuss this here since this is a safe place..

I can relate to your hesitation to discuss this. As you said, permies is a safe place. If you feel like explaining anymore details of your process, please do. If you’d prefer a different forum or a PM, that is fine with me as well.

I’ve spent decades being treated like I’m stupid for trying all sorts of alternative medicine, even when I provide scientific literature. And it’s had consequences, big consequences. It’s made feel isolated, dumb, and worst of all I’ve second guessed myself so much I’ve stopped doing things which I now clearly see were helping me. Acupuncture is one of those things I was told doesn’t work even when I mentioned studies. I’ve been thinking I need to start giving myself acupuncture again(I went to a Chinese medicine school, mainly for massage to be clear).

So I ask, what's the difference between a placebo vs "healing a physical health issue by healing the mind". The direction of travel? Generally, doctors speak of "placebos" as a bad thing, or as a thing that doesn't count, or doesn't last. But if we harness its short-term effect, do the brain healing, do the body healing, do the body/brain connection thing

I’ve had conversations where I say something along these lines to someone who says “it’s probably a placebo”. The word placebo gets used in several different ways. I learned a lot about this at a lecture by the Chinese medicine doctor Ted Kaptchuck. Ted wrote a great book which explains the practicality of Chinese medical theory called the ‘The Web That Has No Weaver’. Ted was also an associate professor at Harvard, hired to conduct research on acupuncture. In the lecture he went through all the studies he did(and proposed) at Harvard, and how his colleagues always said “it was probably placebo”.

He got fed up and decided to study the placebo effect instead. The topic of the lecture was indeed placebos. He clarified what a true placebo is, what the other things people call placebo (like no-cebo, don’t know if I spelt that right) are, and mentioned some attempts to rule out placebo in acupuncture studies. For example, the sham acupuncture needles. The guide tube is left on so people can’t tell if they got a real needle. The fake gives a poke too via the mechanism hidden inside the tube.

The way I would explain qigong to skeptics(back when I used to even bother) was that it’s a standing, moving meditation/imagery. You increase the power of the minds imagery by actually acting out the imagery. For example, if you want to imagine a ball of yellow healing light entering your abdomen, why not actually move your arms as if you are pulling a ball in front of you into your abdomen? I think adding movement to imagery greatly increases the power of the mind’s imagination. With all the buzz on “mindfulness” people tend to like that explanation.

It isn’t so controversial to talk about physical health benefits of meditation anymore. So much research has made it to the mainstream. Like I touched on earlier, it hurts me to see alternatives go mainstream with no acknowledge that the skeptics were wrong. They criticize, they insult, they’re demeaning, and then when proven wrong they just go “who knew!”…well, I knew. And I won’t get any points for being right. I also won’t get the time back where I doubted myself. Then there is the stress it caused. The conflicts with doctors. Afraid to see the gastroenterologist because he’s going to shame me(I finally found a nice one).

Some people think skepticism is the safe bet, but there are consequences. And we are all skeptics. The person who thinks the earth is flat is skeptical that the earth is round. The person who thinks the earth is round is skeptical that the earth is flat. I think what is really going on with a lot of hardcore skeptics who turn it into a hobby is that they are conventionalists. They favor conventional ideas, the status quo. I thinks it’s born of ego. They are afraid of being wrong in a minority opinion. Because if the majority is wrong, there is no punishment, it’s simply “who knew!”. But when a small group is wrong, they are shamed. If you want to avoid shame, just go along with the popular viewpoint, even when you are wrong there is no shaming. It’s just “we didn’t know better”

The irony of all this is that the topic is mind body healing, healing via emotions in a sense. And yet my attempts at this have led to many negative emotions. This is one reason I post on permies so much more lately. When I was in California  I knew like minded people. In India, lots of people are very open and aware of this stuff. I’d say it’s the norm. It’s one thing I desperately miss about India: their awareness and respect for mental states and their power. Here, I don’t know any like minded people to talk to in person. So I go to permies.

First; acupuncture healed me and taught me about myself, next to meditation, far beyond any western medicine.

Second; if Athlete A & Athlete B are exactly evenly matched, except Athlete A has a placebo & beats Athlete B every time; what is a placebo?

Kevin David wrote:I can relate to your hesitation to discuss this. As you said, permies is a safe place. If you feel like explaining anymore details of your process, please do. If you’d prefer a different forum or a PM, that is fine with me as well.

Kevin thank you for your concern.  It has been a long time since I grew up so most of what I was taught is put into everyday practice and I no longer remember the lessons. I live what I was taught. Again I repeat:

I was taught to use practice, growth in grace, and understanding through thoughts.