Tag Archives: Healing

For health: forgiveness is good, bitterness is not

By Bob CummingsNovember 7, 2011Health, Notes from Bob Cummingsbitterness, CNN, Elizabeth Cohen, forgiveness, Healing, health, spirituality, University of Michigan Institute for Social Research

Recently, while in an airport waiting for a flight, I heard on CNN a summary of an article by Elizabeth Cohen, Senior Medical Correspondent for CNN, in which it was pointed out that bitterness is bad for our health.

In her article Cohen shares some significant points made by some contributors to a new book entitled, “Embitterment: Societal, psychological, and clinical perspectives.” In short, bitterness interferes with the body’s hormonal and immune systems, leads to higher blood pressure and contributes to heart disease and other illnesses.

Can human beings really live to be 1,000?

By Bob CummingsNovember 1, 2011Health, Notes from Bob Cummingsaging, Alzheimer's, Healing, health, immortality, mortality, religious, spirituality

A study published in 2000 by the American Psychological Association found that “religious involvement was significantly associated with lower mortality.” Similarly, a study published in The American Journal of Public Health in 1997 found that frequent religious attendance reduced mortality.

Researchers suspect some of this comes from healthier behaviors and more social interaction characteristic of those with religious involvement. But, to their credit, they accept that the research results show a connection between religious involvement and reduced mortality and indicate that more research is needed to understand why.

I recently read an interesting book entitled, “Long For This World – The Strange Science of Immortality” by Jonathan Weiner. Much of the book centers on conversations with Aubrey de Grey who believes that aging is a disease caused by the accumulation of waste at the cellular level, sometimes called the “disposable soma theory”.

Charles Darwin sees connection between thought and blushing

By Bob CummingsOctober 25, 2011Health, Notes from Bob Cummingsblushing, Charles Darwin, consciousness, divine, Healing, health, spirituality, thought

Blushing provides a great example, I think, of how consciousness can affect health. An emotional response in thought (e.g. feeling embarrassment) has a direct effect on the body – a change in blood flow seen as blushing in the face. I have found that through prayer, a change in thought resulting from feeling a connection to God, or feeling God’s love, can result in physical healing.

Charles Darwin (courtesy of flickr user shehal)

So I was pleasantly surprised to come across some of Charles Darwin’s writings about blushing in Chapter 13 of his book, The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals (see pages 325-326). Now I’m not getting into any debate here between evolution and creationism. I’m just sharing interesting insights from a well-known and respected naturalist.

Darwin wrote (emphasis added by me), “It is not the simple act of reflecting on our own appearance, but the thinking what others think of us, which excites a blush.

Taming impossibility

By Bob CummingsOctober 17, 2011Health, Notes from Bob Cummingsconsciousness, Daniel Schectman, Healing, health, imagined, impossible, possible, prayer, spirituality, Theory of Relativity

“What is now proved, was once only imagined.” – William Blake

Earlier this month Israeli scientist Daniel Shechtman was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his discovery of a new chemical structure called quasicrystals that researchers considered to be impossible. Initially the scientific community was reluctant to accept his discovery, to the point where he endured mockery and even expulsion from his research team. The Academy said that his discovery “fundamentally altered how chemists conceive of solid matter”. This recognition came with a $1.5 million award.

This news item got me to thinking about “possible” and “impossible”. It seems that we deem things to be impossible until we have evidence to the contrary. Man couldn’t fly, until of course, the Wright brothers proved that we could. It is impossible to run a mile in under 4 minutes – or so we thought, until Roger Bannister did this.

Thinking about the placebo effect

By Bob CummingsSeptember 19, 2011Health, Notes from Bob Cummingsdivine, Healing, health, placebo, thought, treatment

If the placebo effect is the result of an expectation in thought, if we took the placebo out of the equation and retained only the thought, would that still help? If the placebo has no intrinsic medicinal value, isn’t the effect from a placebo already the result of the thought connected with it?

A placebo is a non-medicated pill, or sugar pill, often used to set a benchmark in research to determine the effect of a drug. Patients often experience positive therapeutic effects from a placebo and this is thought to be the result of their thought that it will help them. This is called the “placebo effect”.

I’ve read that larger placebos have been found to be more effective than smaller ones and taking two placebos more effective than one. Also, that placebos were more effective when given to a patient by a doctor than when they were self-administered. All of this even though they have no active ingredient.

Rethinking the universe

By Bob CummingsJuly 18, 2011Health, ScienceHealing, infinity, non-locality, quantum physics, Scientific American, thought, TIme and space, Vlatko Vedral

Does thought know no bounds?

In my previous blog post, “Science and spirituality”, I shared a new shift in thought identified by Larry Dossey M.D. that he describes as moving from “local” (brain-body) to “non-local” (mind-body) healing. This non-local healing is a shift from one place at one time to any place at any time, and this further trends towards every place at any time, and thus every place at every time. This therefore trends towards an omnipresent, unitary mind, or in other words, one omnipresent mind.

Here is a guest post by a colleague of mine, Sharon Frey, that shares how quantum physicists are seeing “non-locality“.

Guest post by Sharon Frey, Media Manager, First Church of Christ, Scientist
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rethinking the universe

Living in a Quantum World. The June cover of Scientific American really caught my eye. It seems that for a while now, physicists have been saying yes, quantum mechanics exists, but it only applies to a category of small things, very small things. However, the author of this article, along with a growing chorus of other physicists, says it looks like quantum mechanics applies to bigger things too.

Science and spirituality

By Bob CummingsJuly 11, 20111 commentHealthHealing, Healing Words, Larry Dossey M.D., mind-body, Science, spirituality

“The choice between science and spirituality appears increasingly artificial today, even from a scientific perspective.” writes Larry Dossey M.D.¹

It does seem difficult for thought entrenched in the material to consider something quite different. But all that is needed really is a change in thought.

Caregiver placebo effect

By Bob CummingsJune 20, 2011HealthCaregiver, Christ Jesus, Christian Science, Healing, health, Herbert Benson MD, placebo effect, Science and Health, thought, Timeless Healing

Placebos by Akacio S. ( /photographyk )

The placebo effect is usually considered to be the curative effective resulting from patients equipping a sugar pill with their belief in its ability to help. But it turns out that the placebo effect can result from the thought of the caregiver as well.

“Belief in or expectation of a good outcome can have formidable restorative power, whether the positive expectations are on the part of the patient, the doctor or caregiver, or both…” says Herbert Benson, M.D. writing (with Marg Stark) about what he calls “remembered wellness” in his book “Timeless Healing – The Power and Biology of Belief”.

Spiritual evidence-based healing

By Bob CummingsJune 13, 2011HealthAndrew Weil M.D., Christian Science, evidence-based, faith, Healing, Jesus, Mary Baker Eddy, Science an Health with Key to the Scriptures, spirituality, spontaneous healing, thought

Andew Weil, M.D. courtesy of greenlagirl

Andrew Weil, M.D., in “Why Our Health Matters” (page 43) writes, “Many doctors have told me about cases of spontaneous healing that they have witnessed in patients, some correlated with mental or emotional changes“.

So, how can we account for experiences like that? Or how can we explain healing accomplished in Christian Science through spiritual means alone?

Medicine’s reverse marriage?

By Bob CummingsJune 6, 2011HealthA.M.A., alternative medicine, CAM, Christian Science, complementary and alternative medicine, Deepak Chopra, Healing, medicine

It’s like a reverse marriage – sort of.

An Op-Ed piece entitled, “Medicine’s Great Divide – The View from the Alternative Side” published this month in the Virtual Mentor, the American Medical Association’s Journal of Ethics, describes the relationship between conventional medicine and alternative medicine like a bad marriage in reverse, starting with divorce, going through mediation, and working towards “a shy courtship”.

Tag Archives: Healing

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