I have never had doubts about the potential healing power through faith and belief. When this occurs, it is often regarded and considered
a miracle, and in many ways it is. Genuine and all-encompassing faith
can move mountains and at that point and stage not even the sky can limit or contain
its immense expansive and luminous powers. Belief or faith as a thought process
tied and connected with emotions has a drive that can change lives and mobilize
and accelerate the healing process.
Fortunately, this is not necessarily treated as an alien
concept in today’s science. A case in point would be the book Cancer, I Love You by the physician Alexandre
Rushenas. In this book, the author demonstrates the processes that our body
undergoes when we change certain patterns of thought and emotion and how this
could lead not only to a more fulfilled and healthier physical as well as spiritual
life, but how it could also unlock potentials for healing in various diseases,
including cancer.
First off, Rushenas gives us a glimpse of his own troubled
and suffering past. He was born in Iran, attended a multi-faith school and was
living during the tumultuous times of the Iranian Revolution; he had to
witness, experience - and eventually accept - the futile and cold-blooded
murder and execution of his father by violent elements of a changing regime.
As a child, he used to believe in God, but this horrendous
and inexplicable loss of his father cast everything into somber shrouds of
doubt. Yet over the years, he managed to recover and regain belief and faith by
channeling them in the direction of medicine. The result is a refreshingly
renegade outlook away from traditional scientific practice and medicine in
favor of an alternative, more holistic and psychological approach, one that I
myself accept and embrace.
We would need to understand his philosophical viewpoint
before we can fully understand and appreciate what he has to say about the
healing potentials of our body. His ideas philosophically speaking are rather
simplistic, yet they include interesting metaphors to show how our mind and
body interact and combine to create either healthy or unhealthy lifestyles and
conditions.
Rushenas breaks down the universe into three parts. On the
outermost level, there is the planetary dimension or realm, which includes everything
out there from our tiny infinitesimal speck of a planet towards possibly two
trillion galaxies in the known as well as still largely unknown and unexplored
universe. This mind-boggling fact about our living space is something we tend to
forget, but it may help ground us a little more in our daily life and
existence.
Then there is us, the human level. This is a state that has
been reached throughout evolution and continues to evolve. This is a realm that
has created scientific and technological advances as well as impressive and
unequaled works of art, poetry and literature, all of which separate and
distinguish us from the domains of animals and our ancestors. We continue this
quest of knowledge to not only understand ourselves better but to explore our
surroundings into the farthest reaches of the planetary dimension.
Finally, there is the cellular level. This is the
microcosmic part of and within us. In the cellular dimension, we have hundreds
of trillions of cells. These cells have evolved, adapted and gone through
myriad changes throughout to lead to our current existence on this planet. At its
inception, we all start off as the mother of all cells, the zygote, and through
embryogenesis we evolve and cross from the cellular level into the human
dimension. Yet most of the times, we live and act as if there is only the human
realm, ignoring the other dimensions that are part and parcel of who and where
we are in space and time.
Nonetheless, we are sometimes reminded, more often painfully
than not, that this is not the only level. Our cellular dimension is most
intimately connected and interconnected with us, so when things go wrong, we
will feel it. For instance, when we get sick, this will spread out to the
second and larger dimension and would interfere with our lifestyle, and in
unfortunate or advanced cases, could even lead to death. For instance, when we
catch pneumonia, unbeknownst to us, there are billions of cells attacking the
germs and trying to restore our inner balance of homeostasis.
Yet even in peaceful times, meaning when there are no
imminent attacks from foreign agents, our body is in the process of constant
renewal. On a continuous basis, dying cells are replaced, damaged ones are
repaired and up to three hundred million new cells may be produced every
minute. These cells are genetically designed and trained to do what is best for
our health, with little or no conscious or willful action necessary from us,
the owners of the cells.
As owners, or as Rushenas puts it as the gods of the cells,
we hover and reside over them and communicate with them in conscious or
unconscious manners. However, they do not respond to language, which can be
even in the best of times rather ambiguous, but they listen to and obey our
emotions only. Any emotion we feel – be they positive or negative - then has a
direct impact on the cells of the cellular dimension. This would explain how
our attitude can either accelerate healing processes or deteriorate health
conditions.
Every emotion emanates a certain type of energy that is absorbed by the cells leading to certain changes on the molecular, chemical and
hormonal levels. Emotions can either heal or destroy us. When they are
positive, they can give us a sense of well-being and that positivity is
embraced by the cells leading to more positive outcomes for the given
individual.
This is not merely a case of
pretense or just positive thinking, but it must resonate with genuine feeling
and emotion since the message that is transmitted to the cells must be as clear
and as unequivocal as possible. This mechanism is mainly responsible for
the placebo effect: We truly believe that the medication in question has the
properties to heal us (even when they do not and are mere water pills) and this
belief becomes an actual fact and condition.
This faith then can propel the cells into more effective and
sweeping action that would not be the case otherwise. Anybody who truly believes,
regardless of their denomination or belief system, can unleash this power and
communicate this message of peace and healing to all the cells of the body. This
is the power of prayer; however, it is important to communicate this desire not
just through words but through genuine feelings; via a wondrous symbiosis
of the brain, emotions and cells, we may reach that desired state of well-being,
health, and happiness.
Whenever anyone manages to cure themselves from progressive and
terminal diseases, we call it a miracle. Again, it certainly is. It comes from
changing one’s perspective from one of fear, worry and hostility to one of
peace, compassion and unconditional love. The push may initiate or come from
outside of us, it may be a life-changing experience, entity or epiphany, but,
in either case, it needs to strongly resonate within us and it will then
internally move obstacles and lead to our overall health and well-being.
We should keep in mind that we all have cancerous cells
within us that may or may not be expressed and activated during our lifetime.
When they are, we see that as an invasion and use war as a metaphor to combat
those cells as cancer is in the words of Rushenas an “emotional and physical
shock of the highest level in the life of any person.”
But the problem is that war
and strife will intensify negative emotions, which are then also absorbed and taken
up by the cells. Our intentions are certainly good but combined with thoughts
of aggression, they may have unintentional detrimental effects. In addition to
anger, we will also feel shame and despair, and these emotions will wreak havoc
on the cellular system.
Of course, it is easier said than done. One cannot change
one’s attitude and expect immediate results overnight, the same way radiation
and chemotherapy cannot provide quick and instant results. But the prolonged,
continuous and authentic practice of love and kindness shall have beneficial
effects for everyone involved. We can heal our cells and by extension ourselves,
and from this, we shall emanate light and energy towards other humans and
outward into the recesses of the planetary dimension.
A feeling of love and acceptance of all humans as well as of
all cells within us, including the darker and unwanted ones, shall lead us to
better, more fulfilling and more purposeful lives. This love for even the
darker parts of oneself explains and underscores the title of this book, namely
that one should love every inch of oneself, even the orphaned and harmful perfidious
cells within us.
Through this positive outlook despite, amid and through
immense pain and suffering, one can mobilize and summon up all energy to one’s
disposal, and one may be more effective in dealing with potentially terminal
conditions and diseases. This is the faith that can move mountains, and we are
all capable of igniting and spreading it, both within and without.
