Healing Intentions:
A Traveler's Guide for Your Healing Journey

Donivan Bessinger, MD

1. In Healing Space
2. A Healing Journey?
3. Look Within
4. Manage Your Care
5. Map Your Journey
6. It's All About Balance
7. Medical Intentions
8. Psychological Intentions
9. Spiritual Intentions
10. Coming Home

An afterword
Notes, References

Dear Patient,

Even though we have probably never met, let me invite you to imagine for these moments that you are indeed my patient, for I have had you and your health in mind while I was writing it.

The first thing you will notice is that this is a very short document, to be dealing with such a large topic. When you get into it, perhaps you will think that it is ridiculously short ! I worried about that too, because we are taking a very sweeping and intuitive view of some very complicated science, with a bit of philosophy thrown in.

But when you are facing serious illness, it is very easy to become overwhelmed. I wanted to keep this as short as possible. If I could have fitted it onto a prescription pad, I would have !

In fact, I hope you will find it to be just that -- a prescription for a new attitude toward health and life.

Sincerely,

Donivan Bessinger, MD
1997

1. In Healing Space

I suspect that some of my medical colleagues would prefer that I not mention this in public, but let me say it anyway: There are very important limits to what medical care can do by itself. Of course, we physicians and other practitioners can help in many and sometimes wonderful ways. But having even the best physicians is just not enough. Especially in these days of "managed care," getting the most from your medical treatment usually requires a new attitude toward healing -- and for many people, an entirely new attitude toward life.

But what do I mean by attitude? For the pilot of an airplane, the word attitude has a special meaning. It refers to the orientation of the aircraft within space. For example, whether the nose is up for climbing, or down for descent. The pilot who does not pay attention to attitude, in relation to all the various forces acting on the plane, faces the possibility of a midair stall, and perhaps a crash.

An illness which is serious enough to be life threatening certainly does put us into a midair stall, and very likely into a nosedive! If you are the pilot of such a plane, you are going to have to take immediate account of your attitude in healing space. Medical care is very important, perhaps essential, in helping you manage all the various physical aspects (the forces acting on your "aircraft"), but if you do not take personal account of attitude, there is considerable danger that medical treatment alone cannot prevent a crash landing.

It seems that most frequently we think of attitude as having to do with orientation in emotional space, or within a belief system. Attitude can also be about psychological orientation. For example, when Carl Jung gave us the names introvert and extravert, he spoke of those as our attitude functions. They have to do with the orientation of consciousness toward our external world and our internal world.

A new attitude toward healing is something like that. The new orientation is not about emotion, though it may well result in a sense of release and of new freedom, even joy, in personal life. It is not really about cognitive belief either, though we must be prepared to see that belief can become a barrier to reorienting toward life. The new attitude I speak of involves a change of orientation toward healing itself. Even more importantly, it involves a new understanding of who is the healer.

Maybe you have not considered your healing journey to be a trip by air. Or maybe you have not thought that healing had anything to do with journey at all. Of course, these are just metaphors, symbols which make it easier to talk about the non-medical aspects of the healing process. I do hope that whatever symbols you prefer to use, this little book will help you see new possibilities in the idea of managing your own care, of piloting yourself through illness, and through life.

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2. A Healing Journey?

When you're sick, where do you go? Illness nearly always starts us on a journey of some sort. Perhaps those first symptoms are very vague, just a sense that something is not quite right, or that you're "coming down with something."

Most of us turn first to our spouse or to some other special friend close by. A word of sympathy, of understanding, a loving touch, and a bit of rest may be all that's necessary to take the pain or sense of illness away. That journey was just to the next room, not even taking us away from home.

Maybe the symptoms persist. Those still close to our early tribal traditions might turn to some sort of traditional healer. But most of us now think we're too modern and sophisticated in our busy cities to have tribal traditions. Certainly we are no longer "primitive." But usually, in this helter-skelter world of modern science and industry, we have forgotten that each of us does indeed have some sort of tribal history.

Perhaps the growing interest among modern people in alternative healing stems from a deeply felt need for reconnection to that "tribal healing" and to the Earth traditions. But whatever we seek, and wherever we seek it, we have started on a healing journey, even if it's only to be a journey to the neighborhood pharmacist or the herbal bookstore.

What if the symptoms are sudden and dramatic, very painful, or very upsetting? These days, most of us turn immediately to a physician. The journey then takes us into town, or perhaps across town, in search of help and healing. As Cassell puts it, we bring that illness or sense of disquiet to the doctor's office, and then take home a disease. The doctor gives us a specific terminology and diagnosis and then a specific prescription or recommendation. The nebulous feeling has been made into a narrowly defined problem, which appears on the "problem list" of the doctor's office chart.

Increasingly (but only gradually) people are having the opportunity to take that "illness" to a primary care physician in an integrative practice. A scientific evaluation and diagnosis are made, but treatments might involve various alternative and complementary methods, as well as treatments that seem more standard for "scientific medicine." Perhaps your journey will then take you to several different types of health practitioners.

Unfortunately, sometimes the news is bad, or the illness is not soon improved. The primary practitioner then recommends a consultant, a medical specialist. The journey gets longer. Perhaps the problem is very complex. That journey might even take you to a distant medical center.

Each of these stops occupies very valuable real estate along the path toward healing. Yet often you feel that your trip is not all that satisfactory. You stay with the tour, listen carefully to the guide, follow all the directions, and with all the others see all the recommended sights. But still you feel that you are missing something important on the way. What is it?

Let's look at that first question again. "Where do you go" implies only a one- way trip. You want to go there, but you also want to get back home, fully well again. Getting back home is the most important part. You want a round trip! Whether your healing journey is to be only a short one, or one that travels the full distance, this little travel guide is designed for you. I hope it will show you how to get more from the trip.

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3. Look Within

As a surgeon who treats diseases of the breast, I conduct patients through only one particular zone along the healing way. Yet, so often I sense that patients need me to prescribe something more, something outside and beyond the information and treatment that a modern scientific medical practice ordinarily provides. Patients often seem very surprised, sometimes defensive, when I try to do that! And it takes so much more time and discussion than an ordinary office or hospital visit can provide. It's a difficult situation to manage in the world of managed care.

I know that other physicians too, in both primary and specialty practice, often feel the same way, and are anxious for their patients to achieve complete healing. We want to treat whatever "disease" is there, but more importantly, we want to write the type of prescription that results in full restoration of well-being. Of course, everyone eventually has one fatal disease which we physicians fail to cure. Even then, we would like to think that we said or did something which opens the way to psychological and spiritual healing, even as the end of life approaches.

But we have created a problem for ourselves. Usually we say that the physician or other practitioner is the healer. In that point of view we seem to expect the patient to be a passive "consumer" of our prescriptions or procedures. A better point of view is to think that the patient is the healer, and the physician and other professionals are the helpers. That changes the focus altogether.

The new perspective makes any health "travel guide" to be very different from what you might expect. It cannot be the usual tour guide of what to see along the way, as you go from one practitioner to another, or one treatment to another, for this or that disease. In fact, such a guide really is not about the journey itself --

It is about the healer on the journey,
and that healer on the journey is you.

This kind of guide does not even talk about packing your luggage! It is much more likely to talk about the baggage which you must discard as you go.

It does not talk about who can be the tour guide, or about the various other professionals you meet along the way. For you see, this must be a guide to travel into your own inner world of healing, into which only you can go! It is about doing your own part, about participating completely in your own health, in a fully open, conscious way. It is about your healing intentions.

There is another pecularity about this sort of travel guide. Whether guiding you to getting well, or to staying well, its message is basically the same.

Surely this must be a guide to exotic adventure travel !

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4. Manage Your Care

The ancients knew that health came from an inner source of healing. Priests were the healing helpers, and the inner way to healing was the only way available. Gradually, of course, as we gained knowledge of herbs, some priests added those to their healing work. In time, in some tribes, there were herbal specialists, distinct from the priestly class, and there were even ancient surgeons, the specialists in wound healing.

Obviously, much has changed since then ! The scientific emphasis has made us focus on particular causes of disease, such as parasites, and microbes increasingly small in size. And now the emphasis is on molecules and parts of molecules, such as the genes in the strands of DNA. This has been very powerful knowledge, and scientific medicine can do many marvelous things. But in the process of focusing so narrowly, we have blurred the overall picture. We often seem to have lost our sense of the importance of the inner life.

And yet, science itself is now giving us new detail, and we are beginning to "get it all together" in a more meaningful way. It is going to force us in medicine to bring the larger picture into focus once again. Physics is showing us that beyond our ordinary cause-effect spacetime reality, there is a "nonlocal" realm in which the ordinary limits do not apply. At the level of the smallest particles we presently know of, events are not determined in a direct linear "scientific" way, as though they were molecules or billiard balls. Instead, events are governed by probabilities and, somehow, consciousness plays a significant role in the process. Chaos theory is showing that there is a hidden order in processes that we previously thought were random.

Biology, too, has given us much more information about how different levels of the life-system work together. It shows us the important principle of homeostasis, the automatic and unconscious equilibrium or dynamic balance which operates at all levels of life. The psychology of the deep unconscious shows that the balancing principle operates in our deepest inner processes as well. Each day we learn more about the connections between our experience of the inner world, and the nervous system, the immune system, and the rest of the body.

But there are major economic challenges as well. In these days of managed care, medicine sometimes seems to have lost its focus on the person. We are already seeing substantial backlash from both patients and practitioners about the excessive rules which serve to limit the amount of time spent with primary practitioners, and access to specialists. Clearly there are strong incentives against doing the kind of care that opens to the personal inner level. More than ever, you the patient are having to take greater initiative about your own situation. But "managed care" might turn out to be all right if you're the one doing the managing !!

But how are you to manage when the map for your healing journey seems to be changing so very rapidly?

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5. Map Your Journey

A "map for your healing journey?" you ask. What can that possibly mean?

Each of us lives by a different map, for everything we learn and do "maps" itself somehow into our memory at some deep level. Each of us interprets such "events," including our physical symptoms and inner thoughts, according to our own belief systems.

In medical school (I graduated in 1961), the "standard" map seemed to be divided into just two separate zones -- Body and Psyche. Relatively little was known then about the workings of the immune system (that was well before psychoneuroimmunology became a special area of study), but we talked a great deal about psycho- ("mind") somatic ("body") illnesses. That meant that some bodily symptoms were "functional" (from psyche), not "organic" (from soma). Or it meant that some diseases, though they had obvious (sometimes dramatic) effects on the body itself, were usually associated with some characteristic psychological pattern. Of course, no one could say, then or now, where the circle started and where it ended.

However, most of us seem to divide our own personal world into three compartments. The "globe" of our personal geography would then have three separate continents, separated by oceans -- Body, Mind, and Soul or spirit. If the problem is in the body, we expect a pill, surgery, or some other procedure to correct it. We don't at all like to be told that our problem is "in the mind." Traditionally we have seemed to think that somehow that would be a sign of weakness, and we still have a great deal of resistance to the idea. After all, if we're ill, and "it's in the mind," we must have some sort of "mental illness." We know we're not crazy -- we're just in pain, or at least uncomfortable.

But even "mental disease" today is being thought of by most psychiatrists as just another disease of the body, that is, of its neurological system, which can be adjusted by medication, just like diabetes. In that view of psychiatry, looking into the unconscious has become unfashionable. On those maps, "Mind" is becoming a shrinking continent !

Unfortunately, for modern scientifically aware people soul (spirit) is a shrinking continent, too. At least it is unknown territory. Many of us now do not know what to make of such an idea. We think that the world of "spirit" has something to do with unreal fantasies. But with our modern knowledge of the unconscious, thinking that soul and spirit do not exist is as quaint as the zones on ancient maps labeled "beasties dwell here."

Each of these "land masses", body, mind, and spirit, is very real. Each must be contacted on the healing journey. But the big news from science now is that these great land masses really are not as separated as we have traditionally thought. The continents are coming together. We are having to change the map !

Let me draw a quick map which can help us talk more completely about the healing journey. I must admit that this is still speculative, and many people will reject it outright. But it is based on careful study which I and many others before me have laid out in medical articles and other writings. The references at the end of the book will help you start to find out more about the specific arguments.

"Body" of course refers to our physical reality. We have no serious reason to doubt that it and the rest of the physical cosmos are real. To us, "physical" and "real" mean almost the same thing.

But "Mind" is real, too. The ideas and organizations and technology and memory of events ("history") which we live with, all have to do with the workings of the mind. We do not doubt that they are real, for it is obvious that "mind" makes changes in the physical world. For discussion purposes, let us think of mind as the conscious part of our mental world.

But what about the psyche? That is sort of a technical word now, but it originally meant "soul" and "spirit," and still does. Psyche includes "mind," but generally, it refers to what is, for the most part, unconscious. But is the unconscious real? As Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung reminded us, to say that the psyche is unreal is the same as to say that some uranium molecules spontaneously organized themselves into the Hiroshima bomb. We know the psyche is there, and that it's real because we can see its effects. And if psyche is real enough to produce a nuclear bomb, we need to take it seriously !

However, psyche does not work in ordinary physical cause-effect ways, like the billiard balls of classical physics. Psyche's action is much more like the "nonlocal" action of quantum physics. Physics experiments now confirm the existence of a reality beyond our ordinary spacetime reality. Also, the theory in physics which best explains the laws which govern the universe, relies on the concept of dimensions beyond the ordinary dimensions of space and time.

I have proposed that we call that realm of extra dimensions or "hyperspace" (the nonlocal reality), a nuocontinuum. That is, it is a mind-like continuum within which the spacetime continuum dwells. I think of it as an infinite connecting principle which binds all that is. It is mind-like in that sense, and because it is the realm of the laws and principles of order in the universe.

Only the word nuocontinuum is new. The idea of a "universal mind" is quite ancient. Of course we each have different religious beliefs or other ideas about that. I hope that the idea of a nuocontinuum will let us think about the realm of universal mind, or God, or spirit, or soul, in a neutral nondoctrinal way. Each of us can translate that back into our own preferred name or concept of the "kingdom of God" or spiritual realm. Here, I only want to help us acknowledge the reality of a realm beyond the body, beyond the merely physical cosmos.

In other words, the map for the healing journey is not a map of widely separated continents. It is more like the map of Treasure Island. Everything we need is all there, quite close together. Body-mind-spirit are just different habitats, or ecologic zones, each very closely dependent on the others, each subject to the same weather systems. Once we get the knack of it, we will move quite easily among the different zones, but we cannot get to the "treasure" unless we become aware of each of them, and explore the whole island.

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6. It's All About Balance

In simplest terms, health is all about balance. It is the condition of balance which the organism, yourself, seeks for itself. In biological terms, that is called homeostasis. That means that various nervous and chemical systems keep adjusting themselves to keep a constant internal environment, whatever is happening in the external environment. In good health, we are constantly reacting both to outside and inside influences. It all happens automatically. All the conscious mind is asked to do is to provide enough warmth, shelter, food, fluids, etc. whenever our internal conditions prompt us. Dr. Walter B. Cannon, who gave us the word homeostasis, called this process "the wisdom of the body."

Illness, then ( in simplest terms), is a condition of strain, when something happens to throw the system off balance. Maybe that is an infection from a virus or other microbe. Or some type of external injury. Or some renegade cells, growing out of control, or some chemical reaction gone awry. The treatment tries to reset the balance in some way -- chemicals to kill the abnormal cells or microbe (but not the body's own cells), or surgery to repair the wound or remove the tumor, or something to help counteract the abnormal chemical reaction. Even so, the physician does not directly "heal" the problem. The system is too complex for that. Only the system itself can reset the balance. It is the organism itself, you yourself, which must do the fine tuning.

When we talk so much about stress these days we are talking about a strain away from our usual balance. Technically, stress is a particular pattern of responses to a threat of some sort -- a bear in the trail ahead, or a worry about something entirely unseen, or an injury, hidden or not. The stress reaction is well adapted to making a sudden correction, whether it is running away from the bear (maybe that's not such a good idea!), or otherwise avoiding injury.

One of the responses to external threat is to suppress temporarily the inner defenses (the immune response) as we shift resources toward external defense. That works well, if then we have a chance to reset the balance between each external event. But in modern life, as "external" stresses continue (including our reactions to problems at home, business, and society in general), the organism does not have time to reset the balance after each incident. Beyond a certain point, the system will tend to "spin out of control." The immune defenses stay weak, and we become prey even to our own renegade cells and microbes.

Learning to manage stress is absolutely essential to health, and the more complex society becomes, the harder we have to work to deal with it. It is by no means an exaggeration to say that prolonged stress kills.

That is very evident in my breast cancer practice. So many of my patients seemed to discover the breast cancer after prolonged stress, that I did an informal survey. Sixty seven percent of my breast cancer patients remembered some major prolonged stress factor (and very often several factors) during the twelve months before the diagnosis. I looked at the medical literature, thinking that I would design a formal study with control groups. However, I found that there were already so many reports to that effect, that my little study would not have been a "contribution." It was already old news! It is very clear to me that a program to prevent breast cancer (and recurrence after breast cancer treatment) must include learning to manage prolonged stress.

Even though I have mentioned breast cancer, these are general ideas about stress and healing, and they apply to all kinds of illnesses -- other cancers, infections, and chronic autoimmune problems, such as arthritis, for example. Understanding these general principles can help all patients. But let me stay for a moment with the breast cancer example.

Breast cancer happens when a breast cell goes out of control. There are many influences, of course, which "let" a breast cancer happen, but particularly if the immune system is depressed, the "bad cell" may become a group of cells which we call a tumor. Ordinary treatment is designed to remove or disable those "bad cells," by some combination of surgery, radiation, and medical treatment.

But there is a great deal more to breast cancer than that. It is not just a breast that has cancer. The whole person, body, mind, and spirit alike, is very deeply affected by the cancer experience, or any life-threatening disease. Healing breast cancer (or other serious illness) takes more than just "body" therapy. The whole person has to heal.

That means each patient has an important role to play. As "pilot" you must become constantly aware of your attitude in healing space. Yes, there is a lot of mind work involved in making sure that you understand and agree to the various treatment steps. But personal attitudes, and personal commitment toward healing are also very important. I would even say, essential.

There are many different ways to talk about personal healing after a breast cancer experience. We could use psychological terminology, or spiritual (religious) language for this psyche (soul, spirit) aspect of healing.

Either way, we would be trying to say that healing, particularly after a cancer experience, touches the deepest levels of being. We would be saying that complete healing must put you in touch with something greater, something beyond your ordinary ways of thinking about treatment, beyond the way you normally see and feel. Healing Intentions is a general term for talking about all of these important issues, for the best healing requires a definite and positive response by the patient.

Beginning that inner aspect of the journey toward healing can require just as much courage and determination as a journey to the operating room or the chemotherapy center. Those often seem to be "ordeals" or "trials" along the way, and the inner journey has its ordeals, too. The first ordeal is facing your own attitudes toward life, and summoning up the healing intention to start the journey.

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7. Medical Intentions

Healing Intentions can be focused at several levels, but as individuals, we usually are mentally prepared to work and to respond at a particular level at a given time. If the idea of mind-body interactions and healing intentions is new to you, it might be best to begin at what I am calling the medical level.

The medical intention focuses primarily on overcoming the physical effects of the stress which is present in the lives of all modern people. This intention is entirely secular in its focus, and does not imply any particular sort of religious interest or cognitive belief. However, as we progress in the quest for individual healing, we do often become increasingly aware of an inner call to go deeper into ourselves. We then begin to see the broad overlap in these "levels", and come to realize that we really are not made up of compartments. We are complete beings, in which body, mind and spirit seem inseparable.

Medically, the intention is to activate the "relaxation response." That is Dr. Herbert Benson's term (and book title) for quieting the mind, so that the body may counteract the effects of stress and reset its balance. Dr. Benson, an internist at Harvard, who has become one of the foremost leaders in the body-mind movement within modern medicine, studied people trained in meditation techniques. He was investigating ways to reduce high blood pressure (hypertension), and make antihypertensive medication to be more effective. Dr. Benson found that the "relaxation response" did that and more. Blood pressure was lowered, but also heart rate and breathing rate. There was also a lowered metabolic rate, with decreasing oxygen consumption and output of carbon dioxide. Meditation evoked a particular relaxation pattern on the EEG (electroencephalogram, or "brain wave" recording), but it is a pattern different from that of sleep.

There were other important effects: Relaxation accelerated the reduction of the blood-lactate levels, which build up during work and stress and leave one with feelings of fatigue and anxiety. In fact, infusing lactate can bring on anxiety attacks, in people prone to them. [Benson, RR pp 92-94] Benson also found that doing the relaxation technique reduced illegal drug use among regular users. [p 149 ff]

The people first studied by Dr Benson were trained in Transcendental Meditation, which is a name copyrighted by the Maharishi Maresh Yogi. However, "meditation" is a generic technique, used historically in all the great religious traditions, and certainly no one individual has any unique claim to the idea. It is clear that the results have to do with physiology and body- mind interactions, not with belief or religious orientation. Physical (and physiological) reality is the same, regardless of religious practice, and regardless of our beliefs about how physical reality came into being.

Dr. Benson gives us these four elements he considers essential for a successful evocation of the relaxation response:

Here is a brief general instruction about how to evoke the relaxation response. It is based largely on Dr. Benson's work, but I will include a few "twists" from my own experience. First, become aware of your intention. You come to this activity, not out of habit, not casually, not because you are made to do so, but on your own initiative, because you yourself want to take an active, intentional part in your own health and well-being.

Find a suitable place. As you find your comfortable position, sit quietly for a few moments. Close your eyes (if the room is not completely dark), and then, with intention, guide yourself briefly in relaxing all of your muscles. Let the muscles of the feet relax first, then legs, etc. until you have let go the tension all the way up to your face and forehead. Let the release then enter your mind -- your "head" and "heart" -- as well.

Be aware of your breathing. Try to let go awareness of everything else, even the distracting thoughts which are sure to come. Ignore especially those thoughts about whether this is working, or making any sense, or whether you feel strange doing this. Let all thoughts flow past without moving you, as though you were well anchored in the middle of a warm, quiet stream. Then let go that thought of the stream. Be aware only of your breathing, but do not try to control it. As you breathe, say a particular word silently to yourself. Dr. Benson suggests the word "One," said while breathing out.

Use that word to reinforce your intention, and refocus your attention, as stray thoughts pass. Of course, there is no magic in the word itself. The word you use should be one that you associate with good, or balance, or healing in some way. Stay with that word. As you become used to it, it will become a codeword or symbol associated with your intention to relax and let your own body-mind-spirit do its designed-in healing work. Give yourself over to the wisdom of the body.

The usual effective meditation is about twenty minutes, once or twice a day, but not soon after eating. After practice, you will learn to do "mini- meditations" even in the midst of a busy workday. Begin by recalling your usual intentional word. But if you do it in the middle of traffic, please keep your eyes open !

Book recommendation: Herbert Benson, MD with Miriam Z. Klipper. The Relaxation Response. (New York: Avon Books, 1976).

Though Dr. Benson calls this the relaxation response, it is an interesting question whether it is really a special physiological reaction or not. I prefer to think that this pattern of "response" is just a getting back to normal, as we let stress go. Stress has become so common that we have begun to accept it as normal ! If we let it go, the wisdom of the body returns us to a more natural, more efficient, equilibrium. That is what a medical intention is all about.

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8. Psychological Intentions

I hope you realize by now how important it is to learn to let go to your own inner healing process. That is the critical first step in doing your part in managing any illness. But there are other important ways in which you can work along with your medical therapy to increase the chances for complete healing. These deeper techniques, which I will call psychological intentions, offer considerable potential for additional benefit.

I do want to emphasize that these techniques are never a substitute for standard medical therapy. In my own practice, the patients who have refused all standard treatment for breast cancer, thinking that they could cure it on their own, have all met with disaster. But those who have gone into partnership with standard therapy have experienced various levels of benefit, and many times, apparent cure. Many have said (I know it sounds weird, but it's true) that the breast cancer experience gave them a "new lease on life." They were not thankful for the cancer, but they were thankful for an entirely different attitude toward life.

Psychologically, the healing intention is to achieve a more direct involvement in your illness (or in preventing illness) by doing "mind work" at a deeper level. As we mentioned earlier, psyche does not work in a direct cause-effect physical way. That means that the results of doing "mind work" are not as predictable as the results of giving medication, for example, or of an operation. Even so, many patients have been helped considerably by doing various types of psychological work, even when regular medical therapy has failed. Some cancer patients, for example, have had complete remissions, entirely unexpected by normal "physical" (medical) experience.

Psychological intentions include becoming aware of the unconscious aspects of psyche, and using various forms of guided imagery. In their now-classic book Getting Well Again, Dr. Carl Simonton (a radiotherapist) and his colleagues discuss techniques of guided imagery. The idea is very simple, really: Doing a focused meditation to form positive images in the mind helps create the best conditions for the immune system to do its defensive work. Obviously it is hard to study these techniques under standardized controlled conditions, but even so, many individual patients have reported definite benefit. Begin with the relaxation response, as we discussed in Chapter Seven. After becoming relaxed, and after the mind is quiet, begin to focus on a particular healing image. Actively imagine that your particular problem is going away. For example, a cancer patient may focus on an image of the tumor getting smaller, as an army of defensive troops (the body's "natural killer cells") attacks the tumor. A chemotherapy patient may imagine that the therapy is actively searching out and poisoning hidden cancer cells. Or an AIDS patient may imagine the defensive T-cells are increasing in number and attacking the virus particles. As you end the session, drift back into the relaxation mode for a short period before resuming your normal activities.

Dr. Bernie Siegel is a surgeon, author and lecturer whose work has helped many patients with their attitude or orientation toward surviving cancer and other serious illness. He too discusses the importance of imagery and various other cognitive approaches, and describes some characteristics which distinguish those "exceptional patients" who survive cancer unexpectedly.

Book recommentations:

O. Carl Simonton, MD, Stephanie Matthews-Simonton and James L. Creighton. Getting Well Again. (1978). NY: Bantam Books, 1992).

Bernie Siegel, MD. Love, Medicine & Miracles (NY: HarperPerennial, 1986).

Depth psychology (referring to the psychology of the deep unconscious) also offers a great potential for increasing your self-understanding and recognizing internal barriers to your own inner healing. Obviously, that opens to a vast and often mysterious area, whatever your personal situation, whether you have a "diagnosis" or not. In fact, it is the work of a lifetime, but it is work which usually increases a sense of the meaningfulness of life.

Most depth psychology today is based on the work of Swiss psychiatrist Carl G. Jung (1875-1961). His model of the whole person extends far beyond the conscious ego, or "mind." Through analysis of dreams, myths, fantasies -- all somehow "natural" works of psyche -- he shows that the unconscious follows certain patterns which can be observed across all cultures and all history. The unconscious opens to a realm which is very much like the nuocontinuum (Chapter Five). In other words, psyche opens into the "universal mind" realm which physical reality also touches.

Here is Jung's model of the psyche in barest outline. The conscious realm is called ego (the area of the "I"), but it is only a small island within the whole person. The ego hides behind a persona ("mask"), which is its outer "camoflage" seen by others. The name self refers to the whole person, but also to its unconscious center. The self is the principle "organ" of the homeostasis (equilibrium) of the psyche, and of our sense of connectedness to others and to the universe. We also have an unconscious center which balances our conscious gender. The anima ("soul") is the feminine aspect of a man, the animus ("spirit") the masculine aspect of a woman.

There is also a shadow which acts like the center of all the repressed frustrations and anger of our various psychic wounds. Such shadow "energy" is the principle barrier to an equilibrium between the ego and the self, and (psychologically speaking) is the prime source of inner stress. Not all stress is external ! We can literally make our selves sick. Shadow is a barrier to healing, and learning to face it within ourselves, and not project it onto others, is the first order of business in the deep "inner work" of psychological healing.

Doing such deep inner work is a rather complicated journey in itself, best started within the structure of a group, or with a spouse or close friend who will be a partner on the journey. But books can be of considerable help. Robert A. Johnson is a Jungian analyst and best-selling author whose works have been translated into many languages. In Inner Work he describes how an individual may use personal dream interpretation and Jung's technique of active imagination for personal growth and development, whether or not one is physically ill.

Active imagination is a special form of meditation. After beginning with the relaxation response, and with a quiet mind, and without consciously forcing any particular image, observe what image comes onto your screen of consciousness. What associations come to mind? What does it symbolize? If it is the image of a real person, remember that what you are seeing is a "character" on the stage of your own unconscious theater. What does that person symbolize for you? What does it tell you about yourself?

Such images are interpreted as though they were dream images, and dream interpretation is very difficult work. There is no standard or generic interpretation. You must interpret your own images in the context of your own life. An analyst or a trained counsellor can help guide you toward that, but only you can say whether a particular interpretation feels right for you. Such inner work is very real work indeed !

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9. Spiritual Intentions

When serious illness strikes, most of us take some measure of comfort from within our own spiritual traditions. We are very likely to pray, and to turn to a spiritual leader for encouragement and guidance. We especially welcome prayers and personal support from our family of spiritual friends. But when we do, many times there is a suspicion that somehow it does not quite fit in with modern ideas of medical care. Often we hesitate to discuss such feelings with the physician and other medical personnel.

Many other people today do not identify with any particular religious tradition. Many feel that nothing is sacred. Many are isolated from traditional faith by lifestyle. Many people have trouble believing what their faith tradition requires them to believe, and may feel guilty or intimidated when they question it. Many search outside the established traditions, and feel alone, without a personal spiritual leader or support community to turn to.

Jungian psychology provides many people with a nondoctrinal bridge to spiritual experience. Even so, especially at times of major illness, people who feel a deep sense of spiritual yearning often do not know where to turn. To the physician? But we physicians usually feel quite uncomfortable with any semblance of a priestly, or especially a shamanistic, role. Yet somehow, we need to do what we can to help meet that need. As Dr. Benson writes in another book, a sense of relationship to something greater than ourselves "is very profound medicine."

Book recommendation: Herbert Benson, MD with Marg Stark. Timeless Healing: The Power and Biology of Belief (NY: Scribner, 1996).

Spiritually, the healing intention is to engage in quiet forms of prayer. All of the major religions have a contemplative tradition, and concepts of healing by being in proper relationship with the spiritual realm (the "kingdom of God"). I consider that realm to be intimately connected with the transcendent reality which I have called the nuocontinuum, the level of reality which connects all that is.

Such prayer may be a spiritually focused meditation, in which the intention is to feel in touch with the divine reality which humans name in so many different ways. Such names themselves have great spiritual power for us. Generic terms, such as "meditation," seem to be a problem for some people. The terms contemplative prayer and centering prayer may express a more sacred feeling for you, and remind you more strongly of your close connectedness to the spiritual realm.

Book recommendation: Thomas Keating. Open Mind, Open Heart (1986) New York: Continuum, 1991. A Christian point of view on centering prayer.

Dr. Larry Dossey has recently opened a long-closed window in the medical establishment, to let in a fresh new breeze of interest and information about the connections between medical practice and spirituality. As an internist, he reports in depth the studies which relate an attitude of prayerfulness to the healing response. His is a practical and open-minded book which honestly discusses both the prospects and pitfalls of reliance on spiritual approaches. Very forthrightly, he presents the evidence that "prayer works."

Book recommendation: Larry Dossey, MD. Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine. (HarperSanFrancisco, 1993).

What can we say of prayer from a medical point of view, without taking any sort of doctrinal position? For example, what about "faith healing?" What do "faith" or "belief" have to do with healing in response to prayer? Unfortunately, the word belief has taken on the meaning of "believing facts about." However, at least in the New Testament, the word translated belief has more to do with trust and commitment to and reliance on the transcendent realm than with belief in doctrines. And it is clear that healing can occur within the context of any religious tradition or "faith," despite widely different beliefs. When it comes to healing, spiritual attitude is much more important than specific belief.

Are miracles possible ? Certainly we physicians often hear of, and sometimes see in our individual practices, remarkable healing which we cannot explain. I would not be willing to say that miracle means an interruption of the laws of physics for the special benefit of one person. But quantum physics shows us a probabilistic universe in which consciousness plays an important role. The laws of nature do indeed allow for improbable happenings, even when survival statistics seem stacked against us. We can imagine that at certain "levels of consciousness," or in the presence of a deep sense of connectedness to the transcendent order of the universe, nonmedical pathways of healing are opened up, giving results which we would not expect in ordinary circumstances. When we say "prayer works," it does not necessarily mean that it works in ordinary mechanistic ways.

The medical point of view now must take into account the implications of the new physics. It must be open to the idea that spiritual intentions can indeed make a great deal of difference in the way patients face up to illness, and in the way they heal.

Spiritual meditation, contemplative prayer, must lead into a very deep letting go of all the pent up anger and frustrations which the stresses of life have built up within you. Indeed, the word in the Gospels translated forgive means just that: release, let go.

Since spiritual intentions are special, choose a special place. Perhaps some chapel or sanctuary made holy by the intentions of prayerful people for many years. Perhaps deep within the natural chapel of the mountains or a forest. Perhaps some special spot at home, marked by symbols which help connect you to the spiritual realm.

As you begin your spiritual intention, voice whatever word-prayers need to be said. Then enter into the quiet of the relaxation response. Choose carefully a word which has deep spiritual associations for you. Let go all expectations of specific results, and enter into the attitude or intention, "Thy will be done." Not all prayers are answered "Yes", but that prayer always is ! Through your spiritual intention, open yourself to the idea that whatever happens for you is right.

Book recommendation: Agnes Sanford. The Healing Light (NY: Ballentine Books, rev. 1972). The author is a Christian layperson who recounts her experiences as a spiritual healer.

Of course there are many titles on spiritual healing written from a variety of faith traditions. Look especially for those which are developed within your own tradition, even if you are no longer close to that tradition, for those will probably have the deepest resonance and meaning for you as you face the healing challenge.

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10. Coming Home

All of these intentions can help with normal medical treatment, without any conflict. Of course, it is important to be aware that different people react differently. Disease situations are very different from person to person, and most disease effects are beyond our direct control. Both medical and non-medical methods can only work to help reset the balance to give the body its best chance to heal.

So let me say it yet again: Relying exclusively on non-medical methods can be very dangerous indeed. And of course, you must not blame yourself or feel that you are somehow inadequate if the response is not what you had hoped for. Remember that Creator/Creation have hidden processes which neither you the patient nor we the physicians can control, or completely understand. The universe will always hold more knowledge than any one of us alone, or any group of us, and more mystery than we can ever fathom.

Even if you are not cured in the way you had hoped, you may find that you have found greater strength and courage in the journey through the illness. Even if not healed in body, you may feel renewed in mind and spirit. You have taken your "journey" only to find that you have been "home" all the time. You have discovered the treasure within your own small island home within the cosmos.

Each of us within ourselves is a cosmos, an ordered universe in which we can find comfort and peace within ourselves and with others. Stress, pain, and disease will come from time to time, strains away from that idealized harmony which that unconscious part within us seeks for us, with so much greater wisdom than our narrow ego consciousness can manage on its own.

So often these days we hear that we can "create our own reality." But no, reality is something much more fundamental and vast. Reality is that within which all things live, move, and have their being. What we can create is the best interpretation which is consistent with all we know. We can create a willingness to deepen our understandings. We can let go the ego-baggage which weights us down. We can let Reality create us, to move us continuously toward the truest selves we were created to be. We heal best when we serve that divine will-to-live within ourselves, that transcendent will-to-be, and to become.

Still, I am concerned that so many people express a sense of fear about healing intentions. Some say that when the outer world is quiet, the thoughts which come up from within themselves are frightening. A few years ago I prepared a brochure for office use, entitled "Meditation: Doing Your Part in Healing Breast Cancer." One patient, however, to all appearances entirely sincere in her intent, said that she had a great deal of experience in spiritual healing. She wanted to warn that there was a very great risk that I would be calling forth demons which I would not know how to handle. I should not teach about "meditation" at all, but should follow her particular system of fundamentalist belief.

The fear of one's own self is a split or wound which certainly calls for healing. When faced with frightening thoughts or images, perhaps it will help to realize that these are parts of your own self. They are pains of the psyche. Like pains from the body's organs, they are not put there to harm you, but to signal you that something needs attention, so that re-balancing can occur. Symptoms are agents of healing, but left untended, they may well take on a demon-like quality.

The faith of "faith healing" is not a sincere belief in some result, but a willingness to let go and completely trust the healing process. It is the courageous willingness to face even your own inner fears. Those fears will fade when you realize that what is within yourself is completely a part of you, not an enemy. You can be your own enemy only if you do not take the leap of faith to open up your consciousness to the wholeness of yourself and of creation.

That is what the healing intention is all about. There are many variations on this theme, both psychological and spiritual, and many different ways to describe the way of healing. I hope that this prescription will help you organize your thoughts and feelings about how to do your own part, as a full partner with your medical care. We your physicians and other professionals certainly want to be the helpers along the way, but we especially want you to have full confidence as you make your own round-trip home. After all, the healer on the journey is you !

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An Afterword

Before closing, let me share a lesson I learned from one of many special patients. Several years ago, when a cancer newsletter asked me for a personal reflection on cancer and spirituality, I thought first of her, and her continuing struggle. She remains free of breast cancer, but in the power of faith, continues to deal optimistically with a slowly progressive (but not malignant) chronic disease.

The text continues with the article Cancer and Spirituality

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Notes and References

Most of the following sources yield good bibliographies which will lead you into more detail about the relationships between modern science and body-mind-spirit.

Book recommendations cited in the text

Herbert Benson, MD with Miriam Z. Klipper. The Relaxation Response. New York: Avon Books, 1976.

Herbert Benson, MD with Marg Stark. Timeless Healing: The Power and Biology ofBelief NY: Scribner, 1996.

Larry Dossey, MD. Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine. HarperSanFrancisco, 1993.

Robert A. Johnson. Inner Work. SanFrancisco: Harper & Row, 1986.

Thomas Keating. Open Mind, Open Heart (1986). New York: Continuum, 1991.

Harold S. Kushner. When Bad Things Happen to Good People. New York: Schocken Books, 1981.

Agnes Sanford. The Healing Light. New York: Ballentine Books, rev. 1972.

Bernie Siegel, MD. Love, Medicine & Miracles. New York: HarperPerennial, 1986.

O. Carl Simonton, MD, Stephanie Matthews-Simonton and James L. Creighton. Getting Well Again. (1978). NY: Bantam Books, 1992.

Further reading, about --

depth psychology -- C. G. Jung. Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1961). New York: Vintage/Random House, 1989. Autobiography, very clearly presenting the essentials of his theory and method. See also C.G.Jung: A brief introduction to his ideas

homeostasis, wisdom of the body -- Walter B. Cannon. Wisdom of the Body. New York: W. W. Norton, 1939 and Birmingham AL: Classics of Medicine Library, c1989.

illness versus disease -- Eric J. Cassell. The Healer's Art. Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1985

life-systems view -- Donivan Bessinger. Living Ethics: The Way of Wholeness. Greenville SC: Orchard Park Press, 1993. The emphasis is on ethics, but Part I of the book focuses on the worldview of wholeness.

nuocontinuum -- Donivan Bessinger. Reflections on Reality, Healing and Consciousness Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 1996; 2(2): 40-45

quantum physics, nonlocal reality -- Nick Herbert. Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics. Garden City NY: Anchor/Doubleday, 1985.

science and spirituality -- Donivan Bessinger. Religion Confronting Science. Greenville SC: Orchard Park Press, 1991.

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Homepage: Academies for Unitive Healing

Copyright, Donivan Bessinger, 1997. All rights reserved. Updated 16 July 1997