Superhealing: Engaging Your Mind, Body, and Spirit to Create Optimal Health and Well-Being (ARC) (3 page)

When we see superhealing occur in extreme cases, such as the

spontaneous remission of a cancer, this innate capacity—perhaps

more than any other mysterious inborn ability we possess—pro-

foundly challenges the belief systems that most of us use to chart the courses of our lives. We can only aim to consciously create the conditions that make superhealing possible in any given case of severe chronic illness or injury; we cannot guarantee success. But the fact that healing is outside our conscious control and yet occurs can dissolve even our most careful y assembled belief systems.

As you read this book, you may realize that your own beliefs

about what is and is not possible in terms of healing interfered with your progress in achieving optimal health and well-being in the past.

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Preface

I encourage you to use this reading experience as an opportunity

to reach a new level of awareness, health, and well-being through a deeper understanding of your essential nature, which is the suste-nance of life.
You are life.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

Superhealing
offers
an in-depth look at the advances made by bold and daring medical researchers in recent years that confirm the power and efficacy of natural healing, a variety of approaches that sustain and uplift the mind, body, and spirit. I hope you will view this book as your companion, a friendly guide on your journey to

optimal health and well-being. I have designed it to empower you

with multiple options.

Part information, part inspiration, and part instruction, this book will allow you to create an individualized superhealing plan using a variety of clinical y proven holistic and integrative techniques to reverse and prevent chronic diseases that are commonplace in our

society: diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), heart disease, obesity, arthritis, acid reflux, cancer, and more. Its foundation is the thousands of studies that together demonstrate repeatedly the power of your body to heal itself. Even in the most dire and difficult situations, restoring your health is possible. You were born with this remarkable capacity. You are an amazing being, possessing the poten-

tial to overcome any illness. The superhealing approach intensifies and accelerates healing.

Health is not merely the absence of disease. It is a dynamic process, a harmonic symphony of biochemical, energetic, and psychological

reactions occurring within your highly specialized anatomy as it interacts with your environment. Contrary to the prevailing scientific opinion, your body is not a biological machine. It can be likened to

Preface

xxi

a garden or an ocean, an ecosystem whose elements must remain

in balance if the whole system is to survive. Your mind-body-spirit needs balance and harmony, too.

The book has been organized into four parts. Part One, “Your Su-

perhealing Mind,” covers breakthroughs in science that reveal how

intimately your mind is related to your physical health.

Part Two, “Your Superhealing Body,” explores the latest research

in nutrition, nature, and exercise, and it shows the influence your physical body has on your mind and your spirit.

Part Three, “Your Superhealing Spirit,” reveals that the foundation of mental and physical well-being comes from a spiritual source.

Although conventional thinking would lead you to view spirit and

body as separate, every aspect of your spirit has an impact on your physical well-being.

Part Four, “Your Superhealing Lifestyle,” will help you to devel-

op a customized forty-day action plan to consciously engage your

mind, body, and spirit and immediately activate your capacity for

superhealing.

The path of superhealing supports the return of your conscious

awareness of the harmonious state of being and the radiant light of your spirit within. In this place, disease, disharmony, distress, and pain are not known. The path of superhealing is actual y an inseparable part of the life that is unique to you. There is no one recipe for how to journey along this path of awareness that leads to optimal health and well-being. Superhealing isn’t only an outcome, such as the spontaneous remission of a disease. It is an alignment with an inner radiant healing force that speeds our movement along a

continuum of health toward optimal well-being. The length of time

required is truly not important. The fact that it happens is what matters, because once it does, it empowers and facilities your progress xxii

Preface

toward the awareness of your true, primary wholeness.

Thank you for choosing to read this book and allowing me share

in your personal superhealing journey—your adventure. There re-

al y is no better time than now for you to discover the simple, powerful, health-giving solutions that
Superhealing
offers.

Welcome to the good health you desire and deserve.

Acknowledgments

To merely say thank you to those who’ve assisted me in the

creation of this book is a mere shadow of the heartfelt appreciation and gratitude I feel for all that I’ve received from those sweet souls surrounding me. First and foremost, I wish to thank the Divine

Creator for inspiring me with the wonderful title and the uplifting and joyful energy that inspired and sustained me throughout this

process.

I could not have done this without the love, encouragement, and

unwavering support of my husband, Victor Johnson. I was catapult-

ed by his faith in my ability, his respect for my passion, and his commitment to our family.

My parents, James and Lucile Ferguson, who dwell in my heart,

provided me with the foundation to live a life filled with possibility and the expression of my dreams, including becoming a physician

and healer.

To my sister, Denise: You are the brightest, shining example of

superhealing in my life. Thank you!

I have the extraordinary blessing of a circle of friends that over the years has become a sphere of kinship: James Childs, Gina Israel, Joyce Nyongani, Ora Holmes, Annette Williams, Olga Padil a,

Connie Harper, Bruce Butler, Rudy Lombard, Wendy Guess, James

Gross, Robert Willis, Mitchell and Joyce Butler, Denise Slaughter, Sherry Faulkner, Brian Lacy, and Rudy Lombard.

I am also grateful to my two mentors, who came into my life dur-

ing my adolescence: Darryl Pursiful and Levi Adams. They have re-

mained dear wise counselors for several decades.

Final y, to Jill Kramer, my agent: You’re a heaven-sent friend and advocate—thank you! To Angela Hynes and Stephanie Gunning:

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xxiv

Acknowledgments

Thank you for being such wonderful midwives to this process and

for sustaining me throughout the writing process. And to my editor, Tonya Woodworth: Your clarity and editing skil s have made this

book shine.

INTRODUCTION: The Foundation of

Superhealing—the Unity of Mind,

Body, and Spirit

The separation of psychology from the premises of

biology is purely artificial because the human psyche

lives in indissoluble union with the body
.

—Carl Jung

It was the very first time I’d ever confronted a cancer pa-

tient. Just the thought of it made me nervous. Cancer is our worst, most ferocious enemy, the taker of life, the proverbial thief in the night, and the deliverer of unbelievable pain. I’d seen specimens of cancer in the lab and learned the details of how cel s go astray, overgrowing and creating a path of such overwhelming consumption

that the cancer leads to its own demise along with the body of its host. And here it was, final y, in the flesh.

I was on the psychiatric rotation, my first clinical second-year

rotation in a hospital after the most intensive year of learning I’d ever known. My mind was filled with facts, figures, and theories

that would be the foundation of my clinical experience as an eager medical student. On this particular day, I was assigned to interview a young woman whom I’ll call Melissa (not her real name, of course).

She looked healthy, but she lay in the bed listlessly. Unfortunately for Melissa, she had been diagnosed with malignant melanoma (skin cancer). In 1975, there wasn’t much that medical treatment could do for her other than to attempt to postpone as long as possible the inevitable, painful death that lurked ahead.

1

2

Introduction

Melissa was pretty, but her deep sadness, understandably, veiled her beauty. My assignment was to interview her to see whether there were any signs of a mental illness accompanying her terminal physical disease. She was sweet, cooperative, and probably very lonely, so my visit seemed to be a welcome relief from the glaring silence that otherwise filled her room. At age twenty-eight, Melissa was already the mother of four. She talked about her children and her husband much more than she did about herself. During those brief moments of expressing herself, she seemed to forget the death sentence that awaited her. Then reality returned, and she spoke passionately to me about her concerns about what was going to happen to her children after she died.

Listening to Melissa, I was speechless. Fear and regret streamed

through me. I wanted to help. I wanted to grab her and hug her and tell her that everything was going to be all right, but I didn’t because I knew I’d get in trouble if I did. As medical students, we were taught to be “distant” and “objective.” What did that real y mean? I thought it was cruel and heartless. But who was I to challenge the instructions of my professors?

As much as I wanted to help Melissa, I didn’t know what to do or

say to this suffering soul. I was total y inept at comforting her. I deeply wanted to relieve her pain, but I choked when I tried. The words just didn’t come. I could sense her emptiness, her pain, and her way of making peace with her situation—if that’s what it can be called to confront the inevitable. After our conversation, I rushed to find my supervising resident. “She seems depressed,” I said to my advisor. “Can depression cause melanoma?”

“No,” he replied emphatical y, shaking his head as though insulted by my question. “There are only seven psychosomatic diseases. These are ulcers, hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis, hyperthyroidism, neu-rodermatitis, asthma, and ulcerative colitis.”1

Introduction

3

Wel ,
I am not buying that theory
, I thought,
at least not based on
what I’ve just observed
. A kaleidoscope of other emotional y affected patients I’d met ran through my mind.
That’s simply not true.
In my heart I knew better. I couldn’t think of one patient I’d seen who wasn’t emotional y distressed in some form or fashion, and it seemed a very good question to ask: Which had come first, the illness or the emotion? Could there perhaps be a dynamic interaction between the two?

Right then, at the very beginning of my career, I asked a question that would ultimately become a guiding light in my investigation of the superhealing phenomenon. Since then, I have read thousands of

studies that support the idea of a dynamic interaction between il -

ness and emotion.

MEDICAL RESEARCH HAS PROVEN

THE PHENOMENON OF UNITY

Perhaps you are skeptical of the claim that the mind and the spirit can positively or adversely influence the body or that the body can influence the mind and the spirit. Wel , I’ve got tons of evidence. Did you know that having fake brain surgery heals patients with Parkinson’s disease just as well as real surgery does?2 Or how about the following:

• More heart attacks occur on Monday morning

than at any other time of the week. 3

• Forgiving people you resent lowers your risk

of having a second heart attack. 4

• Blood sugar levels in diabetics can be reduced

through meditation. 5

• Optimists are healthier than pessimists. 6

• Optimism and other uplifting emotional states can prevent

the development of chronic diseases. 7

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Introduction

• Helping a stranger improves your immune system and overall

health. 8

• The simple act of writing about an emotional issue

can improve your health. 9

• Group support can increase longevity among severely ill

cancer patients. 10

• Your mind can reverse the aging process. 11

• Listening to soothing music can help your

body to heal. 12

• Tai chi and yoga lower the blood pressure. 13

Each of these remarkable benefits was revealed by a recent medi-

cal study. All can be attributed to the body’s phenomenal ability to heal itself through various biochemical pathways modulated by our

thoughts, feelings, and emotions. As we begin to participate con-

sciously in engaging these dimensions of our being, we begin superhealing, which begins to move us in the direction of optimal health.

WHAT IS OPTIMAL HEALTH AND WELL-BEING?

For centuries, being healthy meant surviving long enough to re-

produce. During the twentieth century, the common conception of

health evolved beyond the view that health is the absence of detectable signs of physical or psychological disease to include prevention as a goal. Today, our definition of wellness is becoming even broader and more encompassing. Society is beginning to see that optimal

health real y is a state of well-being and vitality wherein we are able to express our physical, emotional, intellectual, creative, and spiritual capacities as individuals in a manner that is harmonious with others, with Earth and all her creatures, and with all of life. Health is not an end point. It is a dynamic process involving the entire body; it enables

Introduction

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us to fulfill our life purpose, to live ful y and abundantly. It is a process that involves our bodies, our minds, and our spirits.