David Sunfellow posted a discussion
New Book: 'Mind Over Medicine'
I'm sharing this book on this network because it champions some of the core truths contained in near-death experiences, namely that our physical realities are primarily the creation of our minds and emotions. Translation: we all have the power to heal ourselves because we are the ones making ourselves sick. Here's what NDEr Anita Moorjani has to say about the book: “WOW! Just wow! That is how I feel about Lissa Rankin’s work! Everything she says rings so true to me, and her voice, as a professional medical doctor, is just what is needed in today’s drug dependent society. Bravo, Lissa for having the courage to speak out and share your truth. This world needs more like you!”The book is beautifully written and surprising deep and nuanced. Lissa doesn't say that all illnesses can be healed for example, and acknowledges that sometimes our souls choose to be sick to learn and/or teach lessons. Illness, in other words, does not always bend to human wills, nor should it. There are, however, concrete, practical, effective tools that can help everyone deal, and often heal, whatever circumstances we find ourselves in. There are also many astonishing stories that make it crystal clear that miracles are not only possible, but happen every day -- and, therefore, can also happen to you and I and those we love.I encourage everyone to read this book and share it with your family and friends...-- David Sunfellow........Mind Over Matter By Lissa Rankin, M.D.Amazon Product Description:We've been led to believe that when we get sick, it's our genetics. Or it's just bad luck -- and doctors alone hold the keys to optimal health. For years, Lissa Rankin, M.D., believed the same. But when her own health started to suffer, and she turned to Western medical treatments, she found that they not only failed to help; they made her worse. So she decided to take matters into her own hands.Through her research, Dr. Rankin discovered that the health care she had been taught to practice was missing something crucial: a recognition of the body's innate ability to self-repair and an appreciation for how we can control these self-healing mechanisms with the power of the mind. In an attempt to better understand this phenomenon, she explored peer-reviewed medical literature and found evidence that the medical establishment had been proving that the body can heal itself for over 50 years.Using extraordinary cases of spontaneous healing, Dr. Rankin shows how thoughts, feelings, and beliefs can alter the body's physiology. She lays out the scientific data proving that loneliness, pessimism, depression, fear, and anxiety damage the body, while intimate relationships, gratitude, meditation, sex, and authentic self-expression flip on the body's self-healing processes.In the final section of the book, you'll be introduced to a radical new wellness model based on Dr. Rankin's scientific findings. Her unique six-step program will help you uncover where things might be out of whack in your life -- spiritually, creatively, environmentally, nutritionally, and in your professional and personal relationships -- so that you can create a customized treatment plan aimed at bolstering these health-promoting pieces of your life. You'll learn how to listen to your body's "whispers" before they turn to life-threatening "screams" that can be prevented with proper self-care, and you'll learn how to trust your inner guidance when making decisions about your health and your life.By the time you finish Mind Over Medicine, you'll have made your own Diagnosis, written your own Prescription, and created a clear action plan designed to help you make your body ripe for miracles..................Reviews:“With humor, warmth, and compelling research, Dr. Lissa Rankin’s Mind Over Medicine begins to heal the most critical fracture of our time -- the break between our mind, bodies, and spirit. When it comes to our physical and emotional health, we need to tap into our own wisdom and find our voices. Lissa’s passion and experiences make her the perfect guide for this journey.”-- Brené Brown, Ph.D., New York Times best-selling author of Daring Greatly: How the Courage to be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead...“‘Body and spirit are twins: God only knows which is which,’ Swinburne wisely said more than a century ago. But for most of the twentieth century, the body has hogged the show. Now consciousness, mind, and spirit are back in center stage in medicine. In Mind Over Medicine, Dr. Lissa Rankin shows why. This is a compelling, clear, and reader-friendly vision of where medicine and healing are headed, written by an expert medical insider who’s been there. Buy two copies -- one for you and one for your doctor.”— Larry Dossey, M.D., author of Reinventing Medicine, Healing Words, and One Mind...“WOW! Just wow! That is how I feel about Lissa Rankin’s work! Everything she says rings so true to me, and her voice, as a professional medical doctor, is just what is needed in today’s drug dependent society. Bravo, Lissa for having the courage to speak out and share your truth. This world needs more like you!”-- Anita Moorjani, New York Times best-selling author of Dying to Be Me...“Being my own inner physician for years means that I’m SUPER thrilled about Dr. Lissa Rankin’s brilliant new book, Mind Over Medicine. She marries intuition with science and shows us all our healing SUPERPOWERS, and how to live our lives this way. And, Lissa’s writing style is so exuberant and deep at the same time, it makes me feel like I can do handstands on the ocean!”-- SARK, author of 16 books, artist, and founder of PlanetSARK.com...“Mind Over Medicine modernizes age old messages of wisdom and makes them easier to understand and apply to modern day lifestyles. This book contains much wisdom in easy-to-apply lessons we can all learn from.”-- Bernie Siegel, M.D., author of Love, Medicine & Miracles...“Dr. Lissa Rankin is a jet-powered force of vibrant health and happiness, for women in the world today. This book is vital. It is the first time a physician has written on behalf of the health of the whole body and soul of woman. She identifies the how to’s of optimum health in every aspect of a woman’s life. It is not only a must-read, it is an urgent, required read!”— Regena Thomashauer (a.k.a. “Mama Gena”), author of Mama Gena’s School of Womanly Arts...“An extraordinary, evidence-based look at the true impact of mindset and lifestyle on pain, disease, and vitality. An M.D. herself, Rankin takes on the establishment from the inside out, building a compelling argument for a new approach to health and healing that puts the patient in the driver’s seat. Prepare to have your mind blow . . . and your body healed.”— Jonathan Fields, author of Uncertainty and founder of the Good Life Project...“In a world plying pharmaceutical solutions to all our problems, Dr. Lissa Rankin is an oasis of sanity. The deep attention and intimacy of her approach infuses medicine with intuitive insight and turned-on vitality. Lissa redefines healthcare, calling us to activate our own power in service of true well-being -- I’m in!”-- Nicole Daedone, founder of OneTaste and author of Slow Sex: The Art and Craft of the Female Orgasm.................NEW BOOK SHOWS INCREDIBLE INFLUENCE OF THE MIND OVER THE BODY By Emma Innes Daily Mail September 16, 2013Original LinkIt is often said that the mind has a huge amount of power over the body and a new book has set out to prove just how powerful it can be.In Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof That You Can Heal Yourself, Dr Lissa Rankin lays out many remarkable examples of how the mind can affect the body.For example, she cites one study in which a group of patients were given a saline solution which they were told could be chemotherapy.Despite the fact it was only salt water, 30 per cent of the patients lost their hair.She also mentions the case of a psychiatric patient with a split personality who is diabetic when she is in one personality and not when she is in the other to the point where her blood sugar readings change dramatically.Dr Rankin, a Western-trained physician and obstetrics and gynaecology doctor from California, pored over hundreds of peer-reviewed studies from medical journals to find proof for her theory that the mind can cure the body.In her book, she shares some of the extraordinary cases that she came across.These also include a patient who suffered from severe nausea and vomiting who was given a drug that she was told would undoubtedly cure her.Within a few minutes, she recovered entirely despite the fact that the doctors had lied to her – she had actually been given a drug known not to prevent nausea, but to cause it.Through her research, Dr Rankin discovered that patients who are given placebos do not just feel better -- they can actually become clinically better.She writes: 'I had been thoroughly indoctrinated into the dogmatic principles of evidence-based medicine, which I worshipped like the Bible.'I refused to trust anything I couldn't prove with a randomised, controlled clinical trial.'Plus, having been raised by my father, a very conventional physician who made fun of anything New Age, I was as hard-nosed, closed-minded, and cynical as they come.'However, as her experience of medicine grew, her views started to change.She wrote: 'Even the most closed-minded doctors witness patients who get well when, by every scientific rationale, they shouldn't.'When we witness such things, we can't help questioning everything we hold dear in modern medicine. We start to wonder if there is something more mystical at play.'She went on: 'But what if we've got it all wrong? What if, by denying the fact that the body is naturally wired to heal itself and the mind operates this self-healing system, we're actually sabotaging ourselves?'You hear people whispering about the woman whose cancer shrank away to nothingness during radiation.'Only afterward did the doctors discover that the radiation machine was busted. She hadn't actually received one lick of radiation, but she believed she had. So did her doctors.'Yet another woman broke her neck. After being taken to a hospital and getting X-rays that confirmed that she had broken her neck in two places, she opted to refuse medical intervention and saw a faith healer instead, despite her doctors' vehement objections. Without any medical treatment, she was out jogging a month later.'She continued: 'A woman with [motor neurone] disease went to see the healer John of God, and afterward her neurologist proclaimed her cured.'A paralysed man made a pilgrimage to the healing waters of Lourdes and left walking.'A woman with stage 4 ovarian cancer "just knew" she wasn't going to die, and, after rallying the support of the people who love her, is still alive ten years later.'A man with blocked coronary arteries diagnosed after a heart attack was told he would die within a year if he didn't have heart surgery. After refusing surgery, he lived 20 more years and died - not from heart disease - at 92.'As I heard these stories, I couldn't ignore the gnawing voice within me.'Surely, these people couldn't all be liars. But if they weren't lying, the only explanation was something beyond what I had learned in conventional medicine.'I couldn't help wondering if, perhaps, by not at least considering the possibility that patients might have some control over healing themselves, I was being an irresponsible doctor and violating the sacred Hippocratic Oath.'Surely, if I were a good doctor, I would be willing to open my mind in service to the patients I cared for.'In her book, she encourages the reader to improve their health not by taking medications, but by addressing psychological and lifestyle factors that are causing their illnesses.Dr Rankin worked as a doctor until she became frustrated that she saw so many patients who were clearly ill and suffering, but who continually returned negative test results.She says she was seeing 40 patients a day and knew she was not helping them by diagnosing them 'well' from test results despite seeing they were chronically fatigued, anxious and in pain.After a while, she started to experience similar problems herself.By the time she was 32 she had been through two divorces, was on three medications for high blood pressure, and had just been diagnosed with pre-cancerous cells in her cervix.She was disillusioned with her job and fed up of wearing all the 'masks' of professional doctor, perfect wife and new mother.She then experienced her 'perfect storm'.Within two weeks of giving birth to her daughter, Dr Rankin's 16-year old dog died, her brother was admitted to surgery with acute liver failure, her husband cut two of his fingers off with a table saw, and her father died of a brain tumour.'They say when your life falls apart, you either grow or you grow a tumour. Fortunately for me I decided to grow,' she said.As a result, she left her job and now she works as an author and inspirational speaker preaching that patients have self-healing powers and that they can solve their own health problems.She writes: 'There's proof that you can radically alter your body's physiology just by changing your mind.'There's also proof that you can make yourself sick when your mind thinks unhealthy thoughts. And it's not just mental. It's physiological.'...Below are extracts from Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof That You Can Heal Yourself:The patients who lost their hair because they thought they were having chemotherapy - but were actually being given salineIn Love, Medicine & Miracles, Dr Bernie Siegel cites one study showing that patients in a control group for a new chemotherapy drug were given nothing but saline, yet they were warned it could be chemotherapy, and 30 per cent of them lost their hair.In another study, hospitalised patients were given sugar water and told it would make them throw up. Eighty per cent of them vomited.The woman whose vomiting was stopped by drugs that should have made it worseAnother patient detailed in the Journal of Clinical Investigation suffered from severe nausea and vomiting.Instruments measured the contractions in her stomach, indicating a chaotic pattern that matched her diagnosis.Then she was offered a new, magical, extremely potent drug, which her doctors promised would undoubtedly cure her nausea.Within a few minutes, her nausea vanished, and the instruments measured a normal pattern. But the doctors had lied. Instead of receiving a potent new drug, she had been dosed with ipecac, a substance known not to prevent nausea, but to induce it.Why Chinese-Americans are more likely to die early if they have an inauspicious birth yearResearchers in San Diego examined the death records of almost 30,000 Chinese-Americans and compared them to over 400,000 randomly selected white people.What they found was that Chinese-Americans, but not whites, die significantly earlier than normal (by as much as five years) if they have a combination of disease and birth year that Chinese astrology and Chinese medicine consider ill-fated.The researchers found that the more strongly the Chinese-Americans attached to traditional Chinese traditions, the earlier they died.When they examined the data, they concluded that the reduction in life expectancy could not be explained by genetic factors, the lifestyle choices or behaviour of the patient, the skill of the doctor, or any other variable.Why did the Chinese-Americans die younger? The researchers concluded that they died younger not because they had Chinese genes, but because they had Chinese beliefs.They believed they would die younger because the stars had hexed them. And their negative belief manifested as a shorter life.The psychiatric patient who was sometimes diabetic and sometimes notOne fascinating case study described a psychiatric patient with a split personality.As one personality, the patient was not diabetic and her blood glucose levels were normal.However, the moment she became her alter ego, she believed she was diabetic, and she literally became diabetic.Her entire physiology shifted. Her blood sugars rose, and from all medical evidence, she was, in fact, diabetic.When her personality flipped back, her blood sugars returned to normal.How having lots of friends can increase your life expectancyThe degree of social support you experience even affects the likelihood of cure if you do wind up sick.A University of California, San Francisco study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology investigated the social networks of nearly 3,000 nurses with breast cancer.This study found that the women who had been socially isolated before their breast cancer diagnosis had a 66 per cent higher risk of mortality from any cause and a twofold risk of breast cancer mortality.The nurses who went through cancer alone were found to be four times more likely to die from their disease than those with ten or more friends supporting their journey.The cancer patient who was so convinced drugs would save him that his terminal cancer disappearedA 1957 case study by Dr Bruno Klopfer reports the story of Dr Philip West and his patient Mr Wright.Dr West was treating Mr Wright, who had an advanced cancer called lymphosarcoma.All treatments had failed, and time was running out. Dr West didn't expect him to last a week.But Mr Wright desperately wanted to live, and he hung his hope on a promising new drug called Krebiozen.He begged his doctor to treat him with the new drug, but the drug was only being offered in clinical trials to people who were believed to have at least three months left to live.Mr Wright was too sick to qualify. But he didn't give up. Knowing the drug existed and believing the drug would be his miracle cure, he pestered his doc until Dr West reluctantly gave in and injected him with Krebiozen.Dr West performed the procedure on a Friday, but deep down, he didn't believe Mr Wright would last the weekend.To his utter shock, the following Monday, Dr West found his patient walking around out of bed.According to Dr Klopfer, Mr Wright's 'tumour masses had melted like snowballs on a hot stove' and were half their original size. Ten days after the first dose of Krebiozen, Mr Wright left the hospital, apparently cancer-free.Then scientific literature began reporting that Krebiozen didn't seem to be effective.Mr Wright, who trusted what he read in the literature, fell into a deep depression, and his cancer came back.This time, Dr West, who genuinely wanted to help save his patient, decided to get sneaky.He told Mr Wright that some of the initial supplies of the drug had deteriorated during shipping, making them less effective, but that he had scored a new batch of highly concentrated, ultra-pure Krebiozen, which he could give him. (Of course, this was a bald-faced lie.)Dr West then injected Mr Wright with distilled water. The tumours melted away, the fluid in his chest disappeared, and Mr Wright was feeling great again for another two months.Then the American Medical Association blew it by announcing that a nationwide study of Krebiozen proved that the drug was utterly worthless.This time, Mr Wright lost all faith in his treatment. His cancer came right back, and he died two days later..................RELATED LINK:• Pulse on The Power of Placebos.................See More