the inner healer

the unquiet mind

The symptoms one is left with after schizophrenia are a severe form of the kind of thing everyone has to deal with; most people just take them for granted, supposing they are real physical symptoms. I am not sure what the distinction is, but I do know that the same treatment will, at the very least, alleviate, if not altogether cure, ALL symptoms of illness. I say alleviate, because there is no doubt that, even if the illness is real, one's state of mind strongly influences whether or not one recovers.

Many of the states we experience as illness, are of the nature of hallucinations. Many years ago I had a dream in which I got out of bed and went to the tiolet and then came back to bed again. When I woke up, I spent some time wondering if I had really been to the toilet. The dream had been so real that I could not tell --- not until I suddenly realised that I needed to go to the toilet, and therefore I could not just have been. This is a common experience, the dream that is indistinguishable from reality.

Hallucinations are just dreams that you have when you are awake. They are just the same: sometimes you can tell they are not real, but sometimes you can't.

Symptoms of illness, likewise, sometimes seem so real you cannot tell they are merely hallucination. These illnesses are normally refered to as psychosomatic. Even if the symptoms are real, they will, inevitably, be exaggerated by the mind, and often embellishments added. These are not causeless, nor random. They are generated by fears, and all sorts of other negative thoughts and feelings, and are, therefore, a reflection of ones inner mind. Voodoo is an example of something that relies on the minds ability to generate hallucinations in response to beliefs and fears. If one believes in the illness, hallucination provides symptoms, which then reinforce belief, which thus generates even stronger symptoms, which confirm belief ---- it is a downward spiral which can end in death.

Thus it is important IN ALL CASES to break into this cycle of negative re-inforcement. Indeed, it is important to use the opposite effect: the mind is also capable of producing positive re-inforcement.
In the first place: NEVER ASSUME THAT ANY NEGATIVE THOUGHT, FEELING OF PHYSICAL SENSATION IS REAL.

Discipline is required here. Sometimes they can be so very convincing. The kind of discipline I am talking about is that used in meditation.

For example, suppose you feel sad: no matter how convinced you are that you really are sad, no matter how convinced you are that you have cause (and I include berievment) to feel sad, just say the words: I am happy.

Thoughts and feelings are tied together. If I say, "I am sad", then the feeling of sadness will follow. If I cry, then the feeling of sadness will follow. If I smile, the feeling of happiness will follow. We are very much creatures of our conditioning --- so the idea is to replace all negative conditioning with its positive counterpart.

If you feel physical pain, and if you believe that it is justified, you are providing negative re-inforcement. We have all seen religious ceremonies where people do things like walking over hot coals without feeling any pain. With physical sensations, such as pain, the positive re-inforcement is to say the words, "it is not real."

Then thoughts. If you have negative thoughts, of any form, whether it is that you believe someone bears you ill-will, or that you believe you are stupid, or in some sense a failure, no matter how justified you feel the thoughts to be, say the words, "I do not believe it." (in this connection, reflect on this: if you are in the wilderness, and you come upon a dangerous animal, you should behave with confidence, and it will not attack you. The reason is simple: if you behave fearfully, if you run away, then you are behaving like a prey animal, and the hunter will hunt you. In other words, other beings, including people, take their cue from you)
So, use meditation to replace ALL NEGATIVE THOUGHTS, FEELINGS AND PHYSICAL SENSATIONS, with positive thoughts, feelings and beliefs, and you go a long way to CURING ALL ILLNESS, PHYSICAL AND MENTAL.