The following quote is taken from a most excellent book by Dr. Richard C. Moss titled The Black Butterfly. In conjunction with his discovery and personal awakening, Dr. Moss has developed a series of workshops that address those with catastrophic diseases and/or for those that the medical profession has turned away as hopeless. This following quote is a true story so read it in that light.

"It was the second day of the conference. For several hours Laura had been singing a childhood hymn, repeating it over and over. Suddenly the quality of her singing changed. She felt as though she were no longer singing. She was the song. She found herself lifted to her feet, her arms raised toward the sky, her head arched upward. She said her hands did not end at her fingertips, but continued into the air and sky. The air and sky were alive, and she and they were the same. Her feet seemed to disappear into the earth. Earth, feet, body, arms, sky, song, singer – all were one living being. Laura did not consider what was happening, it just took her. She was the experience."

"The next day her terminal liver cancer was gone. The grapefruit sized bowel metastasis that she had supported with her hand was gone. Three days later she realized that for the first time in thirty-eight years she hadn’t taken her daily insulin injections. In the ensuing weeks, all the secondary complications of her diabetes and cancer – kidney failure, fluid in her lungs, tumor-ridden lymph nodes, partial blindness, loss of sensation her hands and feet, addiction to pain medication – healed. Even a few recently broken toes were completely mended within days. She was radiant; a palpable presence poured from her body like a gentle flame and the whole understanding of her life was radically transformed."

Dr. Moss’ book goes on to explain how this radical awakening in consciousness has permanently healed Laura and several others he documents. After having his own radical awakening years earlier he had decided to share this experience with others and Laura is only one of those who attended his workshops that has had a remission in their otherwise incurable diseases. His workshops use dance and singing as ways to expand personal awareness and consciousness to reach a state that some might consider a perfect alignment and balance between the body and the mind.

I want to start this series on this note, because even medical science is coming to realize that attitude is everything. How a patient feels about themselves and their illness will radically effect their recovery. The new movie Patch Adams is based on a real experience. Dr. Adams knew that laughter is a very potent healing tool. The book Anatomy of An Illness by Norman Cousins, a classic, is his personal journey in healing through the use of laughter. Left to die by the medical establishment Cousins, former editor of Saturday Review, cured himself through the use of large doses of daily laughter. Enkephalins and endorphins are produced in the brain and body when we laugh. Endorphins improve the production of T-cells which augments the immune system. Enkephalins increase the vigor of T-cells and the percentage of active ones. A good laugh also massages the internal organs enhancing digestion and absorption of nutrients. "Laughter is the Best Medicine" is far more than an aphorism.

Dr. Candace Pert is another example of the rising awareness in medicine that emotions create chemical substances in the body. Her book Molecules of Emotion depicts her research and findings on how our emotional states directly effect the biological functioning of the body. She has discovered that the mind is a pharmacy and is continuously producing substances that can augment health or cause distress in the body. Science has known for a long time the effects of anger on the cardiovascular system, or any kind of emotional stress on the digestion and absorption of food, as well as depress the immune system. For more information on this go to my review at Creative Emotion.

In a National Cancer Institute study conducted at the University of Texas in 1977, research could predict with 100% accuracy which cancer patients would die or deteriorate within a two month period – basing their assessment strictly on the patient’s attitude.

In the words of Dr. Deepak Chopra, author of Quantum Healing, "In my own practice, several cancer patients have recovered completely after being pronounced incurable and given only a few months to live. I didn’t think they were miracles; I thought they were proof that the mind can go deep enough to change the very patterns that design the body. It can wipe mistakes off the blueprint, so to speak, and destroy any disease – cancer, diabetes, coronary heart disease – that has disturbed the design."

Louise Hay, who cured herself of cancer many years ago, wrote a book titled You Can Heal Your Life. In this book she discusses the differently attitudes we have and how these attitudes effect the different organs of the body. She is currently working with terminal ill AIDS patients and getting excellent results by tuning them into the emotional basis of their illness in conjunction with administering medical therapies.

It is now estimated that one in three individuals will have one form of cancer in their lifetime. Add that to all other forms of disease there are and perhaps everyone will have some episode of serious illness. Approaching the remedy for ill health can be a creative experience if we allow it. Though science has many good answers and options, each person is an individual and should take responsibility for their own health. If science isn’t offering you a palpable answer to what ails you then it behooves you to do your own research and find other options for a cure. More often than not a cure for the mind, can result in a cure for the body, since the body tends to follow the dictates of emotional and mental health. In conjunction with relieving mental and emotional stress, improving the biological terrain will ensure optimum health and longer life. All of the books listed below have excellent information and definitive options for creating perfect health in the body and mind.

The next part to this series will deal with the theories of longevity, immortality and the most basic structural basis for life itself. Dr. Patrick Flanagan has done extensive research in these areas and his findings and creative options for optimum health will be discussed.