Mirror of Death

Is there a connection between cancer and the mind, the way we view ourselves and our emotional states? Can we harness the power of the mind to improve the likelihood of recovering from cancer? Twenty years ago, Dr. Ryke Geerd Hamer, a German doctor and his wife were diagnosed with cancer shortly after their son was murdered. Dr. Hamer subsequently developed his theory about cancer. In his view, cancer is a natural process which gets triggered by an overwhelming emotional shock for which the body is totally unprepared. This shock registers itself physically in the brain. Healing, in his view, cannot occur until there is first an emotional healing. Dr. Hamer was actually imprisoned in France for 18 months due to his cancer views.

Previously I talked about the Cancer personality. Dr. Lawrence LeShan, an experimental psychologist and therapist developed this theory. Through his studies he determined that there is a general personality configuration among the majority of cancer patients. What he discovered was that for a significant majority of cancer patients, there had been, prior to the onset of cancer, the loss of a crucial relationship. This loss may have been a physical, or more frequently, an emotional loss. It makes me think that Mike's accident, which was so traumatizing that took me a long time to deal with appropriately, may just be the root cause of this cancer.

He also discovered that cancer developed in people who had denied their own creative potential. He refers to the "Mirror of Death" which while staring death in the face, allows patients to confront their true selves, to become aware of their true desires and to make them feel important to themselves. He noted that when people make certain kinds of psychological and life-style changes, they often stimulate their natural self-healing abilities. In LeShan’s approach, the focus is not on problems and past causes, but on what interests, excites, fulfills and vitalizes the person. This therapy emphasizes the unique individuality of each person. It encourages you to find your own best ways of being, relating and creating. Its basic questions are “What is right with you?” “What is your own best ways of living?” and “How, given the reality of your situation, can you move more and more in that direction?” So, is opportunity knocking here? What would the "new" Tami do differently?