Hello,


If a person is seriously sick with cancer or some other debilitating illness, can teir faith in God and a positive mind help them to live longer nor even put their illness in remission? Do you personally know of any examples where this has taken place?


Peace,

Hope12

I believe it... although I am not a strong believer, I do believe it was my positive attitude and sense of humor that helped cure my breast cancer.

My concern with this - and I've heard this "argument" - is that if you do have faith and don't go into remission, the disease is fatal, does that mean your faith was insufficient, you weren't a true believer?

JudyKayTee,

No that is not what I am asking nor am I in anyway suggesting such a thing. That is just a crazy idea. I am asking if Faith and a positive attitude can help in some cases and if you personally know oof any?
Peace,

Hope12

Go to your public library and check out (or order through interlibrary loan) Love, Medicine and Miracles: Lessons Learned about Self-Healing from a Surgeon's Experience with Exceptional Patients by Bernie S. Siegel.

Amazon.com: Love, Medicine and Miracles: Lessons Learned about Self-Healing from a Surgeon's Experience with Exceptional Patients (9780060919832): Bernie S. Siegel: Books (http://www.amazon.com/Love-Medicine-Miracles-Self-Healing-Exceptional/dp/0060919833)

Norman Cousins believed that laughter helped him endure physical illness and even live longer.

Amazon.com: norman cousins: Books (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=norman+cousins&x=0&y=0)

This is a difficult question because we have no idea how long patients would live if they didn't have a positive attitude or faith. A patient can't have a bad attitude and die in six months, and then redo the situation by having a good attitude and live for a year.

I personally know patients who probably lived longer simply because of their positive attitude, but have no idea how quickly they would have died otherwise. I know that I was able to get through cancer surgery and radiation with a positive attitude because of my faith.

JudyKayTee, No that is not what I am asking nor am I in anyway suggesting such a thing. That is just a crazy idea. I am asking if Faith and a positive attitude can help in some cases and if you personally know oof any? peace,
Hope12

It's a discussion board so I would expect to get a lot of opinions.

That having been said, yes, I believe a positive attitude can make a difference. There are hundreds of books written on the subject.

Can anyone say that faith alone can cause someone to go into remission? I don't know how you could positively know that.

A friend asked me to edit a book that he wants to get published. Interestingly, the book turned out to be a biography about his family, and specifically, his father. In one of the chapters, the father had a very serious illness that could leave permanent problems, but was completely healed by a huge outpouring of prayers.

Here is a report on a specific study --

BBC News | Health | 'Healing power of prayer revealed' (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/485268.stm)

There was a study, ( sorry could not find a link to it.) that showed that people that had a "faith" and it really did not matter what faith, Budda, Christianity, meditation, had a slightly better over all health.

And if you talk to people who deal with the dying, often they will tell you someone holds on for a bit, trying to wait for someone to get there. Or perhaps they don't want to die with someone in the room and hold on for a bit till they leave the room.

I do believe that of course at times God does heal a person completely, Just as Jesus did in his day, but Jesus also did not cure everyone in every town he went to. Since of course death is just a natural part of life, and each one has to meet it at some point and time.