We are all convinced that for people who are fighting disease, willpower and positive attitude are perhaps the key ingredients to recovery, but what if I told you that I believe this may not be true? What if I dare break the sacred teachings of many authors, counselors, organizations, support groups and others who have preached for decades the methods of visualizing the killing of bad cells in our body and taught that getting well is tantamount to fighting a war and that the enemy must be defeated to regain lost health.

My philosophy on healing and health has gone through many stages of beliefs as I have watched and listened intently to thousands of people in their journeys into and out of health and disease. I have been convinced at times that nutrition and healthy foods alone are the key to health. Years later I decided that exercise must also be added into the recipe for optimal well-being. Decades of focusing totally on these two and following many clients who were also devotees of this approach taught me that this still did not confer the health and recovery that so many seek and made me question some of my deepest held beliefs. I knew there was something I was missing when certain people, despite their ultimate will power, the finest array of nutritional supplements and eating better than Jack Lalanne continued to fail to recover from chronic sickness.

In 2007 I started becoming drawn to the theories on how our mind and emotions can alter our health in amazing ways. Bruce Lipton, the author of The Biology of Belief, was the turning point in my life that convinced me how the subconscious programming of our brain can actually determine strongly how the genes operate in our body either for improvement of health or creating disease that never heals! The Biology of Belief is a very in-depth explanation of how futile it is to expect the conscious thinking brain to try to overcome disease by positive thinking. Over 95% of the messages the cells and genes receive are from our subconscious, which most people never have a clue about. The subconscious was programmed with its information from the time of our birth up to now and it is similar to a tape player that runs constantly in the background without us hearing it. However, the part of us that is highly tuned into these messages is the cells of our bodies. If on the surface you are saying, “I want to be healthy” but underneath this layer the dominant information being put out to the cells says “I don’t deserve to get well” or “I would lose control over someone if I were healthy” or “the doctor said I only have six months to live,” than the chances of recovery to optimal well-being are slight.

In further study I have done in similar areas, such as German New Medicine and others, I have come to the conclusion that the first rule of health must be focused on how our brain activity is presently being programmed to alter our cells and genes. We must be VERY cautious about new information we allow ourselves to be exposed to that adds these negative messages into your brain computer. Damaging information such as health care workers who paint only grim outcomes to patients, support groups that allow you to hear constantly how dismal the future may be for you, and constant medical tests that simply reconfirm your destiny.

The introduction found in the book, Faith and the Placebo Effect by Lolette Kuby, says it all.

"Every method of treating illness works. High tech laboratory tested therapies of Western medicine work. So do the ancient techniques of Eastern medicine. Laser surgery and chemotherapy, crystals, ginseng root, low-fat diets and vitamin megadoses, as well as medicine – such as aromatherapy, music therapy, Reiki, macrobiotics – they all work. Every possible decoction of forest and garden, and yes, a rag, a bone, and a hank of hair have been used to heal and have healed. In the history of the world, there has never been a medicine or a treatment that did not heal someone."

How is this possible? What is really going on here? To compound the puzzle, why doesn’t a given treatment work on everyone who has the same disease? And, if a treatment is effective in Switzerland, why does it not work in all countries. And, if a treatment worked in the year 1800, why didn’t the identical treatment work in the year 1900?

Faith and the Placebo Effect is an argument for self-healing. Along with countless others, I have discovered a great truth that neither I nor anyone else invented. The truth is that your health and healing is in your mind!

I will of course continue to believe strongly in taking the best nutrients, eating the highest quality foods and showing up at the gym every morning, but putting the greatest emphasis on my thoughts and the effects of negative programming is what I believe will allow the good habits to offer the greatest chance of optimal health and long life.

(Ed Jones started Nutrition World in 1979 at Four Squares Mall in Chattanooga. Now located at 6201 Lee Highway, Nutrition World provides a comprehensive selection of nutritional supplements, natural and organic foods, and holistic health practitioners on site. For more information, visit www.nutritionw.com.)