"Mind over matter. The new science, taking the fear out of pain and illness."
-by Roseanna Ellis

Many health practitioners continue to focus their attention on the mechanism of the body as a biochemical machine which is controlled by genes. They become preoccupied with the physical aspects of their subject while paying little or no attention to the emotional aspect of the condition. Through many years of experience working in the medical field I began to realize that perception and attitude played a huge role in the recovery rate of pain and illness. It intrigued me to see that many patients with Alzheimer's disease would heal at a much faster rate then other hip replacement patients of the same age or younger. Maybe it was they kept forgetting that they broke their hip. Patients who displayed fear, stress or anxiety healed at a much slower rate. I witnessed this kind of behavior over and over again for fifteen years.

I began a frantic quest to read and research information that proved my theory that a persons mind set dictated the rate of their recovery. I was delighted to find dedicated scientists that were on the same wave length as me. My research revealed that genes may not control life like we were taught, but rather our biology, emotions, behavior and perceptions. Bruce Lipton, PhD., author of Biology of Belief, stated that the cell's behavior and genetic expression were directly influenced by information from the environment. The nervous system, which is our perceptions and thoughts in general, control genes. Our perceptions, which dictate who we think we are, rules our lives and is in a round-about way is responsible for the condition of our health. Bruce also stated “When you are convinced that genes control your life and you know that you had no say in which genes you were saddled with at conception, you have a good excuse to consider yourself a victim of heredity”. He and I also, believe that our limiting belief systems about whom and what we think we are, are conditioned and programmed into our subconscious minds by the time we are six. Of course many famous psychologists have stated this for years.

The mind is a powerful tool that can make or destroy you. Many clinical and scientific studies have been done verifying the power of the placebo effect. The results were staggering, proving over again that there was little difference in the effectiveness between people that received a real medication pill, and those receiving a placebo pill. The end result was that if a person believed that the pill was going to work, real or placebo, it did. Like Henry Ford once stated “Whether you think you can or you can't, you're right." How many times have doctors given cancer patients 6 months to live and the patient died within the time frame. While other cancer patients that were given the same 6 months to live, lived long past their deadline. These survivors had one thing in common, they all refused to believe their time was up.

I am presently working on a person who has Parkinson's disease. He has had the disease for twenty five years but it has only been in the past five years that his condition has become debilitating. To make matters worse, he also displays uncontrolled wavering motions in both his arms and his head especially when he becomes upset or fatigued. The more stressed and upset he became, the more the movements of his body were not under his control. Communicating is a struggle because he speaks very little English. Over a six week period and seeing him only once a week, he has made remarkable gains in his functional ability. Mainly, we worked on stress, fear, and anxiety through the process of Emotional Freedom Technique EFT, a form of acupressure therapy, developed by Gary Craig. EFT eliminates negative emotions through stimulating certain meridian points with my fingers on his face, hands, and chest while he concentrated on his emotional issues.

Michael also received Active Isolated Stretching which was developed by Aaron Mattes. He learned a modified version of Qi Gong, which is a form of very slow specific movements that increases balance and coordination while increasing his energy. Chinese medicine has believed for 100's of years that, “Where the mind goes, the body follows.” This was certainly evident with Michael. The more he learned that he was not a victim of his disease, the more he began to relax. The more he relaxed the more his body was willing and able to do whatever he wanted it to do. His increased functional level was clearly evident by many observable factors.

1. He walks, without shuffling, independently for 60 minutes a day on the boardwalk without using his cane for support.

2. He can climb a full set of stairs holding onto one rail without any help.

3. He is able to sit and stand from a chair without holding onto anything.

4. He has also learned how to control his flaring movements in his upper body through deep relaxed breathing and guided imagery.

Michael is so very happy and proud of his new independence and the knowledge that what he achieved thus far was his own doing, and that his recovery had nothing to do with the many medications he is currently on.