When my friend, whom I’ll call Kent, was in his third year of studying medicine, he worked at the clinic associated with his medical school.
One of his patients had recently had a class 4 Pap smear and was then diagnosed with cervical cancer.
She’d been told she needed a hysterectomy in order to keep the cancer in her cervix from spreading to other parts of her body.
Kent and one of his fellow medical students were tasked with counseling this patient about the cancer and with explaining to her what to expect from the upcoming procedure.
“Before we get to all of that,” Kent said, “I’d like to know a little bit about you.”
“Tell me about yourself,” he continued. “Are you in a relationship?”
The young woman said she had a boyfriend.
But there was no enthusiasm in her voice. She confessed that she and her boyfriend had different goals and a different vision for the future.
She badly wanted to have children, she said. Her boyfriend wasn’t interested in starting a family.
“So what does he want?” Kent asked.
She thought about the question for a minute. Then answered that her boyfriend seemed mostly interested in having sex. But that their lovemaking was not particularly satisfying to her.
A thought came to Kent: This young woman’s boyfriend was basically pounding on her cervix with his penis, over and over again. Like the closed fist of one hand punching the open palm of the other, he had been battering the place in her body where the cancerous cells had started to grow.
“So why are you staying with him?” Kent asked gently. “Have you considered any other options?”
The patient admitted she felt stuck. Even though she believed that she never would have started dating this man if she’d known upfront that he didn’t want a family, she didn’t see a way out.
“I think you know what to do,” Kent said.
They talked for over an hour. After she left, she canceled the scheduled surgery. She also broke up with her boyfriend.
Cancer-free
A month later Kent’s patient came back for another Pap. This time the smear came out normal. There was no longer any evidence of cell changes on her cervix. The cancer was gone.
Fifteen years later Kent ran into his patient again. She was cancer-free and happily married—to a different man. She was also the mother of two small children.
Did my friend Kent cure his patient’s cancer just by talking?
Did this young woman make some other massive changes in her lifestyle and diet after she left his office?
Is there another explanation for what happened? (Perhaps the clinic mixed up the Pap test results, for example).
I don’t know. But I do know that Kent believes that a doctor’s willingness to listen and give thoughtful time and attention to a patient can often profoundly expedite healing.
I also know that the spontaneous remission (often called “regression”) of cancer—without conventional treatment or surgery—is well documented in the peer-reviewed medical literature.
You can heal your life
Louise Hay, the metaphysical thinker who wrote the international bestseller, You Can Heal Your Life, argued that cancer is a disease caused by deep resentment that literally eats away at your body.
Hay—herself a survivor of vaginal cancer—believed strongly that if you can clear the mental patterns that caused the cells to grow unchecked in the first place, you open up space to allow your body to heal.
“I know from personal experience,” Hay wrote in her book in all capital letters, “that disease can be healed, if we are willing to change the way we think and believe and act.”
When he was 26, Chris Wark was diagnosed with colon cancer. He had a golfball-sized tumor in his large intestine.
When the doctors removed the tumor they found it was malignant.
Wark had surgery (as did Hay), but he opted out of chemotherapy (as did Hay). His family and friends thought he was crazy. But Wark felt strongly that his cancer was a result of his stressful and unhealthy lifestyle. He believed, like Louise Hay, that he could find a gentler, less toxic way to heal.
The beat-cancer mindset
In his book, Chris Beat Cancer, Wark describes five component to what he calls the beat-cancer mindset:
Accept total responsibility for your health
Be willing to do whatever it takes
Take massive action
Make plans for the future
Enjoy your life and the process
“My intention is not to blame or shame you,” Wark explains, “but to empower you to take control of your situation and change your life.”
In 2017 Louise Hay died in her sleep of “natural causes” at age 90. More than two decades later, Wark is still completely cancer-free.
Do I have cancer?
I don’t know yet if I have cancer in my eye. I don’t think you can safely biopsy the cells inside your eyeball but I am hoping that the ocular oncologist at the Casey Eye Center in Portland, Oregon will be able to confirm or refute the diagnosis when I see her next week.
In the meantime, I’m doing my best to take massive action, make as many positive changes as I can, and stop sobbing in my soup enjoy my life and the process.
About the author: Jennifer Margulis, Ph.D., is an award-winning science journalist and the author/editor of eight books. The daughter of the internationally renown evolutionary biologist, Lynn Margulis, Ph.D., she is currently working on a memoir about her mother’s life and work. You can support independent journalism and medical freedom by becoming a paid subscriber to Vibrant Life, which costs less than a cup of coffee a month, or contribute to her healing journey by a donation to the GiveSendGo campaign set up by her friend Ginger Taylor.
Jennifer, it was so nice to read this post. I have to tell you that, as a botanical-medicine clinician for 27 years now, I have found few resources to equal Louise Hay's wonderful books in helping my clients to heal, esp. her pocket guide Heal Your Body, which is still available quite inexpensively for any one who may be interested in picking it up. I started using it with clients many years ago, esp. after discussions with a holistic psychologist who also practiced at my clinic. She had related so many wonderful experiences that her clients had shared with her after having applied the spoken affirmations in the book and I have used it with thousands of clients ever since. The book is great because it lists diseases alphabetically in column one, then spells out the emotional cause of the disease in column two, and then gives an affirmation for the sick person to recite out loud in front of the mirror (so the person sees him/herself saying it and hears it as well). During my initial visit with a client, I have always asked that person to read the emotional cause of the disease out loud and, 8 times out of 10, they start crying (just from reading the cause)! At that point, I know I am really onto something and that they will greatly benefit from the affirmation, which of course they always do. Although I have always given each client a multi-pronged protocol, these affirmations are always at the top of the list that they praise when I follow up with them. God rest Ms. Hay's wonderful soul! And thanks again for sharing her wonderful healing aids, Jennifer
YES! "spontaneous" healing is possible from ANYTHING. In my work as an energy healer I have seen and/or heard of amazing healing stories. So often, simply listening, asking the right questions and a willingness to accept the answers are all that is needed to initiate the healing process. And the body, in all its magical ways, does the rest. Blessings to you, that you might lean into what truth there may be that helps you understand what you need to "see" or "know" for your own healing. (oh, and I would sincerely like to offer my services for energy healing if you want--my gift to you. I don't want to be seen as advertising here, so if you want more information, let me know).