Napolean Hill: 'Whatever the mind can concieve and believe, it will achieve.'

I came across the words in the title of this post when I read Napolean Hill’s books. You know, these words have guided me to the numerous knowledge and achievements in my life.And I strongly believe in them.

Let me take you to the days of the witch-doctors and their effective role in their society. They held a position of respect. How did these people with hardly any medical knowledge be able to drive off evil spirits from sick bodies with such success? How did they cast spells and managed to make people sick or dead? How is it possible?

Well, according to researchers who had made a study of their methods, these witch-doctors' powers were well-known, known for their ability to achieve whatever they profess to be able to do. With their reputation, they had their society believe they were experts in their field. Then, when they wished to cast a spell, they made very sure that their victims know the spell, know that it had been cast on them by letting them realise a doll in their image had been pierced with needles. The fear and dread of the spell brought on stress and insomnia. All such fears and stress played havoc on the body and sickness followed. Should the victims be suffering from heart problems, the stress could be able to bring death even.

Well, let us move to modern times and a school where my wife taught English. In the year 1998, or was it a year earlier, my wife told me how a man teacher was worried sick because he believed he had a mild heart attack. Sometimes, a little knowledge is very dangerous. This man had read about a pain in the chest. And a few days before, he had the exact type of chest pain described in the article. He worried so much that he could not sleep, his appetite was lost and he found it so tiring to drag himself around throughout the day. He felt he was on the verge of collapse.

When my wife told me that, I discovered that that teacher had not dared to face a doctor to get the truth. I advised my wife to tell that man to see a doctor and face whatever health problem that was besetting him. You know, two days later, my wife told me that it was nothing but muscular pain in the area of the chest and the man had suddenly become his usual self again. Thus, that teacher had believed he had a heart attack and that belief had taken away his vigour and brought him despair. That was the power of believing.

Oh, yes. I almost forget about what my wife once told me about her feeling so much better upon seeing the building of the hospital whenever she was sick. Could this be an unconscious association of the hospital with getting well?

Here is a true story in a medical research on placebo. An untested pill was able to help a man recover from his cancer because he believed it was that good. However, when it was publicised that the pill failed to cure so many other cases, this man realized the pill was useless and the cancer returned. The doctor who realized it was a kind of placebo effect, gave the same man what he claimed were better and improved pills and again the man was cured. Unfortunately, when he realised once again that those pills were not what was claimed, he succumbed again and died.

Recently, medical experts did a research on placebo. The use of placebo has a long history, from the time when medicine was not as easily available, sometimes in war zones where doctors were forced to comfort their patients with injections containing merely saline solution to today where it is used to evaluate the effectiveness of a new drug.

The above mentioned medical experts eventually showed that belief can affect a cure even when no cure can possible arise from the treatment. It just shows us how fantastic our mind is. This indicates how much we can achieve if we are able to put our mind to any concievable task.

For further reading, please go to:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=placebo-effect-a-cure-in-the-mind&sc=emailfriend