Imagery and healing
There are many different ways in which the mind-body connection can be activated. One that I had known about for some time is the use of imagery in healing. I had read the work of Dr. Jeanne Achterberg, author of Imagery in Healing, and of Dr. Martin Rossman, author of Health Through Imagery, and had attended one of Dr. Rossman’s lectures. I loved the stories of the visualizations that other patients used to boost their immune system and found, as I suspected, that the use of visualization in healing is very individual.
One popular way to use imagery in cancer treatment is to visualize the cancer cells in the body being dealt with on a cellular level. Some patients visualize all kinds of things eating up or destroying their cancer—anything from sharks to vicious dogs to rockets. Some children like to imagine a video game where they are blasting cancer cells with lasers. Some people like to visualize the action of the immune system and the white cells attacking and removing the cancer cells.
At first it seems unlikely that visualizing sharks eating cancer cells could make a difference in the outcome of the disease. But somehow it seems that these activities of the mind do translate into a change in the activity of the body on a cellular level. We may not understand all the cause-and-effect sequences in this process, but the results are there.[1]
As I experimented with these techniques, I used my medical training to help me visualize healthy immune cells working and to see the cancer dissolving. I also used anatomy books to visualize the anatomy of the area involved. Eventually, however, over the course of my treatment, my visualizations evolved and I found that I was most comfortable with imagery of a spiritual nature.
One of these visualizations was of violet light saturating the body. Violet is the color of change and transmutation, and I visualized this light dissolving the cancer and clearing the body of any burdens or negativity from any source. I also visualized the violet light working on my finer bodies—changing my thoughts and emotions to be more life-affirming and even changing the way I thought about cancer.
Another visualization used an emerald-green light—the healing green of nature that is healing to the eye, the soul, and the body. I visualized this light strengthening my healthy cells and my immune system, realigning all the cells and organs of the body into a state of perfect health.
The third visualization I used was a thoughtform of green, blue, and white light that is known as the healing thoughtform. This thoughtform is composed of concentric spheres—a sphere of white surrounded by a sphere of blue suspended within a globe of green. The white sphere represents purity and the dissolving of any negativity of the injured or ill part. The blue represents the original “blueprint” or perfect pattern of that organ or body part and how it is intended to function. The green sphere is the light of healing, which returns the cells and the organs to a state of wholeness.[2]
I spent some time each day visualizing the healing thoughtform over my breasts and heart and over my entire body, and I also included this thoughtform as part of my prayers. I prayed for this healing thoughtform to be placed over my physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual bodies as I visualized it doing its perfect work.
I simply prayed as follows: “In the name of my Higher Self, in the name of Mother Mary and Archangel Raphael, I ask for the healing thoughtform to be lowered over me and to heal of all vestiges of breast cancer in my body. May it produce perfect healing of my body, mind, and soul. According to God’s holy will, let it be done.”
I had three pieces of fluorite crystal that I used to help me with my visualization. One was violet, one was green, and the third was carved in the shape of a heart with white, green, and violet all swirled together. I took them with me to chemotherapy treatments and would hold them as touchstones, physical reminders of my visualizations.
There are some very good books on the use of imagery in healing and the powerful effects it can have on the body. I found it liberating and empowering just to read them and to find out how much we can do, just with our thoughts and feelings, to bring about healing.
1. See Martin L. Rossman, Healing Yourself: A Step-By-Step Program for Better Health Through Imagery (New York: Pocket Books, 1989), and Siegel, Peace, Love and Healing, pp. 152–56.
2. For further information about the healing thoughtform, see Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, The Science of the Spoken Word (Gardiner, Mont.: Summit University Press, 1991), pp. 144–48.
Excerpted from A Journey through Cancer: A Woman Doctor’s Personal Experience with Breast Cancer, by Neroli Duffy