Spontaneous Healings
    
        Spontaneous remission or spontaneous regression are both synonyms for spontaneous healing. Regardless of the term used the definition is the unexpected improvement or complete
         cure of disease without normal (e.g. mainstream) medical intervention. It may also happen by unorthodox or other
         unconventional means such as prayer, energy medicine or remote healing.
    
    
        This type of healing is not given much credibility by the mainstream medical establishment. Many doctors don't believe in the phenomenon
         (e.g. they were never exposed to it in medical school) and consequently they try to discourage people from holding
         onto what they consider to be false hope and / or believing in false cures. The standard answer the medical establishment gives to spontaneous healings
         is that there must have been a misdiagnosis or, if any treatment was given (even if known to be ineffective), they attribute this treatment
         to be the cause of the cure.
    
 
    
        However the evidence continues to mount (reference Brendon O’Regan et al at
        The Institute of Noetic Sciences
 (IONS)
         study on spontaneous remission). IONS maintains a database includes case studies of spontaneous remissions from
         a wide range of “incurable,” “chronic,” or “terminal” illnesses, including stage 4 cancers, HIV, cardiovascular illnesses, and the common metabolic syndrome including diabetes, hypertension, obesity and certain autoimmune diseases.
    
 
    
    These and other recent studies that suggest spontaneous healing happens much more often than mainstream literature suggests.
         A common ingredient in many spontaneous healings is a shared belief on the part of the patient, and another person such
         as a healer, a clergy member, or, in some cases, a trusted physician, that the patient can be cured. The beliefs 
        of the patient in the ability of these trusted “authority figures” may be much more important than their actual healing abilities. 
     
    
    
    The so-called placebo response is a perfect example of spontaneous healing because of the belief system carried by the patient
         in their ability to heal themselves.  So is the nocebo effect such as voodoo spells or curses which have the opposite
         outcome on body health. No one knows for sure what is responsible for the remission or regression with the placebo
         response (or the nocebo) but clearly the mind / body connection (beliefs directly affecting the physical body) is involved. 
    
    
    It is generally believed that spontaneous healings occur in one of the following ways:
            
                - 
  
                    Faith Based Healings – People who heal themselves often have faith in a power or capability that is much greater than themselves.
                 They may call this power by various names such as prayer, faith healing or something similar. When this power is invoked, these people believe that
                 they are connected to an extremely powerful intelligence (God, the Creative Intelligence, Nature, etc.)
                  of infinite loving and healing abilities and let this intelligence interact with their body / mind / spirit, they will be healed. Numerious verified and sometimes anecdotal stories indicate that they often are.
                 Is it the belief in or the actual connection to this higher intelligence that is responsible for the cure?
                 
               
                - 
                The Mind / Body Connection – Many people believe that the mind (our thoughts) plays a key role in the development of disease.
                 To reverse the disease process, they must reverse or eliminate destructive thoughts.
                 By changing negative thoughts to positive ones, they believe that the mind is able to influence the body.
                    In fact a newly established branch of medicine  called Psycho-Neuro-Immunology (PNI) has sprung up to investigate this process.
                     PNI is defined as the study of the interaction between psychological processes and the nervous and immune systems
                     of the human body. 
                
 
                
         
                
                    One famous case of the mind / body connection is illustrated by the experience of  Norman Cousins who had a rare disease of the connective tissue and was given a 1 in 500
                 chance of survival. He did three things to cure himself: 
                
                     
                        - He fired his doctor, stopped his treatment and left the hospital and went to a hotel
                        
 
                        - He found that the medicines given in the hospital were depleting his stores of vitamin C so he took massive doses
                            of the vitamin from a doctor who was sympathetic to his home grown treatment.
                        
 
                        - He got a movie projector and a pile of comic TV shows (Marx Brothers and Candid Camera) and watched them for
                            several days while locked in the hotel room. Even though he was in pain he laughed at the videos with a
                            continuous belly laugh the entire time. The end results was that he died 26 years later, years after his
                            original doctors had predicted
                        
 
                    
 
   
 
    
    One rational for his remarkable recovery is that as, science has shown, every thought is associated with the release of many
         hormones in the brain and throughout the body. An unhealthy thought releases unhealthy hormones (e.g. the stress response).
         Positive thoughts release hormones stimulate healing or strengthen its immune system which, in-turn cured him.
         In other words psychology affects physiology (and also works in the opposite direction).
    
    
        - Meaning / Purpose and Cognitive Dissonance – When people find meaning and purpose in their lives,
             incredible healing transformations can occur. These meanings and purpose can be something as simple as caring for a pet or as noble
             as helping complete strangers who are facing desperate situations. It can also be caused by experiencing
             the cognitive dissonance that may occur when facing some type of transformative experience (like a Near Death Experiences
             – NDEs, or Out-of-Body Experiences – OBEs, UFO encounters, etc.). These experiencers are so shocked by a new perception and understanding of reality that astonishing healing transformations can occur and these people can suddenly find themselves in
             complete remission from their illness. Well documented examples include:
                
            
                - 
                    Anita Moorjani author of e.  In this case she was cured of stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma after an NDE).
                 
   
                - 
                   Similarly Dr. Eben Alexander III, neurosurgeon, author of Proof of Heaven, and Eternea’s Chief Science Officer
              whose prognoses was a vegetative state if he survived from his severe bout of bacterial meningitis of the brain,
             fully recovered after awakening from his coma (and concurrent NDE). 
            
 
                - 
                    Similar healings are reported to have occurred with other unusual encounters like UFO abductions. Could these also be another manifestation of this healing phenomena? If so, does it matter if these events are real or not but instead just depend on the perceptions and interpretations of the persons having them?
             
            
         - 
            
            Moving Conscious Awareness Aside 
             – Some spontaneous healings (and other feats demonstrating
             extraordinary abilities) occur when people are so engrossed in an activity that ordinary (waking) consciousness
             gets pushed aside and they lose track of ordinary awareness. This is similiar to athletes who describe their best
             performances when they are not concentrating on the task at hand (hitting the ball, aiming at the target, etc.)
             and, instead, operate from “in the zone” (e.g. are not using their conscious awareness). 
 
    
        
            Is it possible that focused awareness (e.g. rapt attention) on an engrossing activity actually distracts the conscious mind such that the immunological (or extraordinary) processes of the body can be mobilized (by the subconscious mind)
             to promote healing? Does this mean that the ordinary consciousness we experience is nothing but a reducing valve
             that protects our consciousness from experiencing a larger and more powerful reality even at the expense of our own health?
    
 
        
            - Non-local Healing – In 
                survival of consciousness
                 we present a case for non-local consciousness and the ways it may manifest. Growing evidence suggests that consciousness
                 extends beyond the physical brain non-locally (beyond time and space) as a field of information and that
                 this field influences and interacts with external physical matter / energy beyond the body.
                 Consequently it can have a direct bearing on remote healing. Non-local consciousness is one
                 of the major research areas of Eternea where we seek to add to the evidence for this
                 phenomenon and to understand its underlying mechanisms. For more information see
                 consciousness issues
            
 
    
    
        There is no doubt that a very complex healing processes exists within and beyond the body / mind system.
         If you add to this the mounting evidence that our consciousness is non-local and can be affected and
         influenced by other non-local consciousness (e.g. via remote healings, prayer, intentionality, etc.) 
         This system, when allowed to work non-locally and also unencumbered by limited beliefs or restricting
         thoughts of ordinary consciousness can initiate repairs to wounds, heals tissues, organs and even organ
         systems of the body. It can correct imbalances that have crept into the body system that, if otherwise uncorrected,
         could result in cancers, cardiovascular illnesses, dementia, diabetes or many other debilitating diseases or even 
        death or accomplish feats of extraordinary achievement. 
    
         For more information click on the following:
    
         Consciousness defined
        
         Consciousness issues
         
         Survival of Consciousness
        
         Exceptional capabilities
         
         Precognition
        
 
         Mediumship
         
         Mediumship Case Study
        
        Spiritually Transformative Experiences
        
      
            Check out additional references
            on our Recommended Readings page
    
    			            
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