How to cure disease from within

We’re a society addicted to fast-paced living, negative thinking and junkfood fuels — a recipe for disease acceleration. Yet, while many blame the rise in cancers and heart conditions on their genes, scientific research proves only 5 to 10 per cent of all disease is hereditary — far less than many have been led to believe, according to leading stem-cell biologist, Dr Bruce Lipton.

In a film that pushes the boundaries of conventional thinking, The Cure Is…, Lipton is joined by some of the world’s leading health practitioners, scientists and thought leaders, who are sparking a global discussion that’s being heard by those seeking another way: health, or lack thereof, begins not with our parents or our bad habits alone. Rather, it is a collaboration between the environment and your lifestyle as well as your mind and the thoughts you generate within it.

This is radical thinking for a Western population largely addicted to chemical pills promising cure-alls, and harsh treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy.

Your thinking, your disease

“If genes are responsible for only 5 — at most 10 — per cent of the illness on our planet, what about the other 90 per cent of the illness?” asks Lipton, who is also bestselling author of The Biology of Belief, a book that details how genes can be turned on and off by environmental signals, including thoughts, feelings and emotions, from outside our cells.

“The answer is that it has nothing to do with genes and everything to do with lifestyle … The concept genetic determinism — (that) genes control your traits — makes us victims of our heredity. So if there is cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes running in your family, we have a belief, ‘Oh, these genes control these traits and I am a recipient of these genes and my future will have these diseases in them’ — and we buy into that belief, when it turns out to be totally false.”

So intrigued by this view of health was the film’s maker, David Scharps, he spent his last dollars on writing, directing and producing a documentary that’s being hailed by health professionals as the catalyst for better understanding of how we can either stay healthy or allow disease to take hold. He brings forward a new health paradigm that may forever change the way many view their health.

“It is clear science cannot explain why disease has taken over our health in many countries — genes do not change this rapidly,” says Scharps. “Many believe that nutrition alone is the culprit. But what I have learned may be as important as nutrition in determining our health, and could even be the single biggest factor in determining whether we stay healthy in our lifetime.”

During his research Scharps discovered that those who invest in many years of internal negative self-talk and depression create bodies of cells that simply cannot absorb sufficient nutrition. Put simply, regardless of how healthy one’s diet is, if thoughts do not centre on positivity and higher vibrational thinking, a breeding ground for disease develops more often than not.

“If our thoughts, words and actions — and therefore our feelings — are out of tune with this inner nature, then discord, disharmony and disease are the result,” says Scharps, who sought out some of the world’s most prominent healers, health practitioners and scientists.

Scharps’ discoveries are mirrored by these experts, including spiritual teacher and author Marianne Williamson (The Age of Miracles); leading health authority Paul Chek; scientist, visionary and scholar Gregg Braden; internationally recognised cancer expert Dr Bernie Siegel; fitness expert Tony Horton; physician and nutritional researcher Dr Joel Fuhrman; internationally recognised authority of bridging science, spirit and human possibility Dr Sue Morter; and nutritionist Deanna Latson.

Stress is the trigger

Western society’s preoccupation with wanting more, achieving more and being more is the ideal breeding ground for stress, which researchers now know is a leading cause of dis-ease within the body and mind. Stress disrupts the body’s natural rhythm, which is designed to heal and return to balance when given the right conditions. While in some situations stress can serve us, a constant state of discord can only lead to illness, explains scientist Gregg Braden. Recovering from illness requires cessation of stress and emotional triggers as well as a nutritious diet, exercise and a healthy, chemical-free environment.

“Chronic, perpetual stress (and) chronic, perpetual fear shut down the ability to create the healing in our bodies because we are in what is called ‘fight or flight’,” Braden says. “And that kind of experience signals our heart to tell our brain to create the hormone cortisol, for example, and high levels of adrenaline that prepare us for the fight or flight we are perceiving.”

Lipton agrees. “You cannot sustain life in protection because the chemicals of protection short-circuit the growth of the body to use that energy for running away; in the world of the old days we used to just use that occasionally. In the world today we use it 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year … we were never designed to be that long in a compromised growth state and that’s why the health issues in our world are going out of control — because the fear is causing chemicals to be released into the culture medium of the body that shut down its growth and the stress hormones shut off the immune system.”

When thought creates form

Self-help movement veteran Louise L. Hay was one of the first modern teachers to bring light to the idea that your state of mind is very much connected to your state of bodily health, with her 1976 book Heal Your Body awakening thousands to their own healing potential. In the film, spiritual teacher and author Marianne Williamson echoes Hay’s teachings, explaining that every thought very much creates form on some level. “All that our physical experience is, is a reflection of our thoughts,” she says.

Dr Bernie Siegel adds that positive affirmations and regular meditation are “great tools” for changing inner weakness and replacing them with physical strength. “If you repeat an affirmation over and over again, it becomes embedded in your subconscious mind and eventually becomes your reality,” he says.

“Studies show that optimists live longer, healthier lives than pessimists, even when the pessimist’s view of life is more accurate … your attitude determines what you see, so always look on the bright side. The choice is yours.”

Begin with forgiveness

While positive affirmations have been proven to change one’s thought patterns and create a more vibrant health state, nothing can truly affect the body more positively than releasing toxic emotions such as resentment and anger. It’s forgiveness, says Williamson, that frees the mind and the body of emotional upset and potential ill states.

“When the heart is softer, it doesn’t just serve the other person; (the forgiveness) also serves us,” she says. “I was once doing an AIDS support group and a young man said to me, ‘I have to forgive everybody?’ and I remember my response to him was, ‘I don’t know. Do you have the flu or do you have AIDS?’”

During his filmmaking journey it became clear to Scharps that what Williamson and her colleagues teach is not only true but also potentially life-changing for millions of people who harbour ill feelings that manifest into common diseases such as cancer and heart conditions.

“Anger and resentment release some of the most harmful chemistry known to man,” he says. “Forgiveness is a necessity if someone wants to truly experience healing and long-term good health.”

A journey of discovery

According to Williamson, there are documented cases where there is a “seemingly miraculous cessation of symptoms”. “We know these things happen,” she says. “We know there are people who were told they are going to die within a week who live for another 30 or 40 years… What happened in that place where a miracle occurred?”

The Cure Is… is also a window into such miracles, with once-ill patients telling of miraculous recoveries: how they simply changed their state of mind and focused on what was possible, from a single father who was given days to live to Police Academy actor Andrew Rubin, who battled lymphoma and stage one lung cancer, with doctors telling him he had just one to two years to live. His prognosis changed only when he accepted how he had arrived there in the first place.

“I feel in looking back at my life that I got myself into certain situations where I felt so overwhelmed and so trapped in a way — emotionally — that I created a way to leave,” Rubin says. “Everything we think, everything we say, everything has a continuation to it. I could see my part in this. I just didn’t realise the consequence of allowing myself to go those place and indulge myself.” He adds, “I believe illness and emotionality are very, very, very closely connected.”

Words of wisdom

“Finding a way past negative thinking and deeply ingrained emotional upsets may not be as difficult as it seems,” says Lipton. “Anything you struggle with, anything you have to work hard to overcome, anything that requires a lot of effort in your life requires that effort, requires that struggle, because you have beliefs in your subconscious that don’t support that end,” he explains.

“So, basically, it says, you look at your life and see the things that work — good, I have beliefs that support those. The things that don’t work right, whether it’s health, relationships, a job, [don’t work] because there are beliefs in the subconscious mind that are sabotaging you…

So the fun part is you can say, well, what are the things that are not working and I say take those, make statements of belief out of them and see if your beliefs support you in the things you are looking for.”

Rewired and inspired

To complement his film, Scharps also wrote a workbook, Rewired & Inspired, that is designed to allow people to identify their current state of mind, understand it and work through changing what doesn’t serve them. In it he identifies some steps to making the changes that can underpin health.

He suggests that you spring-clean your body by spring-cleaning your mind and that a start for that is to change your language. Scharps advocates that to incorporate a new positive language in your daily life you should pay attention to your thoughts and stop negative thoughts before they begin. He says you should start your day with a positive verbal intention and then regularly throughout the day take the time to look around you and verbalise what you are grateful for.

Of course, there are times when you do have to speak about negative, painful or unpleasant things. During these times, speaking about your pain helps you unburden yourself. It is a necessary part of healing. Once the burden begins to lift, follow up with words and discussion around healing, action and feeling better.

While this sounds simple in a way, Scharps emphasises that transforming your thoughts and feelings takes practice. Like exercise, the work must be done regularly and with intensity if you want to see results.