Tag Archives: thought

“Beam me up, Scotty”

By Bob CummingsFebruary 7, 2012Health, Notes from Bob Cummingsconsciousness, health, McCoy's syndrome, spirituality, Star Trek, The Lancet, thought, Tricorder

Picture courtesy of Flickr user javacolleen

“McCoy’s syndrome” is defined, in an article¹ in a leading medical journal called The Lancet, as an excessive faith in medical technology (especially imaging), an absence of clinical reasoning and a lack of making emotional connections with the sick. The problem: frequent misdiagnosis.

Technological equipment in medicine helps physicians do their job better. But there can be a temptation to rely excessively or exclusively on a test result or image scan.

TRICORDER (Picture courtesy of Flickr user ted.sali)

The reference to McCoy’s syndrome is based on the fictional character named Dr. McCoy on a TV show called Star Trek in which the doctor diagnosed patients using a medical “tricorder” that scanned the patient and eliminated any need to discuss things with the patient or examine them any further. Take a reading, get a diagnosis.

But in real life, medical machinery today doesn’t accomplish this. And it may never do so. And one reason for this is that there is a mental component to health.

Anatomy and mysterious Italian diseases?

By Bob CummingsJanuary 16, 20124 commentsHealth, Notes from Bob Cummingsanatomy, cervicale, colpo d'aria, health, prayer, spirituality, thought

DaVinci’s VITRUVIAN MAN (photo courtesy of Flickr.com user I BE GINZ)

“The knee bone’s connected to the thigh bone…” That’s how the song goes.

Are you well versed in anatomy? I am most definitely not. My biology class in school covered the subject, but to this day, with a few exceptions, I just couldn’t tell you what bone is where. Most of them, I seem to never even have heard of. This handicaps me a bit when doing crossword puzzles and other word-based puzzles that use these words.

But recently I read an article online that suggests that this might actually be good for my health. Sound a little strange? Perhaps.

Thinking and effective exercise

By Bob CummingsJanuary 3, 2012Health, Notes from Bob Cummingsdepression, exercise, health, placebo, prayer, spirituality, thought

Picture courtesy of Flickr user Jacobunny

When thought meets exercise, exercise is more beneficial.

“A particular mind-set or belief about one’s body or health may lead to improvements in disease symptoms as well as changes in appetite, brain chemicals and even vision, several recent studies have found, highlighting how fundamentally the mind and body are connected” writes Shirley S. Wang in an article in the Wall Street Journal today.

A 1999 study conducted by James A. Blumenthal, PhD at the Duke University Medical Center found that older patients with major depression experienced therapeutic benefits from an exercise program equal to what others received from antidepressant medication.

Charles Darwin sees connection between thought and blushing

By Bob CummingsOctober 25, 2011Health, Notes from Bob Cummingsblushing, Charles Darwin, consciousness, divine, Healing, health, spirituality, thought

Blushing provides a great example, I think, of how consciousness can affect health. An emotional response in thought (e.g. feeling embarrassment) has a direct effect on the body – a change in blood flow seen as blushing in the face. I have found that through prayer, a change in thought resulting from feeling a connection to God, or feeling God’s love, can result in physical healing.

Charles Darwin (courtesy of flickr user shehal)

So I was pleasantly surprised to come across some of Charles Darwin’s writings about blushing in Chapter 13 of his book, The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals (see pages 325-326). Now I’m not getting into any debate here between evolution and creationism. I’m just sharing interesting insights from a well-known and respected naturalist.

Darwin wrote (emphasis added by me), “It is not the simple act of reflecting on our own appearance, but the thinking what others think of us, which excites a blush.

Thought affects movement

By Bob CummingsSeptember 27, 2011Uncategorizedathletes, cylcist, Dr. Kevin Thompson, Gina Kolata, health, limits, movement, spirituality, thought

“Athletes themselves have long insisted that mental factors are paramount“. Recently I read this in an interesting 09/19/2011 article in The New York Times by Gina Kolata entitled, “A Little Deception Helps Push Athletes to the Limit”.

Two cyclists training for the Tour De France courtesy of Flickr user Guus Krol

She shares an experiment conducted by Dr. Kevin Thompson, Head of Sport and Exercise Science at Northumbrian University in England, and his assistant Mark Stone. They had cyclists ride stationary bicycles for 4,000 meters (about 2.5 miles). As they cycled they observed a display of themselves next to an avatar (computer-generated rider) that they were told was moving at the pace of their own best time. But the avatars were actually going 1 percent faster than that – faster than the cyclists had ever achieved.

Thinking about the placebo effect

By Bob CummingsSeptember 19, 2011Health, Notes from Bob Cummingsdivine, Healing, health, placebo, thought, treatment

If the placebo effect is the result of an expectation in thought, if we took the placebo out of the equation and retained only the thought, would that still help? If the placebo has no intrinsic medicinal value, isn’t the effect from a placebo already the result of the thought connected with it?

A placebo is a non-medicated pill, or sugar pill, often used to set a benchmark in research to determine the effect of a drug. Patients often experience positive therapeutic effects from a placebo and this is thought to be the result of their thought that it will help them. This is called the “placebo effect”.

I’ve read that larger placebos have been found to be more effective than smaller ones and taking two placebos more effective than one. Also, that placebos were more effective when given to a patient by a doctor than when they were self-administered. All of this even though they have no active ingredient.

Rethinking the universe

By Bob CummingsJuly 18, 2011Health, ScienceHealing, infinity, non-locality, quantum physics, Scientific American, thought, TIme and space, Vlatko Vedral

Does thought know no bounds?

In my previous blog post, “Science and spirituality”, I shared a new shift in thought identified by Larry Dossey M.D. that he describes as moving from “local” (brain-body) to “non-local” (mind-body) healing. This non-local healing is a shift from one place at one time to any place at any time, and this further trends towards every place at any time, and thus every place at every time. This therefore trends towards an omnipresent, unitary mind, or in other words, one omnipresent mind.

Here is a guest post by a colleague of mine, Sharon Frey, that shares how quantum physicists are seeing “non-locality“.

Guest post by Sharon Frey, Media Manager, First Church of Christ, Scientist
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rethinking the universe

Living in a Quantum World. The June cover of Scientific American really caught my eye. It seems that for a while now, physicists have been saying yes, quantum mechanics exists, but it only applies to a category of small things, very small things. However, the author of this article, along with a growing chorus of other physicists, says it looks like quantum mechanics applies to bigger things too.

Caregiver placebo effect

By Bob CummingsJune 20, 2011HealthCaregiver, Christ Jesus, Christian Science, Healing, health, Herbert Benson MD, placebo effect, Science and Health, thought, Timeless Healing

Placebos by Akacio S. ( /photographyk )

The placebo effect is usually considered to be the curative effective resulting from patients equipping a sugar pill with their belief in its ability to help. But it turns out that the placebo effect can result from the thought of the caregiver as well.

“Belief in or expectation of a good outcome can have formidable restorative power, whether the positive expectations are on the part of the patient, the doctor or caregiver, or both…” says Herbert Benson, M.D. writing (with Marg Stark) about what he calls “remembered wellness” in his book “Timeless Healing – The Power and Biology of Belief”.

Spiritual evidence-based healing

By Bob CummingsJune 13, 2011HealthAndrew Weil M.D., Christian Science, evidence-based, faith, Healing, Jesus, Mary Baker Eddy, Science an Health with Key to the Scriptures, spirituality, spontaneous healing, thought

Andew Weil, M.D. courtesy of greenlagirl

Andrew Weil, M.D., in “Why Our Health Matters” (page 43) writes, “Many doctors have told me about cases of spontaneous healing that they have witnessed in patients, some correlated with mental or emotional changes“.

So, how can we account for experiences like that? Or how can we explain healing accomplished in Christian Science through spiritual means alone?

White as a ghost

By Bob CummingsMay 23, 2011Notes from Bob Cummingsblood, fear, Healing, health, Jesus, thought, truth, white as a ghost

Ghost from Elizabeth Thomsen

I was about 11 years old. I froze in my tracks and listened.

My folks were having a new house built just around the corner from where we lived and that night I was the one who went over to make sure it was all locked up for the night. While inside checking windows and doors I heard footsteps. The interior walls weren’t done yet and those footsteps echoed loudly throughout the darkened house.

As I listened – more footsteps! I got out of there and ran home as fast as I could.

Tag Archives: thought

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