by
Dr. P.C. Simon
Though diseases are caused by various factors such as
bacteria, viruses, polluted water and air, toxic environment, etc.,
the most frequent cause is mind. All negative feelings, whether
stress, fear, jealousy, anger, or hatred, have input into our
health. Some may be severe enough to show immediate reaction.
Others will be so slight that the result may become evident only
after many years. Jealousy, spite, and resentment take a long time to
display their effect in the body. Many chronic diseases are caused
by minor annoying factors. But the following is a story of
instantaneous effect of thought on body.
Deepak Chopra, M.D., in his book, Quantum Healing, wrote the
story of his mother. She was allergic to pollen in Jammu, India.
The moment she left Jammu, she got cured. On one occasion they were
returning home from Simla. Just as the plane landed, she had an
allergy attack. She had difficulty in breathing and spots were
developing on her arm. The steward ran up to her husband who was a
cardiologist at Jammu and asked if there was anything he could do.
Chopra's father replied that they couldn't do anything because it was
the pollen of Jammu. The steward looked puzzled and said, "We have
just landed in Udhampur, and not in Jammu." His father looked at
Deepak's mother who heard the conversation and found that her
wheezing had subsided and her welts were vanishing. Later, his
father confessed to Deepak, "All you have to do is say "Jammu", and
your mother breaks out.
Another example is that of Pettenkofer. Pettenkofer was a
chemist in Munich whose work as the high priest of sanitation won him
the people's admiration. Pettenkofer advocated clean water and air,
along with trees and flowers to satisfy people's aesthetic longings.
By increasing the supply of fresh water and by diluting the city
sewage, he had reduced Munich's death rate due to typhoid from 72 per
1,000,000 in 1880 to 14 in 1898. When Robert Koch, German scientist
and founder of modern medical bacteriology, isolated the cholera
bacillus and confirmed it as the cause of cholera, Pettenkofer
disputed Koch's finding and said that diseases are caused not by
bacteria but by poor hygiene. To prove his point, Pettenkofer
obtained from Koch a culture from a fatal case of cholera in Hamburg
and swallowed a large amount of the culture on October 7, 1892. Even
though he consumed massive numbers of organisms in comparison to
accidental infection, he only had an attack of diarrhea. Even today
his survival remains a mystery.
There are many factors that could have made the culture
innocuous but I believe Pettenkofer's conviction had a great
influence on the outcome of his foolish action.
Resource Box: Copyright 2003. Dr. P.C. Simon is a retired research
microbiologist, philosopher, philanthropist and author. Also by Dr.
P.C. Simon, is the informative, inspiring, and life-changing book,
The Missing Piece to Paradise. More articles by Dr. Simon and a
description of his book can be seen at
http://www.interchange.ubc.ca/psimon/book2.htm