The Mind is an Amazing Healer

Acupuncture, bee stings, placebos: all treatment methods that are accepted by some and rejected by others. One common theme resonates throughout these types of treatments, and that is the power of believing in healing. Eastern cultures have been practicing spiritual healing for a very long time. The book "The Healing Power of the Mind" by a Tibetan Buddhist named Tulku Thondup Rinpoche explains some of the ideology of "awakening out inner wisdom." The main idea of the book is that when we hold onto the negative things that happen in our lives as well as the pain and suffering that comes with illness, we foster further pain and stress. However, when we open our mind to the warmth and sunlight all around us, we enable our body to release the pain and stress and begin to heal. According to "The Power of the Healing Mind," meditation is a technique that many western doctors have begun to adopt. There are quotations from several doctors:
Bernie Segal M.D., a surgeon and professor at Yale makes this statement: "It tends to lower and normalize blood pressure, pulse rate, and the levels of stress hormones in the blood."
Herbert Benson M.D. from Harvard states: "If you truly believe in your personal philosophy or religious faith-if you are committed mind, soul, and body to your world view-you may well be capable of achieving remarkable feats of mind and body that we may only speculate about."

While it would take a lot to convince our society as a whole that meditation can actually heal people, I feel that we should take it into consideration as a reasonable option. After all, before epidurals were available, women giving birth had to utilize meditation in order to get through the pain of childbirth. If it works for that, whose to say what other healing and protecting factors the mind may hold.