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Although we may have finite resources,
we have one infinite resource which is the human mind and this
faculty is the least understood aspect of humanity on the planet,
and should encompass the term bio-mind which means the complete
or self actualised human being.
This has particular significance in terms
of the pre-eminence healing as an impact on creating a more
successful, dynamic and sustainable society. If people can understand
the intimate connection between the mind and body they could
then realise how the power in each of us has the ability to
affect not only how we feel, but indeed how to affect the course
and outcome of illnesses.
Only recently in all medical schools
in the Western world, the connection between mind and body,
that was the cornerstone of Hippocratic medicine, was ignored.
It was in the 1930's that Cannon discovered the bodily fight
and flight syndrome, a reaction to any perceived threat by a
living organism. Subsequently Canadian, Hans Selye defined stress
as the non-specific response of the body to any demand. In the
1970's researchers began to understand the flight and fight
and stress responses were related to a variety of human disease
states and more recently with the work of George Solomon, Stanford
University, Robert Aider, University of Rochestor and Candice
Pert at John Hopkins, a new field has been mapped called psychoneuroimmunology
emphasizing the interconnection between the mind, brain and
the immune system.
George Engel a Professor of Medicine
at the University of Rochestor, has studied hundreds of patients
with chronic disease over a period of twenty years.
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