MEDITATION AS CANCER TREATMENT

This is a 64 year-old man who developed symptoms leading to a biopsy-proven carcinoma of the rectum. He was a psychologist by profession. He refused surgery, and sought direction from the author. He did extensive meditation work with the author and engaged in meditation at home for 1-2 hours/day between office appointments. He noted subjective improvement in 2 weeks. In 6 weeks he discontinued enemas which had been necessary due to partial obstruction of the colon. In 2 months he no longer had to be up at night. After a setback following a negative suggestion from an iridologist, he again improved, and 6 months later his stools had returned to a normal caliber. One year later all symptoms were gone. His meditation practice averaged 3 hours/day, in "divided doses."

He returned to his joyful activities of writing poetry and hang-gliding. Meares A. Regression of Cancer of the Rectum Following Intensive Meditation. Med J Aust Nov 17 1979; 2(10):3940.

Comment
The author of this case history is accumulating significant experiences in whole-person management of cancer in Australia. The author describes his approach, which included encouragement of meditation characterized by extreme simplicity and stillness of the mind, faithful daily practice, and communicating with the patient by reassuring words, phrases and touch. the client in this case history began improving within 20 sessions. He states that patients do better when chemotherapy is not involved and believes that depression is associated with the immune suppression of chemical treatments. Negative suggestions from participating physicians and caregivers are a significant negative factor in his opinion.

This is a single case history. Brendan O'Regan of the Institute of Noetic Sciences gathered over 3,000 reported case histories of "spontaneous" recovery from cancer in a volume entitled "Spontaneous Remission," Sausalito California, Institute of Noetic Sciences, 1993. these were only the reported cases. The true number is probably many times 3,000. Editors hesitate to publish case histories of this sort. One thing appears quite certain. Dedication, strictly positive attitude, and support from caregivers and physicians who believe in the possibility of recovery are essential ingredients for improving the prognosis. The number of persons seeking this approach to life- threatening disease is increasing. The stories of recovery need to be emphasized over and above the description of the usual survival and course of devastating disease.

Psychoneuroimmunoendocrinology Review and Commentary
by Robert A. Anderson, MD
667 N.E. 4th Street, K101
East Wenatchee, WA 98802

(Excerpt from "Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients," January, 1999 edition)

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