Medicine has a phobia about embracing the impact of positive emotions on patients’ outcome. There’s no problem turning to The Dark Side of the Force--a pessimistic, cynical notion that patients are hapless victims of whatever riptide disease brings ashore.

Physicians warn us that stress can have deleterious effects on our health--heart disease, stroke, and a depressed immune function, to name a few. But doctors also know that an upbeat, enthusiastic attitude combined with a good support system, will give patients a higher likelihood of a good outcome. Depression, loneliness, and dejection can all set the stage for complications.

Every doctor has taken care of a terminally ill patient who has said something like: “I need to hang on until Christmas, so I can say goodbye to my whole family.” Recently, a woman in our hospital lay dying from an overwhelming infection. She told us she had to hang on until her son returned home from his tour in Iraq. These patients often achieve their goals. They keep themselves alive until they attain closure, on their own terms, before departing this life. But how?

If medical science is correct, diseases are simply biological processes. They represent mechanistic systems, predictable growth patterns and foregone conclusions. Yet physicians often bear witness to emotional and spiritual beliefs overriding the physical processes. A person’s determination can change the outcome of illness. No one argues with the validity of these everyday occurrences. And yet, the healthcare industry still maintains that discussions about feelings and emotional support are “touchy feely” topics, best left to the social workers or the pastors, and that they have no validity within mainstream medicine.

Voodoo has been studied extensively as an example of how negative emotions can destroy health. Walter B. Cannon, Harvard physiologist, traveled around Africa and the Caribbean studying voodoo deaths. He found that perfectly healthy young men and women died in a matter of two or three days if they were convinced a curse had been placed on them—provided they believed in voodoo. Medicine has no problem accepting the notion that our beliefs and emotions can kill us. Why is it so difficult to believe that our feelings can cure us too?

Remember in Peter Pan when Tinkerbelle has been poisoned and is dying? Peter asks the audience members if they believe in fairies, and to clap loudly if they do. In response, the audience roars and claps as loudly as possible. Tinkerbelle’s little life flickers and then begins to shine brightly again as she recovers. If there had been only doctors out in those seats, old Tink’ would have died.

May the Force be with you, then—even if your doctor does not believe it to be so.

For more reading:

American Journal of Public Health, Voices from the Past
"VOODOO" Death by Walter Bradford Cannon, MA, MD

Pew Research Center Publications, Who Do That Voodoo at Harvard? by Richard Morin

Wookiepedia, the Star Wars Wiki "May the Force be with you."

Reiki and Cancer "May The Force Be With You...Always"
By Stewart Ivory

Stress and Your Health