When a devastating illness strikes us or someone we love, we want to know “Why?” Our heart cries out: “Why him?” or “Why her?” or “Why me?” We may even demand an answer to: “God, how could You let this happen?”
This article is about potential answers to these heart-wrenching questions. The answers are part of a story of an astounding recovery from a totally hopeless situation. I have seen many hopeless situations in my medical career, and even some turnarounds that seemed pretty miraculous, but nothing that even comes close to this story. Since the healing was so incredibly unlikely, and the documentation so extensive and credible, it merits very careful evaluation and consideration.
The story is about Anita Moorjani, a woman who developed Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. She was terrified of chemotherapy and refused the standard medical treatment. Over the next several years after her diagnosis, the disease advanced relentlessly, invading much of her body. When she was finally brought to the hospital she was nearly comatose, every organ system in her body was failing, and there was no doubt that she only had a few hours to live. At this extremely advanced stage of her disease, even if chemotherapy could have destroyed the tumor cells that were consuming her body, the toxic byproducts of the dying cells themselves would have killed her. There was no hope.
But instead of dying, her organ systems somehow repaired themselves overnight, and her tumor began to melt away. Despite how unlikely it sounds, within a few days she was completely cancer free. There is no reasonable physical explanation for this, and it is so far outside what is medically possible that some other process was clearly at work. But as spectacular as it is, if this was all there was to Anita’s story, this would just be another surprising case of the spontaneous remission of incurable cancer to add to the growing list of such cases. But Anita’s incredible healing was accompanied by a near death experience while her body was in complete shutdown, that first night of her hospitalization. Both the cause of her illness and the means by which it might be cured were explained to her while she was comatose and experiencing the NDE.
I present Anita’s story here because the explanations from her NDE that she reports to us echo some of the most important messages contained in my blog articles. In brief, she tells us that it was explained to her that each our lives are just the culmination of all the thoughts and beliefs we have held as true. She also tells us it was explained that some of these beliefs and thoughts caused her cancer. She learned that it is our beliefs that hold our illusions in place, and when suffering manifests in our lives, it is always a product of this process.
During her NDE, Anita was offered a choice of whether she wanted to be cured or not. She could allow the collapse of her body to end her life and not return to it. If she chose to be cured, she could continue to live in the world, but this time free of her illusions and the disease these illusions produced. She chose a cure so she could bring this information back to us, and she would do so in a way that would capture our attention. Her message can be summed up quite simply. Our physical diseases and illnesses are generated by the contents of our minds. The “impossible” cure that brings this idea to our attention should motivate us to carefully consider its veracity..
You can find a link to a pdf file of an interview about Anita’s NDE here. You can find a YouTube video about it here. Her book, Dying to be Me, can be found here.
Love and good health to all,
Chuck
Blog articles related to this topic that might interest you:
The Healing Power of the Human Mind: the Emotional Roots of Disease (evidence that
physical illness can result from emotional causes)
The Much Maligned Placebo Effect (evidence that our beliefs have healing potential)
The “Spontaneous” Remission of “Incurable” Cancer (exploring case histories of unexplained
cures)
An Incredible Book of Healing Research (proof of the effectiveness of healing intent to cure
experimental cancers in laboratory rats)
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Science and Spirit 
Day by day, these kind of stories become normal to hear, as if it’s quite natural. The questions that come to my mind is that, what is it that defines our mind content? Why do we hold the thoughts we hold? Isn’t it possible to change our mind/thoughts without going through traumatic events? Like the I went through or the one Anita went.
Thank you, Chuck.. 🙂
Thank you for your helpful comments, Oldooz. Your questions are very important if we want to try to benefit from Anita’s insights. One of the most interesting things about these questions is that we can use science to objectively study them. The research along these lines is in its infancy, though. In the meantime, I will offer some opinions based on the work I am doing as reflected in this blog and web site.
Researchers estimate that the average person has hundreds of thousands of thoughts that are occupying their mind throughout their day. Through various research methods, it has been estimated that the vast majority are actually repetitions of the same few thoughts over and over (something like 70%). These same research studies show that, for many people, the majority of these repetitive thoughts are negative, being self-critical, anxious or pessimistic. Other studies show us that negative thought patterns change our physiology in detrimental ways, such as increasing stress hormones, raising blood pressure and blood sugar, and suppressing the immune system. Positive, self-affirming thoughts do the opposite. It would be reasonable to hypothesize that repetitive negative thinking could accumulate detrimental changes in our body’s structure and physiology over a period of years – possibly even causing disease.
So, where do our habitual thought patterns originate? I am convinced they are learned patterns. We may have genetic predispositions, but even these appear to be capable of intentional modification. We acquire our personal view of the world, who we are, and how it all works, from many sources. Of course, we cannot change our beliefs by just willing them to change. But every experience we have moves us at least a little. I believe even something as passive as reading Anita Moorjani’s story can have beneficial effects. Psychologists researching techniques like mindfulness meditation are reporting that their subject’s show very positive changes. In my personal experience, I find I can change towards the better by focusing on positive, supportive and joyful experiences whenever possible.
While traumatic experiences associated with NDEs often do result in quite dramatic, beneficial changes in how people experience their lives, part of their message is that they are not necessary. Their real value is to educate us about how important it is to examine our assumptions and beliefs, and to help us better understand how these habitual thought patterns impact our lives.
Chuck
PS: For readers who do not know Oldooz, she has a lovely web site focusing on poetry and personal growth: Love and Passion
Thank you so much, Chuck.
It seems to me that when we don’t know who to identify with, we hopelessly begin to identify with the beliefs we hold.
Kin of you to put a link to my blog up there. 🙂
Love,
Oldooz
Dear Chuck,
this is a great article. This story also shows that we are able too far more, than up to now accepted. I have read the book some weeks ago and would like to add that Anita M. has cured not only her body, but her inner attitude to her life. She would like to transmit her knowledge to others and has written therefore this book and gives courses and interviews.
I am looking forward to further talks.
Uta
Thanks for your kind remarks, Uta. I agree that we are much more powerful than we have ever dared to imagine in the past, and Anita’s story clearly attests to this. The evidence in support of this conclusion is increasing every day. What I find most convincing is how the same underlying, encouraging themes are being continuously repeated and supported through so many different sources. The many near death experience reports. The accounts of “spontaneous remission” of devastating illnesses. The extensive research into scientific anomalies. The best of the “channeling” sources that provide uplifting information and insights. If one has an open mind, and considers this evidence carefully, the future looks bright indeed.
Chuck
Thank you Chuck, I see two paths that opens up out of such stories. One path is to find back to what is the most important part of my life, which is love in my view. This is just so simple. All the turmoil in my life is not important in the light of love. It does so good to me, to be reminded of this.
The second path is the view that opens up to us, that our life is so much more creative and powerful than we believe it is and that we are much more than our thoughts and our body. And this all comes without any restricting pain and anxiety, but with endless joy and confidence. Anita is very special to me, While reading her book or watching a video, tears arise. What she says is sometimes overwhelming to me. The video you present is so helpful for all of us I guess, not only for myself. The first what is important she tells us here is, to love ourselves and why this is so important to not suffer and even to not get ill. What a great advice.
Thanks! Uta
You are very, welcome, Uta. I am glad Anita’s stories are so helpful to you. It is very telling how common it is for people to have complete transformations in their lives after what we are calling “near death experiences.” These kinds of transformations are very, very rare outside the NDE context. To me this is one of the most powerful confirmations that they carry truth for us to pay attention to. The ideas that Anita brings back to relate to us are not only simple, but clearly and cogently expressed.
Thanks so much for your support and feedback.
Chuck
Chuck, dearest doctor, good evening from my European vantage. What a cozy place your blog is tonight, almost like sitting around a table in that old tavern, conversing with kindred spirits, raising a glass or two.
Anita’s story strikes me as very significant. Thank you for reporting it. It’s the first time I hear about it. Not having read her book or seen the video myself yet, I wonder what her message is about the choice she was offered to make? Would you care to try to summarize it in a few sentences? Or would you, Uta?
Ladies, sorry for not greeting you first. I’m happy to meet you here today — Oldooz, friend of quite a few years; and Uta, of 1 year and 8 weeks.
Oldooz, I’m sure that what your question is about has to be possible somehow. Only, as a rule, we don’t use the peaceful ways but wait until we are forced by “traumatic events”. I know much about it, having been at war for so incredibly many years, not knowing I was at war, always thinking I’m a God seeker. There is a source I know means a lot to all of us that says we don’t need any hardship at all. It says we can rid ourselves of any sickness at all just like that. It details what to do. I find I only need to listen into it ever more deeply. I have to admit that, to my mind, it takes endlessly, but I guess I’m wrong.
Anita was told “that it is our beliefs that hold our illusions in place”. I’m sure that’s exactly true, and we have heard it many times elsewhere. Hm, I guess I’ll order the book.
Hi Jochen,
Glad to hear from you. How are you?
I didn’t tick the option below to receive notifications for upcoming comments, I only got one for Chuck’s comment automatically… today I saw and read your comment by chance. — that’s the point I guess, I was trying to somehow illustrate.. that we, for some reasons, as souls and/or human beings simply don’t choose peaceful way… it seems we need some traumatic events to deeply change and shift our point of view.
I hope everybody is fine and doing well.
Lots of love,
Oldooz
I watched the first hour of the video in the meantime, so there’s no need any more to summarize Anita’s choice for me. I think it’s a very impressive story, made all the more authentic by what was learned from it.
Jochen, my dear friend, it is so good to hear from you. I just love how you describe how you feel while reading my blog. That compliment alone makes me feel like all the work I have put into the writing of its articles more than worthwhile.
Isn’t the internet an amazing and potent thing to unite our world? Here we have someone from the US, two people from Germany and another from Iran all connecting in this thread, despite being physically separated by thousands of miles. This kind of sharing added to potent stories like Anita’s give me great optimism about our future.
I agree with your assessment of Anita’s messages. If she is right, there is nothing mankind cannot accomplish once we understand and learn to more effectively use our true abilities.
I still hope to have the opportunity to meet with you in one of your old German taverns to share a drink and some wonderful conversation. By the way, I think you will find Anita’s book worth every minute of the reading. Thanks for your kind comments.
Chuck
Thanks Chuck for bringing that book to our attention. I did download it as a Kindle ebook. I read it in two sessions. What caught me is the concordance between what Anita experienced and the teachings of Heavenletters and of A Course in Miracle not only in the power of thoughts to create illusion or Reality but also in the concept of simultaneity versus linear time.
Anita’s body got rid of all traces of lymphoma (even in the bone marrow) in a few days. This confirms that the healing is made at the infinite consciousness level (soul, spirit or whatever name) which is the eternal present, hence the instant. Linear time having a rendez-vous with simultaneity.
Dear Chuck, keep on doing what you do with this blog and your practice. The medical world needs more thinkers and practioners like you.
Normand, it is great to hear from you! Thanks so much for your encouragement of my efforts here. It is important to know that I am accomplishing what I intend with this blog site.
I know what you mean by healing like this being initiated on a spiritual level, but it is still not all that clear to me. Our thoughts occur in our mind with a rather mundane-seeming process, but the impact can be on the order of Anita Moorjani’s healing. Could it be that our thoughts have both physical and spiritual sides to them?
All the best to you, my friend,
Chuck
This is an interesting question, Chuck. Maybe this way we are asking whether magic is real or not.
I sort of remember being born with a clear sense of oneness. I was taught otherness and maniness subsequently, an extremely thoroughgoing education that finally made me believe in separation only, oneness all but forgotten. Having passed sixty, I began to encounter more and more road signs that pointed ever more clearly toward oneness again. It’s a strange life now, remembering oneness on the one hand, knowing that nothing – space, time, energy, matter – exists the way our everyday and scientific definitions of “real” say it does; and on the other finding myself believing in exactly the reality thus defined when it comes to stubbed toes, thirst, sore throat, bank balance and things like that. Cancer, of course.
Why this preface? Because what I want to say is that I do not think that Anita’s thoughts (or anyone’s) have what can be called an effect, be it physical or spiritual. Thoughts do not alter a reality that is there, cancer or whatever. A thought (belief) makes you see something, and another thought (belief) makes you see something else, that’s all. (Well “makes” is actually not correct. There is no cause and effect. The believing, quite literally, IS the seeing.) As I’m quite sure today, this is the whole shebang. Imagination is as real as anything gets. That’s why what is believed in will stubbornly remain the we we think it has to be for as long as we think it has to. And it’s why whatever we manage to re-believe will apparently change that very moment. Moving mountains? There are no mountains to be moved by faith, only imagined mountains being re-imagined in what is called a different place. (I’m aware of the fact that I haven’t addressed so-called unconscious beliefs, but I want to maintain a manageable size to this comment.)
I feel very confident about this. For a time, I have felt quite lonely in this growing confidence but that was when it was not clear enough yet. As you can see, I have to speak in temporal terms when in reality there is not what we construe as sequence. But correct diction is not important. Important is to know that oneness is the only place that is not lonely and where everything is utterly solved, including the final stage of lymphoma. I love Anita’s expression for what makes all the difference: self-love. Yes, that’s a very very good approximation.
Of course we have to consider the fact that Anita’s healing was accomplished through her NDE. There is an extreme awareness in this state where the body does not intervene with consciousness. It seems that it is what Christ was doing when he was healing “miraculously” and instantly the lepers or when he resurrected Lazarous. The sick person could see his/her own perfection in a state of vibration where the body does not seem to impose any kind of limitation upon consciousness. In fact, what is healing itself if not an out of the body experience? Einstein used to say that the solution to a problem can never be found at the level of the problem itself!
I agree with you Chuck that outside the uniqueness of an NDE experience, “our thoughts occur in our mind with a rather mundane-seeming process” which puts the process of healing into a longer time perspective. That is probably what is implicity meant when Anita says that it is not necessary to have NDE experience to heal “cancer”… but the NDE surely compresses the process into an instant where Eternity meets time. Then our thoughts can be said to have both physical and spiritual sides to them.
Normand, I like your perspective of how the person having a NDE is freed from the limitations of their body. Those that go through these NDEs are exposed to a radically different context in which to view themselves and their world, just by the nature of the event itself. I think we agree that this temporary platform for perception is an incredibly fertile opportunity to facilitate the transformation of our deepest and most cherished beliefs and assumptions. I think we also agree this is not the only possible platform to do so, just a very potent one.
Jochen’s comment, above, reminds me of a book I am reading now by Neale Donald Walsch, called Home with God. In this book, God is reported to be telling us that all that seems to be sequential is actually happening simultaneously. This is a very hard concept for me to grasp, but I can sort of see how it might explain a lot of things that are very puzzling, like some of the “mysteries” of quantum physics.
It is amazing to me how common these ideas are becoming.
You said it all in one sentence, Chuck: these ideas are becoming COMMON because we start to remember that they are NATURAL to us, they pertain to our very nature. Yet, it is still a big challenge fo us to forget linearity or sequentiality of time and space to endorse simultaneity. But living in the Now, the Present, is precisely living in simultaneity. We simply have to get use to it. The more we speak about it, the more we will be getting closer to it.
Everything is a miracle, and nothing is a miracle. All is amazing, yet nothing is amazing. Miracles are natural events. There is not one moment of life that is not a miracle. Every breath is a miracle. You are a miracle.(HL #3748)
Hi everybody! I am happy,to have you here to share my thoughts with you, my friends from Heavenletters. What you say strikes a string in my heart and makes my mind want to respond.
Chuck, I think you are right, that Anita’s story and I believe also another NDE, the one Dr. Eben Alexander experienced, carries truth for us, to pay attention to. I don’t know, if it is only I, who is touched deeply by their messages. Isn’t it just amazing, that Anita and Dr.E.Alexander changed their life’s completely after their NDE, and for what? Only to live what they have learned or internalized during the NDE and to share their knowledge with others. Amazing to me. Yes I agree there are different sources to be found. I have found Heavenletters, and the Quantum theory that says, that there is no matter, or the possibility of Healing with our mind and hands.
Dear Oldooz, while I was watching the video with Anita, I was reminded of your question. Have you seen it? She says (in my words) that we are all somehow caught in a “system” of our societies. These systems we were born into, lead us and taught us to see us and the world with wrong eyes. Anita says she lived a life of fear and that caused her to have cancer. So a main message of hers is “go out and live your life fearlessly”. She also says love yourself first, to love others, follows naturally then. Third she says “follow your heart”. So in the time we grew up, we might have learned to mainly live a life of fear, we might have learned to not love ourselves at first and to not follow our heart. Right? In my life I can see this is what I have learned in my life mostly. Just like Chuck describes this with the research studies and our repetitive thought patterns, that are mostly negative, self critical, anxious or pessimistic thoughts. Also Anita tells us, that after her NDE she has no more firm opinion like carma, why we experience suffer or illness. Let’s see if I can find that part of her speech.. it is at the very end at 1:31:00
To late for today. I’ll come back tomorrow.
Uta
Thanks for including this link, Uta, I am sure that others will want to see this video.
Yes, it is really telling how neuroscientists like Eben Alexander and Jill Bolte Taylor are so completely transformed after these kinds of experiences. Those that read their books and view their videos will find that they were deeply enmeshed in very traditional scientific views of the world until their life transforming events unfolded. Afterwards, like Anita, they no longer “believe” what they were taught, they “know” from a different perspective due to the direct experience that seemed to be visited upon their lives. It is truly amazing to me how quickly and dramatically these profound changes come about. And reading about these changes also encourages me on my personal path.
Thanks, Uta, and all the others who comment, helping us explore these challenging ideas.
Love to all,
Chuck
I noticed I accidently put a wrong HL#3748 instead of 4738 in my last comment. I looked it up and chose this for today: “You are a frequent flyer. You scan the Heavens. You associate with the essence of Earth and Heaven which are, after all, the same attar of life, as it were. Yes, you are the essence of life.”
Dear Jochen, I am happy to meet you here! Could it be, I signed in at Heavenletters 1 year and 8 weeks ago..? I really like that you point to the beginning of our life’s. Yes, I agree we are born in a clear sense of oneness. How could it be else, since this is what is said through different sources and also scientists tell us nowadays, everything is connected. And at the beginning of our life we experience Oneness in the body of our mothers. To feel separate and see differences arises later in our lifes in my view. And to me it really looks like the beginning of our life, our childhood shows us, how we are ment to be. The ego, or the backlog of our left brains, or the growing fear, is not our source.
I saw a very touching video of a scientist, her name is Jill B. Taylor, talking about her experience of a stroke in her left brain. I think this tells us some about how our brain is working, which is amazing. Our left brain is totally separate from our right brain but they interact with each other. It looks like, what we learn in our society nowadays is almost only to use our left brain. But that means to feel separate which leads us to fear, lack and loss. Our left brain told us to be careful, to pay attention to the lack and the loss in order to be one of the winners in life. Who knows, what treasures are to be found if we just learn to use our right brain side more again, as we sure did as a child. It looks as if we would feel one with each other and had joy, peace and happiness in fullness. Sounds wonderful to me. If you did not see the video yet and you want to have a look, copy it in your search machine. I added two “_” in. so in order to see it you have put out these blanks:
http://_www._youtube.com/watch?v=UyyjU8fzEYU.
I do that to not create a picture at Chucks blog, which was a surprise to me.
Have a nice evening,
Uta
Uta, thanks for the ideas you impart. Probably all of us who take some interest in the topics of Chuck’s blog have heard about Jill Taylor. Yes, a truly amazing story. I used to be an avid reader of books on science, psychology, mysticism etc. and I still sometimes read a book or an article, but it turns out I’m not interested any more in left brain versus right brain and all the rest. It has become too obvious to me that none of that exists. And it has become too obvious how I have chained myself with being “realistic” – as if a house can only stand when the structural calculations are done right! But I realize that, like everyone, I read whatever I read selectively and there is no true standard interpretation of anything at all. Facts, all so-called and so-believed facts, most of all the hard ones, are really so incredibly soft and malleable.
Anita’s book is different in that it feels much closer to the source that seems to be in the background for all of us who have commented on this entry so far. I started to read her book in English and will take my time. What I glean from it the way I do from that other source is a clear sense of nothing being “so” and thus nothing being impossible. Or even difficult.
Yes, it’s really one year and eight (well, nine) weeks already. For me it’s exactly six years since I signed in and even two and a half years since I signed out. Goodness, if time were real…..
Jochen thank you for your respond. I really like what you say. I’ve discovered this testimonial just a few weeks ago. Yes I agree with you, the story about our brain is not the main thing. It might lead us in a deadlock if we only look for proofs in the world of matter.
But still I have to say I really love this proof. Maybe because I see, I could help our world to be a better one. To convince the “thinking mind” of the human beings, through such proofs, that it’s true and so it could slowly switch our “social system” in which we live to a more loving, caring and protecting one. My big hope is, that we change our future quickly for our children and their children in the world. Ok., this might be a deadlock too. I just don’t really know. I just know that I would love to change our one view quickly. And to me more and more proofs are to be seen in science that could open up a new awareness of ourselves. At least this is my hope.
Anita’s book is different yes and this video of her is very special to me, since in looking at her, I sense the authenticity of her experience, which really touches me deeply. What she has to say, is pure and loving and knowing.
Dear Uta, there can be no doubt that your stance is a justified and valid one. I find myself there often enough. You only need to be sick in some way, that’s when you will start asking “scientific” questions. But you may also have a sense of something else, a state of only listening or only being and not wanting to change anything any more. Could this be where true healing starts – for the individual, for society, for the world?
Look, what if everything “out there” is really and truly you as we keep hearing. Then it’s you who is doing all the science and finding out all those things, enlightening yourself on everything between here and Timbuktu. Do you sometimes feel for the duration of a split-second that it could indeed be that way? That’s all I’m saying. To keep this second perspective somehow “handy”.
Have a wonderful day even under gray skies,
Jochen
Thanks, Jochen.
Yes I have a sense of only listening or only being. Without this, I wouldn’t feel happy, I guess. I like the idea, that everything “out there” is really and truly I, I just cannot catch it. I do believe, I am able to reach further than my body; with my thoughts, my emotions, my imagination, which is some sort of energy maybe. No, I think it is far more, it is probably a part of my soul or it is a part of me, which I am not aware of usually. With this image I do experience a little in my life.
I am astonished how life unfolds. So I search for answers to such questions as: What is life energy, where is it? (You know, there is only one “egg” out of which a human body unfolds, this is miraculous in my view.) If there is no matter, what is there then? And most important to me, what does that mean for myself in order to grow my consciousness and awareness of who I am?
Love,
Uta
Uta, good evening. Sky wasn’t gray at all today, was it? I met with a quite unexpected winter’s tale up in the mountains with sudden, crazy masses of snow glittering under the sun, up from the ground and down from the heavily laden trees. The same miracle as the egg you cited. Oh, right, that’s what those slopes look like when donning their soft, pristine whiteness.
If you like the idea as you say, that means there is a resonance and the resonance means that you vaguely remember (or there could be no resonance). You will remember clearly. We all will. The same “Oh, right!”
But our remembering will probably not com from honing our theories of matter life energy and so on. My not believing in the material reality of anything – simply because I’m unable to see where anything physically real should have come from or be coming from – may be a personal thing not useful for anyone but me. I think there is no real need to discuss things on that level here since we are lucky enough to have Anita and her testimony. Let’s assume we take it for real, we don’t say, “No, impossible!” Then how, do we think, did she get well? How, exactly? Can we claim we don’t know?
Much love,
Jochen
Dear Jochen,
thanks for pointing back to Anita’s healing. I think I’ll read her book a second time now. Her story sure carries much truth for me and for everybody.
Much love & some more sunny days in our winter nature,
Uta (sorry for a late respond, better late than never)
Hello! Would you mind if I share your blog with my zynga group?
There’s a lot of folks that I think would really enjoy your content.
Please let me know. Thank you
Dear Chuck,
I can’t tell you how relieved I am to see your comment today on the Heavenletters forum. Hope you are fine, rattled and all.
Love,
Jochen