Does Positive Thinking Really Work?
abracad, · Categories: healing, science and spirituality, self helpThe Daily Mail recently published an article by broadcaster Jenni Murray, Positive thinking makes me sick..., casting doubt on the effectiveness of positive thought. Murray, who had just overcome serious illness, viewed the effort of thinking positively as an additional burden during her recovery.
In contrast, this article presents a few (of many possible) examples detailing the apparent benefits of positive thought:
The New York Times article Power of Positive Thinking May Have a Health Benefit, Study Says states: "Researchers at the University of Wisconsin are reporting ... that the activation of brain regions associated with negative emotions appears to weaken people's immune response to a flu vaccine."
The same article also states: "In recent years, however, evidence has accumulated that psychology can indeed affect biology. Studies have found, for example, that people who suffer from depression are at higher risk for heart disease and other illnesses... And people under stress have been found to be more susceptible to colds and flu, and to have more severe symptoms after they fall ill. "
The USA TODAY article Power of a super attitude quotes Psychology Professor Carol Ryff of the University of Wisconsin-Madison saying: "There is a science that is emerging that says a positive attitude isn't just a state of mind, it also has linkages to what's going on in the brain and in the body."
It goes on to say that: "Ryff has shown that individuals with higher levels of well-being have lower cardiovascular risk, lower levels of stress hormones and lower levels of inflammation, which serves as a marker of the immune system."
The same article also quotes Herbert Benson, a cardiologist and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, saying: "Mind-body medicine is now scientifically proven. There are literally thousands of articles on how the mind and brain affect the body."
The famous Ohio Longitudinal Study of Aging and Retirement (OLSAR) studied 660 individuals aged 50 and older, who participated in a community-based survey. This research found that "older individuals with more positive self-perceptions of aging, measured up to 23 years earlier, lived 7.5 years longer than those with less positive self-perceptions of aging." [Longevity increased by positive self-perceptions of aging. Levy BR, Slade MD, Kunkel SR, Kasl SV. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2002 Aug;83(2):261-70. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12150226]
In Dispositional Optimism and Physical Well-Being: The Influence of Generalized Outcome Expectancies on Health Michael E Scheier of Carnegie-Mellon University and Charles S. Carver of the University of Miami review research that links optimism to a number of different positive health-relevant outcomes, ranging from the development of physical symptoms to recovery from coronary artery bypass surgery.
In Through Time Into Healing, Dr Brian Weiss cites several scientifically verified instances of mind influencing body: eg Harvard University researchers finding meditation can prolong life for the elderly, and Pennsylvania State University research showing hypnosis increasing certain white blood cells.
Among the best known and widely documented evidence of the benefits of positive thinking is the so-called placebo effect, ie the apparent benefits following a sham medical intervention eg inert pills. According to Wikipedia: "Such an intervention may cause the patient to believe the treatment will change his/her condition; and this belief may produce a subjective perception of a therapeutic effect, causing the patient to feel their condition has improved."
Conversely, self-doubt entering the mind, eg of a sportsperson or entertainer, is often detrimental to performance.
The following study suggests the healing benefits of positive thought are not limited to the thinker. Positive Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer in a Coronary Care Unit Population by RANDOLPH C. BYRD, MD, San Francisco, Calif; published in the SOUTHERN MEDICAL JOURNAL July 1988, Vol. 81, No. 7 describes a double blind investigation into the therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer (IP) on patients in a coronary care unit. The study found: "The IP group subsequently had a significantly lower severity score based on the hospital course after entry (P < .01). Multivariate analysis separated the groups on the basis of the outcome variables (P < .0001)." It concludes: "These data suggest that intercessory prayer... has a beneficial therapeutic effect in patients admitted to a CCU."
The Koestler Parapsychology Unit at Edinburgh University has been investigating the widely reported Experimenter Effects in Parapsychology. In a successful experiment to demonstrate psi conducted identically by both believer and skeptical experimenters the positive psi effect "was entirely limited to those participants tested by believer experimenters. Participants tested by sceptical experimenters obtained chance results on the psi task."
In works such as The Hidden Messages in Water Masaru Emoto claims that words or thoughts directed at water droplets before they are frozen affects the shape of the resulting crystals. Though Emoto's research is somewhat controversial, in 2006, he co-authored a paper with Dean Radin and others in the peer-reviewed Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing reporting a double blind test in which approximately 2000 people in Tokyo were able to increase the aesthetic appeal of water stored in a room in California, compared to water in another room, solely through their positive intentions.
The observer effect, arising from quantum mechanics, suggests that the act of observation involves interacting with, and thus changing, that which is observed. The universally accepted quantum theory also suggests the reality of action at a distance.
We exist as conscious agents within a complex reality of numerous other complex agents as well as the unlimited possibilities of blind chance. Do we (more specifically our thoughts) shape our destiny? Yes, but within limits. Of course life sometimes throws a curve ball, but what matters is making the very best of what lies within your locus of control, and to do that necessitate positive thought.
Perhaps the reason that positive thinking doesn't always work is that to be fully effective it needs to become one's primary attitude to the world, not a piece of baggage we're compelled to carry all the time.
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Filed in: healing, science and spirituality, self help
So if you get sick, to bad! It's your fault for improper thinking! You get what you deserve.