The Connection Between Spontaneous Remission of Cancer and MindBody Medicine

Perhaps the most powerful demonstration of the natural healing power of the mind and body is the “spontaneous” disappearance of a normally fatal disease such as metastatic cancer. This stunning event has been recorded by medical doctors repeatedly in the annals of medicine. Without “adequate” treatment, and sometimes no treatment at all, cancer and other diseases simply go away. While the patient celebrates, befuddled doctors find no way to fit the event into their belief systems and most simply ignore this remarkable event. However, a few have looked into spontaneous remission, thereby contributing to the emerging science of mindbody healing. Probably the most common evidence for spontaneous healing is the medically documented case report on a single patient. For example, a patient undergoes exploratory surgery for cancer and the surgeon finds widespread disease. The patient is sewn up and sent home to die, but returns ten years later, often for some other medical problem. The current physician reviews the medical record and finds the previous surgical report, along with X-ray and other documentation of cancer. He repeats the diagnostic work-up and can find no current evidence of the “deadly disease”. Spontaneous mindbody healing does not only apply to cancer, but is found in a wide range of diseases, including infections, trauma, diabetes, heart disease, skin disorders, depression and many others. Writing in Spontaneous Remission, An Annotated Bibliography, Brendan O’Regan and Caryle Hirshberg provide 334 references for spontaneous remission for diseases other than cancer, as well as a summary of the research on cancer regression.