My Liver Cancer

Following my operation for liver cancer 10 years ago, a number of friends suffering cancer contacted me to find out what I had taken or eaten to have survived so well. The truth is, I neither took nor ate anything  considered as beneficial. I received many suggestions that ranged from eating asparagus, broccoli to many weird natural remedies.

Now that it is all over, I’m retired and I have time to reflect and research the workings of the mind. I have come to understand that the body is more wise than we are and is quite capable of looking after itself. Our bodies are astonishing and equipped with cancer fighting facilities, stem cells from the bone marrow for replacement of damaged tissues and specialised equipment for dealing with infection. Cancer cells are always present in all of us and are constantly being destroyed by the body. We, as our conscious mind are the problem.

Years ago, I read Earl Nightingale, The Power of Positive Thinking, and it had little impact on me. But he is right when he said, “Whatever we plant in our subconscious and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality”. I was never in favour of positive thinking for taken to extremes it leads to despair and discouragement but for control of our habits, it is an invaluable tool.

For as long as we dwell on our health problem and grasp for things to take, eat and complain, we endorse the illness and adhere to it. I never dwelt on the probabilities or the possibilities for having come from South Africa to settle, I needed to support myself and wife for 5 years to earn citizenship. Just before the diagnosis of the cancer we had bought a flat and we had a mortgage that had to be addressed. Within 6 weeks of the operation, I was back working and I was nearly 70.

Modern research has revealed that our subconscious, if left unchecked, will decide our destiny and rule our lives. The subconscious has been compared to a large rogue elephant that has a mind of its own. As our conscious mind we sit atop this beast trying to control it but some of us don’t think, are aware or even attempt to take control. This is nothing new for Plato back in 348 BC likened our mind to a charioteer trying to control an unruly horse. We do and believe what we see others doing, our connection to all the things around us literally defines who we are. I had a colleague, well into her 70s, who would stop what she was doing and exclaim, “Lord why am I thinking about this!”, she would deal with the uninvited thought there and then.

I seldom manage to convince people that it is not always the food or natural remedies that they consume that brings healing, It is the message that the elephant (subconscious mind) is constantly being fed with repetition and emotion that will one day become a reality. Left to its own resources, the beast will run with the herd and follow the ‘tales’ of the other. It is worth remembering that what we are today will be the groundwork for what we are tomorrow.

“Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists”. (Blaise Pascal born in 1623)

It is better to have a ‘spiritual friend and a councillor’ than to go it alone as Adam and Eve sought to do. In seeking one’s own spirituality, the ‘light’ is apt to fade as one drifts into the mists and fogs of depression or despair only to return to the beginning again. Faith serves as a riders crop to goad the brute elephant into submission.

In writing this blog, I’m not suggesting one should renounce formal medical treatment but that attitude and expectation is as important a feature of recovery as any other.