Norman Cousins, whose recovery from a crippling disease was assisted by a liberal dose of laughter, once told an interviewer that he had used laughter "as a metaphor for the full range of positive emotions: hope, faith, love, laughter, determination." Los Angeles Times, September 25, 1990. So impressed was he with the role mental factors play in health that he spent the last fifteen years of his life as an adjunct professor in the UCLA School of Medicine, studying the effects of the mind and emotions on the body
More recently an American Public Broadcasting System television series hosted by Bill Moyers discussed a movement dedicated to the study of the relationship of the mind, body, and health. In a newsletter published by this movement, a practicing physician from Washington, D.C., speaks of "a renewed appreciation of the significance of mind and spirit in issues of health and healing." He says, "This societal shift has been slowly gaining strength for the past 50 years, and has accelerated considerably in recent times." See Elliott S. Dacher, M.D., "Guest Perspective," Mind-Body Health News, June 1993, p. 2.
The growing recognition of the influence of thought on the body introduces an important factor in healing, much as Mary Baker Eddy's experiments in homeopathy did for her prior to her discovery of Christian Science a little over one hundred and thirty years ago. Given a case of dropsy that physicians had failed to heal, she prescribed a minute dose of a medication. (In those days individuals were not required to have a medical degree or license in order to experiment in this way.) Fearing harmful results for the patient from prolonged use of the medication, Mrs. Eddy replaced the medicated pellets with unmedicated pellets. The patient's condition improved and in time she was cured. See Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, p. 156.
