Care. Treatment. Miracle

Author: Siegel
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-06-01
Features: The best partner, yet I met George, a young man with a beard and long hair, wearing a pure white flowing robe and a casual hat. For me, it was truly an unbelievable awakening, because I didn’t expect anything to happen at all. The Simontons had instructed us that whatever appears in our unconscious minds can be communicated with. I found talking to George was like playing chess with myself, just not knowing what the other me would do next. George was very natural and perceptive of my feelings; he was an excellent guide. He always gave me honest answers, though some of them I didn’t like at first. At that time, I was still considering switching careers. When I told him about this, he explained that I was too proud to give up the hard-earned surgical skills and abilities to start training in something else from scratch. He believed I should continue my career as a surgeon but change “myself,” helping patients mobilize their mental power to resist disease. In this way, I could do more good, combining the support and guidance of a pastor or psychologist with the wisdom and talent of a doctor, becoming a role model for students, ward staff, and even other doctors in the hospital. George said, “You can go anywhere in the hospital, but a pastor or psychologist cannot. You can freely supplement love or counseling on death and dying beyond medical treatment. Only a doctor can do what you do.” I could consider George as an “insight released from the unconscious through meditation, or something like that. Since his second appearance, he has become my dearest companion. My life is much easier now, because he has done the difficult work for me first. George also showed me things in medicine that I had missed before. As for healing, I saw exceptions. For example, the ‘miracle’ of curing cancer forever, though it only happened once, was based on evidence and could not be dismissed as a fluke. I began to realize that in medicine, we have been studying failures, but what we should really do is learn from the successes and pay more attention to special patients—those who unexpectedly recovered. Gazing blankly at patients who died in ordinary ways was of no help. As Reu Dubos said, “Sometimes focusing only on the immediate can lead you to overlook the important.” The Trap of Statistics I began to notice my reliance on statistics because I saw them distort my thinking. A long time ago, I operated on a colon cancer patient named Jim. I told his family he could only live for another six months. But I was wrong. He came back to see me several times, and every time he entered the hospital, I thought, “Ah, he’s finally relapsed!” But each time it was just minor ailments unrelated to colon cancer. I proposed to track his colon cancer, but he refused. He was living too actively to have time for such statistics. Even now, over 20 years later, Jim is still living healthily. One problem with cancer statistics is