have much to offer, and you see no real purpose in living. You prefer to hang out with friends who also
feel as depressed as you do.
- You are a fighter and you are not willing to give up. Your determination seems to get you through
periods of pain and agony. You desperately want to live, and you frequently say things like, “I am going
to beat this,” or “I am not going to allow this to get me down.” However, deep inside you are scared, and
you are afraid of not being successful. You often feel lonely and create doubts in your mind. Hope is a big
word for you. You hang on to hope as if it were a lifeline. - You are easygoing and relaxed. You feel that your disease is not a coincidence or even a reason to
become upset or angry. You are not afraid of illness because you interpret it as the body’s healing
response and an important sign or lesson that may enforce major changes in your life, some of which you
were not willing to make before. You are not in a desperate hurry to get rid of the disease and prefer to go
through the rough periods consciously. Your attitude toward the disease is not a negative one, even
though it makes you uncomfortable temporarily. You listen to the “messages” your body is sending you,
and you learn from them. You accept responsibility for somehow having created this situation yourself,
but you don’t have feelings of guilt or self attack. The idea that you give meaning to everything in your
life—positive or negative—is not a theoretical concept but a practical way of life for you. You feel
gratitude toward yourself and others for having arranged your life the way it is at this present moment.
You believe in a higher purpose in life and trust that you are taken care of in one way or another. Each
and every moment is a precious opportunity for growth and learning about life and self-empowerment.
Death is not a frightening issue for you because you know that life doesn’t end with physical death, and
that there is a special purpose in dying as well. You are involved in practices such as meditation, energy
healing, and bodywork, including, Shiatsu, Reflexology, massage, Tai Chi, Yoga and other forms of
physical exercise. You feel that the disease will disappear by itself once you have learned the
accompanying lesson(s) and are ready to embrace the necessary changes initiated by this illness.
As you may have guessed, persons who are in category 3 or have similar personality traits are better
candidates for the placebo effect or for healing themselves than those in categories 1 and 2. A person in
category 3 has no reason to believe that a medicine or a treatment would not work. He simply knows
within himself that because the reason for the illness is actually a positive one, whatever the outcome, he
is going to benefit from it. If one approach to healing does not work for him, he won't feel disappointed
but will have enough motivation to look for alternative solutions. If nothing from the outside seems to
heal his illness, he is likely to realize that he is has to do it from inside. He already knows, or will come to
realize, that the ultimate healer lies within. Not many sick people fall into this category; they are actually
the type of people who rarely fall ill.
While a person in category 2 has a good chance of recovery due to his positive attitude, he may
nevertheless undermine the placebo effect by reserving a slight doubt in the back of his mind, “just in
case....” Trying to think positively is basically motivated by his fear and is, therefore, not good enough to
trigger a sufficient healing response. He may be sending out two contradictory signals to his body/mind:
“Yes, I am going to feel better with this new drug!” and “But I will need to have a backup plan just in
case it doesn't work for me.” The positive attitude is canceled by the fear-based doubt. Doubt or fear is a
form of energy. If fear motivates or drives your thoughts and actions, this fear brings about exactly what
you are afraid of.
A person in category 1 has hardly any self-esteem and spends all his energy accusing others or
blaming karma or bad luck for his deplorable situation. He is incapable of triggering the placebo response.
Hence he may remain chronically ill unless he begins to value himself and reevaluate his life. Many
times, disease manifests itself as a test to find out how much we value ourselves. You can only have as
much faith in a drug, a medical treatment or even God as you have in yourself. Self-doubt blocks the