“Disease and health, like circumstances, are rooted in thought. Sickly thoughts will express themselves through a sickly body.” — Path to Prosperity

Almost 100 years ago James Allen wrote these words in his book, Path to Prosperity: “in the near future, the fact that all disease has its origin in the mind will become common knowledge.”

He would be honored to know that a June, 1997 story in the Wall Street Journal said that HMOs were reporting that as much as 70 percent of all visits to a primary care physician were for a psychosomatic illness — a disorder that involves both mind and body.

According to Dr. David Sobel, a primary care physician and author of the highly respected Mind-Body Health Newsletter, only 16 percent of people who visit their physician for common maladies like nausea, headache and stomach upset are diagnosed with a physical, organic cause. That means that a whopping 84% are suffering from an illness that originated in THOUGHT!

The evidence suggests that in most cases today we are thinking and talking our way to sickness and disease, or as Bob Proctor puts it: “dis–ease.”

Jeff Keller, writing in Attitude is Everything, says, “it makes absolutely no sense to keep repeating that you have “chronic back pain that will never go away” or that you get “three or four bad colds every year.” By uttering these statements, you are actually instructing your body to manifest pain and disease.”

In his book A Clear Path to Healing, Dr. Barry Weinberg writes, “The creation of health, as in all creations, must first start in the mind. Once the mind is made up and the commitment and unwavering determination to heal has been made, healing is inevitable.”

And that’s worth thinking about.