UR VIEW ON CANCER is the same as it is for any other illness. If you have read our book, you will know that we, like many before us, see an illness as an opportunity to learn.

However disruptive, upsetting or even painful an illness may be, there is always something to be gained from it. It is well documented that many cancer patients for example, whilst not wanting to repeat their experience, feel that their lives are richer for what they have gone through.

Know Thyself

My particular work with cancer patients over the last couple of years has taught me much about the power of the fear of the very word. As Bernie Siegel once said, it is important to remember that cancer "is not a sentence, it is just a word". I myself have no training, I know nothing medically- and yet I have managed to help some people find the place in them that is able to cope with their own conditions. Some have died, some have lived - but all have made a connection between themselves and their illness. This has resulted in each case in a feeling of being in control which has in turn lead to peace of mind and reduced suffering and anxiety.

Much blame is laid at the door of so-called positive thinkers and alternative and complementary therapists because they try to help patients see that the responsibility for their well-being lies with themselves only. Sceptics accuse these people of inducing feelings of guilt and blame within the patient for getting the illness in the first place. There is no blame to attach to anyone for anything. These, often ill-judged, accusations must not be allowed to deflect us away from the importance of looking for our internal strengths.

In my experience, these internal powers can only be unlocked once full attention has been paid to the demands of the intellect. Our intellect demands to know that when we are about to take a major decision, we have researched all the possible options. In most other areas of life we do this - for instance when buying a house we make sure that the one we want is a reasonable price and is not about to fall down. When buying a car we make sure it is not about to fall to pieces. When buying some clothes we make sure that they are not half the price in the shop next door.

We do this because our intellects demand this information. So why, when it comes to the most important thing in life, our health, do we often enter into treatments of every kind completely or almost completely blind. Why are we afraid to ask a doctor for every bit of research that he has on such and such treatment? Why do we accept the treatment of a homeopath without really knowing how or why homeopathy should work? Why do we go to a healer when we don't really have any reason to believe that someone laying their hands on or close to us should actually do anything?

Is it because we are afraid to look? Maybe we are afraid of the answers that we may discover. Afraid to find out that medicine doesn't have all the answers, or that healing or homeopathy is based on something that is invisible, immeasurable. It would mean changing the thought patterns of a life time and change is frightening. And yet in facing that fear, in finding answers to those very questions that we least want to ask, there lies the individual potential to heal.

If we all knew everything there was to know about self-healing we would none of us get sick. We may never know all there is to learn. But we can make a start. If for instance you are not convinced that the body is capable of healing anything or everything - then start by reading books that show exactly that - the power of the body to heal itself. Give your intellect the evidence it craves, get inspired - and then start hunting out the treatments that you feel will help you to heal yourself. Don't start the treatment, whatever it is, until you have good reason to believe in its efficacy.

I was working with someone 14 months ago who was about to have high dose chemotherapy for her cancer. A couple of weeks before she was due to start she developed an eye abscess that antibiotics couldn't fix. The whole left side of her face was swollen and the eye closed. In desperation she called me to see if I could help.

Many doctors would doubtless describe what followed as made-up or coincidence. I can only assure you that it is not made up. I have nothing to gain by making up such stories. As for coincidence?- Well I don't believe in them any more.

I suggested to her that there was something that she was not seeing. That with the high dose treatment coming up, maybe there were some questions about it that her intellect was demanding answers to but that she had been afraid to ask. Over the course of the next two hours we had a very emotional time going through just these questions. There were indeed some serious things she hadn't asked.

When I left her I suggested that if she arranged a meeting with her consultant a.s.a.p and got the answers to these questions, then her intellect would be put at ease. She could then decide whether to have the high dose treatment based on all the information rather than on the blind faith with which she was prepared to have it before the eye abscess arose. My feeling was that the body would then respond and the eye would return to normal.

I know it sounds simple, but that is exactly what transpired. Healing is simple sometimes. She met with her consultant, asked her questions and as a result decided to go ahead and have the treatment. Her eye abscess went down within 24 hours of the meeting.