The main organ for the body’s defense system is the Thymus gland, found right in the center of your chest.  Did you know that Cortisol, the major hormone that is released when you are stressed, can shrink the size of the Thymus gland by 50% in 24 hours.

Experiments have been done where they have taken healthy adult parents, with a normal immune system blood count of 12,000 and shown them very high stress pictures of children being killed and mangled.  Then 3 to 5 minutes later, the immune system blood count was taken again and was found to have dropped from 12,000 to 600!  The emotionally traumatized parents virtually had no immune system left!  These experiments demonstrate how closely related immune system diseases are to negative emotional stress.

I want to share part of an article called “Mind Over Matter” in Shared Vision Magazine, written by Olga Sheean.  She interviewed Dr. Bruce Lipton, a cellular biologist from Stanford University and author of the book “Biology of Belief”.

Quoting Olga Sheen: “For generations now, we have been led to believe that our health is determined by our genes.  Cellular biologist Dr. Bruce Lipton believes otherwise.  ‘Cancer does not run in families’ he maintains, ‘because there is no cancer gene.  Cells become cancerous only when they are told by the mind to do so.’

He says that individuals have the ability to control their own well-being and to reprogram their cells by changing their beliefs.

‘Once we realize that we are already infected with every organism in the arsenal of virulent diseases’ says Lipton, ‘we can begin to understand that it is only when we create a favorable environment for them that they can take over our system.’

Yeast, for example, exists in everyone, yet only a small percentage of the population suffers yeast infections. You cannot get rid of the yeast, says Lipton, without killing off all other life in your body.  So when someone gets a yeast infection, it stands to reason that something has changed - either the yeast or the individual.  Since the yeast is ever present, the infection can only be due to some environmental change which, in turn, is the consequence of mental attitude.’

The body’s immune system is triggered by our mental attitudes, becoming strengthened or exhausted, depending on the mental message it receives.  Therefore, Lipton maintains, AIDS can be brought into existence by the mind, and not necessarily as a result of contracting the virus.  And it can, similarly, he says, be cured with a thought.

Disease in the body tells you that your mind is not in harmony with nature and that some aspect of your mental attitude needs to change.”