Fighting Cancer—Metaphysical Meaning of Cancer Part 1

For a very long time, I’ve been intrigued that we tend to talk about cancer in terms of fighting cancer: the war against cancer, the fight against childhood leukemia or the crusade against breast cancer. It seems many of us are looking for the cure for cancer by fighting it. You would think that we could just knock those cells right out of our bodies, and in short, that is what we attempt to do, as if they were some kind of evil that entered our body and need to be exorcised so they don’t continue to infect other cells.

But when we are fighting cancer what we are really fighting?

My colleague, Dr. Dean Shrock, (http://deanshrock.com/) who served as the Director of Mind-Body Medicine for a physician’s management group of 40 cancer centers explains that cancer cells do not actually infect other cells in the way a virus might. He explains that cancer cells are actually very weak cells and are not as strong or stronger than the cells of our immune systems.

So if cancer cells are so weak, why do they seem to be so difficult to “get rid of?” Why does it seem to be so challenging to come up with a quick and easy cure for cancer? And what is happening at an emotional healing level that creates the perception that cancer cells are so strong.

Before we talk about the metaphysical meaning at the root of cancer, let’s get an understanding about how cellular behavior fits into the natural order of creation from a metaphysical perspective. The order of the universe is harmonious. In what the Cherokee call “the natural,” we live in harmony with all things. You experience this when everything is flowing easily in your life, and you feel a quiet joy with the nature of your life.

Dr. Shrock tells us that in this state, “when you experience joy…resonating with the fundamental stuff of the universe…this quantum field flows…and everything functions maximally.”

Dr. Leonard Laskow, MD in studying cellular behavior tells us “the cell inherently wants to move toward unity.” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Rnb80RQhLz0#t=15)

Dr. Bruce Lipton, a cell biologist gives us a snapshot about how cells work in relationship to our thoughts (http://www.brucelipton.com/media/epigenetics):

“With fifty trillion cells in your body, the human body is the equivalent of a skin-covered petri dish. Moving your body from one environment to another alters the composition of the ‘culture medium,’ the blood. The chemistry of the body’s culture medium determines the nature of the cell’s environment within you. The blood’s chemistry is largely impacted by the chemicals emitted from your brain. Brain chemistry adjusts the composition of the blood based upon your perceptions of life. So this means that your perception of any given thing, at any given moment, can influence the brain chemistry, which, in turn, affects the environment where your cells reside and controls their fate. In other words, your thoughts and perceptions have a direct and overwhelmingly significant effect on cells… In the simplest terms, this means that we need to change the way we think if we are to heal cancer.”

If our thoughts can help us stay well and even heal, what kind of thoughts are the metaphysical meaning and root that could eventually manifest as cancer?

A medicine woman once shared with me some years ago an insight about cancer cells that she had been given from a medicine man. He had acquired this insight long before we were researching cancer, or could prove scientifically that our thoughts affect our cells. His perception was that the potential for cancer lives in all cells, and that anger turns cells cancerous.

The way she described it to me, it is more like a switch that flips on. That means, from the perspective of this medicine man, each cell is turning on individually–one little cell at a time–and anger is what aggravates them.

Let’s take a look at this. When we are in anger, we are separating ourselves from the natural order of the universe. While we are upset, we are not trusting in harmony and cooperation. According to Lipton, both toxins and trauma are associated with the onset of cancer as well the influence of our own mind on the environment we are creating inside of us.

And here is what we might not have realized. Fighting the illness may very well be making it worse, regardless of whether the cancer was caused by suppressed anger, trauma or exposure to toxins. Stressed emotions don’t help us in our commitment to becoming well.

Dr. Shrock reminds us about the healing power of relaxation in his book, Doctors Orders: Go Fishing, based upon his years of observation of cancer patients. he observed that relaxation and giving ourselves what we want to be happy play significant roles in helping us become well.

If we were looking at cancer’s metaphysical meaning—and from that perspective asking ourselves about how to prevent cancer, as well as the emotional cure to cancer—we would focus on healing our anger and stressed emotions, as well as giving ourselves restful and happy environments.

What is happening metaphysically that keeps us from giving ourselves restful and joyful experiences? And back to our original question, when it comes to fighting cancer, what are we really fighting?

We’ll discuss this question about fighting cancer and more about the metaphysical meaning of cancer in Part 2.