MultiCare Health System

Visualization

Think about your thymus gland which is situated just under your breast bone. Direct your thymus gland to send out hundreds of thousands of new “T” cells that look like guard dogs, very protective of you. Send them to the parts of your body that you are the most concerned about.

As you watch them go, whenever they find a cancer cell, they begin to eat and tear and devour those cancer cells. The cancer is fat, dumb and jelly-like. It cannot move, run or fight because it is a wrong cell that is not supposed to be there. It has no defense mechanism. Your “T” cells were designed specifically to search out and destroy these wrong cells. They are doing their job beautifully. Cancer cells are like raw hamburger: it is very easy for the “T” cells to completely eat them. They completely eradicate every cancer cell that is there. You can then picture that zone of your body clear and clean and free of cancer, pink and beautiful.

Picture your “T” cells on a continuous search throughout your body detecting any cell that has gone wrong and killing it and being flushed from your system. You know these “T” cells are on guard 24 hours a day protecting and defending you as they were designed to do.

Relax for a few moments. Stress reduces the function of the immune system and relaxation reduces stress. Each time you practice this, your relaxation should get deeper and more beneficial.

Another method of imagery is to picture your “T” cells as little shocks of electricity. They look like little lights streaming out of your thymus gland, very vigorously. You watch them go to the part of the body with which you are most concerned, latch on to any cancer cells and shock and kill them.

Some people prefer to picture their “T” cells as white knights in the form of “pac-man,” a happy, aggressive white ball with only a mouth incessantly snapping that searches out and devours all cancer cells.

No matter which of these methods you use, or one you might create, try it. Do it three times a day for 15 to 20 minutes each. Try different methods before you settle on one. Then use it for at least 10 consecutive days before thinking it is not for you. We are each supposed to learn something new every day. If this is your new knowledge for the day, you have done well for yourself, maybe helped to save your life.

For a graphic demonstration of what visual imagery is, create in your mind a vivid image of a ripe, yellow lemon squirting juice into your mouth and onto your tongue. You will actually begin to salivate. That is a clear example of how imagery can affect the nervous system, which regulates bodily processes and was traditionally thought to be beyond conscious control. If thinking of a juicy lemon makes you salivate, then what happens when you think of your life situation as hopeless? You are telling your immune system, “Don’t bother! Don’t do the best you can to heal me!” And to the contrary, when you imagine your medical treatments or your immune system as creating more mechanisms to kill your cancer, maybe that is just what it is doing.

There are no thorough studies yet that pinpoint the precise psychological mechanisms involved when emotions seem to affect health, says Leonard S. Zegans, M.D., professor of psychiatry at U.C.S.F. But, he adds, researchers believe that “hormones produced in response to emotional situations may affect lymphocytic (white blood cell) function and thus immunity to cancer, viral diseases and bacterial illnesses.

Anything that gives a person a greater sense of control over the situation can be helpful. Information, for example, can relieve anxiety, and that can in turn improve a patient’s chances for recovery.”

Tapes to help you understand and practice relaxation are available from numerous sources including private practitioners and public libraries. If you have a problem finding one locally, you may borrow one free by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope requesting “tape” to the Cancer Hot Line, 4400 Main,
Kansas City, MO 64111 OR sending us e-mail at hotline@hrblock.com.