If you believe you have cancer, then your whole system moves towards it and your death starts. If you believe your disease cannot be cured, then you suffer and die just in the way you see your future.

We have a strong personal interest in assisting people to heal from cancer. Like most acupuncture/acutouch based health practitioners, we have seen clients heal cancer using AcuTouch processes, and we have also seen clients die from cancer. But we know that cancer can be healed using mind-body processes, and it can be healed on a consistent basis. We are talking about a research study based on over 300,000 people which shows over 95% effectiveness.

We describe an effective format for the healing of cancer and similar life-threatening illnesses and their basis in immunology. We will also explain the one process which we consider is missing in current AcuTouch/Acupuncture treatment formats, and suggest an answer to one of the most disturbing questions in Acupuncture: “If Acupuncture is so good, why do so many of our clients with cancer not improve?”

Over this century, health professionals rediscovered the incredible power of the mind to heal the body. The first research demonstrating this in relation to cancer treatment was published by Dr. Carl and Stephanie Simonton from Dallas, Texas, in their book *Getting Well Again* (1978).

Working with 159 people considered to have medically incurable cancer (average life expectancy 12 months), the Simontons reported two years later that 14 clients had no evidence of cancer at all, 29 had tumors which were stable or regressing, and almost all had lived well beyond the 12-month “limit” (p. 11-12). Essentially, 10% were cured and 20% were curing themselves. The Simontons used a combination of biofeedback, visualization, exercise, goal setting, resolving internal conflicts, letting go of resentment, and engaging family support. They explained their success based on psychoneuroimmunology (the way the mind affects the nervous system, which in turn affects the immune system).

To state this more positively, we might say that the existence of cancer is a message from the person’s immune system, telling them that they need to let go of certain stressful emotions, resolve internal conflicts, and create a life worth living. The only risk of this model for understanding illness is that it suggests that the continued existence of cancer cells presupposes an ongoing parts conflict.

One aim of our treatment for cancer will be removing these two variables (loss of reason for living and unexpressed hostility) and improving the person’s state by:

– Creating a sense of mission.

– Setting future goals aligned with that mission.

– Healing grief and depression.

– Letting go of resentment and anger.

– Learning skills to express emotion effectively.

– Resolving internal and external conflicts.

– Developing a proactive coping style rather than a passive/helpless one.

– Visualizing the cancer cells as weak and confused rather than “aggressive”.

– Visualizing the lymphocytes as numerous, powerful, energetic, and ready to eliminate or recycle cancer cells.

– Associating into the experience of being your lymphocytes.

– Visualizing cancer treatments as powerful and positive, with any side damage to healthy cells being easily repaired.

– Seeing yourself reaching your life’s purpose and achieving goals as a result of healing.

Creating these internal representations of healing is closely related to the notion of generating a placebo effect by creating a belief that healing can occur. However, there is a subtle difference. The person does not need to absolutely “believe” in the internal representations for them to work. They simply need to be willing to make the representations consistently.

Dr. David C. McClelland and Carol Kirshnit of Boston University have published a study which clearly explains this, while demonstrating that caring is another significant emotional state for immune responsiveness (McClelland and Kirshnit, 1988).

In this research, subjects are shown a variety of movies, and their level of Immunoglobulin A (a blood chemical which is the first line of defense against viruses and other pathogens) is monitored before and after. Gardening films and political propaganda have no effect, but a film of Mother Teresa caring for people in Calcutta caused a sharp rise in levels of the immune chemical.

Interestingly, many of the subjects in this study, when questioned after, said that they did not approve of Mother Teresa and doubted the genuineness of her work. But their bodies didn’t mind. Their immunity level rose anyway. The fact that they had held the internal representations of caring in their mind was more important than the theories they considered about it.

Supporting The Immune System Physically: Diet

There are many things that can be done to support the immune system physically, of course. Dietary change is a fairly obvious intervention to enhance immune response. The association between cigarette smoking and cancer production is now well known, but that between alcohol consumption and cancer (Jeremy C. Lundberg and Steven D. Passik, 1997) is less well known yet equally concerning.

The importance of consuming a diet based on fruit and vegetables to increase antioxidant levels (antioxidants such as vitamin C and E prevent cancer-causing damage to cells) is quite well known.

Many alternative approaches to cancer treatment are based on a belief that cancer is a systemic disorder caused by the body’s inability to detoxify itself. While detoxification can be a useful process, the use of rigorous “detoxifying” diets, enemas, and herbal remedies (such as the formula developed by Harry M. Hoxsey, 1901-1974) is not in itself a proven cure for cancer. Furthermore, evidence linking chemical additives in food to cancer also suggests that “detoxifying the body,” by removing these additives gently, makes sense.

Supporting the Immune System Physically: Mobilizing Body Energy

In China, as in the West, orthodox medicine co-exists with a number of complementary systems for healing. One of these is the 5000-year-old science of Chi energy/Acupuncture. “Chi” refers to body energy of the type demonstrated in EEG measures of brain waves and ECG measures of heart function.

Practitioners of Chi Kung claim to be able to direct body energy in order to cause specified effects in cells, including enhancing the activity of lymphocytes and removing cancer cells.

At the First World Conference For Academic Exchange of Medical Qigong in Beijing in 1988, a large number of research studies on the effects of Chi Kung on cancer cells in culture, and clinical cancer results were presented.

Generally, these studies used “emitted chi,” which means that a Chi Kung Practitioner held their hands near the cells to be altered and intentionally sent bio-electrical energy to the cells.

In one large set of studies, 20 minutes of chi treatment of cancer cells killed 13% to 36% of cells, while control cells that were simply held showed no effect (Feng Li-da et alia, 1988).

In another, cancer spread in mice was reduced markedly by the use of emitted chi (Cao Xuetao et alia, 1988).

In a third study, mice which had their immune system suppressed by cortisone were divided into groups and rechecked after 24 hours. Those who received emitted chi had lymphocyte numbers and other measures of immunity back to normal, while those untreated showed no improvement (Li Caixi et alia, 1988).

To date, the most dramatic clinical results of chi kung are reported by the Huaxia Zhineng Qigong Clinic and Training Centre in Qinhuangdao, China (formerly in Zigachong).

Founded by western-trained physician Dr. Pang Ming, it has over 600 staff, including 26 western-trained doctors, and treats 4000-7000 people at any given time. Residents (called students because they are learning to use chi kung, rather than simply being “treated”) are checked medically after each 24-day treatment period. Most of the people treated have been told that there is no orthodox treatment available for their condition. Most of them have inoperable cancers. Results at the Centre are classified as:

– Cured (no symptoms of illness, and no signs on EKG, ultrasound, X-ray, CT, etc.)

In the Centre’s first published results, (Huaxia Zhineng Centre, 1991; Chan, 1999, p. vii) data on 7,936 students showed that 15.2% were cured, 37.68% very effective, and 42.09% effective. That is to say, after a month, 52% were cured or almost cured, and overall 95% had improved. Cure rates have been improving since then, as staff learn precisely how to get the best from their methods.

Furthermore, each week certain students with defined tumors are selected to have direct chi treatment by staff, the results being displayed on ultrasound and recorded on video.

Luke Chan, the teacher who has taken Zhineng Chi Kung to the West (under the name Chi Lel‒2, see Chan, 1999) describes observing a session where 8 students are treated in this way. After less than one minute of treatment, 5 of these cancers actually disappeared immediately (and were undetectable at ten-day follow-up) and one diminished.

The high success rate at the Centre is achieved by a structured use of visualization, affirmation, belief change, and attitudinal (meta-program) change, as well as the core chi kung exercises.

We offer an integrated model of Acupuncture/AcuTouch to increase the success rates in healing of clients with cancer and similar life-threatening diseases.