Healing With Snow

This landmark story is recounted in Deepak Chopra’s Quantum Healing, which we review extensively elsewhere on this site.

In 1971, when thoughts of using the mind to assist in a patient’s healing was in its infancy, a 61 year old man with throat cancer went to see Dr. O. Carl Simonton, a Texan radiologist. 

The radiologist was reluctant to apply radiotherapy for several reasons - firstly the chance of survival was very low (doctors gave a 5% chance of survival after 5 years), and the patient was already having difficulty swallowing. In addition, the patient was perhaps too weak for an effective response to radiotherapy - his weight had dropped dramatically, and he had very little energy.

Unusually for the time, Dr. Simonton encouraged the patient to add to any radiotherapy with a visualization. And that visualization turned out to involve the healing ability of snow.

Whilst one case study does not provide evidence of healing meditation, we record it here to add to our database of healing meditations that have been tried - on the chance that others may find them useful. What follows, then, is the recounted instructions given for this meditation.

The Snow Visualization

The patient is asked to visualize their illness (in this case, it was cancer), as vividly as possible.

Using any mental image that appeals to them, they are asked to visualize their immune system, as the white blood cells successfully attack the illness (here, cancer cells), and sweep them out of the body, leaving only healthy cells behind.

As white blood cells are ‘white’, like snow - and cancer is often visualized as black - the man in this example envisioned his immune cells as a powerful blizzard of white particles, covering the tumor like snow burying a black rock. (Presumably he also envisioned a way for the visualization to also remove the ‘rock’ as the doctor suggested, leaving only pure ’snow’ particles.)

Importantly, the patient was told to repeat the visualization at intervals throughout the day. Quite quickly, the tumor seemed to be shrinking:

In a few weeks it was definitely smaller, and his response to radiation was almost free of side effects; after two months, the tumor was gone.

A nice coda to this story is the man, once free of cancer, decided he would also like to be free of his arthritis in his legs so he could do more stream-fishing. Within a few more weeks the arthritis was cleared up, and the man remained free of both arthritis and cancer for the full 6 year follow up period.

If you would like more information as to how to find your own personal healing imagery, there is a helpful video here.

Simple Buddhist Energy Flow Meditation

Part 1

Part 2

A lecture from Buddhist master Yu Tianjian, the only living Master of Hanmi Buddhism, explaining a simple , 3 part healing meditation technique. It aims to push toxins out of your body, increase energy, reduce worries, and increase your health.

It uses a mantra “Ah Wa Hum/ Hung” (phonetic only) chanted a few times. You may notice some body warmth or vibrations from doing this. The advice is to chant this mantra ‘in your heart’ - verbally, and silently throughout the

The hand gesture (mudra) is to touch the ring finger to the thumb on the left hand, and leave it facing upwards. (The right hand simply can relax, with your palm facing up or down).

Visualize that you are sitting on a lotus flower. The lotus flower is slowly changing into a red color. It is becoming redder and redder as you chant. You feel that the central part of the lotus flower under you begins to emit a reddish yellow light. The light is shining through your body, to the top of your head, at the crown. The reddish yellow light fills from your crown to your toes, radiates outwards, turning into an orange color.

You feel that your body is changing into an orange color as you meditate, glowing with this light.

Practice every day for 10 -15 minutes a day. It will fill you with more energy, and the toxins will begin to be pushed out of the body, and illness and pain will disappear. You may experience perspiration during this mediation.

It is cautioned that you don’t suddenly cool yourself with a fan, air conditioner, shower or bath - merely dry yourself with a towel, and allow yourself to cool naturally.

As you do this meditation, look out for not only changes in your health, but also for words and answers that may arise in the world around you. People have reported that their ‘prayers’ have been answered - through a chance discovery in a book, on TV, or in conversation - in the form of new knowledge as to the cause of or cure for their illness.

Please post any corrections, thoughts, or experiences with this meditation.

Basic Guided Healing Breath Meditation

If you like to follow a voice and music for your meditations, this is a good place to start. This instructor from the Copra Center takes you through the basics of using your breath and awareness to promote healing in certain areas of your body.

Feel free to discuss this meditation here.

Choose Your Own Healing Image

Watch an introductory video made by a medical GP in northern California, who invokes a patient’s own unique healing imagery to promote the right process for effective healing.

One of his patients featured chose a fire boat - for its steady, benign, powerful nature to act for her own effective healing process overcoming breast cancer.

This introductory video into his work provides some pointers as to how you too can find your own healing image.

Please post any corrections, thoughts, or experiences with this meditation.