The Power of Story

The following is a transcribed excerpt from Healing Laughter, and Miracles with Dr. Bernie Siegel

Steve Stein: To kind of finish up with self-induced healing, it has something to do with mind

over matter.

Dr. Bernie Siegel: Yes. Yes.

Steve Stein: What does that mean?

Bernie: In other words when you talk to patients, say, “How come you didn’t die when you are

supposed to?” They always had a story to tell you. They, “I closed my law office and started

playing my violin, which my parents didn’t want me to do when I was a kid because they

wanted a lawyer.” And then he isn’t dead, and he’s playing in an orchestra. You know, “I got a

dog. I put it in a backyard wildlife habitat. I laughed more. I took some vitamins,” her letter goes

on and on and ends with, “I didn’t die and I’m so busy I’m killing myself. Help, where do I go

from here?” I told her to take a nap. But a multi-millionaire, I met him because his son, he had

developed cancer and his son wanted me to help him to survive, because everybody is telling

him he will be dead in a few months. So we met. And one of the things he was doing also one

day was introducing me at a lecture. This was down in Miami.

So while I was lecturing there I went to meet him because he lived there. And I said, “How come

you’re dressed like that, so casually?” He said, “Oh, when I learned I was going to die, I

cancelled the dress code at work and I told everybody you can wear whatever you want.” Then

his wife said, “You know, why don’t we buy that house on the ocean you’ve always wanted and

you can listen to Bernie’s tapes and meditate?” So he bought the house on the ocean and

basically changed his life and he lived for over five and a half years.

The nice part was that he impressed the hell out of the hospital, because they realized

everybody there was convinced he is going to be dead in a few months, and look at him. So

again, I tell people it’s their potential and that there is hope. You are not a statistic. I mean, one

other example, a woman from North Carolina was told by her doctor, “Don’t even bother to go

to Duke for chemotherapy. You’re going to be dead in a few months. Just go home and enjoy

your few months.” My father-in-law, who was spinal cord injury, had a nurse coming to the

house to take care of him and she was a relative of this person in North Carolina.

So she, without my even knowing, tells her, “Come on up here. Dr. Siegel makes people well all

the time.” When I heard that, yes, it upset me. I mean, what are you promising? But up she

comes, I admit her to the hospital, found out she had leukemia. I said, “Look, I’m not able to

treat leukemia, so I will get my doctor friends to come over.” The ones who realize you may be

nuts but your patients do well, and I called them. And I sat on the bed with her for a while, gave

her big hugs and then went home that day. And my doctor friend, the oncologist, came over

and called me, he said, “Hey, Bernie, I agree with her doctor. There isn’t much I can do for her.

But I know you and your crazy patients, so I will give her hope.” A week later I get a note from

him. She’s doing well. A week later, doing quite well. Doing very well. In complete remission, no

sign of cancer. It blew his mind but that’s why he learned it’s worth it. And she said, “When Dr.

Siegel sat on my bed and hugged me, I knew I’d get better.” Now she never told me that but

she told her cousin that. And that’s why I said I never gave up on people. And as I say, just as

Solzhenitsyn said, “Find the beauty, find the harmony.” People who move, change their life, as I

say, there was always an aspect of their response to me that made them love their life and love

their body.

That’s the way I summarize it to people. I say look, I want you to love your life and love your

body. And one woman, this story popped into my head, she had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Her body was fading away, and she had had polio as a child, so she had been angry at her body

since she was a kid. But she said to me, “I don’t want to die hating my body.” She started sitting

naked in front of the mirror, loving her body, and I mean inch by inch. It was insane. She would

say, “I love each toe and then my foot and my ankle,” and work her way up and down her body.

And the disease went into remission.

Steve Stein: Amazing.

Bernie: And so many people do many books and articles about what happened when they did

that, and so the key is love your life, love your body. And how do you know you’re loving your

life? I always say if you lose track of time, you can’t get older. And so when you’re doing

creative things, meaningful things and 3 hours felt like 30 minutes, you are only 30 minutes

older.

Steve Stein: I think what keeps resonating is what your mother told you, “Do what makes you

happy.”

Bernie: Yes.

Steve Stein: Or what you think will make you happy

Bernie: The psychiatrists always realize this. One of them, George Solomon out in California,

when he was studying AIDS patients, suddenly he said, “I realize it’s their personality that helps

them survive. But some of them do very well and they have a certain personality.” And so he

made up a list called immune confident personality. Now, a doctor doesn’t hand you the list

when you go to the office, but it had simple things like meaning in your life, like Monday

morning, asking for help if you need it, saying no to things you don’t want to do, making

decisions about your treatment.

It’s just all kinds of things that led you to enjoy your life. And they’re all simple things, and one

of the biggest was saying no, if you don’t want to do something. And nurses have a disaster

with that question. If I say somebody in your family or friend calls you and says they would like

you to do something and you do not want to do it, what do you tell them? And 98% of nurses

say, “I would do it.” See they are busy helping and saving everybody and hurting themselves.