Healing on a Cellular Level through Meditation

Whenever you go to a doctor and you get a prescription for a medication, you may not be aware of it but your body begins healing before the medicine is even in your system. This is due to a process known as "the placebo effect"—an extraordinary healing ability of the body. For most people, just going to see a doctor and getting a diagnosis or a professional opinion gives them confidence, and tells their body to begin healing itself. Their mind believes what the doctor says about the medicine helping them, and their body begins making it happen.

There are stories in the news regularly about the fantastic things the human body is capable of despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles. We’ve heard stories of skinny little people being able to lift cars to free trapped loved ones in peril of drowning, thanks to a tremendous adrenaline rush. The same principle applies to healing—the body is capable of performing more than miraculous one-time feats; it is capable of healing itself.

Dr. Albert Schweitzer, the noted physician and humanitarian, explains it this way: "The witch doctor succeeds for the same reason all the rest of us (medical doctors) succeed. Each patient carries his own doctor inside himself. They come to us not knowing that truth. We are at our best when we give the doctor who resides within each patient a chance to go to work."

There are several documented methods for helping people to heal meditatively at the cellular level. If you are already experienced with meditation techniques, you should use whatever position, relaxation technique, and breathing pattern you are accustomed to using to prepare for meditating. If you are not in the practice of meditating regularly you should spend some time reading about the different ways to approach meditation, and try different methods to see what works best for you. There are numerous online resources for learning about different types of meditation techniques.

Using meditation to enact healing on a cellular level may take mere seconds or decades to accomplish, depending on the type of illness or condition you are suffering from, the type of meditation technique you use, and how successful you are in freeing your mind to encourage your body to heal itself. Before you begin, it is helpful to use an anatomy book to study the body structure you want healing to take place in. Memorize how that part appears when it is in a state of perfection, without disease or illness. During your healing visualization meditation you will need to be able to envision your body in a state of perfection, so you need to study what that will look like in order to visualize it for yourself.

1. Relax. To begin, settle yourself into your chosen physical position and empty your mind of any mental or emotional reactivity that might interfere with the object of your meditation. In your mind’s eye, begin to see the inflamed cells in your body changing into healthy cells. If there is a damaged or corrupted area within the cells, visualize them changing and becoming perfect again. Visualize yourself as being perfectly healthy.

2. See warrior cells attacking. Medical researchers have proven that there are cells within your body that actually attack and kill damaging cells that invade healthy tissue. So in your mind’s eye, watch as these warrior cells destroy the cells that are causing you pain or illness. Watch as they devour the harmful structures. See your whole body becoming pure. Visualize yourself as being perfectly healthy.

3. See healthy cells gathering. Visualize groups of healthy cells joining forces to replace any damaged areas of your body. For example, if you have suffered a serious wound, envision the cells coming together, bonding together to reform the complete structure of bone, muscle, skin, and tissues, to form a complete structure. Visualize yourself as being perfectly healthy.

4. Open your mind and body to healing energy. Concentrate on filling your mind with healing energy from a higher power that has given you the gift of healing. See this healing energy changing your cellular structure to a perfect condition. Watch, in your mind’s eye, as the healing energy causes the specific organ, body system, or damaged body part to heal itself. Visualize yourself as being perfectly healthy.

5. See nerve endings relaxing. If you are in pain, focus on seeing, in your mind’s eye, the nerve endings that are in the specific area of your discomfort, or all of the nerve endings in your entire body. As you breath inward, feel and visualize healing air flowing from a higher power and entering you to fill your lungs. See the air being absorbed by your lungs and filtering into your red blood cells, and see them carrying the healing air through your arteries and spreading healing oxygen to every cell in your body. Watch as the inflamed and painful nerve endings are soothed and relaxed with the healing oxygen. Watch as your body begins to glow with well-being and healthiness. Visualize yourself as being perfectly healthy.

6. See God heal you. Visualize yourself in front of your own personal deity. See the deity heal you by touch, and by sending divine energy flowing through your body. See your deity end your suffering, and see your whole body becoming pure. Visualize yourself as being perfectly healthy.

The most important part of this healing meditation is to sincerely want the healing to take place, and to honestly believe that it will occur. Although you don’t have to believe in God for the benefits of meditation to help you, there are Bible passages that are useful in pointing out the power of concentrated belief. One example is Mark 11:24: "What things you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them."

For a more contemporary take on the power of belief, you need only hear from noted researcher Dr. Herbert Benson, of the Harvard Medical School. "We know that belief can lead to healing or at least improvement in 50 percent to 90 percent of diseases, including asthma, angina pectoris, and skin rashes, many forms of pain, rheumatoid arthritis, congestive heart failure," says Dr. Benson. "They're all influenced by belief. We in medicine have made fun of belief by calling it the ‘placebo effect,’ or insisting that ‘It's all in your head.’ Yet, belief is one of the most powerful healing tools we have in our therapeutic arsenal."