Mind Over Matter (Literally)

The Mind-Body Connection
Your mind has an incredible influence over your body. We tend to forget that our brains and nervous systems regulate everything in our bodies automatically. No need to even think about heart beats or digestion because your body automatically takes care of that. What about consciously influencing our bodies though? It is possible. Tibetan monks have shown amazing feats by slowing down their metabolism and heating up their body temperatures with their mind alone. Studies on average people that have been given sugar pills have proved the mind can have a healing affect on the body. Optimistic outlooks on health have even been shown to improve health and aging. Your mind has an incredible influence over your body, controlling your mind means controlling your body and your life.

The Mind Controls the Body
Tibetan monks have shown how much power the mind has over the body. They are even able to control their metabolism.
“Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that happen in living organisms to maintain life. These processes allow organisms to gr
ow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments.”
-(wikipedia.com)

Not only have these monks learned how to control their bodies’ chemical reactions using only their mind, they also are able to control their body temperature.
In a study, a group of monks took wet sheets, wrapped them around their body while in a cold room, and mentally raised their body temperatures. Steam came off of the monks while they meditated the sheets dry. The video below shows this demonstration.




Fooled into Healing
The effects of sugar pills, fake shots, and fake surgeries should be proof to us all that the mind has great control and influence over the body. Research has shown the more expensive a placebo pill is said to be, the more effectively it actually works with the patient (source 1). Even if it is just a sugar pill. More studies have shown that getting a placebo shot has a stronger effect than a placebo pill. Fake surgery or surgeries where only an incision has been made rather than a full surgery has been shown to work better than placebo shots (source 2). People in these types of situations are actually being fooled into healing or improving! This is absolute proof that the mind does affect the body and science does support this claim.

1. Waber RL, Shiv B, Carmon Z, Ariely D. Commercial features of placebo and therapeutic efficacy. JAMA. 2008 Mar 5;299(9):1016-7.

2. Moseley JB, O’Malley K, Petersen NJ, Menke TJ, Brody BA, Kuykendall
DH, Hollingsworth JC, Ashton CM, Wray NP. A controlled trial of arthroscopic surgery for osteoarthritis of the knee. New England Journal of Medicine 2002 Jul 11;347(2):81-8.



The Mind Controls How Long You Live
The drugstore CVS has doctors write articles for their website sometimes. One of these articles was on optimistic versus pessimistic outlooks on health. It talked about a very thorough study done on peoples’ outlooks on their own health. The study showed that people with good outlooks on their future health live longer than people with bad outlooks. Everybody is different but in this study, the researchers made sure to only select people with the similar lifestyles and bodies. The article states
Duke University found when they asked almost 3,000 heart patients to classify their health as poor, fair, good, or very good. As reported in the journal Medical Care, those who chose "very good" were about 70 percent less likely to die within three years than those who answered "good." And they had three times the survival rate of those who claimed "poor" health.”
-cvshealthresources.com/topic/attitude

Use Your Mind Over Matter Abilities
These are just a few examples of the power your mind has over your body. Monks have proven that the mind can heat up the body to a point where it dries a wet sheet. They have also proven that the mind can alter the body’s natural chemical processes. Placebos have been used to study the healing and therapeutic power the mind has over the body. And doctors have studied and shown the effects that the mind, through a positive attitude, can lengthen your life. You may be wondering how you use your mind over your matter/body. There are lots of different ways.

Self Hypnosis CD's
If you do not feel like using subliminal CD's, seeing a hypnotherapist, or learning NLP to have the control of mind over matter then self hypnosis CD's may be for you. Self hypnosis with CD's is easy and fun! All you have to do is sit back and relax while a professional hypnotherapist's voice guides you. Hypnosis helps us connect with our subconscious and correct problems it may be causing. Listening to a hypnosis CD is one of the best options next to subliminal CD's because you can relax in the comfort of your own home while using it.

Subliminal Message CD's
Your mind is like an iceberg. Consciousness is only the tip of the iceberg, the subconscious however is the powerful structure underneath the surface. A lot of times the subconscious is working against us. If you feel you have bad luck then your subconscious may actually be the problem. Some people subconsciously sabotage themselves over and over, every day. But there is a way to get your subconscious to work for you instead. You can buy CD's or MP3s that have subliminal messages made specifically for your goals, whether it be to quit smoking or to get better grades. These messages are played at levels only your subconscious will take in. Albums like these give you the steering wheel in the mind over matter game. Rather than spend your life as a monk in a monastery you can spend 20 minutes a day listening to subliminal CD's or MP3s. This is by far the easiest method of mind over matter.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming
In the 1970's a linguist and a psychology student began to make a link between language and the inner or subjective reality of people. Everyone has a different picture of reality and the language they use helps paint a picture of the reality they are experiencing. There are certain words and phrases that can reveal "errors" in someone's mental computer (the subconscious). Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is a body of information to help fix these problems through language and hypnotherapy. Fixing small subconscious problems will completely change your life. This is the most powerful and profound way of reaching the point of mind over matter with your body and life. You can make appointments with a hypnotherapist or NLP practitioner or you can even learn NLP at home!

Resources for You
If you have subliminal or hypnosis CD's, or NLP books, then you should get them out and start to use them. Its never too late to take control of your mind. Your mind controls your body and you control your mind (especially with help from tools like these!). If you need subliminal cd's then check out Subliminal MP3s . I am personally using a couple of their albums right now and hope to pick some more up soon. Another great CD source is Richard Mackenzie Direct, he is a hypnotist from the United Kingdom. His CD's are great because they are so easy to use! Just sit back and relax, that is all you have to do. The last and most important resource is an online NLP course. This is by far the best resource because it puts the knowledge and power of understanding the way the mind works into your own hands. Completing a course like this gives you all the tools to put your mind over matter but it also teaches you how to help others with NLP.