Can chronic physical pain be created - and therefore dissolved - by the mind?
On The Mindbody Syndrome (TMS) and a note about commenting
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I have a wonderful guest on Tess Talks coming up. If you or a loved one are in any kind of physical pain or discomfort, I do believe this conversation has the potential to set you or them on a path of real and lasting healing. No guarantees of course, but the possibility is there.
Steve Ozanich is a professional personal trainer and author of three books on something called The Mindbody Syndrome, or TMS. First posited by Dr John Sarno, TMS is a condition whereby physical pain is created by the mind to distract from deeper, unconscious emotional issues.
So, whereas a doctor might say your back pain is down to a collapsed vertebrae, or that shoulder pain a cartilage tear, TMS suggests that in fact, there may be nothing physically wrong with you at all.
This does not mean the pain is not real – it is very real. But its origin is not what we might think. Why does this matter? Because just think…
If the cause is the mind, then so is the cure.
The implications of this are immense. Having heard from Steve, I am convinced that many surgeries, procedures, treatments and drugs could be avoided, just by understanding TMS. And in fact, Steve’s experience with many, many clients reveals this to be the case. Here is what he wrote to me after our conversation:
I've helped people heal from cancer, MS symptoms, various auto immune disorders, decades of chronic pain, temporary deafness, failed back surgery syndrome, cauda equina syndrome. One lady had cataract surgery that appeared to have failed but recognized it as TMS (her brain's way of distracting her) and her sight restored in minutes.
I've seen people heal from shattered/fragmented spinal discs within days, one man had a lifetime of infections that faded, another man healed from 52 years of back pain and another 44 years of back pain. One man had 37 years of constant migraines that ended. The list is too comprehensive to write out but basically any body-health issue is due to an unconscious emotional process.
That last sentence may be challenging for some. And in fact Steve did point out to me that many people don’t want to hear his message, even if it is one of hope. To this, I would just invite an open mind. Exploring a better way inevitably means coming up against ideas that conflict with our current world view, or even shake us to our core.
Between now and this week’s Tess Talks, I invite you to visit Steve’s amazing TMS Healing Wall of Victory: a YouTube playlist packed with first-hand accounts of people who were told they could never heal, but are all fine now. Miracles do happen – and as Steve shows, they can come from our own amazing capacity for healing and transformation.
I think you’ll love this Tess Talks conversation as it speaks to the wonder of life, is brimming with optimism, and Steve’s warmth, humour and wisdom are themselves a healing balm. So, tune in! Paid subscriber preview goes out this Sunday morning, with the conversation freely available from next Wednesday.
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Reading Dr Sarno’s book was like a trip to Lourdes for me.
After a cycling injury I was imprisoned by pain, and could barely walk to the shops.
My chief joy - tour cycling - gone forever.
Within a week of reading his book I cycled down to the shops. Soon I was restored to perfect health.
It was the profoundest experience of my life.
Dr Sarno’s insight that the body locates psychosomatic (emotional) pain in the precise same spot as your physical injury thus tricking you into thinking you have some incurable malady was an insight of genius.
Once it is pointed out it is like having a conjuring trick explained so you no longer fall prey to the illusion.
Like finding out the gun pointed at you is loaded with blanks.
Though Dr Sarno is sadly dead, I still write unsent letters of thanks to him.
My GP just wanted to put me on painkillers for the rest of my life.
I told him I wanted a diagnosis not mere suppression of symptoms.
He didn’t like that and told me there was nothing else on the table.
In despair I went to see Dr Google and discovered Dr. Sarno.
Thank you Dr. Sarno.
I was having pain in one wrist and then the other in 1998. I was 36. I went on disability. I went to a neurologist, rheumatologist, orthopedic. Nothing they prescribed could get rid of the pain. My mom heard of Dr. Sarno’s book. I read it and shortly after started adopting his way of viewing my pain. The pain went away. That book saved my life. It also changed how I viewed the medical establishment, which as a former scientist, was also painful.