Chapter 41 health miracle

To describe something as "bizarre" means that it is illogical, deviant, does not operate according to the laws of nature we are familiar with, and thus produces unexpected results.The so-called "magic power" has always been regarded as a strange phenomenon or a miracle because it is beyond the scope of traditional science and natural law explanation. In psychotherapy, psychologists may be surprised by some strange phenomena, one of which is that some patients seem to have extremely tenacious will.Through psychoanalysis, we can understand the etiology and development of neurotic patients with a degree of precision far beyond that of other medical disciplines.We can know when and where the patient's neurosis occurred, why it occurred, and in what way it developed.We can also know what kind of treatment will make the sick person well.However, we have no way of knowing why some patients have suffered a major blow, but their condition has not become so serious, or even insignificant.What is the reason?After all, under normal circumstances, if a series of psychological shocks are experienced, the patient will be severely traumatized, and his neurosis should be extremely serious.

A thirty-five-year-old businessman, very successful in his career, came to me for treatment of a mild neurosis.He was originally an illegitimate child, and his childhood was spent in the slums of Chicago.Initially, he was raised independently by his deaf mother.When he was five years old, the state government determined that his mother was unable to support him, so he was forced to be raised by three families in turn.After that, he suffered all kinds of contempt and even torture, and rarely experienced warmth and affection. At the age of 15, a congenital brain artery tumor ruptured a blood vessel and became partially paralyzed. At the age of 16, he left the last family of adoptive parents and began to live independently in society. At the age of 17, he got into a fight with someone, severely injured him and was jailed.While receiving corrections as a juvenile delinquent, he did not receive any psychological treatment.

After six months of monotonous and tedious prison life, he was introduced to work as a warehouse worker in a small, unknown company.Judging from his situation, presumably a psychiatrist or a social worker would think that his future is bleak and hopeless, and his life is hopeless.However, the development of the facts was beyond people's expectations: in less than three years, he was promoted to be the youngest department manager in the company's history.Five years later, he married another female manager of the company, left the company to start his own business, and soon became a wealthy businessman.Today he is a good father and a very good artist.What is it all about?After suffering so many blows, it is really unimaginable to achieve today's glory.It seems difficult to make a reasonable explanation through general causality.Perhaps we can find out the cause of his mild neurosis and take effective measures to treat it, but we have no way of knowing what kind of force came from his unusual success experience.

The businessman's trauma is well documented, and his subsequent achievements are evident, so citing this case is all the more convincing.The average person's childhood trauma may be caused by subtle or severe shocks, but many of them reach adulthood, have prosperous careers, and their mental health is stronger than that of their parents.It is easy for us to understand why some people suffer from mental illness; what we cannot understand is why some people have such a strong ability to withstand trauma?Why do some people have the idea of ​​committing suicide even if they encounter a small setback, while some people will not commit suicide even if they suffer the most unimaginable blows?Why are people so different from each other?Regarding these inexplicable mysteries, we can only briefly summarize as follows: there is some kind of magical power in the world, and they rely on a whole set of mechanisms that make us feel strange, which influences most people in the dark and makes them feel safe. Get through the storm without serious psychological problems.

Physiological diseases are not necessarily related to psychological diseases, but in fact, the connection between the two is ubiquitous.We often know what makes us sick, but very little about what keeps us healthy.If you ask a doctor about the cause of meningitis, he will tell you without hesitation: "It goes without saying, of course it is caused by meningococcus." This kind of answer does not seem to solve some key problems .If the doctors come to the village where I am currently living temporarily this winter, and take the bacteria from the throat of every resident for live culture, they may find that about nine out of every ten people have the bacteria — Neisseria meningitidis.The strange thing is that the village has not had a case of meningitis in many years, and it is unlikely that there will be one this year.So, what is going on in the above situation?Although cases of meningitis are uncommon, the diplococcus bacteria that cause the disease are extremely common.In this regard, doctors often use "resistance" as an explanation, but this explanation is not convincing.This winter, among the people who may die from meningitis, although some people have poor body resistance and problems with their self-defense function, the vast majority of them are healthy and have strong resistance.Of course we can simply generalize: the patients all died of meningitis, but this generalization is obviously too superficial.We don't know what's going on, but we just vaguely feel that some kind of power that has always been used to protect us has suddenly lost its effectiveness in these patients.

The statement of resistance is more applicable to infectious diseases like meningitis, and it is also applicable to other physical diseases.Unfortunately, we have not yet been able to explain how resistance works for noncommunicable diseases.Ulcerative colitis, which is usually thought to be affected by psychological disorders, may not recur for life after one attack in some people.However, in some people, the disease recurs and even leads to death due to the deterioration of the disease.At first glance, the same disease, but with completely different results, we can perhaps only draw general conclusions: some people have a serious problem with their personality patterns, so that the resistance to this disease is far less than that of other people. normal person.And beyond that, we don't know what to explain.

More and more medical scientists believe that all diseases belong to the category of mental illness, that is, the first problem occurs in the mind, which leads to the failure of the body's self-defense system.Surprisingly, some people's self-defense system is not only not disabled, but quite normal.It stands to reason that human beings are extremely vulnerable to being devoured by bacteria and killed by cancer cells.Our bodies are also easily clogged with fat, blood clots, or corroded by hydrochloric acid solutions, so that at any time we can get sick and die quickly.However, most of us rarely get sick, and death is not easy.

Certain phenomena, connected with accidents, may perhaps more readily interest us.Many doctors and psychologists have come into contact with highly accident-prone people.One of the most dramatic cases in this regard is that of a 14-year-old boy I have ever had contact with.At the time, I was in charge of investigating his eligibility for inpatient treatment as a "problem teen."In November, when he was 8, his mother died suddenly; in November, when he was 9, he fell off a ladder and broke his arm; in November, when he was 10, he was involved in a car accident while riding a bicycle , causing a fractured skull and severe concussion; in November, when he was 11, he fell from a skylight and fractured his hip; In November, when he was 13, he was hit by a car and fractured his pelvis.

No one suspected that the boy was prone to accidents, or that something else was hidden.In fact, he didn't have any thoughts of intentionally hurting himself, and even the death of his mother didn't make him feel so sad.He even told me in a flat tone that he didn't remember her much.I think that in order to understand the causes of these accidents, it is necessary to extend the concept of "resistance"—from the causes of mental illness of patients to the connotation of accidents.We need to admit that some people are not only prone to accidents, but that they can also develop strange resistances.Some people are indeed prone to a series of accidents at certain stages of their lives, but they are also highly resistant to the accidents that occur.

I clearly remember an accident that happened in the winter when I was nine years old.One evening, I went home with my schoolbag on my back and walked on a street full of snow.I accidentally slipped and fell to the ground, and a car was coming head-on.Just as it was about to hit my head, the driver slammed on the brakes and stopped.My legs were under the front wheels of the car.I crawled out from under the car and came out unscathed.I was terrified and ran all the way home.As far as the accident itself is concerned, it may not be a big deal, but I can only say that I was extremely lucky.But, taken together with other events, perhaps we will not jump to conclusions.For example, how many times have I nearly been hit by a car while walking, biking, or driving?How many times have you driven at night and narrowly missed hitting a pedestrian or cyclist?How many times have I applied emergency braking only to come close to hitting another car?How many times have I nearly bumped my head into a tree while skiing?How many times have you nearly fallen from an upstairs window?Also, when I was playing golf, how many times did I swing the club so hard that it just passed my eyelids and brushed the ends of my hair? …Why is my life so fresh, exciting, and dramatic?

If you look back on your life carefully, it is easy to find that there are also countless "close-cut" moments in life, which bring you extremely magical experiences.Your near misses are many times more likely than they actually are.You will realize that you have a unique survival mode, a special resistance to the unexpected, and this is not the result of your own choice.That being the case, can it be said that the life of most people is full of great excitement?Do we really owe it to magic to be alive today?Could it be that "magical power blesses me and keeps me alive until today"? Maybe you think that such accidents are not exciting, but the result of survival instinct.However, can a simple "survival instinct" explain everything?Can it blind us to the existence of miracles?We know very little about the fact of "survival instinct", and a large number of accidents remind us that we have survived so far because of a more wonderful force than instinct.We might as well think that there is some kind of magical power in us that can fight our mental illness and physical illness.It is well known that we are influenced by our subconscious mind, which directs the movements of our bodies.However, accidental events seem to be more magical, and their scope is wider, even involving the relationship between people and people and other things.The car didn't run over me when I was nine years old, was my survival instinct at work?Or was there some instinct in the driver that kept me from dying?Perhaps our instinct is not only to protect our own lives, but also to protect the lives of others. Although I have not personally experienced it, several of my close friends have witnessed such a traffic accident-those who would have been victims, climbed out of the tattered car unscathed come out.My friends were amazed: "It's unbelievable! Someone survived a car that was so badly damaged. What's even more surprising is that they weren't seriously injured." How do we explain this phenomenon? Woolen cloth?Is it all a coincidence?These friends of mine, who are not religious, feel so miraculous because there is no possibility of escape in those traffic accidents. "In that case, nobody would have survived," they said, "ah, I guess God just likes drunks." Maybe it's not time for that guy to go to heaven? The mystery of these fortuitous events, the reader might think, was pure luck, or an unexplained contingency, or "an unexpected turn of their fortunes," and nothing more.Satisfied with such an explanation, they closed the door to further inquiry.It also seems unsatisfactory if we go a step further and explain these accidents by instinct.Do motor vehicles—these non-living things—have an instinct to take a special way to protect the lives of the people in the car when they are damaged?Or do people in the car have an instinct to immediately adopt a special body protection posture according to the impact force when the car is damaged?These statements undoubtedly sound absurd, but when we try to explain these accidents, the traditional conception of instinct is obviously of no use.Perhaps the idea of ​​synchronicity can help us explain.Before thinking about synchronicity, though, it might be helpful to first understand the subconscious mind.