“Spirituality, Meaning & Health”

Larry Dossey, MD

the meaning of meaning:

…what something represents, symbolizes, signifies, conveys, refers to, or stands for

The conventional viewof meaning and health:

Disease means nothing, and meanings don’t matter.

The conventional view:

Disease is a result of the disordered behavior of the atoms, molecules, and organ systems in the body.

The conventional view:

The atoms in the body are merely following the blindlaws of nature, which bydefinition are meaningless.

Making the molecules behave has led to a very “anti” approach in modern medicine: antibiotics

antihypertensivesantiarrhythmicsantipyreticsantacidsantidepressantsantispasmodicsantiviralsantilipidemicsantiinflammatoriesantihelminticsanticholinergicsantidotes…

37 categories of “antis”

Meaning is consideredsuch a minor factor in life that we joke about it.

Meaning — how funny!

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.straightblastgym.com/blog/skeptic%2520cartoon.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.straightblastgym.com/blog/archives/2005_04_01_gorillablog_archive.html&h=312&w=300&sz=57&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=4QEfGNAXifqk9M:&tbnh=117&tbnw=113&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dskeptic%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

the meaning of life

”…Sontag argues that the myths and metaphors surroundingdisease can kill by instilling shame and guilt in the sick, thus delaying them from seeking treatment.” — Publishers Weekly

Susan Sontag1933-2004 1978

Illness means nothing. Ascribing meaning to illness leads to

blaming the victim.

Susan Sontag1933-2004 1978

Yet, saying that iIllness means nothing is itself a meaning.

Meaning and illness are inseparable.

“The one certain thing is that a statement like‘existence is meaningless’

is itself devoid of any meaning.”

— Niels Bohr

1885-1962

____________________________________________________________________Niels Bohr. In: D. S. Kothari, First Steps to Jainism. Appendix C: Modern Physics and Syadvada (Part 1). http://www.jainworld.com/jainbooks/firstep-2/syadvada-1.htm

Meaning is inescapable.

1875-1961

“Meaninglessness…is...equivalent to illness.”

— C. G. Jung

Meaninglessness is pathological.

Does healinginvolve more

than molecules?

…more than molecules

…more than molecules

…more than molecules

…more than molecules

“The Doctor”Sir Luke Fildes, 1887Tate Britain, London

Q: If meanings matter, do positive

meanings guarantee good health?

A: No, but they help

Spiritual meaning and its correlates…

Spirituality: the sense of connectedness with something higher and greater than the individual self or ego; the certainty that meaning, purpose, and direction are validaspects of the world.

Spirituality & religion are not the same…

Religion: a codified system of beliefs, rituals,and behaviors that may or may not involve a sense of the spiritual; usually involves a community of like-minded believers

Spiritual meaning and its correlates…

People who follow a spiritual path generallylive significantly longer, and have a lower incidence of all major diseases, than people who don’t …

…but not always.

Sickly saints

St. Bernadette Ramana Maharshi The Buddha

the nun’s breast biopsy

Sickly saints

Healthy reprobates

Healthy reprobates

Healthy reprobates

July 4, 1826

The deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson1743-1826

John Adams1735-1826

Meaning can be a matter of life or death.

Meaning is often expressed as optimism or pessimism

Is your glass half empty or half full?

Meaning: optimism vs. pessimism

Is your glass half empty or half full?

Positive meaning: optimism

Daniel B. Mark, MD, Duke University School of Medicine

• …followed 1,719 men and women following cardiaccatheterization. After one year, 12 percent of people pessimistic about their health had died, compared to5 percent of the optimists.

_________________________________________________________________________Henry Dreher. Mind-Body Unity: A New Vision for Mind-Body Science and Medicine. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press; 2003:59-60.

Daniel B. Mark, MD

Positive meaning: optimism

Nancy Frasure-Smith, MD, Montreal Heart Institute

• Over the course of 18 months, heart patients who scored high on pessimism were 8 times more likely than optimists to die.

_________________________________________________________________________Henry Dreher. Mind-Body Unity: A New Vision for Mind-Body Science and Medicine. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press; 2003:59-60.

Meaning is unique

The presence of illness probably never means exactly the same thing in different individuals.

Two women with heart disease and an impending divorce

Meaning is unique.

There are no “meaning formulas”in health that work identically for everyone.

Formula

Meaning is unique

Beware the literal read-out approach to illness, in which the presence of illness is said to mean a specific personality defect (e.g., cataract = “you don’t have a clearvision for your life”).

Formula

Meaning and health

“Psychological and socialprecursors of coronarydisease”

— C. D. Jenkins

________________New England Journal of Medicine. 1971; 284: 244-55.

Meaning and health

“Circadian variationin the frequency of sudden death”

— J. F. Muller et al______________________

Circulation. 1987; 75: 131.

Meaning and health

Black Monday syndrome:

more heart attacks in menoccur on Monday around 9 a.m. than at any other time (~20% increase).

_____________________________Monday morning bad for your health. CNNinternational.com. Feb. 3, 2005

What does going back to work symbolizeor represent in one’s life?

What is the meaning of Monday?

Job satisfaction

_________________________Cambridge: MIT Press; 1973.

“Work in America: Report of a Special Task Force to the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare”

job sickness

Sisyphus reaction(Syndrome of Joyless Striving)

_________________________________________________________

Karasek, R. A. & Theorell, T. Healthy Work: Stress, Productivity, and the Reconstruction of Working Life. New York: Basic Books; 1990.

Work Environment Department, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA

Sisyphus reaction(Syndrome of Joyless Striving)

• psychological stress

• lack of control of the job task

_________________________________________

Karasek, R. A. & Theorell, T. Healthy Work: Stress, Productivity, and the Reconstruction of Working Life. New York: Basic Books; 1990.

_____________________________________

Ellen Langer & Alia Crum. Mind-set matters: Exercise and the placebo effect. Psychological Science. February 2007.

Everything we do has meaning, and these meanings matter — e. g., is it work, or is it exercise?

• 84 female housekeepers, 7 hotels

• Women in 4 hotels were told thattheir regular work was enough tomeet the requirements for a healthy,active lifestyle; women in 3 hotels weretold nothing.

• After 4 weeks, the informedwomen had lost an average of 2 lbs., lowered their blood pressure 10%, andhad improved body-fat percentage and body mass index, all statistically significant, while exercise and dietary habits remainedconstant between the two groups.

_____________________________________________________________

Motluk, Alison. Born under a bad sign. New Scientist. January 27, 2007: 41-43.

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg19325881.700-born-under-a-bad-sign.html

“A winter birthsignificantly increases

the risk of schizophrenia.”

“The question is no longer if the seasons affect mental health,

but how.”

The meaning of a birth date…

Meaning and theimmunesystem

Lennart Nilsson, Behold Man

Lennart Nilsson, Behold Man

Lennart Nilsson, Behold Man

Grief and bereavement…

During this period, certain elements of the immune system often shut down

and cannot be stimulated, even by artificial means.

______________________________________________________________________Schleifer SJ, Keller SE, Camerino M, Thornton JC, Stein M. Suppression of lymphocyte stimulation following bereavement. JAMA. 1983;250(3):374-377.

Negative meaning: grief and bereavement

In the year following the death of a spouse, the surviving widow or widower has a risk of death up to 12 times that of marriedindividuals of the same age._______________• James J. Lynch, The Broken Heart: The Medical Consequences of Loneliness. NYC: Basic Books; 1977.• Rees WD, Lutkins SG. Mortality of bereavement. BMJ. 1967;13-16.

Dana Reeve 1961-2006

(lung cancer, age 44)

Meaningtherapy

meaning

Coaching involves the restoration or transformation of meaning in someone’s life.

Meaning therapy

Bereavement counseling for HIV-positive survivors in the form of a bereavement support group lowers the HIV viral load in the survivors.

__________________________________________________________________________________Goodkin K et al. A bereavement support group of group intervention affects plasma burden ofHuman immunodeficiency virus type 1. Report of a randomized controlled trial. J. Human Virology.2001;4(1):44-54.

the AIDS virus

Meaning therapy

“Can lifestyle changes reverse coronary heart disease?”

— Dean Ornish ________________________Lancet. 1990; 336 (8708): 129.

Dean Ornish, MD

Meaning therapy

“Intensive lifestyle changes for reversal of coronary heart

disease.” — Dean Ornish

_______________J. American Medical Assoc. 1998; 280: 2001-7.

Meaning

A “glue” that holds our life together, and that helps us

make sense of healing

Glue, n. from the Greek gloios, “sticky”

MEANING

I caused it!

New-Age Guilt

The tendency to shame and blameoneself on getting sick

What does my illness mean?

Maybe Icaused it!

I’m not good enough!

I’m not smart enough!

I’m not spiritual enough!

It’s all my fault!

I’m a failure!

Maybe…

…I need…

…some self-forgiveness!

Rx for New-Age Guilt

The healing power of positive meaning

the potted-plant experiment

Ellen Langer & Judith Rodin

“The Effects of Choice and Enhanced Personality on the Aged: A Field Experience in an Institutional Setting”________________________________________J. Personality & Social Psychology. 1976; 34: 91-98

Within only three weeks, the potted-plant group demonstrated improvements in health and an increase in participation in group activities.

________________________________________J. Personality & Social Psychology. 1976; 34: 91-98

• By 18 months, their death rate was reduced by 50 percent.

______________________________________________J. Personality & Social Psychology. 1976; 34: 91-98

thank you!