Thought Affecting the Body (part 2)

In the first segment of this article I talked about how people with multiple personality disorder can experience extreme physiological or body function changes when switching from one personality to another. Now I'm going to talk about stigmata.

Stigmata is a condition where people that have deep religious beliefs develop physical conditions that generally mimic the wounds of religious pictures like Jesus Christ portrayed on the cross in the Christian gospels. The hands and feet of stigmatist develop deep wounds on them that are not caused by any external insult to the tissue.

One of the most famous stigmatist was St. Francis of Assisi. His biographer, Thomas of Celano, noted "His hands and feet seemed pierced in the midst by nails."

Another more modern stigmatist named Therese Neumann, who died in 1962 had similar wounds in her hands and feet with nail like protruberances that were apparently formed of hardened skin. She was examined by several doctors which found that the nail like structures passed completely through her hands and feet.

Some other famous stigmatist with wounds passing completely through their hands and feet are: Padre Pio who died in 1968 and Giovanna Maria Solimani from the 18th century that supposedly had holes in her hands big enough to stick a key through. Padre Pio was examined several times by different physicians who validated his wounds were real, but could not explain how they came about. Several of the doctors commented on the smoothness of the edges of his Padre Pio's wounds and the lack of edema related to the wounds.

The really strange part about all these stigmatist is that their wounds never decayed, became infected or inflamed. But wait, it gets even stranger. Therese Neumann's wounds would sometimes bleed, but the blood flow would always mimic the way blood would have flowed out of Jesus Christ while he was on the cross. For example: When she was lying in bed with her feet pointing upward the blood would flow upward towards her toes defying gravity. This was witnessed by many U.S. service men who were stationed in Germany after WWII, who went to see her. You can read more about Therese Neumann in A.P. Schimberg's book The Story of Therese Neumann.


Okay, so, what does all this mean? Apparently, people with profoundly deep beliefs can manifest symbols of their belief on their body. One of the major implications of this is that what you believe is affecting your body. It also raises some questions: Is our physical health being affected by what we believe? Can we give ourselves cancer or diseases, etc. simply by the way we think? Can we prevent cancer and other diseases by thinking in a certain way, and if so what way is that? In part 3 of this article I am going to talk about ways you can change your beliefs and expectations to benefit your health. Until next time, please share, subscribe to, and/or follow by e-mail this blog.