Perhaps the most powerful types of all beliefs are those we express through spiritual faith.in 1962 a man named Vittorio Michelli was admitted to the Military Hospital of Verona, Italy, with a large cancerous tumor on his left hip. So dire was his prognosis that he was sent home without treatment, and within ten months his hip had completely disintegrated, leaving the bone of his upper leg floating in nothing more than a mass of soft tissue.He was, quite literally, falling apart.As a last resort he traveled to Lourdes and had himself bathed in the spring (by this time he was in a plaster cast, and his movements were quite restricted).Immediately on entering the water he had a sensation of heat moving through his body.After the bath his appetite returned and he felt renewed energy.He had several more baths and then returned home.
Over the course of the next month he felt such an increasing sense of well-being he insisted his doctors X-ray him again.(The X-rays images are provided in the book below - you can get the book and take a look.)) They discovered his tumor was smaller.They were so intrigued they documented every step in his improvement.It was a good thing because after Michelli's tumor disappeared, his bone began to regenerate, and the medical community generally views this as an impossibility.Within two months he was up and walking again, and over the course of the next several years his bone completely reconstructed itself.
A dossier on Michelli's case was sent to the Vatican's Medical Commission, an international panel of doctors set up to investigate such matters, and after examining the evidence the commission decided that Michelli had indeed experienced a miracle.
As the commission stated in its official report, "A remarkable reconstruction of the iliac bone and cavity has taken place.The X rays made in 1964, 1965, 1968 and 1969 confirm categorically and without doubt that an unforeseen and even overwhelming bone reconstruction has taken place of a type unknown in the annals of world medicine."
Was Michelli's healing a miracle in the sense that it violated any of the knows laws of physics?It is more likely that Michelli's healing is due to natural processes medical science does not yet understand.
Why is the regeneration of bone so rare and what triggered it in Michelli's case?It may be that bone regeneration is rare because achieving it requires accessing of very deep levels of the psyche, levels usually not reached through the normal activities of consciousness.This appears to be why hypnosis is needed.
As for what triggered Michelli's healing, given the role belief plays in so many examples of mind/body plasticity it is certainly a primary suspect.Could it be that through his faith in the healing power of Lourdes, Michelli somehow, either consciously or serendipitously, effected his own cure?
The above story is from the book: "Holographic Universe"
Holographic Universe
by Michael Talbot
"We desperately need new models of reality to fire the imagination of what is possible and to give us new visions of our place in the cosmos.Michael Talbot's The Holographic Universe does this.It is a wake-up call to wonder, an adventure in ideas.If you need to maintain your idea that science has proved that "It's all mechanical", that there is no room in the universe for consciousness, soul, and spirit, don't read this book." - Larry Dossey, M.D.