When Dr Ian Gawler announced about 30 or more years ago that he had cancer,and he was going to use meditation to combat the disease, (very successfly I might add), I decided back then that if I ever got cancer that would be the first thing I would try too. I was diagnosed with Prostate cancer back in 1997 and started to use meditation as well as dietary changes and giving up the booze, and I haven’t had any formal medical intervention yet, so would I have got a similar result if I had been praying to any, or all of the Gods instead? There seems to be a similar mental state involved with praying and meditating.

With Buddhists prayer is simply meditation focused on selflessness……..

Postpocelipse said:

With Buddhists prayer is simply meditation focused on selflessness……..

Thanks Postpocelipse, so that sounds sort of similar.

I’ve heard it said that praying to talking to God, meditation is listening to God.

If you take out the spiritual aspect, there have been a lot of studies done on meditation and the affect it has on the body and mind. In some schools, meditation has been introduced and those schools report better grades, reduced bullying and greater participation in class. There is a bunch of great info here

bob(from black rock) said:

Postpocelipse said:

With Buddhists prayer is simply meditation focused on selflessness……..

Thanks Postpocelipse, so that sounds sort of similar.

Minimally different definitely.

Divine Angel said:

I’ve heard it said that praying to talking to God, meditation is listening to God.

If you take out the spiritual aspect, there have been a lot of studies done on meditation and the affect it has on the body and mind. In some schools, meditation has been introduced and those schools report better grades, reduced bullying and greater participation in class. There is a bunch of great info here

DA thankyou, I will have a good read of this.

Research into meditation in cancer care

Over the last 20 years, clinical trials have studied meditation as a way of reducing stress in both the mind and body. Most of the recent research has focused on mindfulness based stress reduction. The trials have shown that meditation can help to reduce anxiety, depression, tiredness, stress, chronic pain and sleep problems. It can also help to lower blood pressure and reduce menopausal symptoms.

Some scientific evidence shows that meditation can help to relieve particular symptoms and improve quality of life for people with cancer. Research has shown that it can
Improve your mood
Improve your ability to concentrate
Reduce severe depression and anxiety (studies have looked at mindfulness based stress reduction)
Boost the immune system

But there is no evidence to suggest that meditation can help to prevent, treat or cure your cancer or any other disease. For more information look at our page about why people with cancer use complementary therapies.

Read more at http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancers-in-general/treatment/complementary-alternative/therapies/meditation#TCkihXXwUcV9zrS8.99

LSD > one with the universe

Bubblecar said:

Research into meditation in cancer care

Over the last 20 years, clinical trials have studied meditation as a way of reducing stress in both the mind and body. Most of the recent research has focused on mindfulness based stress reduction. The trials have shown that meditation can help to reduce anxiety, depression, tiredness, stress, chronic pain and sleep problems. It can also help to lower blood pressure and reduce menopausal symptoms.

Some scientific evidence shows that meditation can help to relieve particular symptoms and improve quality of life for people with cancer. Research has shown that it can
Improve your mood
Improve your ability to concentrate
Reduce severe depression and anxiety (studies have looked at mindfulness based stress reduction)
Boost the immune system

But there is no evidence to suggest that meditation can help to prevent, treat or cure your cancer or any other disease. For more information look at our page about why people with cancer use complementary therapies.

Read more at http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancers-in-general/treatment/complementary-alternative/therapies/meditation#TCkihXXwUcV9zrS8.99

They should look at Cannabis as an alternative therapy.

Bubblecar said:

Research into meditation in cancer care

Over the last 20 years, clinical trials have studied meditation as a way of reducing stress in both the mind and body. Most of the recent research has focused on mindfulness based stress reduction. The trials have shown that meditation can help to reduce anxiety, depression, tiredness, stress, chronic pain and sleep problems. It can also help to lower blood pressure and reduce menopausal symptoms.

Some scientific evidence shows that meditation can help to relieve particular symptoms and improve quality of life for people with cancer. Research has shown that it can
Improve your mood
Improve your ability to concentrate
Reduce severe depression and anxiety (studies have looked at mindfulness based stress reduction)
Boost the immune system

But there is no evidence to suggest that meditation can help to prevent, treat or cure your cancer or any other disease. For more information look at our page about why people with cancer use complementary therapies.

Read more at http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancers-in-general/treatment/complementary-alternative/therapies/meditation#TCkihXXwUcV9zrS8.99

Recent research suggests your own immune system can kill off some cancers and maybe all, although the process is more complicated than just meditation alone, as apparently your T cells must first identify the cancer, but when induced to do so they can be highly effective. Perhaps meditation might aid this process. Details from the SBS cancer program last night.

> There seems to be a similar mental state involved with praying and meditating.

Once upon a time I would have agreed. But now I have to disagree.

Meditation is concentration.

Praying is uploading of worries.

mollwollfumble said:

> There seems to be a similar mental state involved with praying and meditating.

Once upon a time I would have agreed. But now I have to disagree.

Meditation is concentration.

Praying is uploading of worries.

Actually meditation is not concentration. In meditation, one lets go of everything. Prayer is simply a way of meditation by chanting a mantra. The misconception that one can ask for miracles or pray for our sins to be washed away is exactly that, a misconception.

mollwollfumble said:

> There seems to be a similar mental state involved with praying and meditating.

Once upon a time I would have agreed. But now I have to disagree.

Meditation is concentration.

Praying is uploading of worries.

This is only accurate for US plebs who believe that praying is about going around ‘blessing’ people etc. In any formal setting there is little to no difference between the two.

Meditation varies greatly in purpose, definition and practice. So does prayer.

dv said:

Meditation varies greatly in purpose, definition and practice. So does prayer.

Yeah well, we are all individuals.

removing polonium 210 and other radioactive isotopes from fertilisers would go a long way to reducing cancer

it makes me wonder if the “green revolution” was the forerunner to generation cancer

we are poisoning ourselves with radioactive isotopes in the phosphate production

but this is just new age hippy talk

There’s no real difference between prayer and submitting a post to this forum’s chat thread.

mollwollfumble said:

There’s no real difference between prayer and submitting a post to this forum’s chat thread.

What are your thoughts on Highway Chile?

Since this is basically a thread about cancer, I need to add that in at least four isolated instances when a supposedly incurable cancer disappeared, it was deemed to be the result of the success of the four different treatments. Whereas it was really a case of Skinner’s Pigeons, where a truly random positive result is wrongly taken to be a verification of methods used to attempt to bring about that result.

Needless to say, all four incidents were non-reproducible.

CrazyNeutrino said:

LSD > one with the universe

What did the Buddhist say to the hot dog vendor?

“ Make me one with everything”

A friend of mine with cancer told me she used meditation to slow its progress. When she had been slack with her meditating, she would know that the news would be bad at her next appointment with the specialist. When she had been disciplined, she said she knew things would be found to be stable.

I was never really convinced by her claims, until she told me that she was one of three cancer patients who had survived way beyond what their initial prognoses were, and who had been selected as special case studies. In her case, she was still alive last year, despite being told in 2008 that she had one year left without treatment, which is what she chose.

Speedy said:

A friend of mine with cancer told me she used meditation to slow its progress. When she had been slack with her meditating, she would know that the news would be bad at her next appointment with the specialist. When she had been disciplined, she said she knew things would be found to be stable.

I was never really convinced by her claims, until she told me that she was one of three cancer patients who had survived way beyond what their initial prognoses were, and who had been selected as special case studies. In her case, she was still alive last year, despite being told in 2008 that she had one year left without treatment, which is what she chose.

just stabilising your oxygen/carbon-dioxide levels will cut cancer growth.

Postpocelipse said:

I was never really convinced by her claims

Wise. Obviously a self-selected n=1 study is practically worthless.