Do Vision Boards & Affirmations Cause Cancer?

Photo Courtesy of Susie B

Vision boards and affirmations are two tools commonly employed when people set out to improve their lives by using the Law of Attraction to manifest their innermost desires. In The Vision Board Book, by John Assaraf, he states that the purpose of a vision board “is to help make your dreams come true.” (1) This book is one of literally dozens that teach the merits of vision boards. Countless thousands have turned their refrigerators into 3-dimensional “dream boxes” held together by magnets and tape, as they fill every available square inch of exterior real estate with pictures, newspaper clippings, images torn from magazines and motivational words and sayings representative of their goals and desires. Thousands more devote daily time to reciting their positive affirmations upon awakening and before retiring every night. But, what if the very act of gazing upon vision boards and reciting affirmations was actually making them ill? What if, in a misguided attempt to improve their lives, they were actually shortening it? Could something so well-intentioned really cause cancer?

When it comes to the Law of Attraction, your thoughts, feelings and actions all play a role. However, your feelings set the overall tone. Think of your feelings as the train track that sets your course. Your thoughts and actions serve as the fuel cells for the train engine. Positive or negative feelings determine where the track is headed. Your thoughts and actions serve as the fuel cells made either of coal (if they are in alignment with your feelings) or of water (if they are in opposition to your feelings). The one can power the train engine, really ramping up its power and speed. The other douses the fire and slows the engine to a crawl, sometimes even stopping it cold. But, only the direction of the tracks (your feelings) determines your ultimate destination. (2)

The idea behind affirmations is to replace an old belief with a new belief, saying them over and over and over again until you believe them. However, whether you repeat them five times or five bazillion times, if you don’t eventually believe them, or feel them to be true, they will not help! Instead, the very lie that they become creates a powerful, negative feeling that blocks you from your dreams. (3)

For a lot of people, vision boards and affirmations ultimately become nothing more than a daily reminder of all that they feel they currently lack! Rather than generating the warm, fuzzy feelings of “having it now,” they instead experience feelings of hopelessness and despair. Renowned oncologist O. Carl Simonton, M.D. says, “emotional and mental states play a significant role in susceptibility to disease, including cancer.” He continues further, “cancer is often an indication of problems elsewhere in an individual’s life…The cancer patient has typically responded to these problems and stresses with a deep sense of hopelessness, or ‘giving-up.’” (4)

Viktor Frankl, a survivor of four WWII concentration camps of the Holocaust, writes with regard to daily prison life, “A man who let himself decline because he could not see any future goal…who had lost faith in the future–his future–was doomed.” (5)

Vision boards and affirmations are very, very, very powerful tools. However, much like fire, electricity and gasoline, they can be used positively or, inadvertently, negatively. Vision boards and affirmations are NOT for the faint of belief. Do vision boards and affirmations cause cancer? Sometimes, I suspect they do!

Dr. Jon M. Ketcham

Author iContractor 1 & Dream re-Kindler to Earth-bound Travelers of Light

Bibliography

(1) The Vision Board Book, John Assaraf, p. ix

(2) iContractor1: Constructing Your Perfect Life by Remodeling YOU from the Inside-Out!, Dr. Jon M. Ketcham

(3) iContractor1: Constructing Your Perfect Life by Remodeling YOU from the Inside-Out!, Dr. Jon M. Ketcham

(4) Getting Well Again, O. Carl Simonton, M.D., Stephanie Matthews-Simonton, James L. Creighton, p.10

(5) Man’s Search For Meaning, Viktor Frankl, pp. 71,72,74