Articles -

The following are articles and writings by Bernie Siegel, MD.

Deceiving People Into Health

Physicians are not taught how to communicate with patients and due to their fear of being sued tell people all of the adverse side effects of therapy and never mention the benefits. I began to realize how important a patient’s beliefs were from my experience and their experience and not their diagnosis.

How To Find Peace, Love and Healing After the Loss of a Loved One

I cannot deny events and facts and since my wife died, a little over two years ago, my experiences have been incredible. The first being a call from a former patient and mystic 2 days later saying she had a message from a lovely lady who was an opera singer that Bobbie was fine and with family again and my wife’s mother was an opera singer.

Dreams

There have been many dreams and experiences which have been personal guides for me and made me think about my life and actions and creation. If you think about evolution, sleep at some time, was a dangerous undertaking.

We Don’t Die, Our Bodies Die

As someone who has had a near death and past life experience I know the truth about what we call death. When my wife died 24 months ago the incredible experiences I had were not surprising to me at all.

What are Bodies About and For?

I have written, in other places, about our Creator’s latest parable relating to us that we are satellite dishes, remote controls and television screens. To clarify the meaning of these words for those, who like me have problems with parables, we are receivers of words and images and have minds, like remotes, with which we can select the channels we tune in to and we have bodies, like screens, to act out and make visible what we have heard.

I Hate You

Many years ago I was asked to see a young woman everyone thought had appendicitis. I didn’t agree and after observing her it was apparent her problem was a ruptured ovarian cyst which did not require surgery.

He Who Laughs Lasts

Love and laughter are required to build and hold our lives together. For me love makes up the bricks which we build out of. Ask yourself what you are capable of loving and you will know what your life is about. But what holds that life and the bricks together? We need mortar and the mortar of life is humor. For me this represents childlike humor that isn’t offensive and doesn’t hurt or upset anyone. Humor of this type heals lives.

Where Survival is the Question Men are the Weaker Sex

This article is written for two groups. Number one the women who need to be educated about the behavior of men in a crisis and two, the men, who are willing to change and go beyond the traditional self-destructive masculine behavior. Most men do not handle emotional problems well.

Information, Inspiration and Expiration

Most medical school applications of today state that the candidate for admission is interested in and fascinated by the human body. The problem is that people come with the body and are not treated properly and disturb physicians who have been given medical information but not a medical education. An education teaches you how to deal with and care for the human experience of illness and not just treat the diagnosis.

Bullies and Bullying

Why do I think children become bullies? The opposite of love is indifference and so many children act out to get attention through bullying, aggression and violence. They do not interpret it the way we do because by growing up without being loved they have a different nervous system and are far less sensitive to physical aggression, noise and other sensory stimuli.

Foreword to Choose to Live

After reading Joyce’s book and thinking about the title I was reminded of the Biblical message that when life and death are placed before us we are to choose life. By that I do not mean simply to try and avoid dying but to choose to live a meaningful life involving us in a demonstration of our love for our selves and others.

From Cancer Patient to Respant

Unfortunately doctors and health professionals, in general, do not study success. We are far more likely to consider an unexpected recovery to be due to the treatment or a spontaneous remission. However, I have learned from my experience with patients and by asking them, “Why didn’t you die when you were supposed to?” that they always had a story to tell.

Letter to God from Bernie Siegel, MD

First I want to thank You for answering my previous letters. When as a doctor I couldn’t understand why You made a world filled with disease, war, cruelty and all kinds of difficulties You pointed out to me that a perfect world is not creation. That there would be no need for doctors or anyone else and we would all become totally bored by life and find it meaningless.

Some Inspirational Poems

by Bernie Siegel, MD and et al.

Cancer patients who laugh live longer. This poem and her response to her disease is survival behavior…

Susan Duffy’s List for Survivors

Susan has lived for thirty years with scleroderma. She was originally told all she had was a hope and a prayer. So she learned how to hope and pray and has been one of my teachers capable of letting love into her prison and abandoning a painful past.

Creating a Work of Art

Conceiving a child and raising it to feel loved is the most significant action parents can attain. A loved child becomes not only a creative, inspiring being but one who helps all living things to survive and thrive. Think of your child as a young artist who has come to you to learn how to paint or sculpt. As a teacher you would show patience and guide and instruct the child so they can create a work of art.

Health Care Crisis

The present health care crisis is not just related to health care it is a crisis related to what is happening in our society. We have become depersonalized as a society, invested in technology and not the experience people are having. Studies verify what happens to children who grow up unloved and experiencing indifference, rejection and abuse.

Enlightenment

Most people I know only find enlightenment through their emotional or physical difficulties. That is a sad statement. Wouldn’t it be far better to be educated about life and prepared for its difficulties by the wisdom of others, rather than to need your own break down in order to become strong at the broken places or expand through them.

Recent Letter to the Editor

As a physician who has counseled cancer patients for decades I can tell you it is quite possible that Scottish authorities made a big mistake. I could understand their releasing him for end of life hospice care when his death was imminent but at this time that is not the case.

Women. What Would We Do Without Them.

I began to refer to God as a woman years ago when I saw how many survival qualities were feminine qualities. On the other hand we have to ask why did Eve eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge and get Adam to taste it also rather than the other way around? What is it about women that leads them to behave in a way that men have trouble dealing with or performing?

Touch Me and Understand What Happiness Is

Forgive me if in this column I simply share with you some of the things that fascinate me and teach me about myself and life. I was reading about the problem thinking is. Our thoughts and ability to think are what separate us from each other and the true nature of life. When we think we know the truth we become closed minded and very unscientific. A true scientist has no fixed beliefs and so can experiment in the hopes of learning the truth.

Communication, Messages and Signals

The key to life in all its forms is its ability to communicate. This includes the ability of complex organisms like ourselves to communicate with each other but more importantly within ourselves, our individual organs and cells. How do animals communicate without words? Studies show they can count and make intelligent choices when given options yet we do not know how they are able to reason and communicate without using words.

Genes, Psyche and Soma

The things that I find exciting about the human body are not what we can touch directly. We take our cars to body shops for repairs and perform maintenance every so many miles but what keeps a body going? Why do some go on for 100 years and others half that time?

I Can’t Remember and I Don’t Know Where I’m Going

I would like to reveal to you the advantages of footsteps and amnesia. Let me begin with footsteps. I am sure most of you are aware of the story about the man who walked with God…

Amelia’s Story

I became a believer in our ability to communicate with animals after Amelia Kinkade, an animal intuitive, who while sitting in California, told me via an email that she was seeing through the eyes of our lost cat Boo Boo, who had disappeared from our son’s home in Connecticut…

Remarkable Recoveries

The reason that medicine has not explored the issue of self healing and patients who exceed survival expectations is that we either give the treatment the credit or refer to them as miracles or spontaneous remissions.

The Power of Words

Most doctors are not trained to communicate and understand the power of their words as they relate to a patient’s ability and desire to survive. Doctors are not the only authority figures who impact patients’ lives and their ability to survive a diagnosis of a disease.

Animals as Teachers

After I told Smudge we needed another article for the web site she looked at me with that deep penetrating look and said, “We need to help people deal with the death of their beloved pets. I keep seeing articles in all the pet magazines about how to deal with the loss of your pet.

What is Spiritual Success and How to Measure It

When asked to write an article about how to measure success in your spiritual life the answer seemed obvious. If you have been asked to be an outside consultant to the Board of Directors of Heaven, as I have, then you have made it. Let me share with you some of what I have learned…

Passages

Life is a series of passages and it is indeed a circle through which we will all pass more than once. I shall discuss how I know this later in the article. Life is meant to be a chance to obtain an education, like going to school, and hopefully not being left back…

A Healthy Life and a Healthy Body

Studies reveal that women diagnosed with the same cancers as men live longer and that married men live longer than single men with the same cancers…

Giving Birth and Labor Pains

“There is no greater blessing than the capacity to give birth, for it is the one opportunity we have to truly create, and to create something from our own flesh and blood.”

Grow Old Along with Me the Best is Yet to Be

My advice for aging is actually the opposite of the title of this article. I say grow young along with me…

Parenting and Health

There are two aspects of the relationship between parenting and health. One is the health of the parents and the other of their children…

What Does Every Woman Want?

Many years ago a childhood friend of mine, due to a gambling addiction, got into a difficult situation involving some very significant debts…

Accept, Retreat & Surrender: How to Heal Yourself

If you view illness as an opportunity, then when you get sick, you can ask yourself, “Okay, what can I learn from this disease. What do I need to look at first?”

My Buddy’s Candle

When my grandson Simon’s ninth birthday party was over and all of his friends and classmates had departed I was taking a much needed rest on the sofa…

Pain, the Unwanted Gift

At workshops I frequently ask people if they would like to be free of all pain; emotional and physical. However, I tell those who sign up for what they think will be a gift to take my phone number with them so when they experience the problems associated with feeling no pain they can call and cancel the supposed gift…