We all know that there are Type A or Type B personalities. People with Type A personalities are said to be unable to relax, very work-oriented, aggressive, hostile, and insecure. Type B personalities, by contrast, are said to be patient, calm, and relaxed. Some people have added a third category: the Type C personality. This is also known as the Cancer Prone Personality. This theory holds that some people’s very personalities make them susceptible to developing cancer. For instance, those who are overly cooperative, unassertive, accepting of external authority, patient, and who bury negative emotions are said to have an increased likelihood of being diagnosed with some form of cancer.

When we turn to science to see if this is true, there is no concrete answer. A recent Japanese study conducted by researchers at the Tohoku University looked at 30,000 people who were grouped according to personality: extraversion (those who were socially-oriented), neuroticism (anxious and unstable), psychoticism (aggressive, self-centered, emotionally cold), and lie (conformist, passive, naïve). There was no connection found between personality type and development or progression of cancer.

Stanford University professor David Spiegel, however, has discovered a fact that seems to support a link between personality and cancer. He found those who had joined a support group and tended to have a strong fighting spirit after their diagnosis lived on average eighteen months longer than those who didn’t join a group. Also, those who deal with cancer by displaying a sense of denial also seemed to fare better than those supposed to be Type C personalities. This is because Type C people would be resigned to their fate. They would passively accept it and believe that they had no control. They would give up, causing their bodies to give up.

An important question to ask ourselves is: Do we indeed have any control? We may think that we have no control over our bodies but, in fact, we do. Our emotions, our feelings, our energy all impact our body.

Benefits of Energy Healing for Cancer

Energy Healing is an important component in the treatment of cancer. Because it can address root cause, it can help the individual focus on the underlying factors and reverse them. It also opens the channels so that treatments such as chemotherapy can work more efficiently. Conversely, it can also remove chemo from the body after it has done its work, thus reducing the toxic load on the body. I have seen many individuals sail through chemo with no side effects who worked with someone from the field of Energy Medicine simultaneously with their chemo treatments.

Moving Beyond Blame

“When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.” – Catherine Ponder, author

A diagnosis of cancer can produce many reactions, one of which is the urge to blame the disease on anyone or anything else. You may blame your genes, your lifestyle, your job, even your doctor! While it may help to direct your anger somewhere, ultimately you’ll find that it’s futile to assign blame. Especially toward yourself! Cancer is not your fault. There is no way to go back and undo any of the factors like inherited genes or exposure to pollutants or synthetic hormones. And the process of placing blame causes more emotional stress, which interferes with the healing process.

We can’t change yesterday. It is only today we can change anything. Take a deep breath and decide that you are going to let go of any connection to an external cause. The only advantage to knowing there was an outside cause is if it helps you minimize your risk today, like stopping smoking. Instead of feeling despair and anguish, feel hope for your own healing. Your body may be telling you that something is out of balance, that something more fundamental is wrong, but it is also telling you that you have the key to healing.

Part of healing, perhaps the most important part, is forgiveness. When we suffer a wrong or a perceived wrong, we can harbor intense hatred and bitterness. This can be caused by abuse, divorce, unfaithfulness, death, and other hurtful situations that we never resolve. Not only can this energy discord cause our illness (the heart chakra is associated with ailments ranging from asthma and pneumonia to lung and breast cancer), it can impede our progress towards healing.

Holding onto resentments and anger can ruin your quality of life. The only person who suffers from your failure to forgive is you; unfortunately, it is not the other guy. When we stay hostile or resentful, it tears down our immune system and increases our risk of disease. Get some help if you are troubled by a situation like a bad divorce or a child who went astray. Whatever the circumstance is in your life, you can let go of it. Also, forgive yourself for whatever unhealthy lifestyle or emotional baggage you feel may have precipitated the disease. Self-blame doesn’t help in healing.

Nearly every religion teaches that forgiveness is a virtue: “To err is human, to forgive divine.” What ancient cultures have known for centuries is now becoming accepted by Western medicine. Numerous studies have found links between forgiveness and health.

  • Researchers at Duke University found that people who had the ability to forgive experienced less depression, anger, and physical pain. The study followed people with chronic back pain; pain levels decreased when the patients used meditation techniques to forgive and release inner pain.
  • A University of Tennessee study found that forgiveness improved heart health and lowered heart rate, blood pressure, and stress levels.
  • Research has also suggested that forgiving others – and yourself – can improve your immune system functioning. This is vital for cancer patients, whose immune systems are already battered and which undergo additional attack from chemotherapy and other drugs.

Forgiving others does not mean you excuse what they did. It means that you let go of the bitterness and the negativity. It means that you let go of your need for revenge or retribution. Many people equate forgiveness with weakness: they think that it means that you forget what has happened. In order for true healing, however, forgetting is as detrimental as not forgiving. You need to process what has happened, experience your emotions, and then find the strength to move on from there. Burying it will only cause disruption in your mind, body, and spirit.

Forgiveness does not mean we have to put ourselves in the position to be hurt again, or even that we like the person who hurt us. Forgiveness requires us to get in touch with our pain and try to get to the point where we feel empathy instead of anger.

In May of 1981, Pope John Paul II was driven into St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. Adored by millions of Catholics all over the world, the Pope became a hero to many for his tremendous heroism. On this day, he was shot by Mehmet Ali Agca. The Pope survived this attempted assassination and went on to visit Ali Agca in prison.

Not only did he forgive Ali Agca, he took his hands in his own and called him “brother.” The Pope obviously did not forget the terrible ordeal he had been through, nor had he failed to learn from it. After the attempted assassination, for instance, the Pope no longer traveled in his open-air “Popemobile.” He did, however, understand that his life was chained to Ali Agca’s, and if he did not forgive, he would never be free.

Forgiving is tremendously difficult, and for victims of incest, severe abuse, and violence, it can seem impossible. The important thing to remember is that it is for you that you are forgiving the other.

Sometimes, individuals who have been diagnosed as terminal may feel: I have so little time left and I don’t want to be angry and depressed and bitter any more. So they let go of those old feelings and they start to talk to people that maybe they’ve shut out of their life for many years. Sometimes, the next thing you know is they’ve had a remission.