Your Rhetoric Causes Cancer

Everyone has heard stories of individuals who did not believe they were going to die from such-and-such a disease, even when the doctors assured them they would die in a few months. But to the doctors' surprise the individual recovers with little to no treatment (save for some painkillers). These incidences are true and provide strong evidence, albeit still controversial amongst scientists, for the mind's ability to effect the physiology of the body. In all these cases the individual didn't think they were not going to die, but actually believed they were not going to die.

Further evidence of belief effecting the mind's extraordinary abilities to alter the conditions of the body are found with individuals suffering from mental retardation. Mentally retarded individuals typically do not comprehend the "death sentence society places on cancer", says Jeanne Achterberg. Her study of cancer rates amongst the mentally handicapped showed that their rates are about 4%, as opposed to the average of 15-18% (census taken in Texas over a four-year interim).

If only I could be naive and continue smoking without the bombardment of non-smokers telling me I'm "just driving another nail into my coffin". At this point I would pull up some statistics and see cancer rates of tobacco smoking pre-General Surgeon warning compared to today. I would also look up cancer rates between the American Northeast and Southeast, because I certainly get more grief for smoking down South than I do up North. But I'm not. I'm going to go read something else. Perhaps ignorance is bliss.

Your bitching is causing cancer (that's an informal fallacy... I only wish I could actually believe that).