What to do if You're Stuck. #7
Are there incurable diseases? Not to me.
That doesn’t mean I can cure everything. If I can’t help, that only means I’ve hit my limits. Someone or something else might be out there. “If an expert says something can be done he is probably correct, but if he says it is impossible then consider getting another opinion.”¹
And it doesn’t mean a particular person with a particular predicament will find a cure for sure. But I take the stance that anything might be curable. That keeps doors open. It embraces possibility and humility.
If you are not getting better but you haven’t given up, there are things you can do. I talk about them in the video below.
[added 21 July 2022] I give a cautionary word about desperation starting around fourteen minutes in. But I think Ruth Haley Barton makes a point to round out my stance. She writes about when “you have run all the way to the edges of your own answers.”
Desperation causes us to be open to radical solutions, willing to take all manner of risk in order to find what we are looking for. Desperate ones seek with an all-consuming intensity, for they know that their life depends on it. Like the cancer patient who travels to a foreign country in the quest for cures that can’t be found in familiar territory, spiritual seekers embark on a quest for that which cannot be found within the borders of life as we know it. We embark on a search for healing that has not been found in all the other cures we have tried. We have run all the way to the edges of our own answers; we have exhausted the possibilities and are now finally ready to admit our powerlessness in the face of the great unfixables of life. (page 30)
video content timeline
Surprising patient stories. People sometimes get better or worse against expectations [0:00]
There is mystery in healing and need for humility [2:40]
The problem with the statement “This is incurable.” [3:10]
I believe no disease is incurable [5:18]
You must look in new places for a cure if your first tries turn up empty [7:51]
If you resist non-scientific approaches to health [9:35]
A cautionary word if you are desperate [14:05]
Imagine yourself doing what you will do when you are healthy again [16:36]
Be honest with yourself about your capacities [17:10]
What do you stand to lose if you get better? [18:42]
Spend time with people who believe life is a gift [19:47]
Avoid people who complain [21:17]
Forgive [22:20]
People who have cured themselves of incurable illnesses [22:58]
It’s important to have fun, laugh, and play to hear intuition and get new ideas [28:28]
Healing vs Cure [31:00]
If you get better and there’s more benefit than harm, then it doesn’t matter whether the approach was unscientific [32:55]
Three stances: 100% incurable, 100% will be cured, or optimize conditions for a potential cure [35:00]
Resources
I mention blog post #3 on forgiveness, which is here.
citations
¹Richard Hamming, The Art of Doing Science and Engineering, page 336. Stripe Press, 2020.
Ruth Haley Barton, Invitation to Solitude and Silence, page 30. InterVarsity Press, 2010.