Further, my suspicion that there is a significant blind spot regarding cancer is well supported by my experience as the medical director of the Cancer Support and Education Center in California. In spite of the clear evidence of the improved quality of life of these patients and their improved ability to withstand treatment, only a minority of the physicians in our area refer patients regularly. Indeed, physicians who don't make the time to investigate approaches that offer relief to their patients simply because the approaches are slightly unfamiliar may well lack the caring to explore other perspectives that hold promise of improved healing. Many techniques that make use of healing factors available within patients themselves have indeed shown great promise both clinically and in the laboratory. (Dr. Stephen Locke of Harvard University has published a review of 3,000 scientific articles that address these issues- Psychological and Behavioral Treatments for Disorders Associated with the Immune System, published by the Institute for the Advancement of Health, 1986.)

The approaches suggested here provide a valuable alternative to the present hopelessness and inadequacy of the merely palliative medical techniques that have not been measurably altered in decades. Here, again, the cornerstone is the elimination of useless fear.