Readers might remember that I got nice new frames for my spectacles lately. Of course, the same visit to the optometrist revealed me to have ‘dry eye’, a condition associated with being pregnant, suffering a stroke, and other things (such as having eyes).
Well, in the course of doing some research for this book I’m writing, I have now discovered something bad about dry eye. Something really bad.
Take a look at this extract from Louise L. Hay‘s 1994 classic best-selling book, You Can Heal Your Life…
It’s from a table of physical health problems that runs on and on over several pages. It’s not just any old list. According to Louise, it’s “the” list.
You can see ‘Dry Eye’ right there, in between Depression and Dysentery. Now, what’s really worrying are the other two entries in the table. Basically, according to Louise L. Hay, the ‘probable cause’ of my having dry eye is as follows:
Angry eyes. Refusing to see with love. Would rather die than forgive. Being spiteful.
You see? I knew I wasn’t pregnant! The real cause of my dry eye is a cluster of unpleasant thought patterns that involve my inability to effectively manage my emotions.
And it’s true — I would rather die than forgive!
Except it’s not. It’s not true. Being dead sucks real bad. Forgiveness? Meh, I can do forgiveness. So on balance, the probable cause is improbable. But who knows, maybe there’s something in it.
Thankfully help is on hand. For, according to Louise L. Hay, I can heal my life. How I do this is by developing a “new thought pattern“, as outlined right there in that table. All I need to do is to learn off and regularly repeat the following affirmation:
“I willingly forgive. I breathe life into my vision and see with compassion and understanding.”
I can do that. As in, I can say that.
But there is one little drawback. I recited my affirmation just there and nothing happened. Apparently I need to recite it several times. How many times exactly? Well, I’ll let Louise herself tell you how she does it:
Take one or two affirmations and write them 10 or 20 times a day. Read them aloud with enthusiasm. Make a song out of your affirmations and sing them with joy. Let your mind go over these affirmations all day long.
Huh?
By the Hay doctrine, what causes physical illness is this: a bad attitude. And insufficiently joyful singing. (You know, now that I think of it, sick people are hardly ever singing.)
For information, You Can Heal Your Life is one of the best selling books ever. As in ever ever.
So, you know, it must be true.
It must be true.
It must be true.
It must be true.
(Repeat ad infinitum)
Brian Hughes is an academic psychologist and university professor in Galway, Ireland, specialising in stress, health, and the application of psychology to social issues. He writes widely on the psychology of empiricism and of empirically disputable claims, especially as they pertain to science, health, medicine, and politics.