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Chapter FIFTEEN

More Years of Life and More Life in Your Years

Does every human being have a built-in fountain of youth?

Can the Success Mechanism keep you young?

Does the Failure Mechanism accelerate the aging process?

Frankly, medical science does not have any final answer to these questions. But it is not only possible, but I believe practical, to draw certain conclusions and implications from what is already known. In this chapter, I would like to tell you some of the things that I believe and that have been of practical value to me.

William James once said that everyone, the scientist included, develops his own “over-beliefs” concerning known facts, which the facts themselves do not justify. As a practical measure, these “over-beliefs” are not only permissible, but necessary. Our assumption of a future goal, which sometimes we cannot see, is what dictates our present actions, and our “practical conduct.” Columbus had to assume that a great landmass lay to the westward before he could discover it. Otherwise he would not have sailed at all—or having sailed, would not have known whether to set his course to the south, east, north, or west.

Scientific research is possible only because of faith in assumptions. Research experiments are not helter-skelter or aimless, but directed and goal-oriented. The scientist must first set up a hypothetical truth, a hypothesis not based on fact but on implications, before he can know which experiments to make or where to look for facts that may prove or disprove his hypothetical truth.

In this last chapter, I want to share with you some of my own over-beliefs, hypotheses, and philosophy, not as an MD, but as a man. As Dr. Hans Selye has said, there are certain “truths” that cannot be used by medicine, but can be used by the patient.

Life Force: The Secret of Healing and the Secret of Youth

I believe that the physical body, including the physical brain and nervous system, is machine-like, composed of numerous smaller mechanisms, all purposeful or goal directed. I do not believe, however, that a human is a machine. I believe that the essence of man is that which animates this machine, that which inhabits the machine, directs and controls it, and uses it as a vehicle. Humans are not machines, any more than electricity is the wire over which it flows or the motor that it turns. I believe that the essence of humanity is extraphysical.

For many years, individual scientists—psychologists, physiologists, biologists—have suspected that there was some sort of universal “energy” or vitality that ran the human machine. They also suspected that the amount of this energy available and the way it was utilized explained why some individuals were more resistant to disease than others, why some individuals aged faster than others, and why some hardy individuals lived longer than others. It was also fairly obvious that the source of this basic energy—whatever it might be—was something other than the surface energy we obtain from the food we eat. Caloric energy does not explain why one individual can snap back quickly from a serious operation, withstand long continued stress situations, or outlive another. We speak of such persons as having a “strong constitution.” The strong constitution exhibited by individuals who live long and live well seems linked to elements over which we have considerable control, not the least of which is the never-ending setting and resetting of goals, so that we have something meaningful to live for.

A very famous professional speaker, on the circuit for three decades, was finally beginning to feel burned out, not so much toward the speaking itself as to the grind of incessant travel with all its inherent frustrations, the endless nights in innocuous hotel rooms. Friends mentioned that they could see the travel was aging him. He was on the verge of quitting his profession, which he actually loved and arguably required to have meaning and purpose. About the same time, probably in anticipation of retirement, he had taken up golf and became fascinated with, even addicted to the game, and reasonably adept at it. One day, on yet another lengthy flight, a new goal popped into his head: to play on at least one famous golf course in every state of the union. He began mulling this idea over in his imagination. Seeing himself being photographed after hitting a hole in one at the famously difficult Pebble Beach. Chuckling at being in the real rough on a golf course in rural Alaska.

The mulling over became increasingly serious, until he found himself thinking about it often over the ensuing days. He decided to test it by taking his clubs on his next ten-day trip and scheduling rounds of golf between his engagements. Not surprisingly, he found himself looking forward to the next day’s travel rather than dreading it. Locked on this new target, he uncovered a whole new level of passion and energy for securing speaking engagements in locations where there are golf courses he wants to play. He not only extended and breathed new life into his career, but also he quite literally extended and breathed new life into his life.

Are you older or younger than your chronological years? The counting itself is arguably arbitrary. After all, if our calendars put 15 months instead of 12 months into each year, you’d be celebrating a different year’s birthday this time around. That smaller number might very well convince your self-image of a different truth about your age, and you might very well feel and act differently. We all know people who are 35 going on 65, and 65 going on 35. I suppose something less extreme is desirable. But regardless of pondering about age itself, we all seek to take more life force.

Science Discovers the Life Force

This life force was established as a scientific fact by Dr. Hans Selye of the University of Montreal. Since 1936, Dr. Selye has studied the problems of stress. Clinically and in numerous laboratory experiments and studies, Dr. Selye has proved the existence of a basic life force, which he calls “adaptive energy.” Throughout life, from the cradle to the grave, we are daily called on to adapt to stress situations. Even the process of living itself constitutes stress—or continual adaptation. Dr. Selye has found that the human body contains various defense mechanisms (local adaptation syndromes or LAS), which defend against specific stress, and a general defense mechanism (general adaptation syndrome or GAS), which defends against nonspecific stress. “Stress” includes anything that requires adaptation or adjustment, such as extremes of heat or cold, invasion by disease germs, emotional tension, the wear and tear of living, and the so-called aging process.

“The term adaptation energy,” says Dr. Selye, “has been coined for that which is consumed during continued adaptive work, to indicate that it is something different from the caloric energy we receive from food, but this is only a name, and we still have no precise concept of what this energy might be. Further research along these lines would seem to hold great promise, since here we appear to touch upon the fundamentals of aging.” (Hans Selye, The Stress of Life) Dr. Selye has written 12 books and hundreds of articles explaining his clinical studies and his stress concept of health and disease. It would be a disservice to him for me to try to prove his case here. Suffice it to say that his findings are recognized by medical experts the world over. And if you wish to learn more of the work that led to his findings, I suggest that you read Dr. Selye’s book written for laymen, The Stress of Life.

To me, the really important thing that Dr. Selye has proved is that the body itself is equipped to maintain itself in health, to cure itself of disease, and to remain youthful by successfully coping with those factors that bring about what we call old age. Not only has he proved that the body is capable of curing itself, but that in the final analysis that is the only sort of cure there is. Drugs, surgery, and various therapies work largely by either stimulating the body’s own defense mechanism when it is deficient, or toning it down when it is excessive. The adaptation energy itself is what finally overcomes the disease, heals the wound or burn, or wins out over other stressors.

Is This the Secret of Youth?

This élan vital, life force, or adaptation energy—call it what you will—manifests itself in many ways. The energy that heals a wound is the same energy that keeps all our other body organs functioning. When this energy is at an optimum all our organs function better, we feel good, wounds heal faster, we are more resistant to disease, we recover from any sort of stress faster, we feel and act younger, and in fact biologically we are younger. It is thus possible to correlate the various manifestations of this life force and to assume that whatever works to make more of this life force available to us, whatever opens to us a greater influx of life stuff, whatever helps us utilize it better—helps us “all over.” We may conclude that whatever nonspecific therapy aids wounds to heal faster might also make us feel younger. Whatever nonspecific therapy helps us overcome aches and pains might, for example, improve eyesight. And this is precisely the direction that medical research is now taking and that appears most promising.

Science’s Search for the Elixir of Youth

In the original edition of this book, in this chapter, I wrote at length about some medical research and promising “medical miracles” coming to the forefront at the time (1960). I think you would find it interesting to revisit those comments, in light of what has actually transpired now, more than 50 years later. What is unwaveringly true, regardless of changes in the specifics, is that the search for the elusive fountain of youth never ends. Today, human growth hormone (HGH) injections are much the rage among Hollywood celebrities, wealthy executives, and aging athletes, and many over-the-counter nostrums purporting to mimic the effects of these injections populate the shelves of health food stores and pharmacies alike. Perhaps you’ve read about or use DHEA nutritional supplements, testosterone patches, and so on.

Diet, exercise, certain herbal and nutritional supplements as well as drug therapies all have influence, and there will undoubtedly be many exciting discoveries and breakthroughs to come. We have, of course, made huge strides in medically extending physical life, but are less successful regarding quality of life.

I have been more intrigued with psychological life extension and improvement. In bridging the two—physical and psychological—I once searched for other factors, or common denominators, that might explain why the surgical wounds of some patients heal faster than others. The medicine used for this purpose worked better for some people than for others. This in itself was food for thought, because the results obtained in mice were practically uniform. Ordinarily, mice do not worry or become frustrated. Frustration and emotional stress can be induced in mice, however, by immobilizing them so that they cannot have freedom of movement. Immobilization frustrates any animal. Laboratory experiments have shown that under the emotional stress of frustration, very minor wounds may heal faster, but any real injury is made worse and healing sometimes made impossible. It has also been established that the adrenal glands react in very much the same way to emotional stress and to the stress of physical tissue damage.

Dr. Dave Woynarowski, author of The Immortality Edge, provides contemporary scientific perspective on the Fountain of Youth, and the effects of failure and success on aging: It is highly likely that many people reading Psycho-Cybernetics today will gain some improvements in the next five to ten years from stem cell biology and telomere-length technologies.

Stem cell biology is the study of the regenerative and long-lived cells in our body. Almost every type of cell in the body can be re-created from stems cells, which are instrumental and absolutely necessary to make new healthy tissues in our body.

The telomere is a structure located at the end of every healthy chromosome. This time-keeper of the individual cell shortens as we age. The shortening process can be linked to just about every disease identified with aging, such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, and Alzheimer’s.

It appears that increasing the telomere length in both regular and stem cells will add years to our life span and healthy life to our years. I believe that the true Fountain of Youth really does exist in our genetic blueprints.

While there is ongoing research and science into these issues, there is also information on how lifestyle and behavior affects how we age, and evidence that the inner workings of our cells and our bodies are directly affected by our mental outlook and how we treat ourselves.

For instance, if not managed properly, stress can age people prematurely. Children who grow up in highly stressed environments have cellular components that “behave” ten or more years older than their biologic age. Their telomeres are shorter than average.

When you measure chemicals that identify a person as stressed you see two things that correlate with more rapid aging: shorter telomeres and an accelerated turnover of stem cells to replace tissues and cells that are damaged by stressful events.

Many studies have shown that wealthier people taken as a whole live longer and have longer biologic time clocks (telomeres) than people who live in poverty. Almost the exact same thing can be seen with education levels: Higher education is coincident with better overall long-term health and longevity. It is probably no coincidence that educated people tend to be more successful, too.

Will a positive mental attitude add health and years to your life and improve your chances of success? Being scientifically correct, we can say that it may not be the Fountain of Youth, but it’s likely to help keep you alive long enough to witness it and be part of it.

For more information about Dr. Woynarowski’s work, visit his website at drdavesbest.com.

How the Failure Mechanism Injures You

Thus it might be said that frustration and emotional stress (those factors we have previously described as the failure mechanism) literally add insult to injury whenever the physical body suffers damage. If the physical damage is very slight, some emotional stress may stimulate the defense mechanism into activity, but if there is any real or actual physical injury, emotional stress adds to it and makes it worse. This knowledge gives us reason to pause and think. If aging is brought about by a using up of our adaptation energy, as most experts in the field seem to think, then our indulging ourselves in negative components of the Failure Mechanism can literally make us old before our time by using up that energy faster.

What Is the Secret of Rapid Healers?

Among my human patients who did not receive the serum, some individuals responded to surgery just as well as the average patient who did receive it. Differences in age, diet, pulse rate, blood pressure, etc., simply did not explain why. There was, however, one easily recognizable characteristic that all the rapid healers had in common.

They were optimistic, cheerful positive thinkers who not only expected to get well in a hurry, but invariably had some compelling reason or need to get well quick. They had something to look forward to and not only something to live for, but something to get well for. “I’ve got to get back on the job.” “I’ve got to get out of here so I can accomplish my goal.” In short, they epitomized those characteristics and attitudes that I have previously described as the Success Mechanism.

Thoughts Bring Organic as Well as Functional Changes

We do know this much: Mental attitudes can influence the body’s healing mechanisms. Placebos or sugar pills (capsules containing inert ingredients) have long been a medical mystery. They contain no medicine of any kind that could bring about a cure. Yet when placebos are given to a control group in order to test the effectiveness of a new drug, the group receiving the phony pills nearly always shows some improvement, and quite often as much as the group receiving the medicine. Students receiving placebos actually showed more immunization against colds than the group receiving a new cold medicine.

During World War II, the Royal Canadian Navy tested a new drug for seasickness. Group 1 received the new drug, and Group 2 received sugar pills. Of those groups, only 13 percent suffered from seasickness, while 30 percent of Group 3, which received nothing, got sick.

“Suggestion” Explains Nothing

Patients receiving placebos, or suggestive wart therapy, must not be told that the treatment is phony if it is to be effective. They believe they are receiving legitimate medicine that will “bring about a cure.” To write off placebos as “merely due to suggestions” explains nothing. More reasonable is the conclusion that in taking the “medicine” some sort of expectation of improvement is aroused, a goal-image of health is set up in the mind, and the Creative Mechanism works through the body’s own healing mechanism to accomplish the goal.

Do We Sometimes Think Ourselves into Old Age?

We may do something very similar, but in reverse, when we unconsciously “expect to get old” at a certain age.

At the 1951 International Gerontological Congress at St. Louis, Dr. Raphael Ginzberg, of Cherokee, Iowa, stated that the traditional idea that a person is supposed to grow old and useless around 70 is responsible in large measure for persons’ growing “old” at that age, and that in a more enlightened future we might regard 70 as middle age.

It is a matter of common observation that some people between the ages of 40 and 50 begin to both look and act “old,” while others continue to act and look “young.” A recent study found that the “oldsters” at 45 thought of themselves as middle-aged, past their prime, over the hill, while the “youngsters” at 45 still conceived of themselves as being this side of middle-aged.

At least two ways suggest themselves as to how we may think ourselves into old age. In expecting to grow “old” at a given age we may unconsciously set up a negative goal image for our Creative Mechanism to accomplish. Or, in expecting “old age” and fearing its onset, we may unwittingly do those very things necessary to bring it about. We begin to taper off on both physical and mental activity. Cutting out practically all vigorous physical activity, we tend to lose some of the flexibility of our joints. Lack of exercise causes our capillaries to constrict and virtually disappear, and the supply of life-giving blood through our tissues is drastically curtailed. Vigorous exercise is necessary to dilate the capillaries that feed all body tissues and remove waste products. Dr. Selye has cultivated animal cell cultures within a living animal’s body by implanting a hollow tube. For some unknown reason biologically, new and “young” cells form inside this tube. Untended, however, they die within a month. However, if the fluid in the tube is washed daily, and waste products removed, the cells live indefinitely. They remain eternally “young” and neither “age” nor “die.” Dr. Selye suggests that this may be the mechanism of aging, and that if so, “old age” can be postponed by slowing down the rate of waste production, or by helping the system to get rid of waste. In the human body the capillaries are the channels through which waste is removed. It has definitely been established that lack of exercise and inactivity literally “dries up” the capillaries.

Activity Means Life

When we decide to curtail mental and social activities, we stultify ourselves. We become “set” in our ways, bored, and give up our “great expectations.” I have no doubt but that you could take a healthy man of 30 and within five years make an “old man” of him if you could somehow convince him that he was now “old,” that all physical activity was dangerous and that mental activity was futile. If you could induce him to sit in a rocking chair all day, give up all his dreams for the future, give up all interest in new ideas, and regard himself as “washed up,” “worthless,” unimportant, and nonproductive, I am sure that you could experimentally create an old man.

Dr. John Schindler, in his book How to Live 365 Days a Year, pointed out what he believed to be six basic needs that every human being has: 1. The Need for Love

1. The Need for Security

2. The Need for Creative Expression

3. The Need for Recognition

4. The Need for New Experiences

5. The Need for Self-Esteem

To these six, I would add another basic need: the need for more life. The need to look forward to tomorrow and to the future with gladness and anticipation.

Look Forward and Live

This brings me to another of my over-beliefs.

I believe that life itself is adaptive; that life is not just an end in itself, but a means to an end. Life is one of the “means” we are privileged to use, in various ways, to achieve important goals. We can see this principle operating in all forms of life, from the amoeba to man. The polar bear, for example, needs a thick fur coat in order to survive in a cold environment. He needs protective coloration to stalk game and hide from enemies. The life force acts as a “means” to these ends, and provides the polar bear with his white fur coat. These adaptations of life to deal with problems in the environment are almost infinite, and there is no point in continuing to enumerate them. I merely want to point out a principle in order to draw a conclusion.

If life adapts itself in so many varied forms to act as a means toward an end, is it not reasonable to assume that if we place ourselves in the sort of goal-situation where more life is needed, that we will receive more life?

If we think of man as a goal-striver, we can think of adaptation energy or life force as the propelling fuel or energy that drives him forward toward his goal. A stored automobile needs no gasoline in the tank. And a goal-striver with no goals doesn’t really need much life force.

I believe that we establish this need by looking forward to the future with joy and anticipation, when we expect to enjoy tomorrow, and above all, when we have something important (to us) to do and somewhere to go.

Create a Need for More Life

Creativity is certainly one of the characteristics of the life force. And the essence of creativity is a looking forward toward a goal. Creative people need more life force. And actuary tables seem to confirm that they get it. As a group, creative workers—research scientists, inventors, painters, writers, philosophers—not only live longer, but remain productive longer than non-creative workers. (Michelangelo did some of his best painting when past 80; Goethe wrote Faust when past 80; Edison was still inventing at 90; Picasso dominated the art world well into his 90s; Wright at 90 was still considered the most creative architect; Shaw was still writing plays at 90; Grandma Moses began painting at 79, and so on.) This is why I tell my patients to “develop a nostalgia for the future” instead of for the past if they want to remain productive and vital. Develop an enthusiasm for life, create a need for more life, and you will receive more life.

Have you ever wondered why so many actors and actresses manage to look far younger than their years, and present a youthful appearance at age 50 and beyond? Could it not be that these people have a need to look young, that they are interested in maintaining their appearance, and simply do not give up the goal of staying young, as most of us do when we reach the middle years?

“We age, not by years, but by events and our emotional reactions to them,” said psychotherapist Dr. Arnold A. Hutschnecker in his book The Will to Live. “The physiologist Rubner observed that peasant women who work as cheap labor in the fields in some parts of the world are given to early withering of the face, but they suffer no loss of physical strength and endurance. Here is an example of specialization in aging. We can reason that these women have relinquished their competitive role as women. They have resigned themselves to the life of the working bee, which needs no beauty of face but only physical competence.

Hutschnecker also commented on how widowhood ages some women, but not others. If the widow feels that her life has come to an end and she has nothing to live for, her attitude gives “outward evidence—in her gradual withering, her graying hair. . . . Another woman, actually older, begins to blossom. She may enter into the competition for a new husband, or she may embark on a career in business, or she may do no more than busy herself with an interest for which perhaps she has not had the leisure until now.” Faith, courage, interest, optimism, looking forward bring us new life and more life. Futility, pessimism, frustration, or living in the past are not only characteristic of “old age,” they also contribute to it.

Retire from a Job, but Never Retire from Life

Many men go downhill rapidly after retirement. They feel that their active, productive life is completed and their job is done. They have nothing to look forward to, become bored, inactive—and often suffer a loss of self-esteem because they feel left out of things, not important anymore. They develop a self-image of a useless, worthless, “worn out” hanger-on. And a great many die within a year or so after retirement.

It is not retiring from a job that kills these men, it is retiring from life. It is the feeling of uselessness, of being washed up; the dampening of self-esteem, courage, and self-confidence, which our present attitudes of society help to encourage. We need to know that these are outmoded and unscientific concepts. Some 50 years ago psychologists thought that man’s mental powers reached their peak at the age of 25 and then began a gradual decline. The latest findings show that a man reaches his peak mentally somewhere around the age of 35 and maintains the same level until well past 70. Such nonsense as “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” still persists despite the fact that numerous researchers have shown that learning ability is about as good at 70 as it is at 17.

Outmoded and Disproved Medical Concepts

Physiologists used to believe that any type of physical activity was harmful to the man over 40. We doctors are to blame as much as anyone for warning patients over 40 to “take it easy” and give up golf and other forms of exercise. Twenty years ago one famous writer even suggested that any man over 40 should never stand when he could sit, never sit when he could lie down—in order to “conserve” his strength and energy. Physiologists and MDs, including the nation’s leading heart specialists, now tell us that activity, even strenuous activity, is not only permissible, but required for good health at any age. You are never too old to exercise. You may be too sick. Or if you have been comparatively inactive for a long while, the suddenness of strenuous exertion may have a powerful stress effect, and may be damaging and even fatal.

So, if you are not used to strenuous exertion, let me warn you to “take it easy” and “take it gradually.” Dr. T. K. Cureton, who pioneered in the physical reconditioning of men from 45 to 80, suggested at least two years as a reasonable time for gradually acquiring the ability to indulge in really strenuous activity.

If you are past 40, forget the weight you lifted when you were in college or how fast you could run. Begin by walking daily around the block. Gradually increase the distance to a mile, then two, and—after perhaps six months—five miles. Then alternate between jogging and walking. First jog half a mile a day; later a full mile. Still later you can add push-ups, deep knee bends, and perhaps training with moderate weights. Using such a program as this, Dr. Cureton took decrepit, “feeble” men of 50, 60, and even 70 and had them running five miles a day at the end of two or two and a half years. They not only felt better, but medical tests showed an improvement in heart function and other vital organs.

Why I Believe in Miracles

While confessing my over-beliefs, I might as well make a clean breast of it and say that I believe in miracles. Medical science does not pretend to know why the various mechanisms within the body perform as they do. We know a little bit about the how and something about what happens. We can describe what happens and how the mechanisms function when the body heals a cut. But description is not explanation, no matter in what technical terms it may be couched. I still do not understand why or even the ultimate how when a cut finger heals itself.

I do not understand the power of the life force that operates the mechanisms of healing, nor do I understand how that force is applied or just what “makes it work.” I do not understand the intelligence that created the mechanisms, or just how some directing intelligence operates them.

Dr. Alexis Carrel, in writing of his personal observations of instantaneous healings at Lourdes, said that the only explanation he could make as a medical doctor was that the body’s own natural healing processes, which normally operate over a period of time to bring about healing, were somehow “speeded up” under the influence of intense faith.

If “miracles,” as Dr. Carrel says, are accomplished by the acceleration of, or the intensifying of, natural healing processes and powers within the body, then I witness a “small miracle” every time I see a surgical wound heal itself by growing new tissue. Whether it requires two minutes, two weeks, or two months makes no difference insofar as I can see. I still witness some power at work that I do not understand.

Medical Science, Faith, and Life All Come from the Same Source

Dubois, the famous French surgeon, had a large sign in his operating room: “The Surgeon dresses the wound, God heals it.” The same might be said of any type of medication, from antibiotics to cough drops. Yet I cannot understand how a rational person can forgo medical help because he believes it inconsistent with his faith. I believe that medical skill and medical discoveries are made possible by the same intelligence, the same life force, that operates through the media of faith healing. And for this reason I can see no possible conflict between medical science and religion. Medical healing and faith healing both derive from the same source, and should work together.

No father who saw a mad dog attacking his child would stand idly by and say, “I must do nothing because I must prove my faith.” He would not refuse the assistance of a neighbor who brought a club or a gun. Yet, if you reduce the size of the mad dog trillions of times and call it a bacteria or a virus, the same father may refuse the help of his doctor-neighbor who brings a tool in the form of a capsule, a scalpel, or a syringe.

Don’t Place Limitations on Life

Which brings me to my parting thought: In the Bible we are told that when the prophet was in the desert and hungry, God lowered a sheet from the heavens containing food. Only to the prophet it didn’t look much like good food. It was “unclean” and contained all sorts of “crawling things.” Whereupon God rebuked him, admonishing him not to call “unclean” that which God had offered.

Some doctors and scientists today turn up their noses at whatever smacks of faith or religion. Some religionists have the same attitude, suspicion and revulsion concerning anything scientific.

Everyone’s real goal, as I said in the beginning, is for more life—more living. Whatever your definition of happiness may be, you will experience happiness only as you experience more life. More living means among other things more accomplishment, the attainment of worthwhile goals, more love experienced and given, more health and enjoyment, more happiness for both yourself and others.

I believe that there is one life, one ultimate source, but that this one life has many channels of expression and manifests itself in many forms. If we are to “get more living out of life,” we should not limit the channels through which life may come to us. We must accept it, whether it comes in the form of science, religion, psychology, or whatnot.

Another important channel is other people. Let us not refuse the help, happiness, and joy that others may bring us, or that we can give to them. Let us not be too proud to accept help from others, or too callous to give it. Let us not say “unclean” just because the form of the gift may not coincide with our prejudices or our ideas of self-importance.

The Best Self-Image of All

Finally, let us not limit our acceptance of life by our own feelings of unworthiness. God has offered us forgiveness and the peace of mind and happiness that come from self-acceptance. It is an insult to our Creator to turn our backs upon these gifts or to say that his creation—man—is so “unclean” that he is not worthy or important or capable. The most adequate and realistic self-image of all is to conceive of yourself as “made in the image of God.” “You cannot believe yourself the image of God, deeply and sincerely, with full conviction, and not receive a new source of strength and power,” said Dr. Frank G. Slaughter.

The ideas and exercises in this book have helped many of my patients “get more living out of life.” It is my hope, and my belief, that they will do the same for you.