"Many years ago, I would have defined miracles as something for which there was no explanation. That was my concept of miracles. So when patients would recover unexpectedly from disease, I would rationalize what mechanisms were present within the body that could explain their recovery.
"Today, I realize that everything is a miracle. When you ask quantum physicists and astronomers to explain creation, they do not have all the answers. Life is a miracle, and it is derived from the intelligent, loving, conscious energy that created it. You can call it God or anything you want to, but the nature of life shows us it is intelligent and loving, or we wouldn't be able to survive a cut finger or an infection. Most of us do not stop to think about life on earth being a miracle.
"To me, miracles are about our potential and what has been built into us to help us to survive. A botanist I read about called miracles 'spontaneous reversals' because he saw how plants altered their genes to survive climate changes and diseases. Just think about the fact that a plant doesn't bleed to death every fall when the leaves drop off . . . it heals and survives.
"Doctors call unexpected recoveries and cures 'spontaneous remissions,' but that wording makes you think it is luck and that the person had nothing to do with it. That is not true. All living things have the potential to create miracles. Studies and scans show that cancers come and go sometimes with no treatment. We need to study the personalities and learn the stories of the people whom we consider to have had a miraculous or self-induced healing.
"I know people who have left their troubles to God, or who refused treatment to go home and make the world beautiful before they died. They did what made them happy — from getting a dog to building a wildlife habitat — and their letters to me later end with, 'I didn't die, and now I'm so busy I'm killing myself. Help! Where do I go from here?' I do not limit miracles to only physical events like recovery from disease, because they occur in every aspect of life. Since consciousness is not limited to the body, or by time and space, it can have effects at a distance, too, and I will discuss some of these things when I present specific examples.
"Someday I hope we will spend as much money exploring inner space and the wonders of the human body as we are currently spending exploring outer space. The secret lies within us, and yet we are afraid to go within because of our nature. It is time to stop fearing what lies within us and to achieve our true potential."
