In some Islamic societies you would never bring a sick person flowers and candies as we do in this country. Instead, you would tell them a story of patience, endurance, and triumph. The images such a tale would plant in their awareness would circulate through their souls just as powerfully as a medicinal elixir would travel to the diseased cells by way of the bloodstream. The more the story is considered, the more it can empower the body's own healing mechanisms.
— Richard Stone, The Healing Art of Storytelling