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