Louise Hay introduced many people to the mental patterns behind particular diseases as well as the healthy patterns that the body needs to heal.  It is an excellent introduction to the concept of the underlying psychology behind illness as well as the idea that you can heal your body by healing your life (rather than waiting for someone outside of ourselves to find us a cure while we continue to live in the same way).

This book is the diary of Christel Nani, a nurse and gifted medical intuitive.  Though the book focuses on the underlying cause of diseases in general, she had multiple sclerosis.

In the book, she talks about how people with the same disease have the same energetic patterns and lowered vibrations. Peoples' negative emotions, thoughts, unhealthy patterns of behavior lower their vibrations (tribal beliefs, toxic thoughts, other people’s energy) and allow illness to resonate in their bodies. Simply treating the symptoms will not raise a person’s vibration; it would merely buy time. Focusing on raising one’s vibration would not only lead to physical, emotional, and spiritual health but could prevent illness.

This book on multiple sclerosis details Gary Holz's remarkable journey of healing from his MS through the work he did with a remote Aboriginal tribe.  The main concept of the tribe is that the day we are born, we are a body-mind-soul. What we do to one has a direct effect on the others because they are the same thing.  If our external and internal universe is working in harmony, we will be healthy spiritually and physically.  If not, we won't.

In Deb Shapiro's view, the mind is reflected in every part of the human body, and through the body, we can get in touch with the issues that we have been repressing, denying or ignoring in mind.  The role of the mind and emotions in our state of health is vital. If something goes wrong in the body, it is a combination of physical and psycho-emotional. Bodies are not things that only need mechanical repair.

In regards to multiple sclerosis, Dr. Shapiro points out four key areas of work:

Dr. Gabor Mate book identifies four key areas that are significant risk factors for chronic illness:

1. Automatic and compulsive regard for the emotional needs of others while ignoring our own.
2.  Automatic and rigid identification with duty, role, and responsibility rather than your own needs.
3. Suppress negative emotions.
4. Feeling responsible for what other people's emotions and we think we must never disappoint anyone.

In his chapter on MS "The Little Girl Too Good to Be True," he describes the MS personality as not being able to withdraw from their helping mode, the desperate need for approval, and major boundary problems especially with a parent or sibling (to the point of not experiencing where one ended, and the other began).  Many of those that eventually express MS in the body are exposed to chronic stress in childhood while, due to circumstances (such as a narcissistic or alcoholic parent) could not respond in either fight or flight (our instinct) and felt helpless in these situations. The stress eventually becomes repressed and invisible to the point that we no longer realize we have needs ourselves and we consider it normal to constantly have to meet the needs of others.

He documents this chapter with plenty of research behind stress and psychosocial factors and the onset and progression of MS.

This book on multiple sclerosis documents Sharalee's journey from imbalance, numbness, extreme fatigue and sometimes bedridden to becoming completely symptom-free.  Her story is told by her as well as her NLP practitioners (watch the interview with Sharalee using NLP here).

The main areas they discovered and worked on with Sharalee's MS where:

• Inner conflicts and imbalances (examples: Caring for others vs. self-care, helping and asking for help, and do do do vs. having freedom
• Needing to have a compelling, robust and healthy future to aspire to.  And taking steps to achieve it (rather than thinking there is nothing I can do and feeling a victim and helpless)
• Being very dissociated with feelings, our own needs, and body and externally orientated to becoming more associated into life, our emotions, our body and the hear and now.
• Learn to trust the body and talk to it as our best friend. And learn and trust that you have all the resources, you need to become a healthy human being.
• Removing the limiting beliefs around not ok to feel, this will only get worse, I am here to make you happy, etc.
• Developing personal boundaries and updating our relationship patterns both with parents and partners
• Working through our issues with sexuality

As with Christel Nani's book, though "The Healing Code" focuses on the code to healing from disease in general, he had multiple sclerosis.  Dermot O'Connor, during his journey, became a master NLP practitioner and also went back to school to study chines medicine and acupuncture. This book divides the journey of healing into five main steps:

1. Developing the Psychology of Health Recovery (changing negative language and self-talk and the nocebo effect of getting a negative diagnosis and creating the intention, rituals, and visualizations of healing)
2. Taking Charge of Emotions (addressing repressed and negative emotions such as anger, not willing to forgive, guilt, grief, fear, and worry)
3. Nutritional Plan
4. Detoxing
5. Exercise through Chi Kung

B.L Bonczk book on multiple sclerosis tells his journey from the time before he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, through his doctor telling him he'd never walk nor work again to his full recovery. It's the story what he learned on the way,  the pushes he received from the universe, and his eventual journey into becoming an alternative healer and hypnotherapist.

In his book, he emphasizes the importance for us to realize that our bodies want to achieve health and can work to heal itself.  It's our work to free ourselves from the thoughts that we are not good enough and that we can’t do something.  And firstly, we need to stop believing what anyone else says we are or can be--and trust our instincts to become everything we are capable of.

Unfortunately, this book has not been translated into English. His book "The Healing Power of Illness" can help us understand the relationship between the mind, the soul, and disease. I interviewed and then studied with Dr. Dahlke for a year.

Ruediger Dahlke's approach is to look at symptoms and illness not as our enemies, karma or punishments, but as our teachers.  The purpose of our symptoms is to give us information about underlying issues in our lives that are out of balance, such as emotions we have been suppressing and challenges we have not been facing.  If we do not notice and address these issues while they are still on the energetic level of emotions, mind, and spirit, they eventually present in the body, so we have to notice.  His work gives us the tools to understand the underlying energetic components of symptoms and the types of actions we can take to restore balance.  When we do this, the symptoms are no longer needed, and we can heal.

According to Dr. Dahlke's book, the mission of multiple sclerosis is to abandon the fight.

Palmer has been a major contributor to our Creating Health Series. She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1984 and told that there was nothing that could be done.  This was a time, as she points out in our series, where there wasn't the internet to do research or many books published on MS.  So she took it upon herself to figure out what she could do about it.  She spent the first 15 years with intermittent relapsing and remitting episodes and the next 15 years slowly improving through implementing all that she explains in her book.

When she came to present in our series, she was very helpful, easy to understand, and made tasks easy to implement. We all learned loads. And now she's written a book chock full of information on reclaiming your health.  This is a must read and pretty much covers the first four areas of the Wheel of Health!

You can also watch her presentation on Beating Autoimmune without Overwhelm.