Magic of Believing

The Story of a Miracle Man

If you believe in luck, then Morris Goodman truly is a lucky guy.

In March of 1981, Morris was living the life most people could only dream about.  He was one of the top insurance salesmen in the country, he had a beautiful wife, owned a big house, and even flew his own plane.  And then disaster struck.  Morris had taken his new airplane out for a test flight, but upon landing, his landing gear got caught in power lines.  He crashed.

“The last thing I remember is the ground coming up. I thought to myself, Well, I’ve had it now… I can’t begin to describe the pain I was in. How bad I hurt. You can’t put it into words.”

His injuries were numerous and horrific. His neck was broken in two places, his diaphragm was destroyed and he couldn’t breathe, his swallowing reflex was destroyed so he could not eat or drink. He also couldn’t talk as his voice box was crushed. Doctors said every muscle in his body was affected by the crash.

“My kidney, bladder, bowel and liver didn’t function. I destroyed pretty much everything in my body,” he says. “All I could do was blink my eyes, once for yes and twice for no. That’s the way I functioned for a long, long time.”

The doctors had said he would never walk, talk, or even breathe on his own again.  He could blink, and that’s about it.  What would you do if this was you?  Just give up?  I’m tempted to say I would, I mean what’s the point?  Never being able to walk, talk, or even breath on your own?  Ever?  How depressing.  How hopeless.

The Power of Belief

But Morris happened to have an Ace up his sleeve.  Goodman decided to use the power of the only thing he had left to fight back with –his mind.  Using his eyes to blink and spell letters, he told the hospital staff he would walk out of there under his own power by Christmas.

During the months that followed, Goodman became stronger - in his mind and belief – and with each passing day, one by one the injuries he received in that accident began to heal.  He restored health in areas of the body that were believed to be immune to recovery.

The interesting thing here is that he was not only fighting the physical impairments he had sustained - but also the negative beliefs of the very same doctors who had initially saved his life as well. Because no matter how much his body repaired itself, and how amazed the doctors became, they continued to tell him that a full reversal of his injuries was just not possible. But Morris never waivered or gave up hope and continued to insist that he was going to make a complete recovery.  And you know what?  He did.

Day by day, Morris worked with his Physical Therapist and pushed his body beyond its own limits. He would listen to his favorite motivational speaker, Zig Zigler, throughout the day to keep his mind cleared of any doubt. He had a goal and he was NOT going to fail!  That simply was not an option for Morris Goodman.  By the time December had arrived, Morris had regained the full use of his voice. he had full body mobility, and he could breathe on his own – all without the help of any type of medical instrument.

On December 25, 1981, Morris Goodman walked out of the hospital under his own power, while the entire hospital staff, in tears of joy and amazement, watched.

Today Morris is a highly sought-after motivational speaker, with clients that include AFLAC, General Motors, and Xerox to name a few. He’s written a book describing his experience, and there’s even a short film made about his life with a special appearance by Zig Ziglar.  Morris was also a Guest Teacher in the hit movie, The Secret.

Lessons Learned

• The mind is more powerful than you can ever imagine

• You have the power to heal yourself

• No matter how bad it seems, a positive attitude can work miracles

• Doctors don’t know everything

In an earlier post I suggested that just by changing our perception of time, we can possibly speed time up, or slow it down.   But what about our physical bodies?  Do our thoughts affect our health?

I remember an interesting article I read having to do with Hotel Maids.  A Harvard psychologist, Ellen Langer, decided to look at whether our perception, or belief, of how much exercise we are getting has any effect on how our bodies actually look. To do this, she studied hotel maids.

Hotel Maids actually have a pretty tough job, pushing around all that equipment every day, cleaning, and vacuuming every room.  They actually get quite a bit of exercise, more than the US Surgeon General’s daily recommendation in fact.

But Langer found that most of these women did not see themselves as physically active. She did a survey and found that 67 percent reported they didn’t exercise. More than one-third of those reported they didn’t get any exercise at all.

“Given that they are exercising all day long,” Langer says, “that seemed to be bizarre.”

So she took 84 Hotel Maids, and measured their weight, blood pressure, body fat, and body mass index.  Then she split them into two groups and sent them on their way to work.  The control group went about their work as normal.

But the second group, they were actually followed around by the group of researchers.  They noted each of the tasks the Maids did each day, and explained how many calories they were actually burning.  They were also informed that their daily activities already met the surgeon general’s definition of an active lifestyle.

The result?  One month latter all 84 Maids were measured again.  The control group saw no change.  But the other group……. the group that were shown just how much exercising they were already getting.……….there was a decrease in their systolic blood pressure, weight, waist-to-hip ratio — and a 10 percent drop in blood pressure.

Did they actually work any harder than the control group?  No.  Same daily tasks.  Same diets, same everything.  The only change was now they realized they were exercising.  They changed their perceptions, or beliefs.  They were made to realize just how much exercise they were already getting each day, and their body’s responded.

The only thing that changed was their beliefs.

Almost makes you want to try and ‘think’ yourself thin…doesn’t it.  What do you have to lose?