We've often heard that human beings utilize only a tiny fraction of our brain power, but in recent years a wonderful movement has been afoot which encompasses a much stronger pull toward using the power of our minds to a greater extent.  We now understand how focused thought and creative visualization can enable us to see goals accomplished and miracles occur.  No longer the realm of only highly trained yoga masters or supernatural religions, the brain power we all possess is becoming more and more available to us as we learn how to harness that power and begin to see the evidence before us. It begs the question, what else can the power of the mind achieve?  Could it be used to heal our bodies and our health?  There are so many ailments that can affect the human body, and for every ailment there is a medical treatment of some kind.  Often the medicine's side effects can be worse than the condition it is meant to treat.  What if we could use the power of our minds to envision perfect health and then have it manifest in our bodies? This idea is not new by any means.  The placebo effect is one such example of the mind-body connection.  In an attempt to test the efficacy of a new drug, doctors and scientists would set up trials using two groups of test subjects.  One group of subjects were given the medication while the other group were given a simple sugar pill.  Both groups were told they had received the medication, but scientists expected to see healing effects only in the group that had actually been taking the real drug.  For years they were puzzled when they found test subjects ended up finding healing even with a sugar pill (the placebo).  Rather than the medication being the most effective treatment, sometimes it is the patients' faith that they will find healing which actually brings them healing.

William Braud outlined five major mental techniques believed have important effects on self-healing: