Ven. Ajahn Brahm reveals first-hand experiences how Buddhist meditation heals diseases such as cancer

Ven. Ajahn Brahm

By Surya Vishwa 

Cancer can be fully eliminated from the human anatomy through consistent Buddhist meditation practices, renowned British born Buddhist monk, meditation teacher and author, Ven. Ajahn Brahm told a segment of the Sri Lankan medical fraternity last Saturday. He was speaking at an event held at the BMICH organised by the Ajahn Brahm Society together with the Centre for Meditation Research (CMR) of the Faculty of Medicine/University of Colombo where medical research undertaken by the CMR on positive impact of meditation on health was presented to Ven. Brahm, though not explicitly focusing on how meditation could completely heal diseases, such as cancer. 

“I have scores of examples I can give you on cancer cures through meditation based on what I have seen from seriously ill patients who come to the Bodhinyana Monastery in Serpentine, Western Australia where I am the Chief Executive Monk,” chuckled Ven. Brahm who is well known for his humour. 

The globally respected monk who in his pre monastic life, as Peter Betts, specialised in theoretical physics at the Emmanuel College of the University of Cambridge in the late 1960s, went on to reveal some extraordinary cases of seemingly unbelievable ‘miracles’ he had directly witnessed that occurred in meditators who came to the Bodhinyana Monastery meditation centre. 

“There was this man who had a cancer in his nose. The cancer had progressed to a very advanced state when he started meditating at our centre. He could not breathe through his nostrils, so there was a loud noise when he breathed which was through his mouth. The other meditators who did not know his condition found this very disturbing. However, he persisted in meditation and used to visit the centre very regularly, and of course after some time the other meditators got used to his loud breathing.”

“One day I was in the garden when this man came running to me shouting ‘Ajahn Brahm, Ajahn Brahm. I can breathe again, I can breathe again through my nose, it is gone,’ he yelled in joy. It seems that after one of his regular meditation sessions the cancerous lump that had blocked his inhaling and exhaling had popped out of his nasal passage!”

“When he used to come for meditation he was looking drawn and emaciated as a result of the impact of the disease on his body. When I saw him much later I could not recognise him at all. This well-built man with glowing complexion stopped me and asked – can you remember me. I said I could not. There are so many individuals who come to the meditation centre. Imagine if one of you were to accost me and demand if I could recognise you… Then he revealed that he was the person breathing with such difficulty owing to his nose cancer. The man before me was the epitome of good health!” 

Fatal illnesses reduced to nothingness through meditation

Ven. Ajahn Brahm went on to urge Lankan medical professionals to study how illnesses which are considered extremely fatal are reduced to complete nothingness through meditation.

“I could give you scores of such stories. We are so used to this at our monastery that we now consider it just normal. So, as my job is to teach meditation your job is to prove what it does,” he told the Lankan medical experts who did look amazed at what they heard.

“Western Science has lost its mind. It is too pre-occupied with the five senses. There is the sixth sense which is called Chiththa,” Ven. Ajahn Brahm quipped before going on to reveal another astonishing example connected to modern medical science and its limited understanding of the human body.

“Well, there was this case where one of my meditators was bored one Sunday afternoon. There was nothing interesting on television so he went to his room and told his wife he would be meditating for about half an hour.”

“The time lapsed and after few hours when she went to the room he was in meditation posture but she noticed that he was not breathing. Panic stricken she summoned the medics. They found that his heart had stopped. The ambulance arrived and he was rushed to hospital and administered every conceivable medical equipment based means of getting the heart beating again. All to no avail. The medical team pronounced him dead. But in this group there was an Indian origin doctor who noticed that the body of the patient was warm. He informed the rest of the doctors of it and they were pondering on what to do next. This was when fortunately our meditator chose to come out of his meditation! He was aghast that he was in a hospital and not in his bedroom where he had started meditating.”

Ven. Ajahn Brahm then turned to the audience who consisted of doctors and medical specialists including Prof. Vajira Dissanayake, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, and quipped; “So next time you pronounce someone dead and push him to the mortuary, please be careful. He could have been only practicing deep stillness focused Dhyana meditation which shuts off the five senses.”

The veteran monk in the Theravada Thai Forest based tradition then went on to reveal another astonishing story that he admitted that even he himself could not rationalise or comprehend to this date.

The mystery that is the human mind

This time it was on the mystery that is the human mind and was based on a hypnosis related experiment conducted by researchers under the guidance of his friend and fellow Buddhist, Professor Bernard Carr who was professionally a physicist with an interest in psychic phenomena.

 “Well, the person undergoing the hypnosis was told he was going to be prodded by a red hot nail tied to a wooden stick. The fact was that it was just a nail attached to a stick but the person who was told that he would be pricked by a red hot nail started screaming in pain (under hypnosis) the minute the nail touched him.” “The most astounding fact I really cannot figure out was that a thick burnt mark appeared on the skin where the nail had been placed,” Ven. Brahm stated.

Known for his brilliant authorship of several books that gets to the core of the pragmatic in Buddhism, using everyday language, Ven. Ajahn Brahm revealed to his audience that he would be soon looking at writing down the stories concerning the medical cures through meditation.

Prof. Dilshani Dissanayake and Prof. Vajira Dissanayake who headed the organising team that together with the Ajahn Brahm Society facilitated the talk of Ven. Brahm in collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Colombo and its Centre for Meditation Research, presented several PhD research findings that had proved that meditation induces better health and restores human wellbeing. The technical details as relevant are featured in our interview with the head of the Centre for Meditation Research (CMR). 

The Harmony Page also obtained an exclusive interview with Ven. Ajahn Brahm which will be featured in our upcoming edition.