Dear Julia:

When a person becomes ill with a major disease like cancer, how do we know if they have created the disease by default or fear, or if they have chosen to experience cancer before they incarnated? My mom died of cancer in 1965, when I was 12, and it changed the course of my life. Did my mom and I mutually choose this before we incarnated, or did she just attract her cancer inadvertently due to lack of conscious intention? How can I know?
- Marisa

Dear Marisa:

Losing your mom at that tender age had to be very traumatic; I understand why you're still healing forty years later. This is a doozy of a question, but since I love challenges, I'm going to do my best to explain the metaphysics involved. The following is the truth only so far as I understand it.

People do sometimes choose to experience things like cancer before incarnating, but this is not the norm. Those conditions present at birth (such as birth defects) are chosen with life lessons in mind. For example, if someone was too focused on the material world in past lives, they may choose a physical deformity in the next life, for it would strongly encourage a focus on one's "inner life."

Those "diseases" that we acquire later in life are usually a result of the choices we make and the experiences we encounter in that lifetime, though there is always some karma involved. All of our lessons, strengths, weaknesses, etc. can be linked to past lives in some way, and so karma affects all our current life experiences. Sometimes those lessons are so big that we can't master them in one lifetime, and so we end up suffering as we struggle to learn/heal.

The important thing for you to take away from this is that there are NO MISTAKES in life. Therefore, no one is "to blame" for any illness. All diseases present opportunities for spiritual growth. Fatal diseases are huge spiritual awakeners. Often those who must face death consciously this way experience profound spiritual growth after being diagnosed. For the first time, they begin to live fully; to focus on what is really important; to seek peace, understanding, and a conscious relationship with God/Spirit.

You ask how you can know "why" she experienced this. We can't know for sure. I don't see that it really matters in the big scheme of things whether she chose this before incarnating or fell into it later. The important thing is that you make peace with it and learn something from it.

I want to take some time here to discuss cancer in general. The world goes through periods when different diseases are a central focus, and those diseases tell us a lot about what humanity is learning. When we learn how to "cure" something, something else takes its place. Cancer is now a big issue, and we would be wise to look for the errors in our conscious and subconscious thinking that it is illuminating. Please note that none of the following is necessarily true of your mother; I'm writing of the metaphysical cancer pattern in general.

Cancer is usually a result of energetic repression and a lack of conscious personal growth. If we blame others, hold onto anger/resentment, stuff our feelings down, etc. that energy builds and eventually breaks through in "random" ways. On a physical level, this manifests as cancer. To remain healthy, we have to constantly process our feelings and work through our issues. Forgiveness is after all about letting go of negative emotion because loving ourselves by being well and happy is more important than holding a grudge.

Everyone suffers. We all face the same basic emotional and spiritual challenges. Women in particular have been taught to suppress their anger, and this can cause a "toxic" build-up of negative energy in the body that in time may manifest as cancer. Whenever we choke ourselves off from truth, we choke off our life force energy, which creates negative emotion/stress, and in time can manifest in physical disease. If we repress our feelings and suppress our desires, all that energy has to go somewhere.

So to remain healthy and cancer-free, we have to be constantly processing our emotions and transmuting "lower" emotions into something higher. This is the heart of spiritual growth. By consciously working on our own growth this way, we channel our life force in our chosen direction. Those who fail to do this may experience their life force flowing in "random" (or undesirable) directions, as with cancer.

Now, you may say that this is a lot of hogwash, and that it is the carcinogens in our food, water, environment, etc. that lead to cancer, but this is a very short view of the matter. The fact is that we all have "abnormal" (cancer causing) cells in our bodies all the time. People who are healthy eliminate them. People who get cancer fail to eliminate them, and thus these "toxins" build up in the system. Doctors acknowledge that everyone is exposed to carcinogens, and that they can't explain why some people get cancer and others don't. There have, however, been medical studies that corroborate the metaphysical theories postulated here. For example, studies have shown that people who express and work through their emotions heal from cancer far more often than those who don't.

I am very limited on space here, but I want to emphasize the keys to remaining healthy, for what we focus upon, we attract. To remain cancer-free, we should consciously choose health and well-being on all levels by eating right, thinking positively, etc., and we should process/ eliminate/ transmute everything that we could label a "toxin," such as unhealthy foods/carcinogens and negative thoughts/emotions. When cancer spreads from one area of the body to another, it often does so through the lymph system, which is designed for cleansing our bodies of toxins. When we overwhelm the lymph system with toxins via bad food choices (or negative thought/emotion), its functioning is compromised. The best way to encourage cleansing on a physical level is to eat a natural raw food diet. This is what many great spiritual teachers have taught. It's what Edgar Cayce recommended to prevent cancer, and what Jesus Himself did. It's also the nutritional path many people who "miraculously" cured themselves of cancer chose.

At a metaphysical level, this means letting go of blame, guilt, anger, fear, hatred, resentment, hopelessness, powerlessness, indecision, etc., for these things will build and "eat away at" one's health and well-being. We should consciously cultivate personal power and responsibility, love, peace, hope, faith, etc. This doesn't mean that "anger is bad." It means we have to work consciously with anger and other negative emotions to uncover their meaning and transmute them into new growth. If we don't have mastery over our own thoughts/emotions, then we don't have control over the direction our energy is flowing.

So we are wise to tap all of our potential and consciously channel our creative energy toward what we want. Instead of shutting ourselves down, holding ourselves back, and hiding who we really are, we need to turn ourselves on, go for our dreams, and live and speak our truths. What the world is now learning from cancer is that we are the creators of our own experiences. To be healthy and happy, we have to step fully in our personal power and take responsibility for our own well-being.

Just the word cancer strikes fear in many people, which perpetuates the experience of this disease, for what we focus upon, we attract. So I encourage you to process all your feelings about this experience, make peace with it, and then focus on the health and happiness you desire in life.

If you pray for help with this healing process, I know Spirit will lead you to new peace and understanding.

- Julia