Contagion and its hypnotic appeal

From the movie Red Dog: Sydney Morning Herald

The action-thriller movie Contagion will be released in Australia tomorrow. I love going to the movies, but I think I’ll opt-out of this one. Why?

There is now quite an acceptance in the community of the mind-body connection, of how our thoughts affect our bodies and our health. I’ve always found that it is the talk and advertisements about colds and flu, for instance, that causes people to fear, and the fear seems to then balloon out of control in an increase of that illness in the community. So to spend nearly two hours in a state of terror doesn’t hold much appeal for me.

Of course, there is somewhat of a hypnotic appeal about the A-list movie stars featuring in the film. A recent article in the Christian Science Monitor develops this idea: “Pictures of contagion often have a similar pull. Ditto for pictures of panic on the rise. So, in real life, is it contagion that triggers the fear? Or is it the other way around? Is it the fear that triggers the contagion?”

A good question! Have you ever felt more emotional at a funeral where many are tearful? What about when someone starts to yawn and then everyone follows suit? I’ve been thinking that this is a little like a mental contagion. Though we must all be alert to contagious diseases, more and more the current medical research is finding that fear is a major factor to be considered in the treatment of disease.

Research findings also show that the effect of positive emotions like love and forgiveness can be ‘key to beneficial immunologic responses’.

In the book, God, Faith and Health: Exploring the Spirituality-Healing Connection, author Jeff Levin quotes Yale physician Dr Bernie Siegel as affirming, “Unconditional love is the most powerful stimulant of the immune system. The truth is: love heals:” And they both back their statements up with statistics gained from medical research.

Now that puts spirituality and healthcare hand-in-hand as the new frontier of science.

We don’t need to get caught up in the unhealthy fear associated with Hollywood’s latest fictional pandemic story. I can’t believe it’s really what most people want to see at all. Give me a big dose of happiness and love …. and health, please! Red Dog, Footloose, The Help: there are plenty of alternatives to Contagion at the movies right now.