When I was eight a wart appeared in the centre of my right thumb. It was a hard, calloused lump and I used to enjoy colouring it in with ink from my fountain pen.

What Causes Warts?

At the time the myth about warts was that they were caused by frog urine, but as I had never held a frog in my hands I could never understand how I came to have a wart on my thumb.

It turns out that warts are caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV) and I’m most likely to have picked it up from the local swimming pool or changing rooms.

Wart Removal Treatment

After a couple of years writing became painful and I had to have it removed. I still remember sitting in Dr Simpson’s office and watching with horror as he approached my thumb with what looked like the biggest injection needle known to mankind.

Once the thumb had numbed, Dr Simpson came at it with a blowtorch on the end of a tube.  I watched in fascination as he flashed the blue flame back and forth across my thumb, watched the skin turn black and smelt my flesh burn.

I was left with a tender, pink scar in the centre of my thumb which slowly turned to white over the years.  It’s still there today and when I run my fingers over it, I can feel something hard beneath, like a bit of leftover wart root.

The Wart Removal ‘Spell’

My younger sister also developed a wart on her hand when she was very young. But instead of having it burned off by a doctor her wart was cured by our Uncle Brian and a spell!

We were staying at my grandmother’s flat and my Uncle Brian had arranged to come and wake my sister up at midnight.  It was a full moon and he took her outside.

She remembers him rubbing a banana skin on the wart, blowing on it and saying some sort sort of spell under the moonlight to encourage the wart to disappear.

The next morning when she woke up the wart was gone!  It had fallen off while she slept and we found it in the bed.

At the time I thought it was some sort of miracle, that Uncle Brian was some sort of magician with healing powers.  I could not fathom how my sister’s wart could have just dropped off in the middle of the night.

Hypnotherapy and Wart Removal

Until I read about warts recently in the intriguing ‘Why Do People Get Ill?’ by Darian Leader and David Corfield, and suddenly it all made sense. In the chapter on Words and Beliefs, they write that:

A British study published in the Lancet in 1959 provided further confirmation that hypnotic suggestion not only worked, but was ten times faster than spontaneous cures and, even better, could get rid of warts without leaving a scar.

Thoughts suggested by hypnosis can affect blood pressure, heart rate, blood sugar levels, and even raise blisters on skin and remove them.

Numerous medical studies over the years have proven the success of hypnotherapy in wart removal yet it is still not encouraged as a method of treatment.

The Power of Words and Beliefs in the Healing Process

Although Uncle Brian had not actually hypnotised my sister, the performance of the ‘spell’ under the full moon, the timing of it and the power of suggestion of his words clearly had an effect on her mind and body. She must have believed that the ‘spell’ was going to work. And it did.

What this proves to me is how powerful words can be.  The words we hear have the power to change not only our mental state but our physical state too. And what we believe has the power to change our bodies for better or for worse. And in the case of my sister, to allow our bodies to heal spontaneously.

Hypnotherapy

It has also peaked my interest in hypnotherapy.  I have never tried hypnotherapy as I’ve always felt a bit afraid of it.  But the more I read about it, and the way our minds react to the suggestion of words, the more I think it may be worth giving it a try for certain lingering ailments.

If you’ve had success with hypnotherapy I’d love to hear from you.  Please leave a comment in the box below.