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November/December 2010 Featured Stories
Choose Your Words Wisely

by Doreen Virtue and Grant Virtue

Words are composed of sounds, which have long been studied for their impact upon objects in the material world, including the human body.

Pythagoras, the 6th-century B.C. Greek philosopher, played particular notes on stringed musical instruments to heal physical and emotional maladies. Since Pythagoras’s time, thousands of scientific studies have correlated music with health.

For example, an 18th-century German physicist and musician named Ernst Chladni poured sand on metal plates. He then experimented with the shapes that it formed as he moved his violin bow across the plates.

Chladni’s sound experiments have been replicated and expanded upon by other scientists using various powders and fluids, with equally exciting results. Most recently, Masaru Emoto’s work has revealed how water molecules transform in response to the energy of positive and negative written words placed next to them.

Medical and behavioral-science studies also show the impact of words. An American medical anthropologist named W. Penn Handwerker studied 355 women’s childhood histories. Handwerker found that those women who had been on the receiving end of childhood accusations that began with “you” (such as “You are stupid”) were more likely to develop depression in adulthood.

He also correlated this form of depression with the development of serious illnesses and addictions. Handwerker says that brain development is altered among children who are exposed to verbal violence. Clearly, negative words can hurt.

Another fascinating study showed that merely reading negative words can trigger the brain’s pain centers. Thomas Weiss, a psychology professor at Germany’s Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, concluded: “Words alone are capable of activating our pain matrix.”

Dr. Weiss used magnetic resonance tomography to scan the brains of subjects while they read pain-related words such as tormenting, grueling and plaguing. The brain’s pain centers were activated even when subjects were distracted while reading. Interestingly, as subjects read negative words not correlated with pain — such as terrifying, horrible and disgusting — their pain centers weren’t activated.

Highly sensitive people can feel the energy of newspapers and newsmagazines that contain pain- and fear-related words. Some experience discomfort just being in the presence of these media outlets, so they avoid the news altogether.

The impact of words has long been known to medical personnel. A recent study in China supported the need for patients to only hear positive words (or even no words) following surgery. More than 600 post-hysterectomy patients were put into four groups according to the type of words that would be used by nurses who delivered their postsurgical morphine: negative words, mostly negative words, no words or positive words.

The patients who received the all-negative words from their nurses also needed the most medication and showed other signs of increased pain compared to the other groups. The patients who received mostly negative words also fared worse than those who received none or only positive ones. The effects were particularly significant immediately following surgery and seemed to lessen as the patients healed and grew stronger.

This study shows that those who are vulnerable because their health or energy is in a weakened condition are impacted by words the most.

The consensus is that doctors’ and nurses’ words during surgery can impact patients’ health. This is based upon multiple studies showing that patients recall words spoken to them while being operated upon. For example, researchers in a Sheffield, England, hospital read words to 65 patients who were undergoing procedures under anesthesia. The patients recalled the words to a significant degree, indicating that the brain is receptive and sensitive to speech during anesthesia. This study was a replication of earlier ones that had yielded similar results.

If that’s not enough, a recent study also shows that our brains register negative words faster than positive ones. Apparently, this is a survival mechanism to help us sense and avoid danger. In the study, University College London researchers showed negative, positive and neutral words to subjects for a fraction of a second. The subjects were correctly able to identify negative words much more than positive or neutral ones.

The positive words included cheerful, peace and flower:

The negative words included murder, despair and agony:

The neutral words included box, kettle and ear:

As you can see, the negative words have the smallest and most constricted graphs. Perhaps they act like stinging arrows that impact us faster than the larger, “slower-moving” words.

The Subjectivity of Words

Our research found that words that are universally considered negative showed the smallest and most constricted graph patterns. Those that are subjective — negative to some people, and neutral to others — were smaller than those considered universally positive, but they still weren’t quite as small as the universally negative ones.

For example, the word drugs can have positive connotations to some people who view these substances as helpful instruments of health or even feel-good recreation.

The word drugs appears smaller than the universally positive love, which almost rhymes with it (to eliminate speculation that the vowel sounds could influence graph size). Notice how far the graph extends for the word love, showing the high amount of energy that it exudes.

The word addiction implies the word drugs, but takes it to an unambiguously negative level. This negativity is represented by the tight, constricted graph:

What is a negative word to one person may be positive to someone else, based upon their individual personalities and their personal experiences. During the many years I’ve been giving workshops, for instance, I’ve noted how the name Jesus brings benevolent smiles to some audience members’ faces and uptightness to others.

To some, Jesus signifies the experience of pure love. To others, he is associated with fear, guilt, negative religious experiences or prayer that seemed unanswered. Same name, different reactions.

The name Jesus has a large energy graph, although reactions to his name can vary according to personal experience with religion.

The scientific studies about words are exciting and enlightening. You can conduct your own experiments by saying different words one at a time and noticing your body’s reactions. Just as you wouldn’t eat foods that have previously left you with indigestion, becoming aware of how various words affect you can help you choose them wisely.

Doreen Virtue, Ph.D., and her son, Grant Virtue, are the coauthors of Angel Words: Visual Evidence of How Words Can Be Angels in Your Life. Learn more about Doreen at www.angeltherapy.com and Grant at www.angeluniversity.com. Excerpted with permission by Hay House at www.hayhouse.com.