Warts - proof for mind over matter healing?

Both the web and various books are filled with "magical" wart cures, which many people testify to as effective. I cannot offer much medical information on warts here, nor real proof of anything supernatural. However, I would argue that superstitious and other "mind/spirit" cures for warts are highly effective.
According to Lewis Thomas (see "On Warts" in John Ballentyne (ed), "Bedside Manners: An anthology of medical wit and wisdom", Virgin Books, 1995, pp. 167-171) warts are the "elaborate reproductive apparatus of a virus". Far from a defensive overgrowth, as suggested by the wart's toughness, the wart is exactly what the virus wants, and uses it to welcome or spread the virus. Despite this, warts are also mysterious - appearing and disappearing like mushrooms.
Not only can they suddenly go away, but:

And they can be made to go away by something that can only be called thinking, or something like thinking. This is a special property of warts that is absolutely astonishing, more of a surprise than cloning or recombinant DNA or endorphin or acupuncture or anything else currently attracting attention in the press. It is one of the great mystifications of science: warts can be ordered of the skin by hypnotic suggestion."

Thomas mentions a study from the Massachussets General Hospital, where warts were made to disappear by suggestion, even when only warts on one side of the body were targeted. He suggests it is some immunological response, but since warts are attached to blood vessels, he fails to understand the mechanism, concluding that if we understood it: "...we would be finding out about a superintelligence that exists beyond us".

My granny had wart remedies or "folk spells" that seemed to work. Vance Randolph in his disussion of superstitions in the Ozarks (rural Missouri) also mentions a plethora of wart spells (in the same book). Nevertheless, Randolph points out that touching a wart with the hand of a corpse was one popular cure he had witnessed repeatedly, yet the local undertaker had hands covered in warts!

Perhaps warts are really a virus we have lived with for so long that we have developed mind over matter powers over them, at least to an extent.

[edit on 13-7-2010 by halfoldman]

my great granddad knew some way to get rid of them too. It was some secret thing . He did it to my mom when she was little, although she doesn't really remember what he did, just rub the wart and said something.

He said he could only tell one person the secret to it. I'm pretty sure it was his grandson he raised after his parents died. So i asked my cousin, and he doesn't remember, or care. He doesn't seem to be into this sort of thing.
I just wish I had been old enough for him to tell me the secret to the cure.

Hi,

I (not very significant but)... believe that it goes much further. I know as a kid I had warts - where they came from - no idea. And most of the mediicines were ineffectual.

Then one day I decided to get rid of them... mentally - and they went.

Currently (for all I know having not being to a doctor or taking medicinal crap for the last 20 years.... ) I'm probably riddled with cancer, about to die of a heart attack, suffer dementia......

Point is - if you are mentally strong - warts and all, so to speak.....you tend to survive.

Peace!

reply to post by The Wave

Fascinating stuff - pity a lot of that folk wisdom disappeared.
I think nowadays it would be worthy of a study, even if just on suggestion and placebos.
The wierdest for me is: as a teenager I once saw a book on moon magic, and it had a spell to get rid of a wart on a full-moon, and to wish it it on somebody else.
Since warts are relatively harmless, and teens quite spiteful, I tried it, and the person got a wart, while mine went!
The humble wart may open doors to bigger things yet!
Strange how the supernatural sits right under our noses!

[edit on 13-7-2010 by halfoldman]

reply to post by halfoldman


Hi halfoldman!

What do mean teens can be spiteful? U2U me and tell me how the hell I can move this cancer/heart attack/ demtentia on to someone else...?

Seriously - it'sl ike the 'black spot' and I understand what you said.

If only I could apply it to baldness....

Peace!

Wait, people still get warts?

Weird. I think I have been warding them off for about 15 years now.
Sweet.

-Sol

reply to post by The Wave

That's the thing about warts, one can magically shift them in ways that are more difficult or impossible for other conditions.
I'll tell you the spell: (it's in German)
On the full moon, look at the moon, rub your wart with spit and say:

Eins, zwei, drei, vier - meine Warze schenk ich dir.

(One, two three, four - my wart I give to you.)
Perhaps with real hate it will work for really serious conditions as well.
Perhaps the wart stuff worked because we know they are harmless.
Nevertheless, check out Christian musician Carman's song: "Witch's Invitation" (www.youtube.com...) where a whole list of conditions (including AIDS) are blamed on witchcraft - and that is the belief of millions of modern Americans!



[edit on 13-7-2010 by halfoldman]

If you take a clove of garlic and crush it up. Then place the crushed garlic over the wart and wrap in gauze and leave for 24-hours. The wart will fall off within 48-96 hours....and it won't come back.

Garlic oil is a strong anti-viral and, of course, warts are a skin virus.

I have tried this remedy a number of times with 100% success rate!

reply to post by Aggie Man

Strange how both my Gran's treatment (just rubbing spit on the wart) and the spell involve saliva.
We know that both saliva and fresh urine have antiviral properties (at least anti-bacterial) both in humans and animals.
But then, we always ate a lot of garlic too, and that might have been in the saliva.
However, pure suggestion also seems to work for warts (see OP), but thanks for the great advice!

This is an intriguing idea, and one that I maybe have experienced.

In the past I had warts. No idea where they came from, one day they were just there. I remember I got one over a dozen years ago on one of my fingers, and I was so incredibly embarrassed.

I didn't do anything with it, other than possibly washing my hands a little more than normal, and after a couple of weeks it just went away.

That's happened more than once, and I've never given it much thought until now. Maybe mindset does matter.

reply to post by halfoldman
Funnt to see a thread like this because when i was a kid my parents use put holy water on them and they would go!! But as i got older it never worked?

reply to post by toolstarr


Interesting.

Your description is almost exactly as the old cure my father knew. So similar in fact, I'm sure it must have been more or less widespread at some point, at least amongst certain groups or folks.

In my dads case, who was also of the opinion the 'secret' could only be passed on to one person, I'm almost certain he had to know the exact number of the warts in order to remove them.

Interesting, as your account is the most similar to Dad's I have heard yet.

slap a piece of duck-tape over 'em. Wait 10 days and pull it off.

reply to post by AlanDewey

Yeah, I remember those "harder" options. Sticky tape to smother them, or drilling them out with a steel pen casing.
That worked sometimes, but not always, especialy if the warts were widespread.
Spells or suggestion worked, even on facial warts. So while many things may work, it is the wierdness of the suggestive methods that remains haunting.

I must say my heart jumped a little when I saw this title. Let me explain....

Backstory:
When I was around 5 years old, my dad told me that you can get rid of warts if someone pays you a penny for them. The only thing is, the person who gave the penny will then receive the warts. I didn't believe this at the time but felt sorry for him so offered him a penny....

fast forward another 12 or so years and I have warts on my hand - not massive ones but they were noticable and getting bigger.

Fast forward another 7 years to now (I'm 24) - I got so fed up a few months ago with these freakin' warts that I basically told them that I was going to the doctor if they didn't just go away on their own. The thing is, I hate going to the doc unless maybe something is falling off ( I see it as a waste of resources and doc time that could be spent on more desperate cases). I would stare at these warts (for about a minute a day) and imagine the doctor applying dry ice (like I saw them do years and years ago to my dad's hands).

I can honestly say that another 2 months after that, the warts on that hand were ALL GONE. I have very faint scars where they use to be but nothing else.

I was kinda suprised by this although I do remember that it also worked for a rather big verucca I had on my foot the year before.

So my plan the past few days has been to document the process on the other hand where I have 2 other small warts.....and that's when I read this thread.

I've never done any research on this topic but it has both weirded me out and reassured me that other folk have experienced it.

reply to post by XHellcatX

I've never done any research on this topic but it has both weirded me out and reassured me that other folk have experienced it.

Here you go: What Causes Warts?

Warts are skin growths which are caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV) - they are non-cancerous. The virus causes keratin, a hard protein in the epidermis (the top layer of the skin) to grow too fast.

It goes on. It has most of the standard cures including the DUCT TAPE cure mentioned above!

Enjoyed reading everyone's cure, esp the Ein, zwei, drie, fier...! on a full moon!

Since it is a virus etiology we used to have a virus vaccine that had as least some efficacy. But here is what my brother and I used to do and I by no means recommend it!

We took sharp little sterilized needles and pricked the warts till it hurt, many times. It did seem to work on several occasions. I suppose we were sort of auto immunizing ourselves against the papilloma virus.

I understand that there are many strains of the virus and that is why the vaccine usually doesn't work.

[edit on 17/7/10 by plumranch]

Sure cure for warts - must be followed to a T.

Steal a potato from someone - they or anyone else must not know you took it.

Steal a dishrag from someone - they or anyone else must not know you took it.

Wrap the potato in the dishrag - don't let anyone see you or tell anyone.

Bury it in your own backyard (cover it up good with dirt) - don't let anyone see you or tell anyone.

As the potato rots your warts will go away - guaranteed!

My Auntie got rid of mine by rubbing a bit of raw meat on them (they were only on my hands/knuckles) - its like a placebo effect I think - but that is selling it short.

Because if your mind can heal you from a placebo, it can do it without it - which is why faith healing in my opinion is possible and real in certain circumstances.

When i had one as a kid i just cut it off with a sharp blade ,this seemed to work and i never had another .It did hurt but i really hated it and it had to go.

this thread couldnt be more up my alley,

until two months ago i have had 5 warts for 9 years, 3 on my left hand middle finger, and 2 on my right hand, one was on the knuckle of my index, the other on the side of my ring finger.

i started getting warts on my hands at 14, they never went away, many times i would take a razor blade and cut a deep border around the wart and then rip it out with a pair of pliers, reason being i was trying to pull the root out also, after a week two at most theyd always be back, i had the doctor dry ice them once and that was most painful, and was even more inefective then the razor blade, i also bought some stuff from a pharmacy which somehow froze the warts also, not with dry ice but some sort of chemical, it also didnt work, by 18/19 i gave up and decided to live with them, im 23,

about two months ago i started getting better at meditation, ive been doing it for a few years but two months ago i realy started figuring it out, and so after only two attempts to meditate with my new learned technique the warts on both my hands disappeared completly within a week, scars are faint but remain, yet not a single sign of a bump/wart, i hadnt thought they would ever leave, and i didnt even think about them at all, but something about meditating got rid of them without me even intending to.

chalk this up to UNINTENTIONAL mind over matter,

i know it sounds korny and ridiculous to tell people this, but i'll confess, what i learned in my meditation that made such a difference in my life in more ways then just a wart cure, is to concentrate on peace and love, i know sounds stupid right.

but ive gotten better at it and boy does it feel good to go into that state. its hard to maintain because the emotions become more powerfull then ive ever known, but its all positive.

i digress.