Sarah: Actually, I’d say Western Science is all about acknowledging what it doesn’t know. There are even modern theories (chaos theory, quantum mechanics, etc.) that state that some things are completely *un*knowable. Scientists of 100 years ago would have regarded these theories as mystical bunkum, but now they’re widely accepted and fit the evidence (eg. you see a confirmation of the working weirdness of quantum physics every time you turn your CD-player on. Lasers use ‘quantum tunnelling’, which is a principle we can see happening in experiments, but which is completely counter-intuitive to the way we’ve been taught to think. We can’t imagine it properly. But it’s going on, nevertheless, in front of us).

Regarding the study: studies like these have value because they try to fit the evidence to a scientific theory. They’re not being exclusive. In this case, the study isn’t debunking the philosophy that a happier attitude positively affects your health. In fact, it seems to support the link.

Also, in many cases, science works alongside existing traditional philosophies. In some cases, it’s another way of explaining the same thing that’s happening. A complementary perspective. 🙂

As a general observation, it seems that often people snicker at “obvious” conclusions of seemingly silly studies, because they are ignorant in their understanding of the definition of science. The whole point of science is that it seeks to provide falsifiable, evidence-based objective understanding of the world we live in. That’s something to laud. Just because it’s not “all the way there” yet doesn’t mean it should be seen as puerile. Life is pretty cool thanks to science. Yes, we have a lot more to learn, and invent, and resolve, but I’d take living in the era of Western science over the years that came before it any day.

P.S. I do deeply admire Eastern medicine and philosophy and I’m not saying there aren’t many valuable applications and ideas, but I get tired of people taking Western science so for granted. For anyone who thinks science isn’t so hot, I’d ask them to first define it.

Yes, mood and attitude does connect to physical health. Why? Because we are made up of more than just our physical body. We also have mental and emotional bodies. When there are imbalances and blockages in these bodies, they eventually manifest in the physical plane.

Just because Western science can’t quantify it, doesn’t mean it’s not real. Reality is so much bigger than we can imagine.