Spiritual Sources and Concepts of Illness and Symptoms Raising vibrations faster than body can assimilate/tolerate. There are frequent cautions in the literature from spiritual beings about the strain on an unprepared body due to raising vibrations to realize gifts and growth. In some ways, this is related to the practice of yoga to strengthen the body for growth. Oaths in previous lifetimes. If in a previous lifetime, you are being injured, tortured or killed and curse the other person saying something like "I'll never forget you" or "You are forever cursed" etc., then you will be Karmically linked to that person. Every three or four lifetimes, that person will show up as an antogonist in your life usually accompanied by unexplained pains or fears at approximately the same age as when you were hurt in the other lifetime. This happens to remind you to dig into this spiritually to release it while you are in a physical body where it is much easier energetically. Injuries/traumas in previous lifetimes. Although a new incarnation should be free of patterns to past lives, this doesn't always work out. The aches, pains, illnesses and injuries of other lifetimes may manifest as symptoms in the current lifetime. Frequently, just identifying the ties and the causes can help release these. Sylvia Browne also mentions tying birthmarks to points of trauma in other lifetimes. Karmic lessons. Your actions in another lifetime may lead to accepting a life situation in this lifetime that balances the action. You may choose to suffer injury or hardship to learn what it is like on the receiving end. Contracts, learning. Every life has a chart or contract or plan that details who you'll interact with and situations where you may be given choices on the outcome or problems that require spiritual growth to solve. In some cases, practitioners can negotiate with spiritual powers to make changes to these contracts. Core belief issues. Your subconscious is extremely powerful, makes many decisions for you and the beliefs there may be applied simplistically in your life situations, frequently in ways that are in conflict with your conscious ideas. For illness, one may have beliefs such as the following that influence health: -germs cause disease -illness is contagious -environment causes illness -picked up illness pattern from someone else Took on someone else's illness to "help." This situation may happen with healers or with sympathetic friends or relatives. This is generally not a good way to help in healing and healers who do this may be greatly depleted on their energy and spend a lot of time recovering themselves before they can help others again. Negative self image - "I deserve it" "I am worthless" "I should be punished." This could be tied to patterns of depression or low self-esteem but can be very real to a person. Your mind is very powerful in turning on or off the self-healing capabilities of your immune systems and other areas that affect your health. Shadow influence. The shadow refers to archetypes that are universal (ref C. Jung). If you suppress the dark side of yourself instead of acknowledging that it is part of you and working with it constructively, you may use so much energy to contain it and push it down that you become depleted and more susceptible to illness and illnesses may present in forms that tie into the archetype. Helping someone else with their life experience by watching you with illness. This is more of a contract with a soul group where you volunteer to be the victim so others may experience the emotions and setting. This is a common theme among young children with catastrophic illness. Opportunity to learn to heal self. Sometimes healers and Shamans get their start by going through a life-changing illness and recovery. I don't think it is a prerequisite but some persons hold that to be true and it probably affects them personally. "Spiritual kick in the rear" to get moving and grow. Your higher self or other spiritual beings may keep sending illnesses and injuries your way until you finally shout "Enough!" and dig into the spirituality behind these and start growing. Dark entity(ies) attachment, influence. There are low vibration entities out there and they can attach, sap your energy, influence your actions and cause problems in your life that can also affect health. Earthbound spirit has attached to body. Most earthbound spirits that attach are fairly benign and at worst, present a drain to your energy. In some cases, though, they may either deliberately affect your health or passively do it through passing on to you the patterns of what caused their deaths. For example, if great aunt Tillie is in your energy field and she died of lung cancer, you might start manifesting symptoms of throat and chest ailments.