We’ve talked about Jennifer Aniston’s boyfriend Jim Curtis framing his health problems as victimhood. He’s been open about struggling with chronic back pain and mobility issues and overcoming that with a positive mindset. If Curtis were an actor or had a job other than self-help guru we would not be discussing this. He’s a manifestation expert though and it’s problematic that he’s talking about his health problems this way. I bought his new book, The Book of Possibility: Release, Align, Become, and my initial impressions of him seem correct. In the opening chapter, he tells two stories about emergency room visits. In the first instance, he left against medical advice, taking out an IV and leaving despite extreme pain and reduced vision. Here’s part of that section:

The chaos around me echoed what I felt inside. The doctor came over and told me he wanted to do a spinal tap. He said I would need to stay in the hospital overnight for more tests. At first, I felt myself succumbing to a familiar paralyzing fear.

But then something inside me snapped.

I thought, No. This is not going to happen! I was never getting another spinal tap. I was not spending the night in that hospital. I had a dog at home who I loved more than life itself, and I was not going to leave him alone all night. I was not accepting this fate. I was done living in fear.

I stood up and said out loud the words that changed my life: “This is not my reality.”

The doctor tried to stop me from leaving, warning me, “This is against medical advice!” I didn’t care. They couldn’t make me stay there. After more stalling, I finally got up, still blurry from the dilation, and I made my way to the nurses’ station. “I’m taking this IV out if you don’t.” They removed the IV, and I walked out to the lobby. I asked the security guard to take my phone and get me an Uber as I could not see well, and I went home.

I got in bed with my dog and said, “Tomorrow everything changes.”

And it did

[From The Book of Possibility: Release, Align, Become]

Curtis then started eating better, went back to school, and got sober. In the second ER visit he describes, about two years later, he was told by a doctor that he could take antibiotics for appendicitis instead of having surgery. A lot of people would take this option, and it was a legitimate medical choice. He frames it in victim vs. victor terms, as if he manifested that outcome. The rest of the book is full of advice on how to live your best life through his three step system. Here’s that section about his appendicitis.

My progress was tested two years later. I was back in another emergency room, this time with severe abdominal pain. I knew what it was, I had done all the googling anyone else would do. It felt like appendicitis, and I was right to be worried. As I walked into the emergency room that night at seven thirty, fear tried to take hold. Was this going to be another thirteen-hour ordeal? Tests, surgery, days in the hospital?

But this time it was different. Because I had become different. I identified with the positive outcome I wanted. I visualized this experience going exactly how I wanted it to. I became a positive outcome. I repeated to myself: I am whole and complete. I am walking out of here by nine thirty.

Things started to go remarkably well for an emergency room visit. The nurse took me quickly. The CT scan I was supposed to wait two hours for happened within minutes. Even in a busy ER, things flowed. Then the nurse returned with the results. “I’m sorry, the tests are positive for appendicitis,” she said. For a split second, my old programming kicked in. I had a brief thought: Oh shit, this stuff doesn’t work. But I caught myself immediately. I reminded myself I was not attached to a specific outcome. I would identify with a positive outcome, regardless of how it showed up.

I didn’t slip into my old passive fear. I stayed in my power. When the surgeon came down to talk to me, he told me I had appendicitis, but it was my choice to have surgery or simply take antibiotics and go home! I thought that wasn’t an option, and he told me that typically it wasn’t. But in this case, it was. That was an easy decision. I took the antibiotics. The usual hours-long wait for discharge papers took only minutes, and the visit was quickly wrapped up.

As I walked out of the front door, I glanced at my watch: 9:32 p.m. Just two minutes past my intention. Not bad! The appendicitis resolved without surgery, and it has not come back.

That night reinforced the shift I had embodied, from victim to empowered. From fear to possibility.

I realized that my health relapses and setbacks were my wake-up call. My opportunity to take advantage of and step into an entirely new level of growth and possibility. The pain and struggle were not happening to me… but for me. And my life could be a reflection as me.

[From The Book of Possibility: Release, Align, Become]

I have not read the entire book yet, but it seems to have useful tools and suggestions, like recognizing patterns, coming up with a new vision for the future and stepping into a new identity. All of these things are helpful, well-trodden self help ground. These little Hallmark card stories about medical emergencies he sidestepped with his mindset are so reductive though. The first story could have turned out much differently. In a doctor’s opinion his appendicitis wasn’t severe enough to need surgery. He made a medical decision based on two legitimate options given to him by a doctor. He didn’t wish his way to a more favorable outcome in the moment, down to the timing.

Photos credit: Backgrid, Avalon.red