But that's the thing, we have no real understanding of how the mind works. Medicine talks about the placebo effect, but it's such an intangible. We take for granted the existence of a subconscious mind, but look in the dictionary for a definition of subconscious, and it's pretty darn vague. We don't know what it is, but we accept that it exists, and influences us in ways of which we are not consciously aware. Some people do seem to be always sick, some people don't "give in to illness" - the mind is not separate from the body, and how do you sort it all out? That's why I say it's not one or the other, rational vs irrational as the argument seems to suggest.

Then again, I admit to having been slightly offended when years ago my car window was broken and my stereo stolen, and a different neighbor (a woman who spent a great deal of time channeling and doing that writing thing where you are simply the instrument for a higher spirit to speak through) told me that I must have "asked for it" because the universe gives you exactly what you ask for.