It is a way of saying something that has not been said in another, a more healthy way. One man, sick with lung cancer, was being reassured by his wife. From her determination and willful, domineering stance it was obvious what kind of pressure this man has been living under, for many years. The intensity of his resentment toward his wife, his rebellion against her, and his desperate need to be himself, even through the means of his illness, all came out in a crack between his guarded defenses. Yes, this man's resentment inverted his perception.
Illness is a more synthetic language than words.
It takes many stored, persistent images of past resentments, many upsetting words reverberating in the mind, many hurt feelings nagging, eating, frustrating us, to produce a physically visible disease. Yes, illness starts out in the invisible, and normally it takes time before it becomes visible. Learning to understand and perceive that language of the invisible is the best prevention and the best cure. Meditation, staying in the realm before words become words, is the one sure way of remaining in health. At that time we are communing with the Invisible Beyond, the source and root of health.