I ran across an interesting study in my Abnormal Psychology textbook today which didn't give many answers but still layed out an interesting phenomenon. I'll cite the exact information later but the gist of it was: The study showed that people with a positive attitude toward life and who were happy (don't know how they measured happiness here) lived an average of 7 years longer than the general population. This result was extremely statistically significant and outweighed the effects of smoking, diet, and other well-known variables on the length of life.

I would interpret these findings by saying "Attitude (and therefore thought patterns) in someway manifest better health and longer life in some individuals." I would point to this study as an example of the mind affecting the physical body.

It's a reach to use it to support my "The mind can change reality through intention" hypothesis, but it's a start.

Okay Michael, fire away