Let us first see when do we recognise sickness and how do we usually assign causes to the sickness?
We recognise sickness when the symptoms resulting from the sickness are being actively exhibited by our body. In other words, we do not say that we are sick when the same disease remains dormant in our body or doesn’t yet exhibit significant noticeable symptoms in the body. Most sicknesses can remain dormant in us for a long time due to various factors. We shall address the second part of my question in a while.
Let us first look at the physical body from the prism of energy psychology or form a holistic perspective. Our physical boundaries do not end at the surface of our skin. Our body actually extends about one to two metres beyond, forming a huge bubble of electromagnetic energy vibrations engulfing and also permeating the physical body. You may read the article titled “The five different kinds of Awareness” in the posts section to my Quora profile.
This bubble contains the software and our physical body is the hardware if you compare the human system with a computer system. The cause of all diseases exists in this energy body and is only reflected in the physical body. This applies to all diseases including chronic diseases, infectious diseases, psychosomatic diseases, emotional or mental disorders and even recovery from injuries. You may view the disease energy as a blob or cloud of dense energy vibrations somehow stuck somewhere in the energy body. The deeper it is stuck, the more chronic and sustained is the disease. Such deeply stuck disease energy blocks get covered by a layer of unconscious energy to allow us to focus on the external threats from the outside world and ensure physical survival, which seems to hold a higher priority and urgency.
We never got completely healed from disease because we were only treating the reflection of the disease in the physical body. It is like leaving the roots and cutting only the branches of a weed plant, it simply grows back. Complete healing is possible only when we adopt a holistic approach of treating both the physical as well as the energy body to eradicate the disease. To heal the energy body we need to bring awareness to the energy block, release the unconscious energy layer first and then loosen the body and open up the natural energy flows to gradually release the stuck energies to clear the block. It is an automatic process that happens when we meditate, but it is a gradual process and takes a sustained regular practice.
Now let’s address the question: how do we assign cause for sickness? By looking back and seeing what we did and concluding that it is because we did this. This tendency creates terms such as meditation-sickness because the symptoms started after the meditation. In reality meditation is a healing process that uncovers and uproots the deepest roots of disease to completely heal your entire body. But the process first uncovers the layer of unconscious energy and the disease starts showing up in the body as symptoms even as it gets released and flows out. If you stop the process at this point you will surely suffer from symptoms until the unconscious energy layer is formed again to cover it up. It then would seem that you got better but the disease has only gone back into dormant mode.
Is it possible to use meditation to heal without too much pain and suffering that sometimes arises in acute or severe conditions? Like the ones mentioned in your question.
Answer is yes. When you deeply understand what is happening and devise a gentle, graceful, gradual meditation practice best suited for your specific needs. It is possible to do it by yourself but more advisable to seek guidance from an expert.