'Mind over matter' is an expression we have often heard. We have also heard that a positive attitude and belief in treatment is key to getting better.
Faith healing has been used for millennia, and is incorporated in many religions and belief systems. Although uncommon, some choose faith over medicine completely.
Faith healing can be described as having a faith in the supernatural or spiritual, that illness or affliction will be healed without medical intervention, although it is usually used alongside traditional medicine. Faith that God can heal a person, and direct appeal to God's healing abilities, is the crux of faith healing.
Some medical professionals encourage faith healing as part of overall medical care, and some professionals quietly dismiss it as irrelevant. Others are more vocal in their fear that faith healing is used before seeing a doctor, thus risking increased illness or risk of death, by delaying medical intervention.
Oral Robers, Aimee Semple McPherson and Pat Robertson are all very well known people of faith who have used faith healing on their followers. While there is very little actual evidence of a 'miraculous cure' by any faith healer (not taking biblical references into account), many people firmly believe in the power of faith healing.
Those who do not believe in faith healing, believe it a mere coincidence via the placebo effect or spontaneous remission.
Tell Us
Do you believe in the power of faith healing? Would you incorporate it into your overall medical care if you were ill? Why? Why not?
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I think most people believe that faith in a universal higher power is beneficial, and that God has healing attributes. Studies have shown that people in the hospital who have loved ones praying for them seem to do better than those who are not being prayed for.
It's almost like our reluctance to embrace hundreds of years of Eastern medicine. We seem to think it has to be either traditional OR holistic; either medical OR faith-based; either surgical OR acupuncture, etc.
And yet as all these disciplines start coming together, that's when we feel like we're getting real answers.
Sure, I'd incorporate faith-based healing, especially through the power of prayer, if I were ill. I think the biggest challenge today might be finding doctors who want to work with all aspects of a patient -- body, mind, and soul -- but it feels like slowly, that's changing as well.
October 2, 2008 - 9:48amThis Comment