RE: Is ~Faith~ Vitally Important to Healing?
Although I am not a "Christian" in the conventional sense, this is a subject I spend a lot of time with, as one of our gigs around here is my wife's non-profit, which is a world-wide prayer and healing organization (non-denominational) based around the idea of "the power of positive focused intent."
There are plenty of studies to show that "prayer works" and studies to show "prayers DON'T work," but what's interesting to me is that the "placebo effect" is pretty well documented... so even if prayer (or faith) is merely a placebo, it arguably does something for us.
So getting back to group prayer, and having faith, and "taking action," we can still look at a situation and ask "Who's going to feel better about their chances: Patient A who feels all alone in the world or Patient B who (whether they have faith, or not) who's surrounded by people pulling for them and giving them non-stop attaboys or attagirls?
As you can probably tell from my angle of approach, I am used to dealing with a lot of non-spiritual, non-religious skeptics...
Interesting article, thanks!
Thanks, my friend, for your thoughtful interaction.
Yes indeed, there is tremendous healing power in something as simple as a few words of shared compassion and concern! Any time one human being reaches out with an expression of concern to another who may be "under the weather," the result is bound to be positive.
What I find all too discouraging is the persistence of belief in outmoded, disproven, and downright blatantly destructive modalities like chemotherapy and radiation. "Treatments" that deliberately destroy the immune system, which I view as God's own mechanism designed to heal us and keep us well.
Have you or your wife written any articles about the non-profit? I'm sure many would find that quite interesting.