This topic dropped in my lap when I received an email from a friend asking me if I would help one of her friends. The friend was using faith-based healing now after conventional medicine failed her. The problem was she put her medical condition in the hands of someone she shouldn't - someone who performed surgery on her that should never had been done as it was not only extremely rare but the doctor was not board certified nor qualified to do the surgery PLUS she had gone to multiple doctors seeking their opinion, letting them ALL treat her, yet not telling the other doctors about each other. So she was now wheelchair bound, in severe pain, and trying to care for her children.
So today I thought I would talk about healing both spiritually and via conventional medicine. I will start first with faith healing. Faith healing is a concept that your religious belief can bring about healing either through prayers or rituals. These prayers or rituals bring forth a divine presence and power that they correct the disease process or disability, restoring full health to that person that was afflicted.
Claims that prayer, divine intervention, or the laying of a healer's hands can cure illness has been popular throughout history and in many religions. There are miraculous recoveries that have been documented throughout history that have involved prayer, a visit to a religious shrine, or with just a strong belief in a higher supreme being. There have been claims that faith can cure blindness, deafness, cancer, AIDS, developmental disorders, anemia, arthritis, corns, defective speech, multiple sclerosis, skin rashes, total body paralysis, and various injuries.
Now comes the scientific part of me that states that scientific evidence does not support the belief that faith healing can cure physical ailments. There are critics that have concerns that anyone who relies totally on faith healing delay in seeking conventional medical care. There is evidence that death, disability, and other negative outcomes usually occur when faith healing was elected instead of medical care for serious injuries or illnesses. We see this in the news at least once a month.
So what is right? I actually can't tell you what to do just as I can't tell you how to believe. Scientific evidence does not support claims that faith healing can cure cancer or any other disease. Even the Roman Catholic Church states that the 'miraculous' cures at the French shrine of Lourdes do not outnumber the historical percentage of spontaneous remissions seen among people with cancer.
So does faith healing have a place along with conventional medicine? Yes, I believe it does. Faith healing promotes peace of mind, reduces stress, relieves pain and anxiety, and strengthens the will to live. Looking at not only the years I have been in the field of medicine, but with my own health issues, I know I could not have handled the many surgeries on top of inlaw issues on top of family issues on top of everyday issues if it hadn't been for my faith. Did it cure me? Possibly from being admitted to a psychiatric facility but in reality no. It helped me cope. It helped me get up every morning and face my day. But in actuality, I have never prayed for myself - my prayers are always directed at those who don't believe and/or need my prayers more than I do.
Back to the email. I told her that there was nothing wrong in prayer but that her problems were developing from putting her trust in not only a doctor without credentials but in multiple doctors and not telling the other doctor what types of treatment she was getting from each of them. I told her to cut out all doctors, get her records from all the doctors who have treated her, and take said records to one doctor for a consultation and from there decide if she could stay with that doctor's recommendations or obtain yet another opinion. In the meantime, she could continue praying and if they wanted, they could come to us for her consultation.
Working in the medical field, I have personally witnessed many people who seem to 'hold on' for a family member to get there. I have personally witnessed dying people who 'hold on' until they are feel their relatives are ready to let them go. I have personally had the privilege of being in the room with those people who held on and with the blessing from their relatives to 'let go', they did and it was an emotional amazing feeling that is indescribable. I personally had this happen to my own grandfather who was in the hospital in renal failure in another state. I would talk to my grandfather every day and it came to the day my husband was to have brain surgery. Grandpa asked me to call him when I had a chance after his surgery. I finally was able to call him later that evening. I talked to the nurses first who told me grandpa had slipped into a coma with no urine output at all that day. I asked for the nurse to put the phone next to his ear. I then told him that my husband had come through the surgery fine and that it was time for him to go home to the Lord. He died while on the phone with me. I didn't need anyone to tell me he was gone. I heard the monitor flatline. I heard my cousins start to cry. I hung up and called my father to let him know.
So do I believe in faith healing and prayer? Yes, as long as you don't ignore conventional medicine. Both have a definite place in one's life.
