This afternoon I have been reading over articles from conventional and alternative medical fields examining the science that lies behind their findings. Interestingly enough, as this country begins to explore better healthcare options and accessibility, this ongoing dialogue is healthy for our country.
For a long time we have been operating predominately under one modus operandi of healthcare, but there has been a growing use of alternative medicines that the public is turning to with success. “Over a decade ago, the New England Journal of Medicine reported that Americans pay more visits annually to alternative practitioners than to MDs.” (www.virtualmentor.org) Sometimes this turning to other means is because of their disappointment in the conventional means. Also, a growing body of evidence sometimes shows the science underlying some of the conventional medical procedures is not as concrete as once hoped. With more drugs, interventions, screenings, treatments and technologies exploding onto the market recently, some doctors are questioning whether many medical procedures are doing more harm than good, not to mention costing all of us a tremendous amount of money.
I highly recommend the following article that attests to the wonderful works that medical science is doing for the greater good, but it also points out many important issues that are causing tremendous health problems and suffering through its practice. The article ends with the startling statement by Dr. James Goodwin, a geriatrician at University of Texas Medical Branch, “We’re killing more people than we’re saving with these procedures. It’s as simple as that.” (www.thedailybest.com/newsweek/2011/08/14/some-medical-tests-do-more-harm-than-good.html) There is also what Deepak Chopra, MD pointed out as a “decline effect” where “established medications steadily lose their effectiveness over time…” (www.virtualmentor.org June, 2011—Vol 13, Number 6, 394-398, American Medical Association Journal of Ethics, Medicine’s Great Divide—The View from the Alternative Side).
Other times people have been turning to alternative medicines because they have seen these methods work in their own lives and in the lives of others. One of the areas of alternative medicine that has been researched scientifically for over the last three decades, but has a body of documentation for over 4000 years, is the effectiveness of prayer on health. You can reference a number of these medical studies in www.undergroundhealthreporter.com, Fact or Myth: The Effects of Prayer is Scientifically Proven to Lead to Healing by Danica Collins. Deepak Chopra, MD indicates in the article above, “Research describes the body as an integrated system that exchanges information continuously between the mind, via the brain, and every cell in the body. In a nutshell, we now realize that for every mental state there must be a corresponding state of physiology.” It is no wonder that over the past three decades there has been a dramatic increase of Americans praying about health issues, rising 36% between 1999 and 2007 alone, according to a study published by the American Psychological Association.
As a Christian Science Practitioner, I work with prayer everyday in reference to many issues facing my patients, including health. I also rely on scientific prayerful treatment for my own health and well-being. I don’t need a study to tell me it works because I have four generations of my family and a whole wall of books documenting Christian Science healing in every local Christian Science Reading Room. I am grateful for the results of the studies because it shows the great blessings of God and His active participation in our lives if we let Him become a vital part of our life and practice. Maybe as a reader you are wondering why I used the word “scientific” in reference to prayer.
This is the discovery Mary Baker Eddy brought to the understanding of prayer through her lifelong research of the Bible and practice of prayer and healing. When she was young, she experienced healing and healed others. She knew God healed, but she felt we needed to know how to ask Him. What she discovered is the mental nature of all things, but she also discovered that there was something more. The human mind maybe the core of its own belief system, but the divine Mind, God, alone heals. Spiritual understanding leads to communion with the divine Mind and there we begin to grasp the universe as God created it, solely in and of Spirit. His creation is governed by the divine law of absolute good that overcomes the variableness of matter, the flesh and evil.
This message and practice of Christ, Truth, affects the body in tangible healing ways. In her primary writings, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, she writes, “Sickness is part of the error which Truth casts out. Error will not expel error. Christian Science is the law of Truth, which heals the sick on the basis of the one Mind or God. It can heal in no other way, since the human, mortal mind so-called is not a healer, but causes the belief in disease. Then comes the question, how do drugs, hygiene, and animal magnetism heal? It may be affirmed that they do not heal, but only relieve suffering temporarily, exchanging one disease for another. We classify disease as error, which nothing but Truth or Mind can heal, and this Mind must be divine, not human. Mind transcends all other power, and will ultimately supersede all other means in healing.” (www.spirituality.com)
In our family, we have been healed of or protected from the following issues through prayer alone: bronchitis, croup, diabetes, thyroid, asthma, facial growth, fractured collar bone, earache, chicken pox, German measles, vision problem, eczema, flu, sprained ankle, headaches, groin injury, bug bites, damaged tooth, pneumonia, etc. Many of these healings have been permanent with no more occurrences within the family and occurred faster than medical law has determined was possible.
I have been grateful for my interactions over the years with many fine conventional and alternative medical professionals and clergies of many different faiths. It has given me an appreciation for all the wonderful ways in which people are striving to improve not only their own lives but the lives of others. Deepak Chopra, MD commented in his article that for the last 25 years he has been deeply impressed “that so many therapies that totally disagree with one another manage to bring results”, but still “the mystery of healing remains unsolved” to him, and I imagine he is not alone in that assessment. Mary Baker Eddy’s participation in the dialogue is of great value to lifting the discussion to the core of this subject of healing, to not just managing symptoms and coping with disease but what brings about actual healing.
Anne Cooling
First Church of Christ, Scientist, Laguna Niguel
