Optimum Health and Healing

Almost all of us believe in the power of medicine to heal and restore health, although not all of the time. We know that faith and prayer can heal. Long before scientific medicine came into being, people became sick and were healed. Medicine can heal, and faith in a benevolent God, too, can heal. A combination of faith and medical resources can render a far greater health benefit, with healing being the natural outcome.

We cannot extract a formula or method for healing. No one formula works all of the time. A medicine that is capable of fully restoring health in some patients, fails to work in other patients. Medicine and surgery may work one-hundred percent of the time in some patients, but may show only a seventy-five percent or fifty percent success rate in others. It does not mean that the applied medicine is a failure. So many subjective elements are at work in any given healing. The interactive results of subjective and objective elements are beyond prediction. The lack of a precise measurement and prediction does not rule out the efficacy of medicine or the faith factor.

Neither faith nor medicine is a panacea against illness and death. Humans are human and, as such, mortality is part of our very nature. Most humans eventually die as the result of a short-term or long-term illness, if not by some accident, natural disaster, or catastrophe. The mortality rate of a human being has always been one hundred percent. It is often difficult to prove if it was God who healed or the medical treatment. Medical treatment is one modality of healing. Ultimately, any modality is also from God. A total absence or presence of faith, in itself, need not cause a disease or create a disease. No doubt, there are so many non-religious people who enjoy good health and longevity. So too, many deeply-devoted people get sick and sometimes are found struggling with terminal illness. Faith is one factor out of many factors in the complex web of health. It is the net result of so many factors interacting on a dynamic field. Health, though to some extent measurable, cannot be fully understood.

We, as humans, create our realities aided by the Transcendent. So, healing belongs both to the human and the divine realm. In our earlier surveys, we noted that our relationship with God by means of prayer, meditation, and meaningful rituals can positively affect high blood pressure, anxiety, wounds, and heart attach. These finds have been clearly brought out from numerous studies and experiments in the past. In dealing with health, we cannot overlook the role of one’s religious faith and values. We are made to think that one must either choose the logical, analytical, and rational approach or the irrational, superstitious, and religious belief. From an unbiased perspective, one can no longer hold on to this attitude.

                        Science and spirituality can stand side-by-side in a

                        complementary way to heal without eliminating each

                        other.

There are many unforeseeable and unpredictable elements operative in the human health realm that give oneself reason to be optimistic beyond the use of any statistics. If the patient has a belief in prayer, encourage him to do so. Sometimes, the patient believes in certain rituals to bring healing. It may or may not be scientific and often may be superstitious. In the mysterious health realm, allowing the patient a change to give his intuition a chance could bring out certain life forces or human potential. In every myth, there is some element of truth. What we discard as superstitious in the field of medicine may have redeeming factors that are not capable of being grasped or seen in such a situation.

We live in the world. It is equally true that the world lives in us.  We are a microcosm of the world. Body and mind sound different and separate. Yet, they are indivisible and governed by an Intelligent Self.