FAITH HEALING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 261, 3 November 1932, Page 11

FAITH HEALING.

A DOCTOR'S VIEWS. MIND AND BODY. VOGUE OF PSYCHO-THERAPY. (By W.M.) No. 11. The uses and limitations of faith healing are ably dealt with from the medical point of view in a little book by Dr. Clarke Begg, published by Longmane. A foreword is contributed by the Bishop of Monmouth, who describes the book as "a plea for that full and friendly co-operation between doctor and priest at which members of both professions should aim in their common effort .to restore health to body and soul." Dr. Begg shows how the body inay affect the' mind, and instances jthe effect of jaundice in making a person morose and pessimistic. He also shows how the various emotions may produce physical results. He thinks that similarly the psycho-phyeical effects of .a religious experience may react on a person'ts physical health, and that the state of tha body may influence the spiritual condition and outlook.

Mental Suggestion. Faith healing is defined as any" kind of healing which is brought about by any kind of faith. The faith may be in material thinge, or in some spiritual or Divine power. Dr. Begg thinks that "faith healing," "mental healing," "psychic healing" and "psycho-therapy" are more or lees synonymous, and all obtain their results by the use of some form of "mental suggestion." Results are obtained by persuasion, suggestion, either hetero or by psychoanalysis and exploration through the subconscious right down to the deepest layers of the mind. He.does not appear to attach much importance to psychoanalytic methods, and asks: "May n.ot psycho-analysis, like other methods of medical treatment, sometimes be but another form of faith healing, the mysteries of the consulting room being but a variant of the bread pill, the bottle of coloured water, the healing- spring, or the incantations of the magician V He goes on to say: "It is often thought that the general practitioner knows little or nothing of these methods . . . but doctors, of course, have always made use of faith healing." By this ho means that doctors have always tried to inspire confidence in their patients, but this is a very different thing from psycho-analysis, and probably much of the vogue for psycho-therapy is due to the fact that the importance of hidden complexes has not been adequately recognised by the majority of medical men. A Limited Field. Being a niedical referee under the Workmen's Compensation Act, Dr. Begg is naturally a little sceptical about the reality of some of the injuries alleged, and he notes that a Court decision often effecte a marvellous cure. This leads him on to discuss hysteria and the imitation of almost every kind of organic disease. He quotes instances to show how difficult it is to distinguish between the two. Hβ thinks a fruitful field for faith healing is provided by hysteria. But he contends that the field for faith" healing is limited, and that in degenerative conditions, in which highly organised cells are replaced by fibrous tissues, any kind of faith healing is out of the question. He prefers thyroid tablets to faith in the treatment of myxoedema, and surgical aid in acute appendicitis. He thinks many cases of alleged cures may be due to faulty diagnosis, and that the same proof should be demanded in cases of faith healing as in cases treated by ordinary medical methods. Power of the Spirit.

Yet he admits that, the body has vaet hidden reserves of strength, and that these may be elicited by an emotional atmosphere and the singing of subjective hymns. But he doubts the permanency of such cures. At the same time, he quotes a case,t>f pulmonary tuberculosis and one of advanced cancer cured by the defensive mechanism of the body after doctors had pronounced them hopeless, and he says the remarkable thing is why this defensive mechanism should often fail so signally in these dread maladies. That brings us to the root of the problem. Our Lord undoubtedly gave to the Church the command to heal the sick. The power to do so was to come from the Holy Spirit. May it not be that the power of the Spirit was intended to reinforce the defensive mechanism of the body by putting it in touch with the divine source of all life? Dr. Begg does not think that we have any right to expect to be healed in a miraculous way as the result of spiritual influences, though he admits that all means of grace may be used with advantage in helping doctors in i their work. Dr. Harnack, on the other hand, thinks that the gifts of the t Spirit were real gifts to the Church, and that till well on in the third century the Church did possess the power of curing disease" by bringing the power of the Holy Spirit to reinforce the powers by which the body itself combats disease. To believe thie is not, as Dr. Begg contends, like believing that if you pray for money a ten pound note will come fluttering down, from heaven. Dr. Harnack, than whom no one is better fitted to speak of early Church history, thinks the Church lost the "Charismata," or gifts of the Spirit, because under Constantino it became too worldly and too material. It may. be that psychotherapy is revealing to us once more the reality of the trinity of mind, body and spirit, and that faith can remove mountains and place us in that right relation to the. source of life from which all things proceed.