HEALING BY FAITH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21315, 17 October 1932, Page 11

HEALING BY FAITH

POTENCY OF SUGGESTION VALUE NOT QUESTIONED LIMITS TO ITS POWER RESULTS OF INVESTIGATION j —— i BY SCRUTATOR _ ' The close and intimate relationship of 1 mind and body is a theme too well worn J to need emphasis here. There is a definite physical and psychological theory ! of it which is borne out by everyday ex- J perience. The practice of barracking for one's side at games is a very rough and < ready, but practical, example of how an J Idea—of victory—can stimulate flagging < physical energies to greater efforts. ] Whether suggested from outside, or as J the result of one's own determination, a definite suggestion always tends to real- « ise itself into action of some sort. It may I be countered by criticism or native in- ' ertia, but the urge of suggestions to I realise themselves is one of the most assured results of mental science. As an agent in curing the ills of the flesh suggestion plays an important and I sometimes a vital part. The writer remembers two war casualties lying side by i side in No. 1 G-H., B.E.F. Both were i severely wounded, but "A far more vitally than "B." "A" was not expected i to recover, while there was no reason | why "B" should not. Yet in the course : of a week "A" was holding his own by : sheer will-power, whilst "B, ' having no | fight in him, was losing ground, and these processes continued till "A" was discharged for Blighty just after "B i was laid to rest in the local cemetery. Another instance will serve to show the potency of a suggestion. Patients suf- < fering great pain sometimes demand mor- | phia injections to induce sleep. I have ; frequently seen patients treated, not with ( morphia, but with distilled water. They - thought they had the drug and thpy imit- ; ated the effect the drug would have had , —a sleep as refreshing, or more so, than 1 could have been induced by the drug. , Junctional and Organic Diseases ] There is, however* a limit to the power j of suggestion. Diseases may be roughly classified into functional and organic. The 1 former are very susceptible to treatment 1 by mental suggestion. But while it is un- j wise to be dogmatic, it may be confidently j asserted that organic diseases do not re- , spond in the same degree. Even here ' mental suggestion can contribute to the 1 agency of medical treatment, but only in degree. Dr. David Yellowlees, an eminent mental specialist in Glasgow, declares, "I would set no limit to what may happen in that field (functional diseases) under its influence in favourable circumstances, but it is in cases of organic disorder that the real problem arises. Although like every physician of any experience, I have seen some very remarkable things happen in human bodies . . . when we are dealing with cases of obvious organic disease. I want to have a very exact scientific confirmation both of the nature of the disease and of its cure before I can accept the claim that such disease has been cured by suggestion, and so far I have not had that confirmation in any single case." (Psychology's Defence of the Faith, p. 169.) In this respect it may be of interest to note that few people rre ever as ill as they think they are. Again, the immediate relief and betterment which comes to most people merely for consulting a trusted medical adviser is a case in point of the influence of the mind upon the physical condition. Clerical and Medical Inquiry Probably no more competent- and unbiased investigation was ever made than the Clerical and Medical Committee of Inquiry into Spiritual, Faith and Mental Healing of 1914. Its personnel included the present Dean of St. Paul's, the Dean of Westminster (now Bishop), Dr. Barnes, the Dean of Durham, the Bishop of Stepney, and other leading churchmen. Amongst the impressive medical section stand the names of Sir Clifford Allbutt, Regius professor of physic, Cambridge University, Sir Douglas Powell, Howard Tooth and others of world-wide fame. The following extract embodies the consiuered judgment of these authorities after examining healers of every persuasion, and some of their patients: — "Many of the witnesses gave convincing evidence of beneficial results in cases of functional or nervous disorders, obsessions, alcoholism, drug habits, vicious propensities, etc., through treatment by spiritual or mental influences. No satisfactorily certified case was adduced of any organic disease completely diagnosed as such which had been cured through these means alone. The value of religious and mental influences as contributing to recovery was not questioned. The committee are of opinion that the physical results of what is called faith or, spiritual healing do not prove on investigation to be different from those of_ mental healing or healing by suggestion. "Faith or spiritu.il healing, like all treatment by can De expected to be permanently effective only in cases t of what- are generally called functional disorders. . . . They desire to see an increased importance attached to spiritual ministrations as contributory means to recovery." A Warning to the Church Ten vears later, following the vogue of Coue-is'm and the recrudescence of spiritual healing, an equally authoritative committee was appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury to guide the Church to a right understanding of the difficult matter of spiritual ministration to the sick. After three years spent collecting and sifting evidence of alleged spiritual healings, the committee's report deplored the fact that the term "spiritual healing" referred to one method (e.g., the Hickson mission method), but it should properly include all healing factors, even material and physical, used in conscious dependence upon God. They warned the Church that "unintelligent and indiscrim- j inate appeal to faith may brirjg some immediate relief, but is likely in the end to do more harm than good." Further: "Our committee has so far found no evidence of any cases of healing which cannot be paralleled by similar cases wrought by psycho-therapy without- religion, and by instances of spontaneous healing which often occur even in the gravest cases in medical practice. They refused to countenance -"services of healing to which crowds of sick folk are invited to come and receive spiritual healing," No sick person should be led to look to the clergyman to do the duty of the physician and surgeon.