A Journal of the American Medical Association study showed that more than 6 percent of Americans in 1996 had some form of unconventional therapy as an adjunct to conventional medical care. Patients are quoted as finding meditation, biofeedback, acupuncture, etc., effective not only in helping to deal with the anxiety and emotional stress of their illness; cancer patients report it helps them cope with the side effects of their medical treatment as well. Actual measurable effects of meditation include: muscle relaxation, slowing of the heart rate and lowering of blood pressure. Lifestyle changes such as healthy diet, daily exercise, and, yes, prayer and meditation are also proving helpful before and after cardiac surgery. The italics and nomenclature used here emphasize a budding partnership between the old “alternatives” to patient care, and both sides seem to be benefiting; especially the patient.
Consider what we know of chemicals in the brain, which are released under circumstances of “fight or flight.” The human brain produces adrenalin and cortisone to help the body deal with crisis. Although these prove useful in the short run, sustained anxiety and distress over a long period of time depresses the immune system. A depressed immune system will not help a patient heal. Treatment centers for cancer, heart disease, even addictive diseases, now utilize more one-on-one staff to patient contact, support groups and the opportunity to express true feelings without judgment. Prayer and religious ritual according to personal belief are encouraged. Religious or not, everyone has spiritual needs: time to think, hope, and to deal with important life issues and relationships, are just a few. Forgiveness, and letting go of “past baggage,” are mentioned by patients as “freeing” and “preparing for hope in their treatment.”
“Anything I can do to keep myself in a calm inner state is going to help my body feel healthier,” observes one highly motivated cancer patient.
(The next two paragraphs are a sketchy historical synopsis; the closing, a look toward the future, based on research grants offered by Princeton University, Duke, Harvard and Cambridge.)
With the advent of surgical strides in the seventeenth century, a kind of intellectual schism between body and soul began and grew with time. The scientific revolution gave the physical aspects of mankind to the physician/surgeon; the spiritual needs of human beings, to the priest. The interconnectedness of spiritual, physical, mental and emotional was somewhere lost along the way. Remember that Western scientific knowledge of anatomy and physiology grew out of the dissection of graveyard cadavers; this threw tremendous light on our physical make-up. Sterile technique and the discovery of X-rays helped surgery advance by leaps and bounds. Microscopes got bigger, stronger, and more precise. Knowledge of brain and blood chemistry as well as cell physiology, allowed drug treatments to be discovered for more and more diseases. The list of twentieth-century technological advances applied to medicine became staggering; headlines of “Medical Miracles” quickly became yesterday’s news.
Ironically, it was Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s book On Death and Dying that drew attention back to each patient as more than a collection of organs, systems, and cells. She had the courage, despite the ridicule of her peers at first, to spend time on the “terminal cases.” By 1975, her best-selling book was required reading in schools of medicine, nursing and psychiatry, as well as the expected theological seminaries. Patients were being heard, and their priorities addressed. Now that medical attention turned toward the quality of life as well as the saving of life, unexpected benefits began to surface.
How about the future?
* Duke University presently has a five-year research fellowship underway for MDs “showing promise in their own respective fields, to research the field of religion/ spirituality in health.”
* A Princeton University grant for studying “the relationship between prayer and the physical body” is also in the works. The research includes body position, movement, and physical sight and sound during prayer.
* Harvard grants support “major interdisciplinary conferences, workshop series, public events, and international symposia” to explore the impact of recent discoveries in the natural sciences in relation to teachings in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
* The Templeton Seminars at Cambridge University offered fellowships starting in 2004, to journalists, writers and editors interested in the intersection of science and religion
Former First Lady Betty Ford gave hope to thousands when she went public about her bout with breast cancer and her battle with addiction. She centers herself, she says, in gratitude, humility and faith. Meditations, readings, and prayer are her daily habit. Her spirituality, she says, steadies and calms her, and can counter the pressures of her day-to-day life.
Even a non-religious friend of mine surprised me with this simple statement after under-going open heart surgery: “He was there when I went in, and He was there when I came out.”