Excellent topic! I have been reading a lot on the internet about faith healing and the placebo effect. After reading the above article, I think it is a difficult thing to measure whether faith has any ability to heal using science, and I personally have a hard time with scientific studies that thinks it can rule out faith being a possible catalyst to healing. It is the "proof" that science requires that makes it hard for me to mix the two. I think a belief in God does help people to heal, as long as their belief is a positive one, that their God can help them heal. The mind has tremendous power, and so do emotions, and they have been proven to affect the physical body. IMO, beliefs are held in the mind and heart, and if our thoughts and feelings have the ability to impact our bodies, it only makes sense that faith can help heal. I can tell you that in my experience, when I have had negative emotions that are strong and my faith is wavering, I usually manifest that by getting sick. I have also had times of strong faith and positive thinking that have healed my physical ailments.
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...the growing belief in the medical community that what happens in a person's mind (and, possibly, soul) can be as important to health as what happens on the cellular level, are leading many doctors to embrace the God they banished from the clinic long ago in favor of technological and pharmaceutical progress.  Faith & Healing, https://msnbc.msn.com/id/3339654/ |
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Mark 5: 25-34 25 And a certain woman, which had an aissue of blood twelve years, 26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, 27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. 28 For she said, "If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole." 29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, "Who touched my clothes?" 31 And his disciples said unto him, "Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?" 32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. 33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. 34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague."Â https://scriptures.lds.org/query?words=Mark+5%3A25-34 |
Though I am not religious, I do believe that faith in getting healed will indeed get you healed faster. Once you are sick or in pain, your body can do even more damage if you believe in it. Faith in god will eliminate that pain, but it works for me too. For example, I was once feeling really nauseated so I tried to tell myself "I am not sick, I am not sick," and it worked! The pain went away.