Healing Through Prayer

Is it possible to have health without spirituality? Yes. Is it possible for saints to fall ill and die? Yes. Then what is the relationship between spirituality and health? In the book, A Practical Guide to Holistic Health, Swami Rama wrote, The mental aspect of health is more important than the physical, and the spiritual aspect of health is of greater importance than either of these. How does the spiritual impact the physical?

The Relationship Between Prayer and Healing

There is a relationship between prayer and healing but it is not linear. It is not as simple as saying that a sincere prayer will always bring healing. Dr. Larry Dossey, in the book, Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine, writes that prayerfulness allows us to transcend the physical and attain peace. He says that this prayerfulness includes an attitude of acceptance that transcends passivity. It is an active attitude of gratitude, not a giving-up or a hopelessness. The ability to find gratitude during physical distress appears to be a contributing factor in many physical healings.

Directed Versus Non-directed Prayer

To support this idea, Dossey discusses the research by the Spindrift organization in Salem, Oregon, which found that non-directed prayer, as in, Thy will be done. was more effective than directed prayer, as in, God heal my cancer. Their research involved praying for plants in carefully controlled experiments so as to remove the variables that might have complicated studies done with humans or animals.

Most people are familiar with cases where people prayed directly for a healing and the healing occurred. Few religious people would deny that directed prayer has effect. The question of directed versus non-directed prayer is therefore not one that has a black and white answer. What the Spindrift experiments found was merely a greater tendency for non-directed prayer to be successful.

So How Should We Pray?

Perhaps it is best to combine the two, to directly pray for the healing of a disease but also to pray for gratitude and acceptance of whatever comes our way, to pray for peace. Regardless of a persons religious beliefs, sometimes in the peace that comes from such prayer there is a healing because the calm acceptance reduces the stress that is behind many diseases. At least if the patient doesnt heal the acceptance is there nonetheless. Here is a prayer from the Bah writings that takes a balanced approach.

Thy name is my healing, O my God, and remembrance of Thee is my remedy. Nearness to Thee is my hope, and love for Thee is my companion. Thy mercy to me is my healing and my succor in both this world and the world to come. Thou, verily, art the All-Bountiful, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. (Baháí Prayers, p. 85)

References

Sweet, W., A Journey Into Prayer, Xlibris Corp., 2007.

Dossey, L., Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine, HarperCollins, 1993.