We, the Indian, celebrates July 1st as Doctors’ Day. Let’s offer our prayer and homage to the millions of doctors and health workers of our country, ever ready to risk their lives and family for the sake of the patients in our Corona days. It’s a time they are proved to be ‘saviors of men’. Very often, men have a misunderstood ‘doctors’ as merely the ‘healers of the body’ and hence the term,’ physician’. It is to remind the readers that ‘hospitals and doctors’ have a deep Biblical and extra-Biblical ‘origin of spirituality.
Jesus says, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” It indicates that disease is connected with “sin” (hamartia Gk). The time followed Hippocrates, the Father of modern medicine, qualified disease as ‘psychosomatic’ meaning involving ‘body and mind’. In this sense, the Indian jargon ‘Ayur Veda’ is an adequate definition viz. healing life (Ayush).
It is from ‘hospice’ that the English word ‘hospitality’ arises, a “place for healing the body and soul/ rest” St. Luke, the Apostle of Christ is said to be a doctor and in his gospel, we find abundance of ‘healing miracle of Jesus ‘and a few traditional ‘herbal medicine’s name like ‘Tulasi’ (holy grail) The following write up will show the doctor / physician complements the priests, the spiritual healers. In reality, ‘Healing is holistic’ and hence, the profession of a doctor is as important as the vocation of a priest. Healing, like ‘Education is a ‘drawing out’ of what is the best in man.
Spirituality and Healing
Man by nature, is a seeker of ‘mystery’ that surrounds him, both of cosmic and eschatological, galloping from the phenomenal to the transcendent truth. The failure of modern medicine to provide ‘happiness and integrity’ made him to search out for ‘alternative medicines’. Miracle healings in the context of various religious beliefs hitherto existed and practiced by the priests and seers from time immemorial in the West and the East especially among the Asians and Africans. With the advent of ‘Charismatic movement’ and ‘miracle healings’ in the Church, spirituality gained a new momentum in discovering a ‘scientific tempo’, nay, the ‘rationale’ of ‘Spirituality of healing’ to counteract the so called rationalists.
Spirituality and healing have been defined variously by the spiritual masters to fit into their mold, embracing sensory to the supra-sensory. Here, I make an attempt to ‘re-define’ Spirituality and Healing’ both in its etymology and content.
Spirituality is nothing but a ‘natural unraveling of the Spirit (Life) “Ruah”, “image of God within” (imago Dei) (Gen.1) breathed in by God, gradually coming into ‘relation and integrity’ with the humanity and Cosmos, leading one from the phenomenal and transient to the Eternal and Transcendent Truth, thereby, that in turn, ‘Enlighten within’ to preview and perceive the cosmic reality (energy) around in relation to the Ultimate Root. Thus, a man of Spirituality is not only “intrinsically connected with God- the Love, Truth and Life, but places all his relations in the “all embracing Rationale, Wisdom of God”.
Although spirituality is related specific to each religion, it has a universal, cosmic, Catholic content. In its core, it is supra natural, supra religions. Religion may enrich the ‘already inborn spirit/ life force’ (innocence) a connection with its “source” in continuum despite the “the sin and dark spots” that may hinder the light, energy from within to emanate.
Every child is born potentially with this ‘innocence of connectivity’, the ‘search Engine Within’ that gets actualized in the life span, attracting or detracting from the ‘Original Source’ viz. God, depending upon the type of relation one webs out in this world.
Some years back, one school of experimental psychology in the U.S. is said to have brought up a group of 17 children away from any religious contact and parental care and it was found they had a strong ‘moral/ spiritual urge’ to discover the ultimate meaning of their lives in relation to god and morality. Unlike an historic or Revealed religion, it is true of ‘Natural Religion’ like Hinduism.
This ‘basic stuff’ of human psyche is depicted in the Bible as the “image and likeness of God”, popularly known as “conscience”. A deeper peep into it will show that it is nothing but an “an inner urge and yearning for love’ and no wonder, god, the source of life is called “Love”. The fundamental nature of love is to “move” and “reach out”.
In Search of Light
The Psalm says, “In you is the source of life and in your light we see light”. It is noteworthy that the first word Yahweh pronounced at the creation according to the Book of Genesis is, “Let there be Light”. (Gen.1; Jn.1, vv.3,4) As a matter of fact, the ‘original nature of man is love, light and good’ and “God saw that they were good”. In the N.T. Jesus portrayed a “child” synonym to the “Kingdom of God”. Thus, the image and likeness of God within, the “life force” that coming into contact with physical world either spirals up or trampled down which determines life span- health or diseases. If love, light, goodness dominates in his relation with humanity and world around, one would find health and integrity, otherwise, disintegrity and diseases.
Sub-conscious mind has a great role to play in determining the health and sickness of the person. It is the “seat of the Holy Spirit”, the “seat of spirituality”. Two basic emotions viz. love (security) or fear (insecurity), representing positive and negative emotions would determine his life-span which greatly develops from conception to the age of twelve. At the age of 12, the ‘conscious mind” begins to develop, enabling to perceive good and bad, right and wrong. During this period, interactions between conscious and sub-conscious mind comes to play. If the sub-conscious mind is abounding in negative emotions like fear, insecurity, anger, loneliness, rejections, the conscious mind may fail to interact and may run parallel. Such people may commit serious crimes, easily gets addicted and would be guided more by passion than reasons, for the conscious mind fails to “filter” the sub-conscious urges.
Mind (psyche), nous (soul, spark of light), and body (soma) have tremendous mutual influence, and no wonder, the modern disease is called “psycho-somatic”. Emotions which are negative or positive can create corresponding bodily symptoms. For instance, when one’s emotion is sad and lonely, he sheds tears and in happiness, he smiles.
Positive emotions and thinking (optimism) enlivens and energizes the “cells” of the body, while negative emotions (pessimism) chokes the cells, thereby creating “free- radicals” devoid of “oxygen”, the source of life in the cells which in turn bring about cancer and many other life-style diseases like diabetes.
‘Washing of Genes’
Spirituality of healing has a rational and scientific foundation (for faith is not blind or irrational) on a firm principle in terms of biological healing. Today, the scientists are on a war foot to achieve what is known as “washing of genes” which they believe is possible in the light of the discovery of “genome alphabet” (2000 AD). The dominant and sub-dominant of each disease, in turn will be determined by RNA factor that in turn is brought about by the quality of mind, and its potency to vivify and push up towards dominant genes to resist (immunity) a specific disease in the body.
When this “image of god (indwelling of the Holy Spirit) in the body is covered and over shadowed by sin of pessimism and other egoistic dark spots (scotia Gk) like pride, hatred, loneliness, revenge, sexual repression and other psychic complexes, it fails to “emit creative energy” (to phos (Gk) to enliven the biological cells for a healthy growth. Jesus equates similar situation in the parable of the “hidden treasure in the field” covered with mud and dirt. Hence, in the treatment of Cancer, we see using ‘Radiation’ (ultrawave) light and heat to oxidize the affected cells by annihilating carbonized cells (free radicals).
Spiritual healing (miracle healings) is a “re-winding” and “washing” of the “psychic dirt” parallel to the scientific pursuit of “genetic washing” by the power, invoking god in the life of man. In the Christian context, it may occur during the charismatic retreat, eucharistic adoration, confession or listening the Word of God, etc. It is similar to ‘formatting of software ‘in a computer to do away with “virus”, so that it functions effectively.
Some years back, I happened to hear the “witnessing” of a woman in a retreat center. She was said to have suffered some kind of serious “blisters in the body” that no physicians could heal. She told that she came, covering her whole body with cotton, patched with the skin. On the third day of the retreat, she felt “heavy sweating” and “the cotton” getting loosened, as if they would fall down. She knew something was happening. She rushed to her room and found that her blistering wounds and the scars were no more there”.
Later she shared that she had been very badly treated by her step mother for no fault of hers for a prolonged period of time, even accused her of being pregnant outside nuptials. She came for the retreat as a “last attempt” while medical colleges wrote off as “a rare skin cancer” which had no healing possible. During the retreat, she learned the value of “forgiveness”. She told that she forgave her parents, near and dear ones. The moment she forgave, conscience made clear, purged her soul, washed away the aggression and anger stored in her heart, the body began to be “electrified” and she “sweated”, the “blisters shrunk”, (biological response for a spiritual restoration) leading to the “normalcy of skin”.
An analysis of this spiritual healing reveals the following: –
- A total dependency on god and god alone (faith)
- Allowing the Word of God to work within (self-knowledge) / self-acceptance
- Healing of the mind / soul that in turn healing the body.
- That this healing is the result of an “integral renewal of relation” with god, within self, with others (love of god and neighbor).
The above analysis melts down the conflict between “psychology and spirituality” and that of “body and mind”. As a matter of fact, spirituality of healing is “total and integral”.
The very public ministry of Jesus begins with “curing the sick” (Mt.4,23;8,17) and he commanded his apostles to continue this ministry in the Church. In most cases, we hear Jesus uttering the maxim of healing, “Your faith has healed you” and “Sin no more” which indicate diseases and death are the fruit of sin. Contrary to it, Jesus came to “give life and life abundantly”. He is the “giver of life (Zoes Gk.= life force (Jn 9,18), “the living water” (Jn,4,1-42).
The method he employed in healing is mostly “touch”. And some “natural ingredients like mud and spittle”. As an English adage goes”, I touched, you grew”, the touch of Jesus was the touch of love, a leper could never imagine in the Jewish society. The touch in a spiritual healing is more than a kinetic one. It is the experience of God (Anubhava) that elevates to the original state “I am good” as much as god found all what he created was “good”.
To conclude, health is the feeling of “welfare”, (Vasallam Arabic) produced by the “integrity of body, mind and soul in relation to the people and nature around him. In this sense, “eco-theology” and spirituality has a lot to do with healing. The original integrity of man (the child like nature- sub-conscious innocence) is pullulated by the circumstances one grows up, affecting the “equilibrium”. Spirituality of healing restores the imbalances by purging the sub-conscious (soul) and thereby vivifying the bodily cells to the normalcy, eliminating roots of diseases.