Christian Science in Colorado

“Everyone eventually needs medical care in an emergency room somewhere; so, it’s only fair and reasonable that everyone have health care insurance.” That was how one U.S. Congressman recently responded to my inquiry not too long ago.

In fact, he had agreed to meet with me and a few other constituents to talk about health care reform, particularly one of the key provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”) – the that all Americans be required to have health insurance coverage by January 1, 2014.

Like so many others, he saw such insurance (and the associated premiums) as the “only way to pay for the costs of universal health care.”

But, it was his first statement – that “everyone eventually needs medical care in the emergency room” – that caught my attention, as he repeated it several times during our discussion. At first, I found myself nodding in agreement. Then, I started pushing back mentally.

“Wait a minute,” I thought. “I know several friends and relatives who lived into their 80’s or 90’s and either DID NOT NEED or CHOSE NOT TO USE the traditional, drug-based, medical system of health care, nor did they ever require the services of an emergency room.” They had learned to rely on a different system of health care – one based on prayer that increased their spiritual consciousness and led to effective healing of illness and disease.

As if on cue, two other constituents spoke up and told the Congressman what I’d just been thinking. They openly (but graciously) took issue with his statement that “everyone eventually needs medical care” and shared instances in their own families where that was not true. He seemed surprised, . . and genuinely interested in hearing of their own first-hand experiences.

Recent surveys have confirmed that 40% of American adults spend $34 billion (out-of-pocket) on a variety of alternative treatments, ranging from prayer to nutrition and exercise, to meditation and yoga, and beyond. Three out of four health care workers admit to using some kind of “alternative” health practice.

In fact, society may be far ahead of the media, whose predominant focus still seems to be on achieving and maintaining health through drug-based medical care.

I’ve found a health care system that meets all the goals of the current emphasis on health care reform – accessibility to anyone 24/7; affordability; and effectiveness. It “reforms” or transforms thought and consciousness spiritually and results in healing. For me, it has not only restored health in cases of illness or injury, but it’s a way of maintaining health on a daily basis.

And, here’s another thought-provoking post from friend and colleague, John Clague in Oregon . Enjoy!

By John D. Clague, Christian Science Committee on Publication for Oregon

That’s the “elevator” training I often gave to my staff when I was a manager.  It’s a foundational principle they needed to understand because relationships bring results.  If they didn’t understand and apply this principle they weren’t going to be successful.

Building relationships isn’t horse trading or politics.

It’s establishing a rapport that engenders understanding, trust, compassion, and a conviction that you care for the other person.  It’s being willing to help them in their time of need, and knowing that others will help you too.

History is rife with examples of businesses and professions not understanding how important relationships are.  And history is full of examples where it’s inherent in an organization’s culture.

Research is now finding that “relationships” are at the core of a more complex dynamic that has a significant impact on health.  These are called “therapeutic relationships” and they directly affect the effectiveness of drugs.

The impact of the therapeutic relationship on drug efficacy didn’t surface until the last few years. It had long been assumed that drugs were effective for two basic reasons.  Either the chemicals in the drug caused a physiological change, or the patient was “tricked” into thinking he was better, though all other clinical indications said he wasn’t.

Even as far back as the nineteenth century, medical research by Mary Baker Eddy on homeopathy led her to the conclusion that the homeopathic attenuations were acting as placebos rather than having a bonafide pharmaceutical effect on her patients.

Present day researchers such as Irving Kirsch, Associate Director of the Placebo Studies Program at the Harvard Medical School, are finding that there is a third very potent reason drugs work.  The recipient’s relationship with the person caring for them, or administering the drug, is therapeutic in and of itself.  It doesn’t matter which drug they are given, whether a placebo or a bonafide pharmaceutical.  Randomized clinical trials studying placebos are showing this to be true.

“The most important ingredient in any placebo is the doctor’s bedside manner…”, so says Steve Silberman, a renowned award-winning science writer. 1 [T]he care and attention of clinicians… have been found in many…studies to be crucial for eliciting placebo effects. 2

Getting to the root of how the placebo works is adding dimension to our understanding of the mind-body relationship.  I suspect that eventually, as we continue to probe deeper, the research will lead to a more substantive “therapeutic relationship”.

Eddy’s research into homeopathy eventually led her to similar conclusions. In her own words, “The author’s medical researches and experiments had prepared her thought for the metaphysics of Christian Science.” 3

I wonder if we could say that she discovered the health benefits of a completely different kind therapeutic relationship — one with a higher source?

In my own experience I have found that nurturing a relationship with a spiritual source brings goodness and health into my life. And I’ve found the best way for me to care for and develop this relationship is through prayer. It skips the placebo altogether.

Research has shown that those who pray daily and nurture their therapeutic relationship with the divine, are healthier and live longer.4

Yes, it’s all about relationships.

First published on OregonLive.com

Apparently, our beliefs can help us. It’s been proven. If we believe we will be healthier, we can be.

For example:

Patients in a Baylor School of Medicine study were divided into three groups. Dr. Bruce Moseley performed surgery on the first group. With another group, he utilized a different surgical technique. Both were standard treatments for arthritic knees.

The third group, however, received a fake surgery. They were sedated, and the doctor talked and acted as if there was a real surgical operation taking place. He even splashed salt water, simulating the sound of a knee-washing procedure. Each of the groups was prescribed the same postoperative care, including an exercise program.

This was a designed randomized, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of arthroscopy for osteoarthritis of the knee.

In The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Conscious, Matter & Miracles, Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D., professor and cell biologist, describes the outcome of the study:

“The results were shocking. Yes, the groups who received the surgery, as expected, improved. But the placebo group [the patients who received the fake surgery] improved just as much as the other two groups! …the results were clear to Moseley: ‘My skill as a surgeon had no benefit on these patients. The entire benefit of surgery for osteoarthritis of the knee was the placebo effect.’ [Later, Television] footage showed members of the placebo group walking and playing basketball, in short doing things they reported they could not do before their ‘surgery.’ The placebo patients didn’t find out for two years that they had gotten fake surgery.”

Yes, apparently, our beliefs can help us. However, it seems, what we believe can harm us, as well. This too has been proven.

For example:

In 1974, Dr. Clifton Meador began treating Sam Londe for cancer of the esophagus. A condition considered 100 percent fatal at the time. He received the treatment even though everyone in the medical community believed the cancer was unbeatable. And no one was shocked when Londe passed away just weeks after his initial diagnosis.

It was when an autopsy found no trace of esophageal cancer that the shock set in. Dr. Lipton, in The Biology of Belief, also quotes Meador as saying, thirty years after Londe’s death, “I thought he had cancer. He thought he had cancer. Everybody around him thought he had cancer… did I remove hope in some way?”

Yes, evidently, if others and we believe we are on the decline or suffering with a disease, these sickly beliefs can cause us to suffer further and even die.

Don’t these two situations hint to how, ultimately, the body is thought driven, and perhaps, thought manifest? If this is true, how do we keep from harming ourselves? As well, how do we stop others’ beliefs from impacting our own health negatively?

Lipton, in The Biology of Belief, writes, “Learning how to harness your mind to promote growth is the secret of life. …Of course the secret of life is not a secret at all. Teachers like Buddha and Jesus have been telling us the same story for millennia. Now science is pointing in the same direction. It is not our genes but our beliefs that control our lives.”

So, if our beliefs control our health, isn’t it important to know how to regulate our beliefs for the better?

Mary Baker Eddy, a Christian healer and teacher in the early 1900s, investigated how beliefs alter health. Her examination of the mental and spiritual nature of existence led her to discover we can harness our mind through improved spiritual understanding.

Her take on this was: Watch what you believe and gain each day a greater spiritual sense of life.

We must admit that we often allow our minds to be filled and governed by fears, hates, and stress. Each of these can apparently impact our bodies in harmful ways.

Understanding that to be healthy, one must utilize spiritual understanding to stay mentally vigilant and active, Mary Baker Eddy encouraged others to “Blot out the images of mortal thought and its beliefs in sickness …Take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action. Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made [you] capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on [you].”

Yes, what we believe, we experience. Shakespeare even claimed, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

With this awareness, can we afford to sit back and let beliefs wreak havoc on our bodies? I don’t believe we can, not when it is possible to correct harmful beliefs with spiritual understanding.

– Keith Wommack is a Syndicated Columnist & Blogger, Christian Science practitioner and teacher, husband, and step-dad. He is a legislative liaison for spiritual healing & Christian Science in Texas. He has been described as a spiritual spur (since every horse needs a little nudge now and then). Keith’s syndicated columns/blogs originate at: http://texashealthblog.com/

Could modern medicine, as we know it, be coming to an end?  According to Dr. Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), absolutely.

In remarks at a recent conference on combating antimicrobial resistance, Dr. Chan highlighted the fact that as bacteria continue to build up resistance to antibiotics, common infections could become deadly and diseases that were once curable will become more difficult and more expensive to treat.

©iStockphoto.com/ShutterWorx

“Let me give an example of what this means for a disease of global significance,” said Dr. Chan.  “Among the world’s 12 million cases of tuberculosis in 2010, WHO estimates that 650,000 involved multidrug-resistant TB strains… typically requiring two years of medication with toxic and expensive medicines…. Even with the best of care, only slightly more than 50% of these patients will be cured.”

“Prospects for turning this situation around look dim,” says Dr. Chan, noting that pharmaceutical companies lack the incentive to develop new antibiotics when gross misuse of these drugs in, for instance, food production only accelerates their eventual ineffectiveness.

“A post-antibiotic era means, in effect, an end to modern medicine as we know it.”
But despite this dire outlook, there is hope.

Beyond what Dr. Chan suggests in terms of prescribing antibiotics appropriately and only for therapeutic purposes, there’s another trend afoot that could very well reduce or even eliminate the need for antibiotics altogether.

In a study on the future of health care in America prepared for The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (2003, updated 2010), it’s predicted that, “Over the next decade, our view of health will be expanded to encompass mental, social, and spiritual well being.”  This reflects a growing acknowledgement by researchers and medical professionals alike of the direct link between spirituality and health.  But even more significant is the number of people who are already turning to spiritual forms of care – and seeing results.

Like my friend, Marivic.

Years ago, Marivic was diagnosed with a latent tuberculosis infection and prescribed antibiotics.  She became sick, lost a lot of weight, and began losing her hair.  In search of a different approach to dealing with the disease, she soon found herself attending church where she discovered that it was possible to treat her condition solely through spiritual means.  Three years later, she was required to take another TB test and was found to be completely free of the infection.

There are many others, of course, besides Marivic relying on spiritual means in whole or in part to maintain their health.  And while their methods are by no means uniform and the results not always medically verified, there seems to be enough evidence to warrant further experimentation and study.

Exactly what impact this might have on the use of antibiotics remains to be seen.  What is certain, however, is that a shift is taking place in terms of the world’s approach to health from a strictly biomedical model to one that takes into consideration other factors, including spirituality.

Perhaps, then, the end of modern medicine – and the advent of a more holistic approach to health – will turn out to be a very good thing.

Here’s a great post from friend and colleague, Ingrid Peschke in Massachusetts. Enjoy it . . . with a smile! Thanks, Ingrid.

Photos used for illustrative purposes only. ThinkStock

Here’s an interesting post from friend and colleague Bill Scott representing the state of Washington. It’s his take on a recent article by well-known columnist and author, Anne Lamott. Enjoy!

By: Bill Scott

Do you wonder if you’re giving your children everything they need?

I am intrigued by the power of expectations; by the impact they have on our well-being.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Thomas Curry, a licensed Texas psychotherapist about this phenomenon.

Dr. Curry explained, “Expectations are a hot topic in healthcare practice and research. It is widely recognized that an individual’s, or group of individuals, expectations either help or hurt healthcare outcomes. Why this is so, and how it happens, unfortunately remains a mystery. However, what is not mysterious at all is the fact that expectations play a very pivotal role in the progression of mental and medical disease, as well as it has a strong role in any treatment effect.”

This makes me wonder: Do expectations of decline and illness allow for unchecked fear to manifest as disease on the body where it can develop and spread? Are expectations of health possibly divine urgings that animate us to discover more than we are accepting of life at a given moment?

One family’s experience, detailed in full in Robert Peel’s Spiritual Healing in a Scientific Age, suggests that what we truly expect, we get.

In 1947, Elmer and Doris Wiederkehr agreed to adopt an unwanted child. Prenatal tests indicated that the child would be born handicapped, but the Wiederkehrs were not deterred. Unfortunately, the child, Les, was born with multiple handicaps, including unformed vocal chords, a damaged heart, serious bone and blood conditions, and cerebral palsy. Doctors predicted that Les would live no longer than eight months.

Doris had been healed of a curvature of the spine through prayer, and had learned to trust God, to expect healing. So she prayed and cared for the baby’s physical needs as best she could. The doctors felt that Les was too frail for either surgery or medication.

In 1983, Doris explained: “The medical prognosis at that time was that [Les] would never be able to speak, stand or walk properly, or receive an education. We were told that he would continue to suffer convulsions, that he had a blood deficiency which inhibited coagulation, and that the condition of his heart made survival past early childhood unlikely.”

When asked, “What happened when you took [Les] home?” She replied, “Well, he had a difficulty in breathing. It was hard for him to eat. He couldn’t walk. He was in bed most of the time the first few years… I’ll have to admit that the physical deformities didn’t bother me. I really didn’t see them the way some others did. He had beautiful blue eyes. He responded to love. And I fully expected — I never doubted that he wouldn’t find his complete freedom.”

As a Christian Scientist, Doris read the Bible, prayed, and shared with Les what she was learning about God’s care and Les’ spiritual nature. Her expectancy of betterment had been forged by her own experiences. Even though Elmer was not a Christian Scientist, he was supportive of Doris’ expectations of progress for Les. Doris said, “[Les] just kept me trusting and expecting. You could see awareness in his eyes and that he was grasping [what] we were telling him.”

“[When he was almost three years old, Les] was standing upright. He fell a great deal and we did have to pad the doorways and our furniture to keep him from harming himself. But there was a lot of progress after that. And we, everyone in the family, talked with him whether he answered or not. We gave him time to answer. And we could tell by the expression on his face what he was thinking. We just never treated him as though he didn’t talk.”

“We took a six-or eight-week trip at one point because the children were beginning to tease him a little in the neighborhood… On the way back, he improved. He gained weight… And on the day we came home, the boys were tired… and took a nap… I decided to lie down too. My husband had taken the car to a garage.”

“We were all asleep when a man entered our home… I heard my son, Les, saying in a shaky voice, ‘No other gods before you. You don’t belong in here.’ No, these weren’t the words of the first Commandment, but the power of the first Commandment was in the words. And then he repeated it again in a very firm, strong voice. And the man… never touched anything… and walked out of the house.”

“When he got back into bed, he said, ‘Mommy can I come lay with you?’ And I said yes… I would have liked to have taken him in my arms and danced around the house with him…”

“My husband came home… And I said, ‘Dad, what we’ve been expecting and knowing would happen has taken place. Les can talk.’ And he said, ‘Well, its not going to make any difference. We always gave him time to talk. So we can just go on.’ …Les is going to walk, he’s going to skip, he’s going to run, he’s going to do all the things.’”

“The heart condition was healed when he was eight years old. He rang the doorbell because he needed help, and when I opened the door he fell in. He was unconscious. I did call the hospital…  They came out with a portable cardiograph, and they didn’t think he would last… When he awakened he was not exhausted like he had been from other attacks. He was just as though nothing had happened. He never had another attack after that.”

“And then he began to swim, and set a record in an ocean race when he was only nine. And still, I would say, he didn’t have complete use of the right arm and right leg. He was about fifteen before you’d say he no longer fell without warning. He was the catcher on the Little League team that whole season. He loves all sports.”

“I always told him that God had need of him. And that meant He had need of his thinking. And that if he wasted time resenting or having hurt feelings over people’s unkindness, why, he wouldn’t hear God’s voice. And he wouldn’t recognize his healing and his freedom when it came. He’d be too busy feeling sorry for himself. Or angry, you know. So he learned to forgive and he learned it so well that it’s helped him in later life.”

When Doris gave this interview, in 1983, Les was then happily married, physically sound, and fully employed in a plumbing firm.

The Wiederkehrs’ experience causes me to further wonder: Do our expectations cause what we yearn for to take place or do they cause what has always been available and possible to be uncovered?

As well: What molds our expectations? What causes us to expect good health or healing? What makes us expect illness and suffering?

The answers to these questions will have a tremendous impact on our health for better or worse, now and in the coming years.

Dr. Curry concluded his comments to me about expectations by stating, “The reality is that our thoughts, and our expectations have a real effect on our physical experience.”

I know that Elmer, Doris, and Les would certainly agree.

– Keith Wommack is a Syndicated Health Blogger, Christian Science practitioner and teacher, husband, and step-dad. He is a legislative liaison for spiritual healing & Christian Science in Texas. He has been described as a spiritual spur (since every horse needs a little nudge now and then).

The Federal Office of the Committee on Publication posted this update on what Christian Scientists are doing with regard to the federal healthcare reform known as the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”)

Religious conscience—and Christian Science—in the news

The new health care law requirement to provide employees of religiously-affiliated institutions with contraceptive services has sparked a national debate about religious freedom in health care. The contraception issue is importantly distinct from the concern of Christian Scientists, though attention paid to conscience issues generally has helped raise awareness on Capitol Hill. We continue to build bipartisan support for a solution for Christian Scientists under the health care law, which currently provides neither an accommodation for the type of care we use nor an exemption that applies to Christian Scientists.

In a few cases, the media inaccurately reported that Christian Scientists are exempt from or accommodated by the individual mandate to purchase insurance; the Committee on Publication corrected these inaccuracies. In other instances, some pundits and lawmakers tried to stereotype Christian Science and pull it into the polarizing and emotional issue of birth control. Whenever appropriate, the Committee—with the help of other church members—has responded according to our mission in removing “impositions on the public in regard to Christian Science”.

To see a sampling of related articles mentioning Christian Science use this link

Friend and colleague Don Ingwerson penned this recent post. Enjoy!

photo by Glenn Euloth

by Don Ingwerson

Article first published on Blogcritics.

Our family enjoys coming together at least once a year to share past experiences and hopes for the future. Occasionally, the discussion veers into politics, opinions on public personalities, or health. Good intentions at the beginning of discussions don’t always end with good results, though.  H. Gilbert Welch expressed a similar parallel in a New York Times Op Ed article about disease prevention and early diagnosis to foster better health.  Although prevention is well intended, prevention efforts may create bigger problems.  He suggested that by not spending our time on healing actual illnesses, we unintentionally end up searching for disease.  Instead, our energies need to be spent on more positive and constructive ways of treating the actual disease. The title of his article, “If You Feel O.K., Maybe You Are O.K.,” gives us a real hint as to what he is thinking. Welch makes the point that the fastest way to get heart disease, autism, glaucoma, diabetes, and vascular problems, is to be screened for it.  In other words, the problem is about diagnosis and overtreatment.

So what should be done in place of this searching and screening? What can be done to help our bodies stay healthy instead of searching for what could go wrong? One answer is that individuals are increasingly encouraged to participate in activities that help keep them healthy. But according to Welch, this is the individual’s responsibility and it can’t be successfully contracted out to professionals.  In other words, the individual must be responsible for his own health.

Welch states, “We would all be better off if the medical system got a little closer to its original mission of helping sick patients, and let the healthy be.” To keep healthy, research is indicating that happiness, lack of stress, and prayer (to name a few) are important to health. I’m encouraged to note that these important qualities affecting health are actually under my control. It’s been eye opening to learn of discoveries by a growing number of medical researchers who are beginning to take a close look at evidence once cast aside as nothing more than anecdotal observations. These observations are increasingly being called alternative therapies or complementary alternative medicine.

Dr. Andrew Weil in “Spontaneous Happiness” wrote of the body’s innate abilities to maintain and repair, regenerate, and adapt to injury.  He expressed that if more people trusted in the body’s potential for self-healing there would be much less need for costly health care and interventions. Schiffman in a University of Rochester study commented that prayer was the most widespread alternative therapy in America and that over 85% of people confronted with a major illness pray. The National Prayer in Medicine Survey reported that across multiple studies and polls, most Americans indicate that they believe in a higher power (90-96%).

Not only are researchers and medical personnel increasingly supporting the use of alternative therapies, religious thinkers have long advocated the use of prayer in one’s health considerations.  One such individual, Mary Baker Eddy, wrote in Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures, “The highest prayer is not one of faith merely; it is demonstration. Such prayer heals sickness….”

I have found the use of prayer very helpful in maintaining a healthy life style for decades and I continue to benefit from the helpful insights of others who are demonstrating a deeper understanding of this divine consciousness.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, polite conversations on certain subjects may raise uncomfortable points, as in the case of health care decision making. But as Mark Twain said, “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always got”