The Tribune

By the Rev Canon B Sebastian Campbell, CM

“We are not human beings trying to be Spiritual, we are Spiritual beings trying to be human.” (Anonymous).

We are made in the image and likeness of God. (Genesis)

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” (Albert Einstein 1879-1952).

Ancient Medicine was practised by religious and spiritual leaders throughout the history of mankind and shows a connection between mind and body. The early Hebrew culture focused on disease as punishment for disobeying or contradicting God’s Law. In the New Testament Jesus frequently deployed the term, “Your sins are forgiven” when affecting healing. We continue to see the correlation between sin and illness like obesity, some causes of Type II Diabetes, Venereal Disease, etc.

As science progressed through many centuries a great separation occurred between science and spirituality. Great progress was made in science, but science lost its ancient connection to spirituality and religion. Health Care Professionals need to learn how to integrate the fields of medicine, psyciatry, and spirituality to truly heal the human body, mind, and spirit.

Dr Herbert Benson of Howard Medical Schools states that, “Anywhere from sixty to ninety percent of visits to doctors are in the mind-body-stress-related realm.”

A research in America shows that over fifty percent of patients on hospital beds can, “get up and walk”, if preventative care was given, if they are ministered to spiritually. Research also shows that hospitals with a developed department in Pastoral Care see patients heal far more rapidly than those hospitals without. Departments of Pastoral Care are rapidly developing in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Based on the premise that humans are first and foremost spiritual beings, Richard Cabot (cardiologist) and Anton Boisen (Psychiatrist), some 80 years ago, in the United States, experimented with a training programme that eventually became known as Clinical Pastoral Education. Seminary students in their final year were required to do a practical year in the hospitals, they were assigned to given wards and working as a member of the health care team. This course of study is now mandatory for Ordination. This course is also now available to both the ordained and matured individuals of all faith-groups. This course is also required for persons going into Chaplaincy. (This will help to weed the “Quacks” out of the system).

Most physicians probably don’t fully acknowledge the despair and suffering that patients feel at the level of the soul. Medical Science can successfully eliminate the physical pain, but commonly ignores the pain deep within one’s soul - a pain that can be much more destructive and debilitating than physical suffering. The spiritual integrative approach teaches one to shift one’s fear and anxiety to courage, hope and peacefulness.

Spirituality is an adjunct, not a competitor to conventional medical therapy and has tremendous potential to improve the life of the patient.

Everyone has a unique spirit just like we have a unique personality or genetic make-up. A patient in the presence of someone of faith can be greater strengthened in such an environment. Here the emphasis is on faith not religious denomination. Everyone identifies with a faith group, for everyone is spiritual.

In a 1952 poll in America, ninety three percent of physicians believed that they should consider their patients religious needs, yet only seventeen percent of these same physicians admitted to having significant religious discussions with their patients. C.P.E. would enable more health care givers to be equipped to deal spiritually with patients. Another study of two hundred patients showed that forty-eight percent wanted their physicians to pray with them. However, it is rare for patients to express that desire. Why does this dichotomy exist between spiritual wants and medical practice?

Every human culture has used a form of religion or prayer during periods of stress, disease, and health-crisis. Healing of disease and illness were closely connected to the religious beliefs of human culture, despite the fact that some of these cultures were located on opposite sides of the earth. Remember, there were no telephones, television, e-mail, to connect these people, and there was no common language to allow verbal communication. Yet a common theme in these cultures was the ultimate connection between medicine and religion.

Cultures have combined these two disciplines in one person known as the Obeah-man, to whom people came for and were healed. The prescribed bush medicine will always be in our culture. In the Bible we see this coming together in the priest. He had to certify a cure. He was the Chief Medical Officer. Therefore, Jesus says to the cleansed lepers, “Go show yourself to the priest.” In Luke 10 Jesus sends out his disciples on a Mission of Healing. He gave them authority to drive out demons and to cure diseases.

The word Medicine means mystery. When translated from their tribal languages the practitioner of medicine was the mystery man. The mystery man used remedies including roots and herbs but also dealt with the mystery and charms. If the disease was not cured and death occurred; it was the will of the Great-Spirit. All these ancient cultures shared this common bond between medicine and religion.

It is ironic that science has come back to religion - not to blindly accept its doctrine, but to scientifically investigate the nature of religious experiences, such as prayer and meditation. Do prayer and meditation evoke similar biologic changes in the brain? Do measurable, physiologic changes occur in our brains during prayer, meditation, or mystic experiences? The answer, from experience, is a resounding yes. This study included Buddhists and Franciscan nuns at prayer.

Health care providers, like doctors, nurses, technicians, etc. can better help the healing process if they themselves are spiritual, thus giving a sense of the divine. Pray before and after a procedure thus reminding themselves that they depend on some greater power for success.

I appeal for us to help engineer a properly established Pastoral Care Department in our public hospital systems so as to bring greater meaning to holistic health care. Pray we catch up with more progressive health care facilities.

It is clear that the worlds of science and religion need to unite in the Bahamas and achieve even greater scientific and spiritual progress in the future. The great divide must vanish, so that we can embark on a journey of spiritual transformation and discovery that could change our delivery of health care for the better.

ADDENDUM

1. We must be mindful of Religious Rites. These are peculiar to every faith group and denomination. Religious Rite is medicine to soul and body. It keeps a person in touch with the Divine. Some Rites are: Holy Communion, Baptism, Anointing.

2. The man of religion travels with a family long after the death of a loved one; his concern goes beyond the patient. Too, long after a patient is discharged the person is ministered to as he moves towards total healing.

3. Can we consider a lifestyle centre in the Bahamas where we can combine religion and medicine? Together we can fight many preventative diseases. The Bible teaches that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

4. The Medical Evangelist - a proposed paper. How can we train qualified persons to take the message of healing and religion so as to flood our churches, schools, etc? With proper education? (Please contact me for a work-paper on this, so as to stimulate debate).