What about the cases in which faith-healers effect cures? Remember that the question is not about successes, but about supernatural successes. Many illnesses respond quite naturally and normally to the “power of suggestion.” Indeed, that power can be quite impressive.
Doctors are generally agreed that at least half of patients they treat have psychosomatic illnesses. The term “psychosomatic” is a combination of two Greek words: psyche means mind and soma means body. Thus psychosomatic refers to the powerful effect the mind has over the state of the body. Psychosomatic illnesses are not merely those where people imagine they are ill but are not. Rather, such illnesses include very real physical disorders that in one way or another relate to emotional factors. A leading insurance company says this in their pamphlet about stress, “Physicians have found that a majority of patients have ailments that are brought about or made worse by psychosomatic problems.” Medical authorities suggest that between 60% and 85% of patients in doctors’ waiting rooms are a “result of ailments created by illness-promoting thinking” such as stress.
H.E. Stanton, in a book entitled The Healing Factor, cites this case history of a severe illness cured by the mind.
A patient with a far-advanced cancer sought entry to a study of a new anticancer drug named Krebiozen. Initially, his request was refused because his case was so bad that he was felt to be an inappropriate subject to use in the experiment. As he had no hope of recovery from the illness his use of the new drug would be a waste of time. However, so insistent was he, that he was finally given the medication and included in the study. Having heard about the miraculous powers claimed for Krebiozen, the patient had developed a great faith in its ability to cure him. Accordingly, he was not surprised when his tumor masses “melted like snowflakes on a hot stove.” His doctors, however, certainly were surprised, for this patient, who had previously required an oxygen mask to breathe, became fully active, left the hospital and flew his plane at an altitude of 4,000 meters with no ill effects.
After some time reports appeared in the press that Krebiozen had not lived up to expectations [and was] ineffective as a cancer cure. The patient’s tumor masses returned and he again became hospitalized and confined to bed. Impressed by the patient’s previous positive reaction to an apparently ineffective drug, the physician in charge of his case restored his faith by telling him that Krebiozen apparently deteriorated upon standing. This was the reason for the poor results, which were quoted in the press. To overcome this problem, he would be given a double strength dose. The injection was actually water. Despite this, the same amazing recovery took place. The apparently terminal cancer remitted, and the patient resumed his normal life.
Unfortunately, a little later an official announcement emanating from the American Medical Association stated that Krebiozen was of no value in the treatment of cancer. Within a few days the patient was dead.
As Dr. Stanton goes on to point out, similar results have been observed through many different things, such as confidence in a certain doctor, a remedy, a food, a vitamin pill, a religious belief, or a physical exercise. In each case the item within itself may not be effective. The common factor in each case is the patient’s strong faith in that item. It is that faith which brings about the cure. “It is the very existence of belief in a powerful, beneficial being or force which is the key to healing, not the particular god who is invoked.” That is why people through the centuries, from the ancient priests of pagan Greece, to modern shamans and witch doctors, to modern faith-healers, have been able to effect some remarkable cures. They have made use of the well-known principle of positive thinking. But then so too have medical doctors for many centuries. Sometimes doctors administer a pill, which in itself is quite useless, but since the patient believes it to work it does work. Here is a typical definition of a pill called a placebo:
A preparation containing nothing that can either help or harm the person who takes it. A placebo is sometimes prescribed because the act of taking it can in fact relieve symptoms if the person believes it will help him.
Notice the importance of implicit faith. The effects can be quite amazing. In an article entitled “The Doctor Within Us All,” Reader’s Digest reported an experiment at the University of California. A group of volunteers had just had their wisdom teeth taken out. Some received morphine as a painkiller. Others received a placebo they thought was a painkiller. Of the latter group, a third “reported a dramatic reduction in pain.” Another experiment was conducted on 14 people who had “seemingly intractable warts” on both sides of the body. They were hypnotized and the suggestion made that the warts on the one side of the body would go away. Within several weeks, for 9 of the patients, “all or nearly all the warts on the suggested side had vanished.”
Such is the tremendous power of suggestion. Those who have attended faithhealing meetings know how emotions are aroused and expectations excited. The atmosphere is deliberately structured for maximum psychological effect. When we remember the large percentage of people who suffer from psychosomatic illnesses—that is, illnesses likely to respond in some degree to suggestion—we should not be surprised to find some successes. As astonishing as some of these successes are, they are natural and also take place in daily non-religious settings. They cannot be classified as truly miraculous in the biblical sense. They certainly do not compare with the miracles of Jesus. He healed defects that clearly transcended all natural processes and were far beyond the scope of suggestion.
This brief article does not supply detailed bibliographical information since each person should do personal research. Today, many ordinary people have ready access to the most up-to-date information. Among other things, you may find it helpful to compile a list of “psychosomatic disorders” that can be related to emotional factors. The list may look something like this:
- Respiratory – asthma, hyperventilation
- Gastrointestinal – anorexia, obesity, constipation, diarrhea, ulcers, ulcerative colitis
- Pain – migraine, tension headaches, pelvic pain, dysmenorrhea
- Others – heart disease, allergies, skin problems, impotence, stuttering.
One encyclopedia reports, “Psychosomatic disorders may affect almost any part of the body. Even where a disease is not primarily psychosomatic, the recuperative powers of the body may be largely determined by the mental attitude of the patient.” You may have heard of the “will to live” whereby a dying person recovers, seemingly because sheer determination has tipped the balance in favor of health. God is the one who placed these natural and yet amazing powers in the human body. We can be thankful to Him for the good health that comes from positive attitudes, and we should take full advantage of it. But false prophets do a grave disservice to God and His generosity when they exploit His natural gifts to claim for themselves supernatural authority and power.