When miracles happen

bshubbard — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:01:00 GMT

Praying for another’s wellbeing is problematic, even at this time of year when our thoughts might turn to miracles and healings of the sick. It’s not a problem for the sender or receiver, but it most certainly is for the scientist, the researcher, the doctor and the sceptic, especially the sceptic.

Prayer and its other distant healing cousins, such as reiki, faith healing, spiritual and remote healing, shouldn’t work – but, on balance, the evidence suggests they do.

For the sceptic, this is impossible. To suggest that prayer works also requires a new science of biology and a complete overhaul of what we think we are. And we won’t even get into the existence of a God who answers prayers.

The science already exists, of course. It’s quantum mechanics, and more specifically, non-locality, which suggests that something can affect something else even though it may be miles away. As Einstein rather unkindly put it, it’s “spooky action at a distance.”

The trouble for medicine is that its own science of measurement is hopelessly cumbersome and inappropriate to capture such elusive effects. This perhaps explains why the studies that have tried to monitor distant healing and prayer have been so contradictory. Some say prayer works, others say it doesn’t; a few even suggest that prayer has a negative effect, and the condition of the person being prayed for actually worsens, which, at least, suggests some effect, I suppose.

But when researchers carry out meta-analyses of all the ‘good’ studies, they invariably discover – possibly to their own astonishment – that prayer does work. Even arch-sceptic Edzard Ernst had to admit as much when he researched the subject.

And what are the metaphysical implications of this discovery? Does it mean God exists, or that people have remarkable self-healing powers that are released when they know they are being prayed for, or that all of us are connected by some force?

This is the stuff of our Special Report this month – Spooky Healing at a Distance – (http://www.wddty.com/spooky-healing-at-a-distance.html) - and it should give us all pause. It brings to mind Hamlet’s famous quote: “There are more things in heaven and earth than dreamt of in your philosophy.”

And if belief is a constituent part of successful prayer, perhaps including it in our philosophy increases its possibility.

Re: Sores that won't heal

maleal — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 11:08:38 GMT

My mother suffered from terrible ulcers and a gangrenous foot, both of which failed to respond to ALL allopathic regimes. When the district nurses gave up their conventional treatments because they caused too much pain, I was distraught, as I felt the solution was down to me but there was little time. My mother's condition was deteriorating, she was sensitive to anything aggressive and I had nowhere to turn. I prayed with maniacal fervour, believed in a positive outcome and did frantic research on the internet. Within one day, I came up with a product called DERMACYN (called Microcyn in the US). I bought a couple of bottles and my mother's sores cleared up like magic as results were virtually immediate. This product did not eradicate the gangrene, as that cause was circulatory, but it halted the infection, cleaned the nurses' residual yellow gloop and cleared skin lesions like magic. Best of all, it was clean, clear liquid, there was absolutely no pain whatsoever in its application, and my mother found it soothing. The nurses and doctors were pretty impressed by the results! This product is nothing short of miraculous and needs no special storage. It is, to the best of my knowledge, only available in the UK from The Chelsea Pharmacy in London but for more details, contact the USA head office and their very supportive Marketing Director, Dan McFadden. I have recommended it to others and they, too, have been blown away by results. Another product which worked on small areas was Youki. Good luck and believe in your friend's complete recovery - I really do believe she will find it and I wish you both well.

Warmest wishes,

Mercedes Leal

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When miracles happen

Re: Sores that won't heal