The
Efficacy of Religion: An Examination of Placebo Healing
Jane
Watson
English
201
Professor
Leslie Jewkes
6th,
October 2012
Abstract
The
placebo effect has been a deeply studied phenomenon examined by
health professionals and scientists alike throughout the world.
Exploration of the placebo effect in a religious context has taken
place to better understand faith based healing and miracles. Through
the work of neuroscientists, we now have a far better understanding
of how this phenomenon works as it undeniably proves that regardless
of one's faith, the mere belief in God enhances well being.
Jane Watson
Professor
Leslie Jewkes
English
201
6th,
October 2012
The
Efficacy of Religion: An Examination of Placebo Healing
“God does nothing
except in response to believing prayer.” John Wesley said, a famous
evangelist who was known to spend up to two hours daily in prayer. J.
Hudson Taylor remarked, “The prayer power has never been tried to
its full capacity. If we want to see mighty wonders of divine power
and grace wrought in the place of weakness, failure and
disappointment, let us answer God's standing challenge, 'call unto
me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things
which thou knowest not!'” Do evangelists harness the vulnerability
of prospective Christians by creating expectations? Do they enable
their belief by these fantastical stories of God induced healing,
akin to the healing resulting between medically trained professionals
and their patients? The placebo phenomenon may explain more about
the efficacy of healing brought about by religion and prayer than
most are willing to believe.
In the text,
Psychology, it reveals
the placebo effect to be a participants' belief in a drug rather than
the drug itself, or: “the expectations of the participants in a
study can influence their behavior.” (24) The drug here can be a
sugar pill believed to be the real deal or it can extend beyond the
realm of medicine and into other areas of life, such as religion. The
dictionary defines a placebo as a harmless pill, medicine, or
procedure prescribed more for the psychological benefit to the
patient rather than any physiological effect.
Religion and
medicine have often gone hand in hand throughout the ages. According
to the article, The Laying on of Hands: Some Clinical and
Experimental Concerns, “claims of healing powers have been made
for thousands of years, going back to Imhotep, Asclepius, and Jesus.”
During a long time on this earth, people generally believed that
diseases were inflicted as a result of superstitions and Gods.
Hippocrates is credited as the first to declare that diseases were
caused by a natural process, and worked to separate medicine from
religion. Hippocrates declared that disease occurred because of the
environment, what we ate and how we lived...not by wrath brought
about by the Gods. However, the link between God and disease and God
and healing is still largely prevalent in today's world, believed by
thousands across the globe to differing extents upon each continent.
John S. Welch says
in the article, Ritual in Western Medicine and Its Role in Placebo
Healing, “I propose that ritual interaction with a physician
acting in a priestly manner to give meaning and limitations to the
patient's experience is of clinical importance and results in the
powerful placebo effect reported to occur as a result of
doctor-patient interactions.” Interestingly, Welch goes on to say
that a physician has the power within him to directly alter the
outcome of an experience simply by providing a certain level of
sympathy and a display of knowledge and control over the experience.
He mentions the results of an early study that showed a relevant
decrease in narcotic use as well as the length of the hospital stay
for those recovering from surgery due to being visited preoperatively
by a “concerned anesthesiologist who offered a frank explanation of
the pain to expect and attempted to alleviate anxiety by explaining
that post-operative pain was normal.”
The laying on of
hands is a common reference to an action used in religions across the
globe. The use of laying on of hands is to confer a blessing or give
an authority (ordination) to the individual who is usually kneeling
down. While the use of this action is practiced in a variety of ways,
it essentially carries a uniform meaning. For example, The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints uses the laying on of hands to
confirm an individual as a member of the church, or to offer a
blessing of healing, give strength to those in need or to ordain
church members to the various offices held within the institution.
The laying on of hands has been examined by those in the scientific
community with a heavy dose of criticism. Keeping the phenomenon of
the placebo in mind, one can see how the laying on of hands is
dismissed offhand by the scientific community as a placebo effect. In
the event that the laying on of hands does not work, the
practitioners tend to use the excuse that the participant was a
non-believer or didn't carry enough faith. These excuses always
protect the practitioner.
According to the
article, Is 'Divine Healing' in the 'Faith Movement' Founded on
the Principles of Healing in the Bible or Based on the Power of the
Mind? Pretorius says that “according to the Faith Movement,
divine healing is part of God's will for the believer.” He also
states that Divine Healing is a complex process and some believe in
its truth, some believe some of it is true, some believe the absence
of success suggests lack of faith and some believe it is the person
who's praying that is at fault if no healing occurs. Ultimately,
Pretorius believes that healing is “not so much a result of God who
intervenes, but rather a result of human potential to overcome
through the power of the mind.”
Placebos are used
during all drug trials to tell the researchers if the drug in
question has any healing effect at all or if the healing effect is a
result of the patients' belief in the drug. According to Mind Power
News.com, researchers have discovered that the placebo phenomenon
doesn't occur in the head, but rather the brain. Through scientific
research, there's proof that our thoughts may actually interact with
our brain in a physical way. It certainly begs the question about the
legitimacy of religious healing.
It has long been a
mystery as to how the placebo effect works, but thanks to the
dedication of scientists, it's not the mystery it once was. A
research team led by Tor Wager uncovered the area of the brain
responsible for the placebo effect by using positron emission
tomography while applying a placebo pain relief cream to the
patient's forearms. The scans examined brain activity during the
application of the placebo cream, revealing that the treatment caused
the brain to release more opioids, a natural chemical released by the
brain to relieve pain. This chemical release took place in the area
of the brain known as the periadqeductal
gray, an area found in the brainstem.
Medical
scientists also look to the brain to explain faith based healing.
Scientists have long been on the mission to explain religious
experiences. There are some interesting conclusions brought to light
by Andrew Newberg M.D., one of America's experts on the neurological
basis of religion. Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman wrote a
book entitled, How
God Changes Your Brain,
and claim that thinking about a loving God stimulates regions of our
brain that control empathy and reason, and quite the opposite occurs
when we think about a wrathful God. They go on to say, “When it
comes to thinking about God, our brain creates a vast range of
utopian, utilitarian, and sometimes useless theologies...” (5) It's
easy to see how so many people are able to heal themselves with just
the mere thought of God.
Interestingly,
Doctor Andrew Newberg claims that the brain has a difficult time
distinguishing between what's reality and what's fantasy. He says,
“having an accurate perception of reality is not one of the brain's
strongpoints.” (6) This brings on a new meaning to the well coined
phrase, perception is reality, and the placebo effect seems to lend
more truth to that statement. One of the top conclusions the authors
came to in the book, “spiritual practices, even when stripped of
religious beliefs, enhance the neural functioning of the brain in
ways that improve physical and emotional health,” has a direct
impact for those attempting to understand what the placebo effect is
and how it can explain faith based healing.
The
examination of God and faith based miracles, clinical trails using a
placebo and neuroscience are all equally important in unraveling the
truth about the placebo phenomenon. Whether an individual is an
agnostic like Charles Darwin, an atheist like Albert Einstein or
Ernest Hemingway, or a devout follower of God like Martin Luther
King, there is no denying that people are driven by their own
perceived realities; a reality that our brain has constructed to deal
with the outside world. The benefit of religious ritual, meditation
and belief systems are undeniably present, even if science ever can
or ever will disprove the existence of God.
Research
has shown that placebos work better if you take two pills instead of
one, if you take capsules versus pills or if the placebo is injected
rather than swallowed. Ultimately, the phenomenon of the placebo
effect is proof that the human mind is extraordinarily powerful.
However one may look at divine healing or religious healing, the
bizarre effectiveness of the placebo miracle is fascinating and
thought provoking.
Works
Cited
Ciccarelli,
Saundra, and Glenn Meyer. Psychology.
New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2006. Print.
Grad,
Bernard Raymond. "The Laying On Of Hands: Some Clinical And
Experimental Concerns." Journal
Of Religion & Psychical Research 17.4
(1994): 182.Academic
Search Complete.
Web. 6 Oct. 2012.
Newberg,
Andrew M.D., and Mark Robert Waldman. How
God Changes Your Brain.
New York: Ballantine, 2009. Print.
Pretorius,
Stephan P. "Is 'Divine Healing' In The 'Faith Movement' Founded
On The Principles Of Healing In The Bible Or Based On The Power Of
The Mind?." Hervormde
Teologiese Studies
65.1
(2009): 399-405.
Academic
Search Complete.
Web.
6 Oct. 2012.
Welch,
John S. "Ritual In Western Medicine And Its Role In Placebo
Healing."
Journal
Of Religion & Health 42.1
(2003): 21.
Academic
Search Complete.
Web.
6 Oct. 2012.
“10
Fascinating Facts About The Placebo Effect.” Mind Power News. N.p.
2011. Web. 6 Oct. 2012
Bibliography
“Researchers
Demonstrate How Placebo Effect Works in the Brain.” Phys.Org. N.P.
2012. Web. 11 Oct. 2012
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