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What comes after successful placebo surgery?

March 30, 2017 By christianscienceminnesota Leave a Comment

 

Placebo surgery?

Yes.  Not just sugar pills but actual fake operations that result in the same positive outcomes as real surgery.

“The patients didn’t know which procedures they got—real surgery or sham surgery.  Both groups had equivalent results.  A year later, approximately 80% of patients in both groups said their knees felt better.”

Wow.

This was the report from Dr. Teppo Jarvinen, the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation Clinical Professor of Orthopedics and Traumatology at the University of Helsinki, who led a rigorous study of placebo-controlled knee surgery.

The placebo effect also isn’t limited to those who don’t know they’re getting a placebo.  Even when informed that their medicine is made of inert ingredients yet is beneficial, patients still experience positive outcomes.

This all points to how powerful our expectations are!  What we believe in can have a profound physical effect.  You could even call it “mental medicine.”

But surgery?

It’s one thing to take a pill that disappears into the system and expect positive results.  Perhaps it’s even understandable that someone can trust in mysterious benefits of a known placebo.

But surgery is so concrete, so hands on.  In surgery, there’s a definite adjustment.  Someone went in and did something.  How can that be faked?

In the study above, “all received anesthesia and incisions.” For some, the rest was mental.  Just believing that surgery had been done and seeing a confirming incision, was enough to produce lasting physical correction.

Doesn’t that impel the next logical question:  Is it possible for such correction to occur even without fake surgery – completely mentally?

Yes, it can.  From the expectancy that comes through faith.  And I’m not talking about blind faith.

I’m referring to an expectation of good results based on a spiritual understanding, which can bring needed physical change. That’s the kind of understanding I’ve learned to strive for and cultivate in my practice of Christian Science.

Here’s an example of what might be called, “mental surgery.”

“…as I fell, I heard two loud popping sounds coming from my leg….The doctor diagnosed the injury as a severed anterior cruciate ligament, and a torn posterior cruciate ligament….He said I had only two options: one, to have surgery; or two, to undergo several months, if not more, of rehabilitation.  But either way, I would never have full mobility in my leg, and my knee would never be the same or heal properly on its own.

…I was constantly tuning in to God—listening for Him and for the assurance that as His loved and well-constructed idea, I was never for an instant outside of His care or separated from Him.  Within less than a month of the skiing accident, I was fully recovered without any medical assistance.”

Obviously, there’s more going on there than can be fully discussed here.  But this account, and others like it, offer thought-provoking evidence of what’s possible through a purely spiritual approach.

The success of placebo surgery takes us to the cutting edge of mental medicine – pun intended.   I’d say the next level requires no scalpel.

(photo ©Glowimages – model for illustrative purposes only)

Trying to explain my faith

September 22, 2016 By christianscienceminnesota Leave a Comment

@Glowimages: Little girl praying. Little girl praying against a white background

“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” – Thomas Aquinas.

I would respectfully disagree with both parts of that statement.

I didn’t use to be a person of faith.  I wouldn’t accept anything without being able to understand and agree with it first.  That made things difficult for my mother, since I resisted obeying her just because she said so.  Even as a child I needed an explanation for everything.  Sorry, Mom!

That I have deep faith today could be considered a minor miracle.  But it’s partly because of explanations I received.  It’s also from inspiration and actual evidence of my relationship with God.  It’s not a blind faith.

My faith in God has come through Christian Science.  And I gained it in a three-fold way described by the woman who founded the religion, Mary Baker Eddy.

Eddy was on a search for the “science” behind a spiritual healing of physical injury that saved her life.  She knew, as she put it, “…that cures were produced in primitive Christian healing by holy, uplifting faith; but I must know the science of this healing and I won my way to absolute conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and demonstration.”

“Revelation, reason, and demonstration” has been the way it happened for me, too.

I’ve been able to reason and think through explanations of metaphysical and theological ideas to have them make sense.  I’ve been inspired and had spiritual understanding revealed to me by a higher power.  And I’ve also seen my understanding proved or demonstrated in my own experience, in ways that can only be attributed to God.

And the combining of those three modes has brought me to my own inescapable conclusions – to a consistent conviction that, as Jesus says, “…with God all things are possible.”

Rather than a blind faith, I would call mine a living faith, since all three things keep on happening.  Day by day I need to reason through explanations, receive revelations in my understanding and witness demonstrations of God in my life.

For me, this winning combination has been a sort of spiritual triangulation that has made it impossible for me not to have faith.

(photo ©Glowimages – model for illustrative purposes only)

Even God has a sense of humor

May 2, 2016 By christianscienceminnesota Leave a Comment

beware of God
© iStockphoto.com/zerocattle

My California colleague, Eric Nelson, shares a harrowing experience and his journey to recovery.  It was a process laced throughout with healing humor. Here’s Eric….

This may be hard to believe, but shortly after tumbling about a thousand feet down a rock and ice-covered mountain and suffering multiple injuries from head to toe, I had to laugh.

Despite the trauma, despite the pain, and despite the fact that it would be hours before anyone would find me laying flat on my back in the middle of nowhere, the words of a familiar hymn came to mind and made me smile. And then chuckle.

“Shepherd, show me how to go,” the hymn, written by Mary Baker Eddy, begins, “O’er the hillside steep.” (Did I happen to mention how I found myself in this predicament?).

“How to gather, how to sow, / How to feed Thy sheep.” (And did I mention that the only thing left in my rucksack was an apple?).

“I will listen for Thy voice, / Lest my footsteps stray; / I will follow and rejoice / All the rugged way.”

Tell me these words weren’t written just for me. And tell me that their coincidental references to rugged hillsides and wandering footsteps aren’t just a little, well – funny.

Please click here to read the rest in its original context….

“Risen”: its promise for all of us

March 23, 2016 By christianscienceminnesota Leave a Comment

wp-BRI-HealthSpiritualityConnection-761-image
http://www.risen-movie.com/

In her take on the new movie, “Risen”, my New Jersey colleague, Valerie Minard, shows how the film helps us ask and answer the questions we’re meant to think about at Easter time.  Here’s Val….

The Easter story, “Risen,” is a powerful and unusual movie portraying the last days of Jesus after his resurrection. Although the script attempts to stay true to the Biblical account, the story is told from the perspective of a fictional character, Clavius, a Roman tribune, responsible for finding Jesus’ missing body….

In his search for Jesus’ body, we see a transition from a curious observer to one that has become intrigued by, if not converted to, Jesus’ teachings….

Even though the concept of Jesus’ resurrection and ascension may seem beyond material comprehension, there are basic questions that it generates for all of us.  For instance, is there life after death? Is life eternal? If life continues on a spiritual plain, is man essentially spiritual, or does he need death to become spiritual? If man is essentially spiritual here and now, what are we here for?…

Please click here to view the rest in its original context…

The evidence of love

March 17, 2016 By christianscienceminnesota Leave a Comment

©Glowimages

While the “evidence” of Valentine’s Day has mostly come and gone, the love still remains.

Flowers have wilted, romantic meals have been eaten and sweets enjoyed. Perhaps there are still cards displayed and gifts of jewelry being worn and cherished.  But was the love those things were meant to express ever actually in the things themselves?  

No.  The love that is motivated to give gifts is a powerful presence in our hearts, even after the gift has been given, and even though science is unable to measure it.

So does that mean our experience of Valentine’s Day love can’t be classified as “evidence-based”?

We can describe the love and how it made us feel.  We could maybe even point to a transforming effect it had on us to give or receive it.  And science can measure responses and reactions to love in the brain and body. Yet, because the love itself cannot be objectively measured, our “evidence” may not be considered proof of the power of love.

But as you and I know, the power and presence of love can be as tangible and distinct to us as the keys I’m tapping to write this.  So why can’t we prove it?Continue Reading

Letting Love transform our lives

February 26, 2016 By christianscienceminnesota Leave a Comment

©Glowimages (models for illustrative purposes only)

Defining ourselves with unchangeable, negative traits can be depressing and defeating. My colleague from British Columbia, Anna Bowness-Park, tells how such limits can be lifted by a Divine influence that is already present.  Here’s Anna…

A leopard can’t change his spots. Right? Sometimes we are persuaded to believe that who we are is set in stone, and that therefore our circumstances cannot change. “I am who I am, and I can’t change,” is something many of us believe and tell ourselves. In modern therapy circles, it’s sometimes called self-acceptance.

Yet, for some who might be struggling with depression, or with something as simple as unlikable or limiting character traits, it’s a belief system that can make us feel helpless and unable to experience greater health or happiness. Or, this self-acceptance might simply limit us from experiences that could greatly bless us and others….

Once in a while, a story comes along about someone who went through profound character changes – a complete transformation – even when they weren’t looking for it. And in the process they sometimes glimpse something that was always true about themselves, although they didn’t know it yet….

Please click here to read the rest in its original context…

Healing heartache helps heart health

December 15, 2015 By christianscienceminnesota Leave a Comment

©Glowimages (model for illustrative purposes only)
©Glowimages (model for illustrative purposes only)

Is heartache the same as a damaged heart muscle?  No.  But can mending a broken heart help heal heart disease?  Yes.

This phenomenon shows that our thinking has a direct correlation to our physical health.  And it’s one example of how a mental change can bring health benefits to the body.

I listened to Dr. Irv Hinds talk about his book, “Healing the Pain of Heartache:  a physician explores broken heart syndrome.”  Dr. Hinds is certified in pain management and as a cardiac anesthesiologist, formerly with the Open Heart Team in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  His current work is focused on the interrelation of mind, body and spirit and the crucial role of spirituality in breaking the cycle of pain.

He explains how heartache adversely affects heart functions and affirms that healing heartache is vital to healing heart disease.  He urges dealing with broken heart syndrome directly and not sweeping it under the rug, allowing its effects on the heart to become chronic.  The griefs, grudges, hurts, resentments we carry with us – sometimes for decades – are unhealthy.  Dr. Hinds says that if we walk around with a heavy heart, that can become synonymous with heart disease.

And he states that addressing our spiritual needs is indispensable for healing heartache.  That really spoke to me.  I know people who have experienced the healing of heart trouble through healing the heartache of a broken relationship.  Forgiveness plays a big role.

In the recent Oprah Winfrey “Belief” series, one man’s quest for the love he never received while growing up with crack-addicted parents, led him to say, “Forgiveness…cleans out a place in our heart for a new life to spring from.”

A friend of mine was in pain due to his brother’s refusal to forgive him for something he’d done years ago.  Emotionally, he felt as though his heart had been frozen for a long time.  He was also having physical heart symptoms that restricted his activities.

Many times he’d prayed out of heart-wrenching anguish for this relationship to be made whole again.  It was tearing him up inside – literally – and he yearned to be free of the hurt and coldness.  He knew from his spiritual practice that to help bring healing to the situation, he needed to humbly align his thinking with God.  So, he prayed to know how to do that more.  He understood God to be totally good and unconditionally loving.

In answer to this prayer, he had a “change of heart” and felt impelled to forgive his brother for not forgiving him.  This gave him a measure of freedom, yet he still felt the pain of estrangement and suffered with heart symptoms.

Fairly soon after that, his brother called and finally forgave him.  Upon hanging up the phone, he went out for a winter walk in the mountains where he lived.  In the snow-covered stillness, he followed the sound of ice thawing and cracking to the stream where it was melting.  Looking down, he saw the nature scene at his feet as a metaphor – his frozen heart was melting and his feelings were starting to flow again.  All physical symptoms involving his heart were gone from that day on.

The correlation between our heart-life and the life of our heart is increasingly being recognized by modern science.  A new book by Gregg Braden, “Resilience from the Heart:  The Power to Thrive in Life’s Extremes,” even asserts there’s a direct link between the heart and the brain.  The goal of Braden’s work is always to bridge ancient wisdom with the latest scientific research in a way that people can utilize in their everyday lives for better health and prosperity.

And this cutting edge connection truly isn’t new.  Most faith traditions urge us to examine and improve what’s in our hearts – what’s in our thinking – to bring health and harmony to our lives.

About twenty centuries ago, Jesus of Nazareth healed many incurable diseases through an understanding of God’s love.  His success in healing would naturally make us want to hear what he had to say.  He stressed that in order to experience God’s love and its healing power; we need to express this love to each other.

The Bible records these consecutive sentences from Jesus:  “I tell you to have faith that you have already received whatever you pray for, and it will be yours.  Whenever you pray, forgive anything you have against anyone.”

Right after exhorting confident trust and faith, Jesus urged forgiveness of the heart.  That’s instructive.  It says to me that if I’m seeking healing through prayer for a physical ailment, especially anything heart-related, I need to address my emotional baggage.  It’s hard to be lifted up in inspiration with hurts and resentments weighing you down.

So, deal with what is tugging at your heartstrings.  Finding your peace, forgiving, healing whatever it may be, can become synonymous with a healthy heart.

Thanksgiving and Health: an everyday relationship

November 23, 2015 By christianscienceminnesota Leave a Comment

@Glowimages: Pumpkins
©Glowimages

Maybe we’re getting it wrong.

I overheard someone say one Thanksgiving Day, “You know, there should be 364 days a year of thanks-giving and one day for griping.”

Now there’s an idea.

With each passing year, it seems like the Thanksgiving holiday faces stronger and ever earlier competition from the Christmas consumerism so aggressively urged upon us.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the true meaning of Christmas.  But when holiday shopping ads start the week before Halloween, the gratitude that should accompany the approach of Thanksgiving tends to get drowned out.

© Glow Images
© Glowimages

Thanksgiving Day is too special to let that happen.  And giving thanks needn’t be relegated to a single day, or even to a season.  It’s something we can do every day of the year.  In addition to having us identify the good in our lives, which can help ward off the depression that we hear is more prevalent at this time of year, gratitude has been shown to be beneficial in other ways.

In fact, the health-giving effect of acknowledging blessings has been so widely studied and proven, it can literally be said that gratitude is good medicine.

A WebMD article by Elizabeth Heubeck called, “Boost Your Health With a Dose of Gratitude”, begins: “What would happen if we extended the tradition of giving thanks, typically celebrated just once a year during the holiday season, throughout the entire year?”

She quotes from a WebMD interview with Dr. Robert Emmons, Ph.D., professor at the University of California, Davis, considered a leading expert on gratitude. He says that reduction of stress and enhancement of our immune system are two health-giving benefits of a grateful state of mind.

But what if it seems like we have nothing left to be grateful for? Like refugees from war torn regions who have lost “everything” or when events in our lives make us feel devastated.

Could it be that it’s especially in the face of dire circumstances that gratitude can lift us up and help heal broken hearts and even broken bodies?

That is what I have been finding as a Christian Science Practitioner. I pray daily for healing in my life and others’ and I’ve found that being grateful before I see improvement – when it seems there’s nothing yet to be grateful for – can work wonders. I learned this from the Bible. It’s a method Jesus used more than once.

Perhaps the most dramatic example was when Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead. After Lazarus died, he was placed in a cave and by the time Jesus arrived, he had already been mourned for four days. Despite that vivid evidence of a hopeless situation, he stood in front of the cave-tomb and practiced thankfulness. Jesus prayed to God out loud: “Father, thank you for hearing me.” Then he called to his friend. And Lazarus walked out of his own tomb.

True, we are not often called upon to raise the dead. But could that example apply in our daily lives?

I’ve found it can. I’ve noticed that the more consistently I give daily thanks – without making it just a ritual, so my heart’s still in it – the more natural it is to do so in a difficult situation.

Recently I pulled a leg muscle and was in a lot of pain. In seeking healing that night, I lingered on deep gratitude for God’s goodness and for the blessings in my life which I attribute to God. I continued being grateful, even when I woke up in the middle of the night still in pain. By morning my leg was much better. By the next day it was completely normal.

Year-round thanks-giving? It’s definitely a healthy and satisfying to go!

Our declining belief in death

October 28, 2015 By christianscienceminnesota Leave a Comment

@Glowimages: Cemetary Cross
© GLOW IMAGES

The recent Oprah Winfrey (OWN) series, “Belief”, stirred up an international conversation starting with the question:  “What do you believe?”  It’s important to be able to answer that.  What do we trust in?  What do we have unshakeable faith in?  My California colleague, Eric Nelson, says that even such a universally held belief as death is being challenged.  Here’s Eric…

“In this world nothing can be said to be certain,” wrote Ben Franklin to his friend Jean-Baptiste LeRoy in 1789, “except death and taxes.” Had he written this today, however, it’s not at all certain that death would have made the cut.

Of course, no one knows for sure what happens when we die (well, no one who’s still with us), but there are quite a number of folks who feel they’ve perhaps gotten a glimpse, calling into question the very notion of death.

After falling into a weeklong coma, Eben Alexander, author of the New York Times best-selling book “Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife,” found himself keenly aware of the fact that, as he puts it, he was loved, that he had nothing to fear and that he could do no wrong. This was pretty heady stuff, especially for someone who had always assumed that the brain – an organ that, in Alexander’s case, had completely shut down due to a rare infection – was the source of consciousness.

Please click here to read the rest in its original context…

Getting more out of your fitness workout

October 13, 2015 By christianscienceminnesota Leave a Comment

@Glowimages: Woman jogging on forest path
© GLOW IMAGES (model used for illustrative purposes only)

“Ah, Mr. Young, I see you ride your bicycle in order to keep fit!”  “No,” replied Mr. Young, “I ride my bike because I am fit.”  For Mr. Young, fitness was something that he used physical activity to express, rather than to get.  My Ohio colleague, Steve Salt, helps us see that our path to fitness has a spiritual connection, above today’s conflicting health theories.  Here’s Steve…

Remember the Royal Canadian Air Force 5BX (Five Basic Exercises) Plan?  Hugely popular in the 60’s, it was simple to do, but boring as heck.  I remember my dad struggling with sit-ups and tediously running in place.  It wasn’t long before his exercise regimen was history.  To stick with an exercise routine, one needs a compelling reason for doing it….

My favorite fitness activities are walking and hiking.  But more than a physical fitness hiker, I consider myself a ponder walker.  I like to think in stride, not going over my to-do list or rehearsing some past conversation, but appreciating the moment and silently expressing my gratitude for the many blessings I have experienced.

I have found that turning attention to my spiritual and mental life is immensely important as it pertains to health.  Taking into account my “inner” life has an impact on my “outer” or physical being, because it is the quality of my thought that affects the harmony of my body….

Please click here to read the rest in its original context…

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About Joel

Joel Magnes Hi, I’m Joel Magnes, writing about the connection between our thinking and our health -- focusing on how spirituality and prayer can have a positive impact on our well-being.   I'm a practitioner of Christian Science, with over 25 years of expertise and experience in prayer-based healing.  And I serve as the Christian Science Committee on Publication for Minnesota; the church's media and legislative liaison. Contact Joel HERE.

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  • What comes after successful placebo surgery?
  • Trying to explain my faith
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  • “Risen”: its promise for all of us
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