I thought this was an interesting article regarding the healing power of hands on prayer. It doesn't really take either side, only offers up the evidence. What are your thoughts on this? Can hands-on prayer help heal? - WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NC-
This definitely works. However, it is not the spiritual aspect that heals these people; it is the human contact and positive thoughts sent to them that improve their health. Having a positive attitude can support your health very well; as shown just by searching 'positive attitude and health' in Google, and humans thrive on what others think of them. If other humans are transmitting positive thoughts to the person, they will start to think them as well, and that goes for negative thoughts as well. As far as the physical aspect goes, it is also proven that physical contact with people can also improve your health. In many NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Units), parents of premature babies are encouraged to hold their babies to their bare chest, as it seems to help them become stronger. Closeness to another human being is comforting, and supports positivity in the mind. As I explained, positivity = better health. Therefore, these people were not healed by God; they were healed by positive words and the healing touch of others around them.
Who knows? It might as well be God until we figure it out. Or why not Gods? The idea is that modern science and methodology is great at observing, putting together and reporting everything physical, but there's a great deal we don't know about what people with no 'official training', no tools and no access to outside resources can do and always have done throughout history. The most functional label I fall under as far as religion goes is 'atheist'. Still, skeptic as one might be, there's simply too many strange and unexplainable things in this world. Hands-on healing (and another I call 'hands-off healing') has been around the world and in many forms. Whether it's faith healing, reiki, crystal healing, this or that shamanistic chanting, prayer, etc. What unites these things is the fact that some people make it work. Some practitioners of these things are charlatans, as skeptics are quick to point out, but some do get CONSISTENT results. We're also quick to point out the placebo effect, or 'the power of belief' as I like to call it. Problem is some people get healed who don't believe in the stuff, or that it's going to work. Sort of a hopeless last ditch effort. It doesn't matter where it comes from (a theme you'll find recurring in my philosophy), as long as the job is done. If I get cancer and I hear being stuck in a dryer for ten full drying cycles cures it, I'll be the first one in there.
This pretty much sums how I feel. I believe in miracles, and though I'm not a Christian or really any other religion, I do believe that they all recognize the same energy that I do. Everyone just calls it something different. I completely believe that the power of the human will can make anything happen. The more people that you have believing in something, the greater the chance that it's come to happen. If you have people all over the world praying, meditating, and sending positive energy to heal someone of whatever sickness they may have, I believe that the sickness will go away. It's nothing that I can fully explain, but the more in tune with the cosmic energy that anyone is, the more harmonic they will be with the universe, and the healthier they will be. That probably didn't make much sense to anyone but me, but it's hard for me to fully explain exactly why it makes so much sense to me.
