The first two are free issues which are available on-line. The others are from issues that are available by subscription. (See subscriptions details below.)
This
places adverse drug reactions between the fourth and sixth most common
causes of death, and the total of medical deaths as the leading cause
of death. This number exceeds the annual fatalities from highway
accidents, breast cancer, and AIDS. Perhaps even more sobering, you are
9,000 times more likely to die under medical care than from firearms (Mercola).
In contrast, the annual anticipated death rates from vitamins, herbal
products, energy medicine and spiritual healing are zero.
Acceptance is
growing in many parts of the world that CAM/ energy medicine and
spiritual healing are potent and effective. Integrative care, the
harmonizing of CAM with conventional medical treatments, is developing
rapidly in the Western world. The IJHC supports and promotes these
shifts towards whole person care.
People
with physical and psychological problems need no further proof of the
efficacy of CAM and energy medicine than their personal experiences of
feeling better after seeing a CAM therapist -- but scientific study
requires firmer evidence. Skeptical scientists are finding reassurance
in the numerous randomized controlled studies that show spiritual
healing (Benor 2001) and other CAM therapies (Benor in press, a)
are effective. Open minded doctors are pleased when problems that have
not responded to conventional therapies are helped by healers and other
CAM therapists. Evidence that complementary therapies are widely used
(Eisenberg 1993; 1998) and are cost effective (Pelletier et al 1991;
1993; 1999) is drawing attention.
This, the first issue of the International Journal of Healing and Caring - On Line features:
Healers' Reports from Several Countries
It
is both reassuring to note the similarities between practitioners from
various cultures, and informative to learn of variations on the themes
of wholism, healing and spirituality. Ancient therapeutic wisdom and
newly developed treatment methods may be helpful to many more people if
transplanted and cross-fertilized across national boundaries and
cultures.
To see entire editorial of Volume 1, No. 1 click here
Volume 2, No. 1, January, 2002
Healing Potentials in Our Words
The
practice of medicine is an art, not a trade; a calling not a business;
a calling in which your heart will be exercised equally with your head.
Often the best part of your work will have nothing to do with powders
or potions. . .
- Sir William Osler
The
words and labels we learn to use come to identify who we are, what we
do, how we do it, how we relate to each other individually and
collectively, and how we interact with to the environment.
We
take our perceptions of the world for granted because our family,
friends, and nation validate our perceptions by consensual agreement.
It rarely occurs to us that there are many other ways to perceive the
very same world we inhabit, and even more ways to interpret our
perceptions and to act on them.
International Enrichments
Having
lived in Israel for four years as a child and for six as an adult, in
England for nearly ten years, and in many parts of the US for the rest
of my sixty years on this planet, I have a keen sense of diverse words
that indicate differences in ways of dealing with the world. I have
often wondered why some of the rich, warm and juicy expressions in
other languages have not enriched my native tongue of American English.
For
instance, I'm surprised we have no equivalent of "Bon appetite"
(French) or "B'tay-avon" (Hebrew) - friendly acknowledgements of shared
repasts. "Happy appetite," "Good appetite" or "Have a good meal" just
don't seem to ring as warmly. Perhaps it's because we're largely a
nation of fast food dining and often don't seem to care about the
quality of what we're eating, as long as it's cheap and served without
too long a wait.
Chutzpah (ch
= gutteral sound, as in clearing the throat prior to spitting) is a
juicy term from Hebrew that has no adequate equivalent in English. It
is somewhere in the range between spunk and gall, perhaps better
explained by example than by other terms, as in this apocryphal story:
A man who killed his parents had the chutzpah to plead for mercy from
the judge because he was an orphan. Chutzpah gives acknowledgment to
daring interventions, as well as to outrageous ones.
British
English can be a foreign language to an American. Living for those many
years in England, I never found explanations for why they chose torch for flashlight; bonnet for the hood of a car, boot for the trunk; spanner for the tool we identify as a wrench; nappies for diapers; and keep your pecker up for "cheer up" or "be of good cheer" or "don't despair" - or, convesely, how we Amercians missed learning these.
Of greater import, in Britain and the rest of Europe, a summer holiday isn't
just an elective trip to the shore or to a foreign destination, as it
would be in the US. A holiday is a sacred annual ritual, never to be
ignored or neglected. There is almost nothing that will have a higher
priority in planning and budgeting than the summer holiday. This is a
time for the family to be together, to have spirits refreshed and
regenerated. It is an excellent form of relaxation therapy.
Words
are manipulated for political effects. The people who hijacked four
planes on 9-11 are terrorists in America, but are martyrs in parts of
the Muslim world.
Neglected Opposites
What ever happened to -
"gusting" - pleasing to the tastes (opp: disgusting)
"sheveled" - neatly, tidily dressed (opp: disheveled)
"gruntled" - satisfied, happy with a situation (opp: disgruntled)
"fuscating" - making oneself absolutely clear (opp: obfuscating)
"tankerous" - pleasant, cheerful (opp: cantankerous)
What is the opposite of a vicious circle?
What a commentary it is on our culture that we have no opposite for
this term. We focus much more on the weeds than on the flowers in our
relational and therapeutic gardens. In a vicious circle, one negative
interaction stimulates a responding negative, which in turn
re-stimulates another negative. The alcoholic husband sets off the
nagging wife who sets off the drinking behaviors, etc. etc. The hurt
and anger from a terrorist action begets vengeful violence, which
begets more terrorism, etc. etc. etc.
I often suggest to clients that they would do well to work their way into a sweetening spiral - as in offering a kindness, reaching out in love (sometimes as tough love),
extending forgiveness, and reaching into acceptance. Positive actions
beget positive reactions, which encourage us to again offer kindness,
etc. etc. etc.
I
have puzzled over why we focus on the negatives more than on the
positives. Perhaps it is our "fix-it" mentality. We want to identify
the problems so that we can correct them. We don't focus as often on
the positives, to build more positives. This seems to be a natural
human tendency, as in being more attracted to violence and crime in the
news media. News stories that focus on positive behaviors and events
get little attention.
We give more attention to the weeds in our gardens than to the flowers.
Misleading Words
Language
can bias us towards accepting certain beliefs and rejecting others -
without our awareness that we are being propagandized.
Full editorial of IJHC Volume 2, No. 1 Click here
Volume 2, No. 2, May, 2002
Intuition
Overview
This
issue of IJHC focuses on amazing research exploring spiritual intuitive
awarenesses of children and on clinical intuitive experiences.
Intuition
is the inner knowing that comes without outer sensory stimuli. It is
the modality that senses most deeply, yet one that our society has
valued least. We invest most of our efforts in educating our children
to use their outer senses, ignoring and even denigrating the inner
ones.
Intuitions surface to consciousness from unknown sources and through channels that are usually below our everyday awareness Intuition
is often perceived as or accompanied by an inner uneasiness, a sort of
spiritual itch that invites us to scratch below the surface of our
ordinary perceptions, thoughts, and feelings. If we respond to this
itch, this inner ring on the intuition hotline, if we invite our
intuition to speak, we are often rewarded with important messages.
Commonly,
intuition visits us spontaneously in many ways, minor and major. You
may know who is ringing your phone before you answer it, or think of a
long-forgotten friend on the morning of the very day you run into her
on the street. You may have a hunch about choosing an unknown road, job
opportunity, or restaurant that turns out to be hugely right for you.
You may be one of the lucky people who had a bad feeling about going to
work one day, so strong that you simply stayed home - avoiding a
serious disaster. (I have heard of several people who worked in or
regularly visited the World Trade Towers who intuitively stayed away on
September 11.)
If
you have ever worried about coming out and admitting your intuitive
abilities, you should know that you are certainly in good company. Many
famous people have acknowledged their intuition, including Socrates,
Joan of Arc, Carl Jung, and Adolph Hitler; among others.
While
you might question or even dismiss some reports as simple luck or
exaggeration, here is a typical story that stretches such explanations
(Inglis 1989, p.10-12).
Winston
Churchill, who was reputed to have had a charmed life, related that he
had always felt he had a protector. "I sometimes have a feeling - in
fact I have it very sstrongly. . . a feeling that some guiding hand has
interfered." At another point he credited "that Higher Power which
interferes in the sequence of causes and effects more often than we are
always prone to admit."
Churchill gave the example (in My Early Life)
of his escape from captivity during the Boer War in South Africa. He
failed in his plan to hop a freight train to Mozambique, and was left
with only a hope and prayer that the local Kaffirs might help him, as
he had heart that many of the Kaffirs hated the Boers. . . He could see
the fires of a Kaffir settlement nearby. The difficulty was that he had
no way to distinguish the potentially friendly from the unfriendly
Kaffirs, and a wrong guess could prove fatal. He sat down to ponder his
options.
Suddenly,
without the slightest reason, all my doubts disappeared. It was
certainly by no process of logic that they were dispelled. It just felt
quite clear that I would go to the Kaffir kraal. I had sometimes in
former years held a "Planchette" pencil and written while others had
touched my wrist or hand. I acted in exactly the same unconscious or
subconscious manner now.
Reaching
the fires, he saw furnaces situated around a coal mine. He had no
choice but to make a guess as to which house he would approach. He
knocked on a door, excusing his disheveled clothing by saying he had
been in an accident. He was admitted by a man who held a revolver and
seemed obviously skeptical about his story. He felt compelled to tell
the truth.
My
companion rose from the table slowly and locked the door. After this
act, which struck me as unpromising, and was certainly ambiguous, he
advanced upon me and suddenly held out his hand.
"Thank
God you have come here! It is the only house for twenty miles where you
would not have been handed over. But we are all British here and we
will see you through.".
His host hid him in the mine until they could smuggle him to safety.
These
sorts of stories are typical of intuitive awareness. Guided by an inner
knowing that is not reasoned, but seems to arise from a deep source
that carries its own certainty, people find that they know information
which is of great help to them - particularly in times of need.
Many
doctors, nurses, and various therapists have told me of clinical
"hunches" that proved extremely valuable, sometimes even lifesaving, to
people in their care. The following is a story I have heard in many variations.
Doctor
Sam, on his way home after a long day's work, had a hunch he ought to
stop by and see how 68 year-old Miss Jennifer was doing. He hadn't
thought of her in several months, since her last annual checkup, when
he had found her to be suffering much less from her arthritis. Sam
struggled against the hunch, thinking of his wife and children waiting
for him to arrive for dinner, but it simply would not be dismissed.
Sighing, and preparing in his mind the possible excuses he might give
his family for being late yet again from work, he turned up Miss
Jennifer's street and rang the bell of her apartment. There was no
answer, but the door was not locked and opened when he turned the knob. Miss Jennifer was lying on the floor, unconscious. A
quick examination suggested she had had a stroke, and a call to 911
brought an ambulance in time to rush her to the hospital, where she
fortunately recovered after several weeks.
More
than one nurse has told me of an inner urge to stop by the room of a
patient who was recovering without apparent complication from surgery -
to find that patient in shock from internal hemorrhage (or with other
urgent problems), just in time to call the crash team and save his or
her life. Doctors have told me how they sometimes intuit that a person
has a tumor, a metabolic problem, or some other disorder that showed no
outward symptom, which is confirmed on subsequent laboratory exams. Some doctors are so gifted that they regularly diagnose their patients' problems intuitively. They
reluctantly order lab tests - for medicolegal reasons as well as to
avoid criticism or censure from their colleagues and supervisors. Some
are able to identify intuitively medications or other treatments that
will help.
Intuition Research
Science
for me is very close to art. Scientific discovery is an irrational act.
It's an intuition which turns out to be reality at the end of it--and I
see no difference between a scientist developing a marvellous discovery
and an artist making a painting.
- C. Rubbia (Nobelist and director of CERN)
Nurses
have been discussing and exploring intuition for the past 25 years,
acknowledging that this is a valid modality for clinical assessments
and decision-making (Benner 1982; 1984: Benner et al 1999; Dreyfus and
Dreyfus 1980; King and Appleton 1997).
Nursing definitions have focused on various facets of intuition, witnessed by a range of conceptualizations.
Full editorial in IJHC Volume 2, No. 2
Click here for subscription details
Volume 2, No. 3, September, 2002
THE BODY: Physical Entity, Bodymind, Bioenergy, and Potential Doorway to Spiritual Awareness
In conventional medicine,
the body is the starting point for addressing most of people's ills.
Many in this tradition believe that we are the physical products of our
genetic inheritance, shaped by the physical environment, and slated -
when the physical body releases its hold on life - to end our existence
and return to dust. There is no purpose to life other than reproducing
the species, plus that which an individual chooses to make of her or
his existence.
These assumptions
have significant implications for caregivers and careseekers. Within
this belief system, good health ranges from the absence of dysfunction
to optimal function. Deviations from health are considered
malfunctions of the body or illnesses, for which cures should be sought
in order to return the body to health.
Within
the prevalent Western mechanistic worldview, we simply address the
physical body dysfunctions, applying various physical interventions to
deal with these, according to our mechanistic diagnoses. In a large
percent of cases we are successful with medications, hormones, surgery,
and in recent years with genetic manipulations.
While
stress is acknowledged as a contributor to many of these problems, we
tend to relegate stress factors to a second tier of assessments and
treatments. Most doctors give pills first and ask questions about
stress only if the pills are not working satisfactorily. Economic
factors of time and monetary resources favor these simplistic
approaches. It takes a doctor only a few minutes to make a fairly good
educated guess about medications that could relieve symptoms. It takes
much longer to delve into the details of people's lives in order to
figure out what stressors might be contributing to or causing various
symptoms and illnesses.
The
physical body is believed to be the source of all of life's phenomena.
Our genes determine the structure and functions of the body. From
conception through death, physical factors may influence the body,
including genetic endowments and predispositions, infections, metabolic
and hormonal imbalances, toxins (chemical or radiations), allergic
reactions, traumatic (physical) injuries, cancers, and degenerative
processes.
The mind is believed
to be the product of the physical brain, which is proven by the fact
that physical, electrical or chemical stimulation, or damage to parts
of the brain causes specific cognitive, behavioral and emotional
reactions and dysfunctions. Emotions are the products of bioelectrical,
chemical and hormonal activity in parts of the brain. This is proven by
altered emotions that result from changes in these factors in the
brain. We can stimulate specific areas within the brain and elicit
anger, laughter, and joy. In fact, the intensity of joy from brain
electrical stimulation may exceed that of sexual orgasm.
Psychological
factors influence health through choices of individuals or social
groups to alter the environments that impinge upon the physical body. A
healthy or unhealthy lifestyle, programs for sanitation and
immunizations, and education for safe sex can enhance and prolong life;
using alcohol or street drugs, overeating, and limiting governmental
expenditures for health care can be detrimental to health.
Psychological
interventions are helpful when they lead to healthier lifestyle
choices. Their benefits derive from stress reduction and from
introduction of a broader range of healthy options.
Body-focused medicine
may carry distinct risks and consequences. If we focus only on the
body, then physical life is all we know and can reliably count on
having, and we must preserve and prolong it at all costs. This belief
contributes to the poor ways in which Western medicine often deals with
chronic illness, death, bereavement, and spiritual issues.
Doctors
receive their education and training in hospitals where acute problems
are treated. Doctors are expected to make the correct diagnosis and
apply effective treatments. In many cases they are successful,
discharging patients from the hospital with marked improvements. This
sets up unreal expectations in the student doctors about the practice
of medicine. They are poorly prepared to deal with chronic illnesses
that do not respond immediately to their interventions.
Death
is perceived by many doctors as their personal failure to either make
the right diagnosis or apply the correct treatment. About 30 percent
of our medical budget is spent in treating people in the last 30 days
of their lives. This is often to no avail other than to keep a heart
beating those few extra days, frequently with a very poor quality of
life during this period - not to mention the discomforts and pains of
the terminal illness and its treatments. Many doctors are reluctant to
let people die without receiving every last symptomatic treatment
possible, because death is perceived as the doctor's failure to conquer
disease.
Bereavement is
difficult to deal with in any case, but for those doctors who are
feeling responsible for people having died, it is often more than they
know how to handle.
Modern
medicine relegates spiritual issues the most part to the clergy.
Historically, this evolved from the mutual fears of science and
clergy. The Church was anxious that scientific inquiry would erode its
teachings of faith as a motivation for belief in matters of religion.
Science was concerned that it might suffer attacks similar to those
against Galileo, who was prosecuted for advancing scientific theories
that contradicted Church beliefs and doctrines. This conflict
continues today in the legal battles over teaching Darwinism and
Biblical theories of creationism in public schools.
Figure 1 shows how the body is viewed as being primary in conventional medicine, and all else derives from it.
Figure 1. Conventional medical view of a person
In wholistic medicine,
the body is part of a larger system, including also emotions, mind,
relationships (with each other and with the environment) and spirit.
This tradition acknowledges that the body has its physical functions
and processes that deserve full assessment and treatment. However, the
body is not seen as the only level of being.
The mind has great influence over the body,
and maladies often have their origin there.
Moliere
Consciousness
is an entity in and of itself. Consciousness is a level of being that
can influence the body, as well as being influenced by the body. How
consciousness comes into being, and how it relates to the physical body
is explained in many variations on the theme of mind-body or bodymind
approaches. (These are beyond the range of our present discussion.)
At
one end of this spectrum are those who hold that mind and emotions are
products of the physical body but that psychological factors may be act
upon the body. Emotional tensions can activate stress responses that
impact the body. For instance, the nervous system tightens the
voluntary muscles of locomotion. Chronic muscular tensions can result
in tension headaches, backaches, TMJ problems, and repetitive stress
injuries. Involuntary muscles can tighten into asthmatic attacks in the
lungs, irritable bowel syndrome and other dysfunctions in the gut, and
into hypertension and circulatory disorders in the cardiovascular
system. Adrenalin and stress steroids also tighten muscles, raise blood
pressure, and alter immune system functions. Many conventional doctors
accept some or all of these as possible mechanisms contributing to
illness.
Some
wholistic therapists stop short of hypothesizing motivating forces that
extend beyond the body, other than social ones, staying close to the
conventional medical model.
Further
along the wholistic spectrum, the body is seen as an expression of
spirit manifesting into the material plane of existence. Spirit is the
primary level of existence. Spirit expresses itself through everything
that is. Sub-units of spirit, human souls, incarnate as physical human
beings. All of life, every particle and nuances of beingness and
relatingness, is a part of the lesson of physical incarnation. Figure 2
diagrams this perspective.
Note
that the arrows point in both directions, indicating that events at
each level of being can influence our experiences with the other
levels. For instance, physical and emotional experiences may heighten
our spiritual awareness.
Each of us literally chooses, by his way of attending to things, what
sort of universe he shall appear to himself to inhabit.
William James
Introduction
Anger is a natural response to being endangered or hurt. Challenges that commonly elicit anger include:
Being attacked verbally or physically
Being threatened verbally or physically
Intrusion upon or disrespect of our boundaries
Physical
Social
Not receiving
Something in the outer world that was promised or expected (material or benefits)
Behaviors or attitudes that are expected (respectfulness, courtesies, attention)
Outer
responses to hurts may range from withdrawal to verbal and physical
attack - immediate or in long-term vengeance. Inner responses may range
from feeling overwhelmed through being infuriated. The consequences of
our choices in responding to our angers are far-reaching, both for
ourselves and for others, as individuals and in our social groups and
nations...
In this editorial we focus on interactions of emotions and the mind, while not neglecting body, relationships and spirit.
The Emotions
Acute
anger is usually a visceral, emotional reaction. Our stress hormones
kick in, we may flush as blood is diverted from our internal organs to
our muscles. Adrenalin makes our heart beat faster and our breathing
deeper and faster. We prepare to respond to the challenge.
Many
of our anger responses will be based on unconscious habits of reacting
to similar stimuli in the past. If we have been successful in reacting
with aggression, we are likely to respond again with aggression. If we
have had better luck with withdrawing from previous stimuli to anger,
we are more prone to withdraw – either from the scene of the challenge
or simply into ourselves, either withholding or actually burying our
response in our unconscious mind. If we have observed or have been
treated with aggression by others when they were angry (particularly
our parents and other family members), we are more likely to respond
with aggression ourselves.
The Mind: Issues of Choice and Control
Most
of the issues around anger relate to aspects of not being in control,
feeling out of control, or feeling a loss of control.
Acute Anger
When
we are in situations of actual physical danger, anger can be helpful
because it activates the stress hormones that facilitate fight or
flight. If a man with a gun enters the room I am in, I may react more
quickly and forcefully with the help of these hormones, which increase
my alertness and enhance my muscle strength. I may be able to duck or
run away more quickly, which could save my life.
Chronic Anger
Angry
responses may be unhelpful, however, when fight or flight responses are
not necessary or appropriate. If I am sitting behind the wheel of my
car in rush hour traffic, late for my appointment and unable to see
what is causing the traffic delay, my stress hormones may build up and
I may have no way to discharge them immediately, and no way to focus my
energies in ways that could resolve the outward causes of my
frustration. When I finally speed up towards my destination, if a car
cuts in front of me and endangers my life, I may be frightened and
angry, again without any way of addressing the person who stirred these
feelings. My cell phone doesn’t connect with the office, the elevator
is out of order when I arrive, already late for my meeting. I get
pushed aside in the stairwell by a workman carrying a chair downstairs.
The secretary who could smooth matters is away from her desk. My boss
may bawl me out for being late, my IN box may be overflowing, and my
wife may interrupt me urgently – just as I feel I am moving towards
getting matters in hand - to ask what to do about a leak under the
bathroom sink.
Unexpressed Anger
Innumerable
frustrations, large and small, can build up tensions and angers. Often,
we stuff these away because we feel there is no way to express them.
Getting angry with a supervisor could endanger our employment. We may
sometimes release feelings in verbal aggression towards those who
offend us, perhaps screaming at the car that cuts in front of us,
growling at someone who interrupts us, or pushing back against someone
who jostles us rudely. While these responses may provide some release
for the raging temper, they may also aggravate conflicts into more
angry interchanges, making matters worse rather than better. Angers may
escalate rather than get discharged and reduced.
We often end up
stuffing our angers away somewhere inside ourselves. Most of us carry
around buckets full of such feelings. When something comes along to
anger us, we may respond with an excess of anger. This explains a lot
of road rage, office rage, marital discord, and social conflicts. When
our buckets are full to overflowing, any little stimulus to anger can
give us the opportunity to dump other, stored up angers from our
buckets along with the immediately provoked ones.
Furthermore,
holding in anger is not good for our health. Chronic stresses and
tensions can lead to physical dysfunctions. The neurohormonal,
cardiovascular, pulmonary and genitourinary systems are particularly
prone to such disorders, but they can occur in any organ system in the
body. In the editorial of September 2001 IJHC I explored long lists of
body language that reflects this awareness, such as “I got my guts in
an uproar,” “I was really pissed off,” “I took that insult to heart,”
and many more.
Anger Expression Management
Letting it out in acceptable manners is one way to deal with anger.
Volume 3, No. 2, May, 2003
DEVELOPING FAITH IN THE TRANSCENDENT:
Approaches and Stages of Development
Abstract
Most
of us acquire our faith in the transcendent through our family
traditions and through religious teachings. This faith helps us to
find our way through life, providing a code of personal and community
conduct. Our faith in the rightness of these teachings creates
community through common beliefs. These generate collective traditions,
with ritual acknowledgments of major life events, such as births,
marriages and deaths. Our faith invites us and binds us to communal
celebration of seasons and holy days, and to a higher authority for
moral and ethical behaviors. It offers us rituals and practices for
prayer and for healing of personal, interpersonal, and societal ills.
While
faith can help us to develop and deepen our sense of spirituality, it
may also hinder us from finding our own, personal beliefs and
spirituality. At its worst, it may also lead to conflicts between
people of differing faiths. Therefore, understanding how faith develops
is of vital importance at this time when there are major conflicts
between peoples of differing faiths in various geographic, cultural and
religious communities - conflicts that threaten the continuation and
perhaps even the survival of life as we know it on this planet.
Faith
is based in logical truths and faith is based in the heart - known
directly rather than deduced through reason. Our personal and
collective challenge is to seek the healing balance between the two
ways of experiencing an d practicing our faith..
How
do we develop our faith? For many, this is simply an automatic part of
growing up, one which we accept without question - just like we accept
that we learn to crawl, to walk and to speak. For others, it is process
of deliberate study, both intellectual and experiential.
Numerous components of can be identified within the broad contexts of faith:
A. There are three broad approaches for developing faith:
1. Accepting what we are told
2. Logical reasoning
3. Intuitive, experiential knowing
B. James Fowler identifies six stages in developing faith:
1. Basic faith (Fowler: "Intuitive-Projective Faith")
2. Mythic-Literal Faith
3. Faith based on popular idols (Fowler: "Synthetic-Conventional Faith")
4. Faith by personal choice (Fowler: "Individuative-Reflective Faith")
5. Faith through inner knowing (Fowler: "Conjunctive Faith")
6. Faith anchored in transcendent awareness (Fowler: Universalizing Faith)
C. Personality types and stages of faith
D. Societal stages of awareness parallel the stages of faith
Each
approach and stage has its advantages and drawbacks. None can be proven
as valid beyond question without prior assumptions or. Each of these
five stages can be experienced through any or all of the three broad
approaches to experiencing faith. Each will be colored by our
personality styles.
Our
challenge, both personal and collective, is to choose wisely between
these alternatives. Our choices will certainly influence, and may even
be crucial in determining the future of life on this planet.
Terminology
is a challenge in discussing spiritual issues. The IJHC is grateful to
Rev. Cay Randall May, PhD, for providing many of the elements in the
glossary appended at the end of this editorial.
A. There are three broad approaches to faith in our perception of the transcendent.
1. Accepting What We Are Told
Many
of us grow up in families where we are taught spiritual beliefs. These
may be presented as absolute and unquestionable truths, as revelations
from God through His prophets and luminaries (often from many centuries
ago, codified in holy traditions and writings, and reinterpreted by
religious authorities through the ages), or as cultural traditions that
enrich our existence and provide moral and ethical codes of conduct for
our lives. I call these codified, traditional, revealed religious
beliefs.
Many will read the
above paragraph without pause or reflection. Our language tends to bind
us to certain articles of faith, such as the use of masculine pronouns
to identify the Divine presence. God as a masculine energy is
associated with logic, structures and confining boundaries. On the one
hand this helps us to abide by society's rules, with a sense of the
disciplining father keeping us in line. On the other hand, creativity,
tolerance and love are diminished through our investment in doing
rather than being.
When we
accept these beliefs as absolute truths, any questioning of these
traditions becomes heretical. We are discouraged from even considering
the possibility of questioning these truths.
Such
unconditional acceptance of social "truths" becomes a "cultural
hypnosis" (Pearce 2002). We are so immersed in these worldviews that
they appear to many to represent an absolute picture of reality, "the
way it is" and/or "the way it is supposed to be."
Where
codified revealed beliefs are exclusive, we are bound to a system that
is defensive. Our beliefs are right, and therefore all other beliefs
are wrong. It is our mission and privilege to bring our revealed light
to the darkness of a world in which others have not seen THE light. We
may do this by our living example, though more commonly we preach and
teach the codified truths in our efforts to convert non-believers.
There
is a wide spectrum of approaches for relating to non-believers, both
within and between various religious communities. In Christian
tradition, proselytizing and actively seeking to convert non-believers
is a highly valued mission. Where Church and State are separated,
members of other religions are tolerated and are extended equal rights
under the law. In Muslim tradition (in many predominantly Muslim
countries), non-believers are infidels, and they are not equal under
the law to believers. Westernized Muslims are more tolerant of other
religions. In Jewish tradition, proselytizing is not practiced, because
being Jewish is considered a privilege of the Chosen People.
Traditionally, anyone wanting to convert should be discouraged from
doing so. In Hindu and other polytheistic religions, beliefs in many
gods promote tolerance for other religions (Campbell 1989). Buddhists
teach practices that help to overcome self-defeating beliefs and
habits, recommending that personal experience and exploration should be
the basis for faith (Smith 1965).
Life is the only game in which the object of the game is to learn the rules.
- Ashleigh Brilliant
Advantage of Accepting What We Are Told
Holding
to unshakable religious beliefs can be a comfort to the believer. Life
is simple and straightforward. Right is right and wrong is wrong. The
world is the way it is because it was created thus by God in His
omniscient wisdom. Our course in life is clear because there is no
question about how it is all meant to be. If we live by the letter of
the law, we will be rewarded by God, ultimately with an afterlife that
is blissful.
Within some
religious systems, if we have faith in our health, we expect to remain
healthy and will be able to recover from all illness. Faith in our
religious leaders and in prayer workers within our religious frameworks
empowers them with the ability to extend healing for our ailments and
absolution for our sins. This faith that we have in their power may
facilitate our self-healing responses to their treatments.
Disadvantages of Accepting What We Are Told
If
we stray from the prescribed paths of our religious teachings, we can
anticipate Divine retribution, up to and including eternal damnation in
Hell. Life may become focused on avoiding sins and penalties rather
than on the good deeds and healings we can bring into the world. Fear
of Hell or other punishments after death can be powerful motivation for
behavior.
Particularly
relevant to the IJHC, illness may be interpreted as a lack of faith or
the result of negative thinking - adding spiritual guilt to our
suffering rather than providing hope, nurturance and relief.
From
the perspective of logical reasoning, accepting what wer are told
appears to be unscientific. There is no room here to explore whether
the Word as given by God, explained and interpreted by His ministers
and priests, passes any tests of reason or explorations through methods
of objective research outside of the canon of religious laws and
traditions.
God gave
us a curiosity to understand his creation. I don't think we need to
worry that we will move into an exploration that will embarrass him.
- Francis Collins, Geneticist (p. 38)
From
the perspective of intuitive faith, accepting what we are told is based
on the original inspired intuitive knowing of luminaries who lived long
ago. However, we now rely on various interpretations and
reinterpretations of their words over many centuries. This approach
allows no room for personal intuitive awarenesses, particularly when
these might deviate from or even contradict the established
interpretations of teachings.
Accepting
what we are told is based on faith in the intuitive perceptions of
luminary people many centuries ago, and in the interpretations of their
inspirations as they are taught by religious authorities today.
2. Logical Reasoning
Science
tells us that there are fundamental laws in nature that determine how
the physical world functions (including our bodies). With methodical,
step-by-step research, we are discovering how the particles and
energies of the universe behave. Ultimately, we are told we will at
least comprehend everything there is to know about the visible,
physical universe. Based on this knowledge, we will probably be able to
control our existence to an ever-enhanced degree through manipulations
of our environment and our physical world. Science has become the
religion of much of the Western world.
Full editorial in IJHC Volume 3, No. 2
Click here for subscription details
Volume 3, No. 3, September 2003
COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS:
The Journey IS the Destination
Daniel J. Benor, MD
We are all woven together in a single garment of destiny.
&nbs
