Lewis Carroll’s Alice could believe “as many as six impossible things before
breakfast”. Impossible things do happen around us not too unfrequently.
Miracles have their own places in our lives.
In his 1961 book Persuasion and Healing, psychiatrist Jerome
Frank describes a treatment performed by the German physician Hans Rheder on
three bedridden patients. One patient had an inflamed gall bladder and chronic
gallstones. The second had had a pancreatic surgery and the recovery process
was becoming tough. She lost weight rapidly and was reduced to a mere skeleton.
The third patient was dying from a painful uterine cancer that had spread
throughout her body.
Medical science stood gaping helplessly at these three patients. There
was little that could be done anymore. So Dr Rheder decided to do something
unconventional. He told all the three women that he knew a faith healer who
could cure with remarkable success simply by directing his healing power to a
specific place. Each woman was told that this healing power was going to be
directed to her room on a particular day and time.
The day and the hour passed. Within a few days, the patient with gallstones
lost all of her symptoms, returned home, and remained symptom-free for a year.
The ‘skeleton’ woman began to eat and subsequently gained nearly 15 kg. The
patient with cancer was already a terminal case, but her bloated body excreted excess
fluids, she gained strength, and her blood count improved. She returned home
and lived for 3 months in relative comfort.
Our minds can perform miracles. A lot of what we call reality is a creation
of our minds. A lot of all that reality depends on our attitudes, perspectives,
and emotions. Dale Carnegie’s two men look out from prison bars. One sees the
mud while the other sees stars. That is the case with all of us. We see what we
choose to see. We shape our destinies by what we choose to see and do.
Miracle is a change of attitude. There are many religious gurus and healers
who actually perform miracles. Illnesses are healed by them. What really
happens is a psychological change within the patients. They undergo a psychological
transformation. Their bitterness and jealousy and ill feelings are taken out. A
lot of illnesses are born of those bad feelings. When tenderness and goodness
replace those bad feelings, healing takes place.
As a young man, I once interviewed one of those faith healers in Kerala.
He was (and still is) a Catholic priest who ran (and still runs) a retreat
centre in central Kerala where a lot of miracles were (and still are) taking
place. I asked him whether what he calls miracles weren’t just psychological
transformations. “Psychology works at the mental level,” he answered me. “Religion
works with souls.”
I had problems with that because I didn’t believe in souls. “If I bring
a person whose one leg is amputated, can you create the missing leg?” I
persisted. The priest didn’t like the question though he answered it: “It is
God’s will. We can’t question God’s will.”
The truth is that such miracles won’t happen. The miracles happen only
when the mind undergoes a transformation. The miracle is a change of attitude,
I repeat.
But as an older man today, I am ready to grant the concept of the soul.
There is something more than the mind at work in the whole process. If you have
ever undergone an inner transformation, you will agree with me. Otherwise, it
is impossible to explain this.
A clarification: I am still a non-believer as far as God and religions
are concerned. But I believe in goodness and miracles.
PS. The anecdotes from Dr Rheder’s experiments are taken from Passer and
Smith’s book Psychology: the science of mind and behavior.
The power of belief (attitude).I agree with what you have told.
ReplyDeleteGood to see you here.
DeleteWhen you say a miracle is a change in attitude, I totally agree. The human mind IS powerful. And when we are in a bad place mentally, there are physical manifestations. So the opposite, does mean healing.
ReplyDeleteThere's a post I'd like to write, soon. And I would love to link to this post.
Look forward to your post. This is certainly a topic worth longer discussion.
DeletePranic healing and Reiki are also healing techniques which work along those lines. They too claim that it is more than a mere psychological change. I have undergone Pranic Healing treatment from family members but the results were so varied each time that I didn't know what to believe. Of course, our mental attitude affects our health but it has its limitations, doesn't it? I have heard stories of miracles, haven't sought explanations for them. They were just great to know and appreciate.
ReplyDeleteAny transformation needs to be sustained through constant effort. Miracles are not once-and-for-all changes. The new attitude attained has to be fostered through regular introspection or meditation or other means. As Richard Bach says, once we have climbed certain peaks we don't want to descend but spread our wings and fly high. But unless we make a constant effort to maintain the height, descend we will. That's the law of nature.
Delete"Miracles happen!" is what I have heard many times. Probably it means the change of perception that leads to fruitful results or one sees the benefit of not getting what one aspires.
ReplyDeleteChange of perception. Yes. I called it change of attitude in the post because attitudes control our perception.
DeleteThey would be miraculous, despite not violating the laws of nature, because they lie beyond, well beyond, current and even near-future human capability and because they epitomize and are consistent with the motivations of a God-like entity. ucem um curso em milagres
ReplyDelete