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Faith Healing, Placebo Effects, and Imagery
When I was in my second year of practice, working in the county medical clinic, a middle-aged woman named Edna came in for a checkup. She was a likable, talkative person who said she had come because “the doctors worry me so and tell me I better keep an eye on my blood pressure.” Her chart revealed that she had been diagnosed with a precancerous condition of the uterine cervix more than two years earlier, and the gynecologists she had seen wanted to take biopsies and remove the affected areas. Edna had turned this recommendation down four times, and each successive note put in her chart by her gynecologic consultants sounded more and more frustrated and concerned. There was mention of possible psychopathology and “irrational beliefs about healing.”
When I asked Edna why she was unnecessarily risking her life, she smiled broadly and told me that “Jesus will heal me, and I don’t need surgery.” She said she prayed and talked to Jesus every day, and he promised he would heal her if she put her trust in him.
I asked her how she communicated with Jesus, and she told me, “I see him when I pray, and he talks to me just like we’re talking now.” I again explained the medical concerns that I and the other doctors shared about her. Then I told her I had no doubt that Jesus could heal her if he wanted to but that I wondered how long it would take. She was a bit surprised when I asked her if she would be willing to get in touch with him and ask him if he’d agree to heal her in the next six weeks.
She closed her eyes, and after a few minutes smiled and nodded her head. “Yes, he says he can and will heal me in six weeks.” She agreed to have another pelvic exam and Pap smear at the end of six weeks and also agreed to have a cone biopsy performed if the Pap smear was still abnormal. “But it won’t be,” she said. “I know that now.” And she left, smiling more widely than ever. I was glad to have obtained a commitment form her to have a biopsy if her prayer proved ineffective.
Six weeks later she returned. Her cervix looked normal on examination. Three days later her Pap smear report came back — perfectly normal. Edna’s story certainly does not mean that you can forego Pap smears or that you must believe in Jesus. It does, however, point to the potent healing effects of faith and belief.
From Guided Imagery for Self-Healing
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