History

Although the origin of faith healing has faded into the mists of time, it appears to have been practiced by all cultures, cults, sects and religions. The Christian religions, particularly those of the Catholic Church and the fundamentalist groups, have not only turned a blind eye to the practices, but have encouraged it.


Theory

The Christian notion is that certain people are granted gifts by God to enable them to heal the afflicted. This belief was extended early in history to include individuals such as saints, shrines and sites such as Lourdes and a considerable range of artifacts including almost anything considered to have religious importance. Most are believed to have concomitant "magic" healing powers.


Practice

The practices are diverse. The alleged healings and cures are attributed to "hands-on" healing, where through the "gifted", God's healing powers are bestowed on the afflicted. Among the other attributes claimed to be effective are prayers, incantations, artifacts, talismans, holy water, visits to shrines and religious sites, apparitions and visitations by the Virgin Mary. In fact, any happening or object in which a believer has sufficient faith and which at some time appears to have been effective in producing a cure.


Assessment

How much credence can be had in faith healing? Does God channel healing powers through others? Do religious artifacts have "magic" powers? Is a designated holy site more likely to produce a cure than any other environment?

The belief in the efficacy of certain religious relics was born of another belief — that diseases were produced by the emissaries of Satan who possessed the bodies of the afflicted. As God's will was considered manifest through miracles, and saints, apostles, prophets and martyrs were his intermediaries, any Earthly remains of their person or objects with which they came into contact became sacred. They were thought to be endowed with supernatural powers. It was believed that in some mysterious way the virtue in a holy hair, a piece of wood, or the bone of a saint would drive out the demon and effect a cure.

In a spiritual age when ignorance was the hand maiden of faith, belief in miracles prospered and for political reasons the Church fathers decided that they were necessary to propagate the faith.

Although relics were sought after and venerated in Roman times, by the 11th century they were commonplace, the list both long and macabre — splinters from the true cross, Christ's blood, seventeen foreskins (all allegedly His), the crown of thorns, baby teeth, hair clippings, the bones of Mary Magdalene, a vial of Mary's milk, her scarf, St Peter's tooth, the head(s) of John the Baptist, a finger from the hand of apostle Thomas and countless bones supposedly belonging to a large number of assorted religious luminaries.

The relics, originally intended as an aid to devotion, soon became objects of worship in their own right, as did the ornate caskets which contained them. Shrines were built to house the caskets and became meccas to which the faithful beat a pilgrims' path.

From the very beginning, the Church realised the value and potency of relics and commercialism took over, swelling the coffers of many an abbey, church or monastery.

Heading the list of famous relics and still revered in modem times is the Shroud of Turin alleged to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. It was first drawn to public attention in Lirey, France, by the widow of a knight. In 1898, Jeanne de Vergey photographed it for the first time and the negative revealed in much greater detail and form what appeared to be the faint impression of a figure on it. In the 1970s, a group of scientists investigated the cloth and although some were convinced of its authenticity, others questioned the "blood stains" which were found to contain haematite and vermilion, substances used by medieval artists as a red pigment. In 1989, carbon dating methods put the probable date of the shroud at between 1260 and 1390, settling the question of whether or not it was a forgery once and for all. However, it still continues to attract the faithful as a holy relic.

The mortal remains of St Francis Xavier, canonised in 1622, rest in a silver casket in the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa, India. I use the word "remains" in the literal sense as the poor fellow's body has been dismembered unmercifully by relic seekers, both lay and ecclesiastical, since he was first laid to rest in 1552. One of his toes was bitten off by a Portuguese lady who wanted a relic of the saint. In 1615, part of his right hand was cut off and sent to the Church of Gesu in Rome, and in 1619, the remaining part of the hand was removed and sent to the Jesuits in Japan. Parts of the intestines have also been removed from time to time and distributed to various places around the world. Ironically, the remains of St Francis are now the subject of a court case. A local family is claiming that the body is not that of the saint at all, but one of their former ancestors.

Heads seem to enjoy a certain status among believers. The reliquaries for the heads of Saint Praxedes and Saint Sebastian, together with the relics of Saint Stephen, are still cherished and represent some of the most valuable artifacts in the Vatican's collection.

On a less bizarre note, Dr. Luigi Garlaschelli and his colleagues at the University of Pavia, Italy, have come up with a scientific explanation for the mystery of the clotted blood of St Januarius which turns to liquid when handled by priests. In Naples, since 1389, a sealed phial of the solid blood of the saint has turned into liquid every few months before the faithful who venerate it. Up until 1992, this 'miracle' has remained unexplained.

Reporting their discovery in Nature, the scientists explored the tendency of certain gels to turn to liquid when stirred or vibrated and to return to the solid form when allowed to stand.

This is known as thixotropy, and it appears to be what occurs in the holy blood relic of the medieval saint. To reproduce the effect, Garlaschelli's team mixed calcium carbonate (or chalk) in a solution in water of hydrated iron chloride and used dialysis to transfer the chemical products across a membrane into distilled water. In medieval times, parchment or animal gut would have worked equally as well. By adding a pinch of common salt, a dark brownish "sol" was formed which set into a solid gel. Gently shaken, this gel turned into liquid. Then when left to stand, the liquid solidified. The researchers concluded: "The chemical nature of the Naples relic can be established only by opening the phial, but a complete analysis is forbidden by the Catholic Church. Our replication of the phenomenon seems to render this sacrifice unnecessary".

Still prevalent in many societies today is the belief that man-made trinkets and holy artifacts possess 'magic' powers. They continue to be valued by those who fail to understand the natural laws of nature and such disbelief attests to the ignorance and superstitious nature of man.

Shrines too, are venerated and looked upon by believers as likely venues for those in search of a miraculous cure. There are literally tens of thousands of shrines throughout the world. No culture is without them. Four of the most celebrated in the Western world are Guadalupe (Mexico), Lourdes (France), Fatima (Portugal) and Medjugore (Yugoslavia). All four are located in countries where the religion is predominantly Catholic, and therefore, a brief introduction to Roman Catholic dogma and doctrine may assist in understanding why this is so.

Mary, otherwise known as the "Blessed Virgin", is traditionally referred to as the mother of Jesus in the Christian gospels. Devotion to Mary is part of Catholic liturgical life and the studies, devotions and doctrines associated with her are collectively called "Mariology".

Marian apparitions — the appearance or manifestation of the BVM, have been reported hundreds of times over the centuries along with other paranormal phenomena such as brilliant lights, spinning suns, burning bushes, weeping statues and so on. Percipients usually identify the apparition as Mary who appears in the form of a luminous woman. If and when she speaks, she foretells of apocalyptic disasters and that the reign of the Anti-christ is imminent. People are urged to repent, pray and do penance. Although Catholic dogma states that apparitions are not ghosts, it accepts that the phenomena are permitted by God.

In some cases the apparition asks for churches and shrines to be built to her. Where the apparitions have been deemed authentic by church authorities, it is to these sites millions flock to seek and witness miraculous cures. This was the case with Lourdes, where a young peasant girl by the name of Bernadette Soubirous had such a vision in a grotto in 1858.

A newly discovered spring near the grotto was rumoured to have miraculous healing powers and became the destination of pilgrims from all over the world. A medical team composed mainly of French Catholic doctors, the International Medical Committee (CMIL) at Lourdes, is cautious and painstaking in its investigation of alleged miracle cures. As a consequence, only sixty-five cures have been accepted as miraculous by the Catholic Church out of the estimated two million sick pilgrims who have visited the shrine since 1858, hardly indicative of a statistical link between Lourdes and cures. Furthermore, the data used in many cases to ascertain whether or not a miraculous event has occurred is often insufficient for totally objective evaluation. Bernadette herself suffered from asthma all her life, was an early victim of cholera, and died of a tubercular knee. Her father, a cripple and partially blind, also died still afflicted.

The most acclaimed cures are those involving faith healers. Thousands have testified that faith healing works and that it is a great source of hope for those who would otherwise have none. Hands-on or touch healing is usually performed by people with neither medical training nor skills.

Although the techniques and methods vary slightly, generally speaking they simply involve the touching or laying on of hands by the practitioner, coupled with faith in that practitioner by the person seeking help. The Bible features many who have supposedly effected miraculous cures. Christ allegedly restored the ear of Malchus after it had been severed by one of the disciples; he healed a centurion's servant of palsy and a woman who had "a flow of blood for twelve years". The disciples also effected cures and many Roman Catholic saints have been renowned for their healing powers both while living and after their death. In recent times, Britain's best known faith healer was the late Harry Edwards (1893-1976), (no relationship to this author), who, since he began healing in  the 1930s, claimed to have cured tens of thousands of people, most of them believed to have been "incurable". Following an attendance at a Spiritualist Church in London in 1934, he was told that there were spirit guides who wished to co-operate with him and that he had undoubted power of healing. Those spirit guides were none other than Lord Lister, the founder of antiseptic surgery and Louis Pasteur, the great French scientist.

Where it has been possible to investigate claims of cures, it has been found that essential laboratory tests have not been carried out and that "certified" cures were unscientific and totally unconvincing. The cures fall into the general pattern of "faith healing" and there is no evidence to suggest that supernatural forces were involved.

There is little doubt that sometimes cures are seemingly the result of inexplicable, irrational and often bizarre practices, ranging from the laying on of hands to the realigning of the body's chakras with the application of crystals or magnets. The efficacy of these therapies however, is seldom subject to critical analysis. While the successes are touted enthusiastically, the failures are never mentioned.

James Randi, a foundation member of the American Skeptics' group, Committee for the Scientific Investigation of claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), has spent much of his life investigating the claims of miracle cures by faith healers of all denominations. His book, The Faith Healers, is a hard hitting expose of the widespread fraudulent practices common to the genre. One inclusion well worth mentioning here is the Reverend Peter Popoff, whose faith healing and allegedly miraculous cures were regularly televised in the U.S.A. until, unknown to Popoff and his wife Elizabeth, a team of electronic surveillance experts began a series of surreptitious recordings designed to expose the modus operandi by which the evangelist was able to recite details about audience members and their afflictions without apparent prior knowledge of that person. Popoff, like many faith healers, calls out the names and illnesses of people at his crusades, then "lays hands" on them and prays for their healing. The impression given is that the information comes from a divine source.

The sceptics however, found that the source of the information was Popoff's wife and her aides. They interviewed members of the audience as they came in and relayed the information to Popov on the stage by radio, through an earpiece resembling a hearing aid. The film Leap of Faith, starring Steve Martin, featured Popov's method of receiving "divine" communication.

That in many cases, faith healing is simply a commercial enterprise can be seen from the blatant appeals for large amounts of money by some of the best known faith healers, Oral Roberts and his son Richard, Kathryn Kuhlman, Ernest Angley and the discredited Jimmy Swaggart and Jimmy Bakker. All are living testimony to the megabuck industry that passes as religious faith.

What of those who claim to have been cured by faith healing? They consist in the main of psychosomatic illnesses brought on by the body's reaction to stress, and will respond in many ways for the following reasons:

1. In the right environment, to a suggestion by another person.

2. The self-limiting aspects of many illnesses that will come and go of their own accord with or without treatment.

3. The placebo effect whereby a person will respond positively to any palliative, no matter how lacking in medicinal compounds it may be.

4. To the power of suggestion which is relevant to both orthodox and unorthodox healing. Although the basic mechanism of hypnotism still provokes argument, it has become more and more acceptable over the years.

5. The body has its own physiological and biochemical systems for dealing with pain by releasing endorphins in time of stress. These endogenous substances are naturally occurring analogues of pain limiting drugs such as morphine and heroin. Thus in a stressful event such as a high level of excitement, no pain will be felt due to the release of a natural analgesic. But when the excitement is no longer present the pain will return much magnified and intermediate damage may have been done.

6. The concept of "role playing" also plays a large part in faith healing, where the sufferer will endeavour to fulfil the role indicated by the healer - throwaway your crutches and walk, for example. For a short time they may be able to comply because it is expected of them.

If it works, why knock it? Well, it all depends. Regardless of how scientifically or medically inefficacious it may be, if it leads to an improvement in the emotional state of the sufferer and makes life easier, what's wrong with that? A principal objection would be that it abrogates the personal responsibility of an individual to cultivate faith in themselves to reason out the cause and solve their own problems and that more efficacious orthodox treatment may be delayed unnecessarily. In other words, it makes one vulnerable in serious situations.

The claim is often made by people who turn to faith healers that the medical profession had given up on them. They may produce medical records to show that they were in fact suffering from an incurable disease prior to the cure. Evidence suggests however, that many such cases are likely to be instances of wrong diagnosis, wrong prognosis, remission or spontaneous cure. A further consideration is the understanding of the nature of disease itself. Disease and even terminal illnesses are subject to variability. That is, the severity of the symptoms and how the patient feels varies from day to day, week to week and month to month. As treatment is more likely to be sought when the patient is feeling especially down, no matter what the treatment, standard, unorthodox, occult or religious, the odds are that they will improve, giving the credit to the healer.

A booklet entitled Divine Healing and Co-operation between Doctors and Clergy, by a medical committee set up in 1956 to assist an enquiry by the Archbishops' Commission, concluded that they could "find no evidence that there is any type of illness cured by 'spiritual healing' alone which could not have been cured by medical treatment, and no evidence that organic disease is cured by these methods".

These finding were confirmed by Dr. Louis Rose, who in his book Faith Healing (1971), described how, in cooperation with Harry Edwards, Britain's most famous faith healer, and other healers, he investigated ninety-five cases of reported cures. In fifty-eight cases he could find no medical records. In twenty-two, the available records contradicted the reported results. The remainder were too ambiguous. Dr. Rose concluded


Rita Swan, PhD and Seth Asser, MD, reported in Pediatrics (1998:101[4]:625-9) that they had examined the deaths of 172 children from families who relied upon faith healing from 1975 to 1995. Four out of five sick children would most likely had survived if they had received medical care. The Christian Science church, the Faith Assembly church and the Followers of Christ (FOC), the principal religious denominations opposed to medical care were the groups with the most fatalities.

Other investigators such as James Randi, Dr William Nolan, Ray Hyman and C. Eugene Emery, Jr., have all come to the same conclusion — there is no evidence to support the efficacy of faith healing and much to suggest that the claims of cures associated with it are either fraudulent or based on worthless anecdotal testimonies.


References:

Barrett, Stephen, M.D. 1980. The Health Robbers. Stickley, Philadelphia.

Cornwell, John, 1991. Powers of Darkness Powers of Light. Viking. Penguin Group, London.

Dowling, S. 1984. "Lourdes Cures and Their Mental Assessment." Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 77, 634-638.

Dury, N. 1985. Healers, Quacks or Mystics? Hale & Ironmonger Pty Ltd.

Edwards, Harry. 1993. Apparitions and Shrines. the Skeptic. 13(4):13-17.

-----------------------   1996  A Skeptic's Guide to the New Age, Australian Skeptics Inc.

Frazier, Claude A., M.D. 1973. Faith Healing. Thomas Nelson. New York.

Miller, Paul. 1962. Born to Heal. Spiritualist Press, London.

Neame, A. 1968. The Happening at Lourdes. Hodder & Stoughton.

Randi, J. 1987. The Faith Healers. Prometheus Books.

Rose, L. 1971. Faith Healing. Penguin. London.

Trochu, F. 1957. Saint Bernadette Soubirous, 1844-1879. Longmans.

West, D.J. 1957. Eleven Lourdes Miracles. Duckworth.