Short posting on the NY Times health blog –
Prayer, Faith and Doctors – Well – Tara Parker-Pope – Health – New York Times Blog
Several doctors I spoke with were religious before they became patients, but they were admittedly even more so once they faced serious illness. Others changed more dramatically. “Patients used to ask me to pray for them, and I’d pooh-pooh it,” one elderly physician told me. After he got sick, he “realized how important prayer was.”
Often these doctors expressed a hodgepodge of beliefs, drawing on the organized religion in which they were raised, and adding elements of Eastern philosophy or New Age beliefs.
That said, some physicians weren’t changed by illness, remaining skeptical and disillusioned with organized religion. “I see it helps my patients,” one doctor told me. “I wish I had it in my life more…But I don’t.” It could not always be willed.
Some doctors felt that prayer can directly alter the physical process of healing through God’s intervention. My view is that prayer and faith give vital strength and motivation that can help patients cope and continue to fight.
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