{"id":3931,"date":"2008-03-27T04:04:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-27T04:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=3931"},"modified":"2025-09-30T01:20:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T01:20:30","slug":"a-psychiatrist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=3931","title":{"rendered":"A psychiatrist on prayer, faith and illness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Short posting on the NY Times health blog –<\/p>\n

Prayer, Faith and Doctors – Well – Tara Parker-Pope – Health – New York Times Blog<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

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. \u201cPatients used to ask me to pray for them, and I\u2019d pooh-pooh it,\u201d one elderly physician told me. After he got sick, he \u201crealized how important prayer was.\u201d <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

That said, some physicians weren\u2019t changed by illness, remaining skeptical and disillusioned with organized religion. \u201cI see it helps my patients,\u201d one doctor told me. \u201cI wish I had it in my life more\u2026But I don\u2019t.\u201d It could not always be willed.<\/p>\n

Some doctors felt that prayer can directly alter the physical process of healing through God\u2019s intervention. My view is that prayer and faith give vital strength and motivation that can help patients cope and continue to fight.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. \u201cPatients used to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-lymphoma-and-related-medical-stuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3931"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5332,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3931\/revisions\/5332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}