God knows we all want to be and stay healthy. But can prayer to God actually help? Apparently a lot of us think so.
*The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reports that fully one-third of us have experienced or witnessed a divine healing of illness or injury.
*Recent polls show that 40% of Americans use alternative health care options, and according to the National Institutes of Health, the number one alternative is prayer.
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*The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that half of all Americans are praying about their health.
*A recent report published by the American Psychological Association showed that the percentage of people who turn to prayer because of health concerns increased 36% between 1999 and 2007.
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So how do these compelling statistics fit in with modern medicine's monolithic insistence on surgery and drugs as the twin pillars of health care?
Dr. Larry Dossey, who served as a battalion surgeon in Vietnam and later as Chief of Staff at the Medical City Dallas Hospital, describes three distinct "eras" of medicine in his book, Reinventing Medicine: Beyond Mind-Body to a New Era of Healing (HarperOne, 2000).
Era 1 medicine began in the mid-1800's when patients were treated like mindless machines. Health and illness were seen as totally physical; surgical procedures and drugs predominated.
Era 2, which began in the mid-1900's, ushered in the now widely accepted view that the human mind has at least some bearing on one's health. Medicine was seen as including spirituality and prayer.
Era 3 is the future of medicine, a time when consciousness will be seen as central to health and healing.
If half of us are already praying about our health, and a third of us have already experienced healing as a result, then prayer is already providing real-time, real-life answers to health care issues on a broad scale.
The power of prayer has been acknowledged, although not fully understood, for a long, long time. Usually it's the old that has to make way for the new. In this case it may be the old patiently nudging the new aside.
