Health and Healing

Living the Miracle

“When our focus is toward a principle of relatedness and openness, and away from fragmentation and isolation, health ensues.”

Larry Dossey, M.D. (Space, Time & Medicine)

Dr. Dossey wrote one of the seminal books about the effects of prayer in recovery and healing, The Reinvention of Medicine: Beyond Mind-Body to a New Era of Healing. Essentially, people who know that others are praying for them tend to heal more quickly from medical treatments such as surgery or chemotherapy. We can think of this as divine intervention, or we can think of it as a shift toward relatedness, and away from isolation. If we understand that all minds are one mind, and that there is no such thing as separateness, then we can begin to connect the dots on this phenomenon. Divine intervention then becomes not so much an outside event, in which, an ascended being puts things right, as an inner shift brought about by positive energy surrounding oneself, within and without, creating the conditions for healing. In the words of Dr. Dossey, “I believe that the vital ingredient is love—a state of caring and compassion that is so deep and genuine that the barriers we erect around the self are transcended.” (Reinvention of Medicine)

Sometimes we think of these instances as miracles. And they are. According to A Course in Miracles, miracles are common place and should be recognized as such. They represent the connection between the individual mind and the source of mind, which we typically call God. A miracle is a service that benefits both the giver and the receiver—a way of loving your neighbor as yourself. They are teaching devices and natural signs of forgiveness.

So, we might ask, why do some people die and some live? Wouldn't everyone who is prayed for live if this were so? I can't answer that question except to say, death is not always the enemy. Sometimes death is the miraculous answer. It is our perception that death is always bad, always wrong, that is in need of reconsideration. Death is a natural part of the circle of life—germination, growth, flowering, fruiting, decline and death. If there were no death, there could be no rebirth. Just as we are not in control of germination or the fruiting—some seeds (people) germinate and some don't, some plants (people) bear fruit, and some don't—we do not control the time nor the means of death. But we do contribute to the quality of life and health. Our emotions, attitudes and thoughts profoundly affect both our bodies and our lives and those of others. Let us do what we can to live within the miracle.

                                                       In the Spirit,

                                                           Jane