Researchers extol the power of prayer, ritual and "religious commitment" in promoting health, healing and dealing with depression, cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease, chronic pain, anxiety, insomnia...

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Food for Thought ...

In thinking about your choices of attention and energy in your busy life, it is interesting to note that scientific studies presented to the American Association for the Advancement of Science find that religious commitment has a positive effect on health as reported Feb. 12th, 1996, in the San Francisco Chronicle. Research shows benefits in dealing with depression, cancer, high blood pressure and heart disease. "People who attend church are both physically healthier and less depressed" says Dr. Harold Koenig of Duke University Medical Center. They have strong networks of friends who look out for them and this may help them cope better with stressful events he says.

How religion makes people healthier is not entirely clear however. Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School thinks taking part in prayer and ritual may lower harmful stress hormones such as adrenaline. Studies show this can reduce high blood pressure, chronic pain, anxiety and insomnia. Several controversial studies raise the possibility that divine intervention is the answer. 393 seriously ill heart patients were divided into two groups. Half were prayed for, half were not, and none knew which group they were in. The prayer recipients suffered fewer health complications!

It looks to me that western science is finally catching up on the ancient wisdom that meaningful ritual, heartfelt prayer and regular joining with others in supportive community to express and commune with the numinous, Great Spirit, is an important part of how people are meant to live and has direct consequences on our physical and mental health.

With prayers for Healing the Sacred Hoop, Love, Tomás