For illness and health, there are false representations as there are for nearly everything else with which we have to do. There are false problems, false cures, even real problems confounded or cured by false or contradicting procedures. Medical research often includes placebos in testing the efficacy of whatever medication they are trying to prove effective for purpose. These are sometimes called sugar pills (placebos), even when they may have no sweetener in them. The researcher is aware that a percentage of his research subjects will do just as well, and sometimes better, with a medication that means nothing to the disease that is under study related to the sample participants. Laypersons may be less perplexed by all this than the scientist working through the forest of possibilities for real solutions. Physicians have admitted to placebos to calm patients. British doctors are permitted to prescribe them if the patient is so informed.
At this writing a study has shown that acupuncture is just as effective, used in one procedure following ancient directives, used somewhat casually without great concern for the proper physical location of the puncture. There is a common feeling that if a procedure works to the desired end, we will use it even if its scientific qualifications may be lacking. The helper physician and the helped patient want the pain to go away, especially when they feel there will be no negative side effects. I like my physician in that he believes every natural effort (exercise, diet, rest, and self-trials) should be tried before prescription medication. He is convinced that we are, in general, an overly medicated people so to cause sufferings and complaints about illnesses. Of these observations, none is meant to diminish any legitimate form for relief.
The life of a human being is significantly complicated in nearly any context it is studied. We do have self-powers that overcome habits, inclinations, motivations when we have faith in them. They work, not always, but they serve us so often that we have right to believe in disciplined selves and practice that belief. I am convinced that in forming mankind, God gave factors to the human being that come from the nature of God (image). The divine resource is mysterious, is likely a part of the image of God referred to in Scripture and functions well when rightly engaged. It is partly indicated in the effect of the mind in morals, and other factors. My wife surprised me when knowing she was going to die assured our elder daughter to complete her schedule in California before travelling to our home for a final visit. Our younger daughter came and stayed for some days, ultimately returning to her family 2,000 miles away. When Sharon came, she carried on an animated conversation with her mother for two and a half hours. The next day my wife was in a coma, and the next day deceased. She made up her mind that she would survive until the last child had shared farewells, and she did it. It was remarkable. I have seen it in others. I practiced the positive mental faith, and have related our family experience to prayer and the strong belief that it makes a difference. To believe in a spiritual life direction, added to prayer seems like miracle when one embraces it. There are times when either the self-orientation or the prayer may function separately. I am not advancing religiosity, but the reality that the individual is meant to be more than nature, more than animal, even more than the facts. When told that I had a deadly cancer I joked with the physician/surgeon who had become a personal friend: John, when you attend the funeral planned for me, promise you will have them check the coffin once more to be sure, because I am not going yet. My wife seemed to accept my amateur opinion. That was sixty years ago. I was forty three years of age. Another unrelated cancer requiring another major surgery occurred twenty years later and another less invasive after that. Although now in the tenth decade of my life, caring for my personal needs, I have no doubt that with the care of my family, medical professionals, and spiritual life with prayer, that there is also personal resource that God gives to mankind. It may be used as affirmation that leads to problem solving, whether personal or social. We do well to find those creative/divine factors from God as part of our experience in the context of mortal life’s uncertainties. The Christian ought to assist other seeking persons to find what is best for them in both the terms of earth and heaven. We have within ourselves factors for faith in both self and God. It takes some doing to make the context practical and effective, but it has proved itself for Christians. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020