Studies and Progress Notes (September 2006)

Spiritual Awareness and Wholistic Healing

Major changes in how Lourdes miracles are recognized

“Medical progress has made some of the rules for miracle recognition inapplicable. Importance is given to “spiritual benefits” as much as getting a medical check-up.

Lourdes (AsiaNews) – …The International Medical Committee of Lourdes (CMIL) is officially overhauling its rules to authenticate “healings” and… once the medical exam isover, the patient’ spiritual benefits from healing will be taken into account.

The Committee will now recognise three classes of miraculous healings—“declared”, “unexpected” and “confirmed”—since modern medicine has made the rules established by Cardinal Lambertini in1734 (the future Pope Benedict XIV) for miracle recognition no longer applicable. In principle, when a person with an incurable disease was healed without receiving any treatment, that was deemed a miracle and used in the canonisation process.  The Committee adopted these rules when it was created in 1883, but today they can no longer be applied.

As François-Bernard Michel, CMIL co-chairman, told French Catholic daily La Croix, ‘fortunately no patient arrives in Lourdes without having receiving some chemotherapy.’ The issue then becomes ‘if the person is healed, what can be attributed to the chemo and what to Lourdes.’

This said, the health evaluation is not as fundamental as how people view the healing in their relationship to others and God. In 1993 an international congress was held in Lourdes on ‘Healing and Miracles.’ It concluded that healing is miraculous when two conditions exist, namely that its explanation ‘is beyond the usual rules of medicine or the normal course of the disease and that it brings the patient and witnesses to believe that it was due to God’s special intervention.’

In concrete terms, healings will be examined according to a three-stage process. It will start when people who believe that they were healed through the Virgin’s intercession make voluntary and spontaneous statements to the permanent Medical Bureau in Lourdes.

These claims will be then evaluated by a council (which meets annually and includes non Catholics), which will examine the ‘progression of the disease’ and the ‘patient’s character’ in order to ‘judge if the healing escapes usual medical assessments and to consider the circumstances of the healing.’ Its findings can be ‘Not for follow up,’ ‘Wait’ or ‘Unexpected Healing.’ Last year, about 40 cases fell into the third category.

Once a third category case is recognised, the bishop from the claimant’s diocese of residence is informed and the healing is examined. In this second phase, when only ‘unexpected healings’ are considered, numerous experts and specialists look at the case in question poring over the relevant scientific literature to see what happens before and after healing in order to determine whether the healing is ‘truly unusual.’

Last year, there were five such cases: post-traumatic myelopathy, a very serious case of Crohn's disease, a case of multiple sclerosis, myopathy and a cancer of the kidney.

Once this third stage is crossed, ‘given the current state of scientific knowledge the exceptional nature of a healing case’ is recognised.

At this point the case file goes to the bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, currently Mg Jacques Perrier, and to the bishop of the healed person’s diocese of residence.

Currently, only one case is under examination after reaching the third and final stage. It involves a French woman who was completely cured of a malignant lymphoma diagnosed in 1992 made worse by a myelogenous leukemia and various other complications.

In addition, the Committee plans to reflect upon the pertinence of healing in cases involving psychological and mental diseases because, as Dr Michel put it, ‘many people suffering from depression or carrying heavy personal burdens find meaning and a taste for life after a pilgrimage to Lourdes’. " 

Source: AsiaNews  17 March, 2006    http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=5667

 
IJHC – WHR Observations

Medical authorities have volunteered their time for many decades to assess the validity of claims made by visitors to Lourdes who claim miraculous cures. This is probably the longest series of case studies of spiritual healing on record.

For more on the earlier history of the Lourdes medical authorities’ procedures, see

Dowling, St. John, Lourdes Cures and Their Medical Assessment, J. Royal Society of Medicine 1984, 77, 634-638.
West, D. J, Eleven Lourdes Miracles, London: Helix 1957.

---

Future Research in Wholistic Healing

The IJHC/WHR E-Zine features monthly suggestions for future research in healing.
READERS ARE INVITED TO SUBMIT SUGGESTIONS FOR TOPICS TO STUDY
If your topic is chosen, you ill receive free access to the IJHC for a month, including the current issue and all back issues.

Imponderables in healing research
    In Western science we have focused on linear studies that presume direct cause and effect relationships between interventions and outcomes. When we give people treatments (be these medications, herbal remedies, homeopathy, massage, acupuncture, or spiritual healing), we anticipate that if the treatment is effective then changes will be demonstrated in the people receiving the treatments.
    With prayer and healing as treatments, we may see (perhaps more readily, if not more clearly) that the treatments are only a small part of a person’s life. Issues such as spiritual lessons from adversity, karmic residues from unresolved problems in past lives, and bioenergetic influences of other people and the environment may all play parts in a person’s illness.
    Some of our research may help us to understand that directly attacking disease is an effort more likely than not to be doomed to failure. What is needed is the wholistic treatment of the whole person.
    For a more thorough discussion on these issues, click on any of the round icons at the top of the WHR or IJHC sites for discussions on the relationships between body, emotions, mind, relationships and spirit.

---

Wholistic Approaches

Fish oil improves school performance and decreases school truancy
    “South African researchers have told an Australian scientific conference that primary school children who were given daily doses of fish oil as part of a study showed improved learning and memory.” They also had less truancy.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/060730/2/zys2.html
http://article.wn.com/view/2006/07/31/Fish_oil_linked_to_kids_spelling_skills/

IJHC - WHR Observations
     Fish oil is highly beneficial for children’s cognitive functions, helps in dealing with ADHD, and also is a good antidepressant.

Switching from regular salt to potassium-enriched salt reduces cardiovascular mortality and medical expenses in older men
    “In a multi-center, randomized, controlled trial involving 1,981 elderly men (average age: 74.8 years), replacing regular table salt with a potassium-enriched salt was found to improve cardiovascular disease (CVD) survivorship, increase length of life, and reduce spending on inpatient care for CVD.”
    Source: Chang HY, et al. Effect of potassium-enriched salt on cardiovascular mortality and medical expenses of elderly men, Am J Clinical Nutrition 2006; 83(6): 1289-96.
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/83/6/1289

IJHC – WHR Observations
    Simplicity!

---

Complementary Therapies

Meta-analysis of music therapy for premature infants
    “This meta-analysis on music research with premature infants in neonatal intensive care units (NICU) showed an overall large, significant, consistent effect size of almost a standard deviation (d =.83) (Cohen, 1998). Effects were not mediated by infants' gestational age at the time of study, birthweight, or type of music delivery nor by physiologic, behavioral, or developmental measures of benefit. The homogeneity of findings suggests that music has statistically significant and clinically important benefits for premature infants in the NICU. The unique acoustic properties that differentiate music from all other sounds are discussed and clinical implications for research-based music therapy procedures cited.”
    Standley JM. A meta-analysis of the efficacy of music therapy for premature infants. J Pediatric Nursing 2002, 17(2), 107-13.
Center for Music Research, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-1180, USA. jayne.standley@cmr.fsu.edu
    See also:  Standley JM. Music research in medical/dental treatment: meta-analysis and clinical applications. J Music Therapy 1986, 23(2), 56-122.

    This article is a comprehensive analysis and application of music therapy research in the general field of music in medicine, and consists of a thorough review of the literature and a meta-analysis of all empirical studies using music in actual medical/dental treatments. It also transfers research results to clinical applications of music therapy techniques and program development in a general hospital setting.

IJHC – WHR Observations
   From birth, throughout life, and  even in the process of deathing, music has been known to help people enjoy life and enhance their quality of life – not just in the sensual enjoyment of the music but also in its physical effects.
    In contrast with conventional medical interventions, this treatment has no known serious side effects!

More CAM reviews at
www.naturalhealthvillage.com
www.mdlinx.com/FamilyMDLinx  
 www.ucalgary.ca/~camig/litsearch.html
AMSA website
www.amsa.org/humed/camresources/camnews.cfm

---

Environment (Healing Our Planet)

Masses of jellyfish have been reported in many parts of the world
    Bathers have been stung in Hawaii, North Carolina, Wales, Spain and other Mediterranean countries, Micronesia, California, Maine and elsewhere.
    Fishermen have been unable to haul in their nets due to the weight of masses of jellyfish in these areas.
    Scientists do not know the ultimate causes for the massive increases in jellyfish in many parts of the world over the past several years. Possible causes include “the increase in the temperature of the water due to climatic change, the reduction in the number of predators due to over-fishing and the increase in nutrients due to contamination of the coasts...”

http://www.oceana.org/index.php?id=1578
    For more on the degradation of life in our oceans see a detailed report in the LA Times HERE . 

IJHC – WHR Observations
    Global warming, pollution and over-fishing are problems we must deal with if we are to survive on this wonderful planet.
    You can contribute by voting for ecology sensitive candidates and by writing to your congresspersons to let them know you are concerned about these issues.

---

Technology

Cup that prevents spilling in hands with tremors
    It is estimated that up to five percent of the population has tremors that interfere in their lives. One of the more prominent and annoying ways in which this happens is that cups and glasses often spill. This is not only a nuisance, it is an embarrassment – on top of the other handicaps entailed in having trembling hands.
    A cup has been invented that has swivels at the top which compensate for the tremor, allowing the weight of the cup to hold it perpendicular to the ground despite the movements of the hand holding it.
    This cup is also good for use on boats and in other unstable environments.
Web links: HandSteady cup http://www.handsteady.com/
Photos  http://www.handsteady.com/pictures.html
BBC article http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5154572.stm
National Tremor Foundation, UK http://www.tremor.org.uk/

IJHC – WHR Observations
    It is lovely to see a technical solution to a common human problem.

---

Human Ecology

Fighting back at the computer virus inventors
    “We're entering a new phase here at StopBadware.org. Google -- which is one of our partners -- is now presenting people with a warning before they visit websites that have been reported to StopBadware.org as sites that distribute badware. These warnings currently link to a general page on StopBadware.org, but as we finish researching sites, we'll replace the general page with one of our individual website reports (see an example here ). Hopefully this next step will bring us that much closer to fulfilling our mission of providing people with reliable, objective information about downloadable applications in order to help them make better choices.
    If there are sites and applications you'd like us to check out before you use them, let us know here…
    We've all seen it happen: you or someone you know has downloaded something from the internet that seemed harmless enough at the time. Next thing you know, the computer has slowed to a crawl. Pop-up advertising starts to appear out of nowhere. Private information gets sent to some company you've never heard of. And the worst part? Trying to uninstall the software sometimes makes the problem worse.
    Help us fight back!
    Join those who have already helped us fight badware:
    What you can do: Tell us your story | Submit Technical Reports”
http://www.stopbadware.org/

 
IJHC – WHR Observations
    It is a sad commentary on the state of our world that there are people investing enormous energies in creating destructive software.
    It is good to see concerted efforts to deal with these problems.