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Miracle Medical Miracles Really Do Happen Thousands of cases involving seemingly inexplicable recoveries have been reported by doctors around the world Larry Dossey, MD Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing Special from Bottom Line/Health August 1, 2007 M ost of us have heard of people who recover from diseases that were considered incurable. The phenomenon, referred to in medical literature as spontaneous remission, occurs when serious, often deadly illnesses such as cancer quickly and inexplicably -- some would even say miraculously -- disappear. No one knows exactly how often such cases occur. Approximately 3,500 medically documented cases of seeming miracles -- based on reports from doctors in America and around the world dating to 1967 -- have appeared in 800 peer-reviewed medical journals and cover all major illnesses, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes and arthritis.* To find out more about medically documented “miracles” -- and what they might mean for improving everyday health and healing -- Bottom Line/Health spoke to Larry Dossey, MD, former cochair of the National Institutes of Health’s Mind/Body Panel and the author of The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things (Harmony/Random House), which includes an essay on medical miracles... What is a “medically documented miracle”? The word miracle is from the Latin mirari, meaning to look at in awe. For me, a medical miracle is an awe-inspiring healing event -- a disease that goes away suddenly, unexpectedly and completely. Attempts have been made to define and medically document miracle-type cures. For example, in 1954, the Catholic Church established the International Medical Committee of Lourdes, a panel that includes dozens of experts from the European medical community. These doctors decide whether a cure reported by a person who has visited the healing shrine at Lourdes in southwestern France is an “authentic” miracle, using rigorous criteria, including a permanent remission of the disease. As of 2006, the committee had documented 67 cases. Have any of your patients ever experienced this type of healing? Early in my career, I had an elderly patient with cancer in both lungs that had spread throughout his body. We had no medical therapies for this type of cancer, but during visiting hours, people from his church stood near his bed, praying and singing gospel music. I expected him to die within days, and when he asked to go home, I respected his wishes and discharged him. About a year later, this patient was back in the hospital -- this time with a bad case of the flu. I went to the radiology department to look at his current chest X-ray, and it was completely normal. I thought that in the past year he must have had a dramatic response to additional therapy of some kind, but he hadn’t undergone any therapy. To me, this was a true miracle cure. Are religious and supernatural influences believed to play a role in most medical miracles? Many medical miracles occur in a religious, spiritual or supernatural context -- people pray to God, or to saints, or rely on what they believe to be the healing energies of the universe. Perhaps some unknown mind-body process is triggered by belief. But even this is pure speculation -- because atheists and agnostics also experience what seem to be miracle cures. Not knowing why something works is not necessarily a problem. Throughout the history of medicine, we often have known that a treatment works before we understand how it works. Aspirin and penicillin are two examples. We can add miracle-type cures to that list. Perhaps science will someday explain these occurrences. For now, they remain inexplicable. How do people who experience these cures explain their recoveries? In interviews conducted for a book called Remarkable Recovery (Riverhead), individuals whose illnesses were reversed pointed to a variety of factors they thought played an important role in their healing. Paradoxically, the two most commonly cited factors seem like opposites -- 75% attributed the recovery to a “belief in a positive outcome,” while 71% said it was based on “acceptance of the disease.” This shows that there is no one “personality type” that experiences miracle-type healings. Sixty-eight percent believed that prayer was responsible, followed by meditation and faith. Self-help regimens, including exercise, music and singing, were also cited. Some doctors believe that telling patients about miracle-type cures instills “false hope.” What do you think? Yes, some doctors may believe that speaking about medically documented miracles promotes “false hope” in seriously ill patients. But I would say that not informing and educating patients about this possibility promotes “false pessimism” -- a negative viewpoint that is not justified by the facts. Documented miracle cures are a fact of medical history. For someone who is ill, that knowledge can provide comfort and consolation. |
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