People Say They Were Cured by Faith Healings

[Kadie]

People Say They Were Cured by Faith Healings
Woman Told She Was Going To Die Says She Was Healed

UPDATED: 12:49 pm PST March 2, 2005

CLEVELAND -- An unprecedented number of faith healings are taking place in Cleveland-area churches at a faster pace than ever before.

Many Clevelanders say they've been healed as a result of healing miracles, reported WEWS-TV in Cleveland.

Those claiming to be healed include prominent doctors, media personalities and people from other states. What they have in common is that each of them say they have received some sort of physical transformation through the power of prayer.

The hands-on healing services frequently run nine hours. Often, there are more than 1,000 people attending.

Liz Simmons finally saw one of the healers after more than 20 years of multiple sclerosis.

"So I saw him the following week, and that week I was healed of the MS," Simmons said. "I do not have MS anymore."

more...
http://www.thekcrachannel.com/health/4247237/detail.html


check out the survey with the article....

Do you believe that faith healing can cure people of serious diseases?

Choice Votes Percentage of 641 Votes

Yes, miracles do happen. 521 - 81%

I think it can help with minor ailments, but not serious ones. 17 - 3%

No, it's not possible. 59 - 9%

I don't know. 44 - 7%

[Ripley]

1. Every time I see that link...at first glance I think it says

www.THECRACKCHANNEL. And the crack channel would be appropriate for this mass hallucinating.

[Igel]

16. Completely off topic ...

http://www.hakank.org/reading_scrambled_words/r_words.cgi?xxx=678131.018635497&submit=OK&num_begin_chars=2&num_end_chars=2&sort_alpha=no&text=According+to+a+research+at+an+english+university%2C+it+doesn%27t+matter+in+what+order+the+letters+in+a+word+are%2C+the+only+important+thing+is+that+first+and+last+letter+is+at+the+right+place.+The+rest+can+be+a+total+mess+and+you+can+still+read+it+without+problem.+This+is+because+we+do+not+read+every+letter+by+itself+but+the+word+as+a+whole.+Cheerio.%0D%0A

(scroll down to read:
"Acrcoidng to a reeasrch at an enlgish univisrety, it doesn't matter in what order the letetrs in a word are, the only imrtpoant thing is that first and last letter is at the right place. The rest can be a total mess and you can still read it wihtout prbolem. This is beaucse we do not read every letter by iteslf but the word as a whole. Chreeio.")

[sweetheart]

2. Freedom of religion

I believe that faith healings can occur, as the power of the mind and
spirit can heal the body. I frankly don't buy that "god" does it, but
that the power to heal is suggestive, that the same body that got
sick, has the power to heal itself it it removes the psychological causes.

What is wrong with faith healing?

I've as well, witnessed miracle healings by master healers... and
indeed, so much depends on trust and faith, as with any thing so
intimate.

So is the "problem" that trust/faith... and if so, is the faith in a
western doctor not similarly misplaced based on just a different frame?

[Warpy]

13. What's wrong with faith healing?

People may feel a boost in energy and a feeling of wellbeing during and immediately after the event, but the disease process will eventually reassert itself. Some patients may stop conventional treatment during this period with tragic consequences.

Having said that, I can say I find absolutely no problem in using every adjunct to treatment a patient believes in. I've seen Native American medicine work. I've also seen it not work, same as allopathic medicine.

Any preacher (or new age type) who claims to cure incurable illnesses outright and consistently is a charlatan, though, and to be avoided.

[sweetheart]

15. the paradox of western medicine

If i'm ever in a car wreck, i hope i'm nearby a western medicine
hospital, as herb tea healing is not the thing for trauma.

That said, a cancer that has developed over 10 years, can be healed
by methods that are themselves sorting out the problem, and not the
symptoms (the cancer). Traumatic medicine is less adept at this,
treating the cancer and the car wreck as the same... cut cut, sew sew
.. get out of the bed.

I find that anyone who's encountered terminal illness first hears the
verdict of western medicine and then heads off to other forms of
treatment that may work... and indeed some do.... but one cannot
discount the willinness of the patient to be healed, to change habits
and ways of living that may have brought on the illness to start with.

Alternate medicine and healing works quite well, and it really helps
if the patient believes in it... just as the power of suggestion is
incredibly inportant in the healing process. In this regard, as with
most of life, caveat emptor (buyer beware), and patients can
be more gullible buyers indeed... but when one's life is on the line,
perhaps the patient can be trusted to be the best judge... for what
else does our society stand for?

[MadHound]

3. Well, I don't see why faith healing wouldn't work

After all, when people are given placebos, fifty percent of them report that the sugar pills are curing them. It is amazing what the mind can heal, it is simply a matter of allowing the mind to go about its business. Some get it done by believing in sugar pills, some get it done by believing in faith healing.

[Ian David]

4. The results of Randi's investigations into faith healers

James Randi and the Faith Healers
The results of Randi's investigations into faith healers

TRANSCRIPT

(Paul Willis) In our second Science Week interview with James Randi, we hear about some of his experiences with faith healers, particularly fundamentalist Christian faith healers, who've been described as the world championship wrestlers of religion.

(Randi) Well first of all they don't do any faith healing, I think I can say that from a point of view of authority. I investigated for my book 'The Faith Healers' 104 cases of people who said they had been healed by faith healers or about whom it was said they were healed. And I found out those 104 people belonged to three classes: first class is people who never had the disease that they thought they did. A quick example of that is a woman who said she'd been healed of throat cancer where the faith healer admitted he touched her on the forehead. So I questioned her further, and eventually got to talk to her doctor. And her doctor sort of shook his head and he said, 'I have examined her for throat cancer at least 15 times in the past few years. Her mother died of it some years ago and every time she gets a sore throat of any kind, or a frog in her voice or whatever, she swears she has throat cancer. She comes to me and I examine her, and say, "No, no trace of any abnormality there" but she still wants to believe she has throat cancer.'

The second class of people that I examined in those 104 people, were people who still had the diseases of which they said they'd been healed. One gentleman, he said he'd been healed of diabetes. W.P. Grant, who had apparently treated this man by again hitting him on the forehead with his palm. There has never been a recorded case of diabetes being healed but it can be treated effectively either with insulin or other drugs that simulate the effect of insulin. He said, 'I'm aware of that, but I want to testify to my healing.' I said, 'OK, can I talk to your doctor?' and he said, 'Yes'. There was a pause and he said, 'By the way, my doctor won't agree that I've been healed.' I said, 'Wait now, either you are healed or you're not healed.' He said, 'Yes, but my doctor's not a Christian you see.' And he said, 'Oh I see, you're one of those sceptical people?' I said, 'Yes indeed I am, Sir, I admit that.' And he said, 'Well, I don't think I want any more of this conversation.' I said, 'One question more: are you still taking insulin?' He said, 'I thought you'd ask that.' He said, 'Yes, the Devil makes me take the insulin.'

The third class of people was even sadder. They were people who were already dead by the time I got around to interview them. And one case was in St Louis, Missouri, we went up to the front door and we were just knocking on the front door and they opened the front door and the gentleman was being wheeled out in the body bag on a gurney. He had died of the disease he said he'd been healed of, just the night before.

I can't say that faith healing has never worked or that it doesn't ever work. All I can say is my experience is 100% failure.

More:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/correx/archives/randi2.htm

[Ian David]

5. Some Thoughts about Faith Healing, by Stephen Barrett, M.D.

Some Thoughts about Faith Healing

Stephen Barrett, M.D.

The notion that prayer, divine intervention or the ministrations of an individual healer can cure illness has been popular throughout history. Miraculous recoveries have been attributed to a myriad of techniques commonly lumped together as "faith healing. During the past forty years, several investigators have studied this subject closely and written about their findings.

Louis Rose, a British psychiatrist, investigated hundreds of alleged faith-healing cures. As his interest became well known, he received communications from healers and patients throughout the world. He sent each correspondent a questionnaire and sought corroborating information from physicians. In Faith Healing , he concluded, "I have been unsuccessful. After nearly twenty years of work I have yet to find one 'miracle cure'; and without that (or, alternatively, massive statistics which others must provide) I cannot be convinced of the efficacy of what is commonly termed faith healing." <1>

During the early 1970s, Minnesota surgeon William Nolen, M.D., attended a service conducted by Katherine Kuhlman, the leading evangelical healer of that period. After noting the names of 25 people who had been "miraculously healed," he was able to perform follow-up interviews and examinations. Among other things, he discovered that one woman who had been announced as cured of "lung cancer" actually had Hodgkin's disease -- which was unaffected by the experience. Another woman with cancer of the spine had discarded her brace and followed Ms. Kuhlman's enthusiastic command to run across the stage. The following day her backbone collapsed, and four months later she died. Overall, not one person with organic disease had been helped. Dr. Nolen reported his findings, which included observations of several other healers, in Healing: A Doctor in Search of a Miracle , a book that I heartily recommend <2>.

C. Eugene Emery, Jr., a science writer for the Providence Journal, has looked closely at the work of Reverend Ralph DiOrio, a Roman Catholic priest whose healing services attract people by the thousands. In 1987 Emery attended one of DiOrio's services and recorded the names of nine people who had been blessed during the service and nine others who had been proclaimed cured. DiOrio's organization provided ten more cases that supposedly provided irrefutable proof of the priest's ability to cure. During a six-month investigation, Emery found no evidence that any of these 28 individuals had been helped <3>.

More:
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/faith.html

[Ian David]

6. Deadly Blessings: Faith Healing on Trial

From Publishers Weekly
Three California court cases, all involving what Brenneman ( Fuller's Earth ) calls "alternative healing," are the focus of this probe. The author, a Sacramento-based reporter and former Christian Scientist, first considers a Christian Science couple whose 17-month-old son died of bacterial meningitis when they put faith in God and refused medical care. They were cleared of involuntary manslaughter charges. The second case involves Jose Burgarin, "Brother Joe," a Filipino psychic surgeon in Sacramento who went to jail after a sting operation exposed quackery. Lastly, Brenneman delves into the strange saga of Betty Eisner, a psychologist whose practice combined the use of LSD, communal acting-out of hostility and, according to former members of her therapeutic community, group sex. Her license was revoked after a patient died during a hot mineral bath session. Even though Brenneman's cases seem well-chosen examples of irresponsibiity, the material does not support his blanket condemnation of nonconventional healing.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Brenneman, a former Christian Scientist and a veteran journalist, makes good use of both experiences in this investigative report of three cases of faith healing: a trial of a Christian Science couple whose son died of meningitis despite prayer; a psychotherapist's experience with group therapy and the use of a hot tub, which also ended in death; and an account of the Philippine version of "psychic surgery." Specialists will find this book's detailed notes useful, and general readers interested in religious subjects might request it. To his credit, Brenneman does not take advantage of the obvious sensational appeal of these cases, although the book is intriguing. If it is well publicized, libraries may have patron demand from the casual reader.
- John Broderick, Stonehill Coll., North Easton, Mass.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.


More:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0879755806/

[mmonk]

7. The Carl Sagan in me

says no.

[derby378]

8. Oh, Lord, here we go again...

Dallas had an explosion of faith healers, too, including one who claimed that cavity-ridden teeth were being miraculously filled with gold and silver during her services.

Whatta moran. Hasn't she heard of porcelain fillings? Or is her God unable to regrow bone?

[Johonny]

12. I believe

the people that go to faith healers to get cavities filled are the kind of people that want gold magically given to them by god.

[Cleita]

9. Just because they say so, doesn't mean it is.

The Catholic Church at Lourdes certifies very few of the so-called miracles as having no explanation. Why? Because there is a very good chance that fraud or hysteria could be an explanation. Now, I'm not saying unusual cures can't happen. What I am saying is just because someone said they had MS and were cured needs to be looked into a lot more closely, like the Church scrutinizes miraculous cures at Lourdes.

If enough evidence is gathered that the person was indeed very ill of this disease before the cure and if evidence is gathered afterwards that it is indeed an unexplainable cure with no relapsing back into the disease, then you might have a miraculous healing there. I have a feeling these cures could not stand up to that kind of scientific scrutiny, nor would the faith healers probably allow such transparency and inquiry.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

10. W's health care initiative. It saves costs by healing hypochondriacs

who were never ill while leading those who truly are ill to stop seeking medical care and die. It's a WIN-WIN.

[devilgrrl]

11. Big deal, I got really drunk on asprin and coca-cola.

:eyes:

[u4ic]

14. Funny enough, this is being repeated tonight on tv

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/main_miracles.html an expose of Benny Hinn. Some interesting insights into the 'business' of faith healing, and links on that page.

'Physical transformation' does not necessarily equal being cured.

[mcscajun]

17. "I do not have MS anymore." -- Uh-huh. Sure.

There's a disease whose symptoms come and go, is devilishly difficult to diagnose in the first place, and scares the hell out of people.

A perfect one for "testifying".

Somebody talk to poor Liz Simmons six months or two years from now. She's still got MS -- You Can Count On It.

[Domitan]

18. How about this Adam kid?

http://www.rense.com/general38/adam.htm (originally from Canada's Globe and Mail)

VANCOUVER -- Adam doesn't seem extraordinary. Tall and handsome, with short, brown hair and a trace of dark fluff on his upper lip, he looks like a typical 16-year-old.

He's a sporty guy who plays basketball and snowboards. In his spare time, he lifts weights, listens to alternative rock music and hangs out with his girlfriend.

If you met Adam in a mall, you would never in a million years guess that this is the kid who claims to possess an extrasensory X-ray vision that helped him to cure rock 'n' roll legend Ronnie Hawkins of terminal pancreatic cancer.
.
.
He says he has healed more than 300 people from ailments that range from breast cancer to genital herpes during the past two years. He charges $75 per treatment, but he says he has never turned anyone away because of an inability to pay.

Most of his clients have heard of him by word of mouth. All contacts are made through his Web site (http://www.distanthealing.com) and he no longer heals anyone in person. Because of an overwhelming response, he has recently decided to focus his efforts on people with terminal cancer that has not spread, and in situations when chemotherapy, radiation and surgery are not recommended.

---------------------------

So do we have a huckster in training or something more? Anyone from the Vancouver area who can give us the goods on this Adam kid?

[dbt]

19. Hmmm. This thread goes unlocked while one about a fake Osama

gets shut down half a dozen replies deep because it "has become inflammatory." Go figure.