a presentation by
Dawson Church, Ph.D.
Introduction
Scientific studies are now giving us proof of the amazing healing effects of belief, prayer, meditation, and spiritual practice. The field of energy medicine is exploding, and many of its best practices are being merged with mainstream medical treatments in the form of "integrative medicine." This workshop examines some of those scientific experiments in depth, and points out new trends in healing that will utterly transform medicine as we know it in the course of the next decade. It ends with a demonstration of two remarkable methods, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) and Attunement, and gives participants some practical tools they can take home and use on their healing journeys. It is built around the ideas in an authoritative new book by Dawson Church, Ph.D. and Norm Shealy, M.D., Ph.D., called Soul Medicine. Endorsed by Larry Dossey, Jack Canfield, Bruce Lipton, and with a foreword by Caroline Myss, Soul Medicine is one of the definitive texts in the field, communicating these exciting ideas effectively to lay people and medical professionals alike.
The Power of Consciousness and Intention
A scientific study presented in Soul Medicine examined 442 patients at the Baptist Family Practice clinic in Morrow, Georgia. It used several different in-depth tests to determine how healthy they were overall, how much pain they were in, and how strong their intrinsic spirituality was. The results of the various tests were then compared, to determine whether or not there was a correlation between spirituality and wellness. The researchers found that the patients with the strongest intrinsic spirituality had the least pain, and were healthiest overall.
Another group of researchers, from St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago, looked at the link between church attendance and physical health. It found that those with a regular spiritual practice were more likely to be healthy and had a lower mortality rate. Another similar study at the University of Texas Medical School led by Thomas Oxman examined the effects of spiritual or religious practice and social support on people undergoing heart surgery. Their findings revealed that patients who possessed a large and deep social network, or were devoted to their religious or spiritual practice, exhibited just one-seventh the mortality rate of those who did not.
Another recent study found that patients prayed for had "six-month death and re-hospitalization rates about 30 percent lower than did control patients." Results as astonishing as these are far from being the exception. They are the norm. In the book Soul Medicine, and in this presentation, we look at the huge accumulation of scientific evidence for spiritual healing, and what it means for the future of medicine.
Exciting New Trends in Healing
In the last couple of years, I've edited several new anthologies including Healing the Heart of the World and Healing Our Planet, Healing Our Selves. Many distinguished authors have contributed chapters to these books, including Dean Ornish, Andrew Weil, Bernie Siegel, Larry Dossey, Joan Borysenko, Caroline Myss, John Gray, Deepak Chopra, Neale Donald Walsch, Gay Hendricks, Barbara Marx Hubbard, and others. In these books I survey the field of healing today, with particular emphasis on prayer, meditation, and "Soul Medicine," a collection of safe, non-invasive therapies that is building up a sound theoretical framework, and a huge experimental database, that demonstrates its efficacy.
Soul Medicine makes health and disease part of your spiritual journey. I introduce myself and my work in healing and publishing, then play some soothing music, have the participants relax, and initiate a brief meditation.
I then explore the above studies, and other current research, in more detail. Readings from the books give a sound theoretical basis to the idea that being in touch with your soul may be the best possible thing you can do for your health.
Quick, Cheap, Practical Cures
The workshop then moves on to some of the practical methods that researchers are using to enhance patients' physical well-being. If there's time, I teach participants a few simple techniques they can use. I have participants remember a particularly stressful event that recently happened in their lives, and self-assess their anxiety level on a scale of one to ten. Then I do a demonstration of Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), a simple yet radically effective means of reducing stress by stimulating the end points of the body's energy meridians. After the demonstrations, participants score themselves again. EFT is so effective that most people report much reduced stress simply as a result of watching the technique demonstrated on someone else!
I then do a group "Attunement"&emdash;attunements are one of the many forms of bioenergy work&emdash;and show them how the principles behind bioenergy balancing can produce a more serene life. Finally, I point participants to web sites and other resources where they can find more information, and close with a meditation.