Consciousness, Intention And Spirit In The Healing Process

There has been increasing scientific recognition of the role of consciousness, intention and spirit in the healing process.

What follows are three quotes from an article published in The Prophets Conference Newsletter, Feb. 19, 2004, in advance of Dr. Larry Dossey‘s subsequent conference presentation. I expect that whatever truths these quotes contain are even more acceptable now than they were years ago.

Dr. Larry Dossey’s book Reinventing Medicine: Beyond Mind-Body to a New Era of Healing (1999), shattered accepted boundaries of the healing arts.

Well worth a read.

“One of the most profound social movements in the late 20th- and early 21st centuries is the shift toward integrative medicine, often called alternative or complementary medicine. A key element underlying this movement is a new respect for consciousness and spirituality – how emotions, attitudes, volition, and a sense of ‘the spiritual’ shape our lives and influence our health and longevity.”

“In the past two decades, more than 1,200 studies have been done suggesting that people who follow a spiritual path – it does not seem to matter which – live significantly longer and have a lower incidence of all major diseases than people who do not follow such a path. Approximately 200 studies suggest that distant healing, in the form of prayer or healing intentions, can make life-and-death differences in health outcomes”.

“A new view of consciousness emerges from these developments – a nonlocal picture, in which consciousness is viewed as immortal and eternal. This picture brings hope to the morbid views of consciousness in current neuroscience, in which the annihilation of consciousness is assumed at the time of death. The emerging view affirms ancient wisdom: the mind as omnipresent, immortal, eternal, infinite, and, in some dimension, one with all other minds.”