Article September 14, 1998 Issue

Spiritual breakthroughs, spiritual sharing

Prayer stirs interest among health professionals.

By John Martin Hueffner and Shirley Files Schwaller

Some have called it a "quiet revolution"—the explosion of interest shown by the public and the press in spirituality and healing. When asked about this "revolution," Virginia S. Harris, Chairman of The Christian Science Board of Directors, replied, "There's a stir in the fields of science, theology, and medicine. There is a demand to explore the spiritual dimension of our already best endeavors."

Growing evidence of this demand is coming to light, as was seen at the fifth "Spirituality & Healing in Medicine" conference, held March 22-24 in Houston, Texas, and sponsored by Harvard Medical School and The Mind/Body Medical Institute/Deaconess Hospital. More than seven hundred people attended the meeting.

Dr. Herbert Benson and his colleagues from religious, medical, psychological, and psychiatric fields explored how spirituality relates to healing and other issues. Some breakthroughs in these professions may seem modest to the layperson, yet in the eyes of professionals they are practically earthshaking. Such is the case in the psychiatric field.

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