Editorial July 16, 2001 Issue

Healing, curing, and guilt

Rob Gilbert

I've learned from the discussions I've had with medical healthcare providers who are interested in the practice of spiritual healing. A few of these friends maintain a distinction between healing and curing, saying the patients might feel guilty if spiritual healing didn't work in quite the way they expected it to.

For these friends, curing means the removal of physical symptoms—something done to the patient. Healing, on the other hand, is defined as purely mental and spiritual—as something that happens within the patient. Further, they say, one might be cured, but not healed. In other words, physical symptoms might be removed medically or otherwise, and yet leave the underlying problems unresolved.

They also maintain that one can be healed without being cured. That is, one can get a sense of wholeness that improves the overall quality of life, and yet not see disease symptoms removed. Knowing that the Christian Science standard includes both healing and cure, they asked how guilt might be prevented if the physical symptoms aren't entirely alleviated.

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