Items of Interest December 26, 2011 ISSUE

Healing – miracle or natural for everyone?

Eric Nelson

“Understanding miracles” blogcritics.org. November 3, 2011.

In the movie Oh, God! the title character, played by George Burns, explains to co-star John Denver that the last miracle he performed was the 1969 Mets—the implication being that God is a kind of celestial superhero whose random interventions result in some amazing things happening here on earth. This is likely how most folks view miracles, and pretty much how they’re defined on Dictionary.com:

“. . . an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause.”

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But what if all the things we call “miracles” aren’t so “miraculous” after all? What if they’re simply misunderstood phenomena waiting for an explanation? What if what we now think of as impossible and supernatural suddenly became possible and completely natural—for everyone?

I’m not just talking baseball seasons here but the really big stuff like our health and general well-being.

The other night my wife and I had dinner with a good friend whose life some might describe as miraculous. When she was 18 she suffered from a debilitating disease that attacked nearly every organ in her body. Doctors recommended that she receive hospice care, as there was little hope for survival. She soon fell into a coma.

After six months, she “miraculously” regained consciousness and decided she wanted to be transferred to another, nonmedical facility. For the next few months she received basic physical care as well as prayer-based metaphysical treatment from a spiritual practitioner. No pills. No intravenous tubes. No surgery.

Eventually every vestige of her disease completely vanished. All of her organs began functioning normally. And despite the many months she’d spent in a coma, there was no brain damage. How was this possible? According to my friend, her recovery was due solely to the metaphysical treatment she received as well as her own prayers.

She returned to school where she graduated with a triple major and a 4.0 GPA, receiving a prestigious national academic award as well.

“When you see a miracle, after the initial awe, your impulse usually is to ask, ‘How did that happen?’” says Dr. Dean Radin, senior scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences in Petaluma. “In science, you need a plausible argument—or an argument that is perceived as plausible—to explain it.”

Although my friend’s explanation of her recovery may seem implausible to some, her continued interest in how it happened has led to additional physical healings, both for her and those who have come to her requesting the same type of treatment. This would seem to indicate, then, that what happened wasn’t so much a “miracle” as it was the natural result of her increased understanding of heretofore unrecognized or, at the very least, underutilized laws of health that should apply to everyone.

There are some that say that life is a miracle waiting to happen. Judging from my friend’s experience, could it be that the “miracle” has already happened?

Eric Nelson
 Christian Science Committee on Publication for Northern California

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