  Spiritual
This week: Healing Touch Edited by: Sophy  
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Hi, I'm Sophy ~ your editor for this edition of the Spiritual Newsletter.
The Rev. Scotty McLennan, author of the book Finding Your Religion, compares humanity's innate need for spiritual searching to climbing a mountain. In his view, we are all endeavoring to climb the same figurative mountain in our search for the divine, we just may take different ways to get there. In other words, there is one "God," but many paths. I honor whatever path or paths you have chosen to climb that mountain in your quest for the Sacred.  |
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Healing Touch
When my mother was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer 25 years ago, she was determined to be among the 2% who survived through a combination of western medical intervention, meditation, guided visualization, and prayer. I was equally determined not to lose my mother. So together we read books and listened to tapes by Dr. Bernie Siegel, and watched a Bill Moyers series called “Healing and the Mind” on PBS, which aired in 1993. I ended up buying the book that went along with it, and it still offers me wisdom and perspective all these years later. The greatest gift it offered me was to understand the difference between being cured and being healed.
One of the episodes interviewed participants at a retreat center in Northern California. At Commonweal, cancer patients spent a week in a beautiful setting overlooking the Pacific Ocean participating in group support sessions led by a psychotherapist, in addition to massage, yoga, meditation, deep relaxation, imagery work, poetry, and exploration of sacred space. Evening sessions explored choices in healing, mainstream therapies, integrative therapies, pain and suffering, and death and dying.
One of the people we met in the episode was named Chris, a 43-year-old single woman diagnosed with metastatic cervical cancer the year before. At the beginning of the retreat week she seemed an unwilling participant in the group sessions; she appeared angry and closed off. She laughed little and was not open to hugs and affection from others in the group. As the week progressed she began to open up. She admitted she was angry about her diagnosis, and when pressed, she admitted that her biggest fear was to die alone. The more she shared and participated with others in her group, the more you could see her change. Her defenses dropped, her body language softened, and she agreed to ask for help when she got home.
At the end of the episode, Bill Moyer’s voice offered a voice-over of a scene of Chris posing for a photo with the group and hugging people goodbye. “After she left Commonweal, Chris Saxton sent back a poem. The last line reads, ‘I still can see you gathered, such an unlikely family, and I know I can find my way home.’ Soon after, Chris died surrounded by family and friends.” My mother and I were in tears as the show ended, and Mom said through hers, “But she wasn’t cured!” I replied, “No, but she was healed.”
Michael Lerner of Commonweal says, “I think realistically everyone with cancer hopes to be cured in some sense, but one of the most fundamental distinctions we start with is the distinction between healing and curing and how curing is what mainstream medicine has to offer when possible, and that’s what the physician brings to you. And healing is what you bring to the encounter with cancer. Healing represents the inner resources that you bring to it. Medical doctors confront the ravages that disease works on the body. Commonweal addresses the afflictions that rack the mind and spirit.”
Rachel Naomi Remen, Medical Director of Commonweal at the time of the series, said, “What we begin with is the first and most powerful technique of healing which is simply listening, just listening. One of the greatest gifts you can give another person is your attention.” Another is touching. Dr. Remen continues, “Touching is a very old way of healing and so we try to touch people with the same tenderness that a mother would touch a child because what a mother is saying to a child in that touch is, ‘Live.’ Many people when they have cancer talk about being touched as if they were a piece of meat, or one woman actually said to me, ‘Sometimes when I go for my chemotherapy, they touch me as if they don’t know anybody’s inside this body.’ Others are not touched at all – as if cancer is contagious. In the end, she says, touch can be something that is deeply reassuring. There’s something about touching that may strengthen our will to live – while isolation weakens us.”
My mother counted on hugs when she was going through treatment - the contact with another person helped support her emotionally during a challenging time, and she considered them to be helpful in her healing process. Now, when I consider the healing stories of Jesus, I am reminded how many times touch was involved - Jesus reached out and touched people who were hurting, isolated, afraid. He cut through the barriers of touching those who were unclean, touched the people, and made them well. How might our touch do the same? Especially if we begin to understand healing as something different than curing?
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Here is a response to my last newsletter "Spiritual Newsletter (February 7, 2018)" about "Walking the Walk" -
From Elfin Dragon-finally published 
'Abdu'l-Baha, the eldest son of Baha'u'llah, made an impression on me, and many others, by demonstrating spiritual values. When he visited America in 1912, he treated everyone he met with equal respect and kindness. It didn't matter to him whether the person was rich or poor, black or white, male or female, or if they were a follower of any religion. They were still human beings and deserved to be respected. Today, many Baha'is look to 'Abdu'l-Baha as an example of how a person should treat others.
I love this, thank you so much for sharing it with us!
   
From Quick-Quill 
The first question we ask shouldn't be " What church do you go to?" However there are physical clues about people that bring an observer to a conclusion. How many books have you read where assumptions are made only to find they were wrong? Not all clerics wear a special collar. Not all collared people are clerics. What if someone wrote a story about a world where what you wore determined your spiritual belief? Can you imagine a person with a number of religious accoutrements showing they were of many beliefs? Its confusing to all who see them. Still I think the premise might make a great story. Especially if you make up your own religious symbols.
Sounds like a great idea - hope you consider pursuing it!
From Budroe 
Thank you for this newsletter. Two quick lessons I have learned in more than 40 years of active ministry:
1. I used to get in very large amounts of trouble for telling my congregation that I had never seen anything which more effectively destroyed faith than organized religion. I stand by that statement at this very moment. Because
2. It is not, nor has it ever been about religion, but relationship. Don't tell me what you believe. Let me watch you for 24 hours, and I'll tell you what you believe.
That's just my way of agreeing with your words. :) Thank you for them.
I love this, thank you so much!
From shepherd46
My husband has demonstrated spiritual values such as helping me and others when help was needed, fulfilling promises that he said he would do for me and others and showing compassion to strangers and those in need. His spiritual values reflect his belief in God and in doing "what is right." Sure, he is impatient at times but on the whole, he tries to live according to the Ten Commandments. My husband's actions correlate to His strong belief in God.
Thanks for sharing this.
From HWinB.C.
I like very much what you had to say in this Newsletter because it is a very important step to becoming a "good" person.
I would like to add that doing good works in vain are fruitless. People wondered why Jesus denied knowing the two disciples that announced they had casted out demons and Jesus told them "I know you not."
We have to be careful not to do things because it makes us look good. We do it because it is the right thing to do.
We find inner peace when our heart is true and will feel frustration for our kindness when we didn't get the acknowledgement we felt like we deserved. A small measurement for ourselves when doing a good deed.
Enjoyed the Newsletter! Thanks for writing it.
Thank you for your words!
Please keep your comments and suggestions coming! Until next time! Sophy |
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Spiritual: March 07, 2018 Issue [#8790]
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