A
CONVERSATION BETWEEN GOD AND A MAN
M. Night Shyamalan speaks of this film as essentially a conversation
between God and a man. Watch
this short 1 1/2 minute video for his thoughts.
REAL
VIDEO
ANSWERED
PRAYER AS A SIGN FROM GOD
Father
Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) has lost his faith. God uses "signs"
to bring Hess to a point were he has nothing left except tattered
faith. "I hate you," Hess says to God. A starting point.
Next God helps Hess' son through his asmatic condition when medicine
was not available. God honors Hess' prayers -true signs.
HARVARD
AND UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA STUDIES.
For the past 30 years, Harvard scientist Herbert Benson, MD, has
conducted scientific studies on prayer. Benson has documented on
MRI brain scans the physical changes that take place in the body
when someone prays. When combined with recent research from the
University of Pennsylvania, what emerges is a picture of complex
and documented brain activity. It is truly amazing. (Source: WebMD)
NATIONAL
INSTITUTE FOR HEALTHCARE.
”Research focusing on the power of prayer in healing has nearly
doubled in the past 10 years,” says David Larson, MD, MSPH,
president of the National Institute for Healthcare Research, a private
nonprofit agency. Even the NIH -- which "refused to even review
a study with the word prayer in it four years ago" -- is now
funding one prayer study through its Frontier Medicine Initiative
(Source: WebMD).
DUKE
UNIVERSITY.
Mitchell Krucoff, MD, a cardiovascular specialist at Duke University
School of Medicine in Durham, N.C. has been studying prayer and
spirituality since 1996 -- and practicing it much longer in his
patient care. He says, "We're seeing systematic investigations
-- clinical research -- as well as position statements from professional
societies supporting this research, federal subsidies from the NIH,
funding from Congress. All of these studies, all the reports, are
remarkably consistent in suggesting the potential measurable health
benefit associated with prayer or spiritual interventions."
(Source: WebMD)
PRAYER
AND SPIRITUALITY:
WHAT SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IS REVEALING
PRAYER
AND FAITH REDUCES FEAR
Koenig, H.G. (1988): Religion and death
anxiety in later life. The Hospice Journal, 4 (1), 3 24, reports,
"Subjects very likely to use religious beliefs and prayer during
stress were less likely to report anxiety and fear about death than
were those not likely to use prayer or religious beliefs."
RELIGIOUS
PEOPLE HAVE HEALTHIER LIFE STYLES
(2002). Journal of Religion and Health,
41(3):263-278 reports, "Religious activities and
attitudes were inversely related to measures of physical illness
severity and functional disability, and were less common among patients
with prior psychiatric problems, hospitalizations for depression,
drinking problems, and those currently taking psychotropic drugs."
CHURCH
ATTENDANCE IMPROVES SURVIVAL
(1999). Does religious attendance prolong
survival? A six-year follow-up study of 3,968 older adults. Journal
of Gerontology: Medical Sciences, 54A(7), M370-M376, reports:
"Investigators concluded that older adults, particularly women,
who attend religious services at least once a week appear to have
a survival advantage over those attending services less frequently."
RELIGION
DECREASES HOSPITAL VISITS
(1998). Use of hospital services, church
attendance, and religious affiliation. Southern Medical Journal,
91, 925-932, reports: "Investigators found an inverse
relationship between frequency of religious service attendance and
likelihood of hospital admission. Those who attended church weekly
or oftener were significantly less likely in the previous year to
have been admitted to the hospital, had fewer hospital admissions,
and spent fewer days in the hospital than those attending less often;
these associations retained their significance after controlling
for covariates. Patients unaffiliated with a religious community
had significantly longer index hospital stays than those affiliated."
SPIRITUALITY
IMPROVES THE IMMUNE FUNCTION
Koenig, H.G., Cohen, H.J., George, L.K.,
Hays, J.C., Larson, D.B., Blazer, D.G. (1997) reports,
"Attendance at religious services, interleukin-6, and other
biological indicators of immune function in older adults. International
Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, 27, 233-250. These findings suggest
that persons who attend church frequently may have more stable immune
systems than less frequent attenders, which may help explain why
frequent attenders have better physical health outcomes."
THERE
ARE SOME NEGATIVE SPIRITUAL ASPECTS ON HEALTH
Journal of Gerontology (Medical Sciences),
55A, M400-M405 reports: "Patients who believed
that God was punishing them, had abandoned them, didn't love them,
didn't have the power to help, or felt their church had deserted
them, experienced 19% to 28% greater mortality during the 2-year
period following hospital discharge."
INTERESTING
THOUGHTS ON PRAYER
SØREN
AABYE KIERKEGAARD (1813–1855):
A man prayed, and at first he thought that prayer was talking. But
he became more and more quiet until in the end he realized that
prayer is listening.
PLATO (C. 428–348 B.C.):
All men, Socrates, who have any degree of right feeling at the beginning
of every enterprise, whether small or great, always call upon God.
AMY
CARMICHAEL (1867–1951):
God always answers us in the deeps, never in the shallows of our
soul.
