Shades of Culture: Spiritual Healing

Yesterday I received a telephone call from my dad that my aunt was in the hospital and that she had just had heart surgery! So I dropped my course work and went to see her with my dad and she looked pretty good and had quite the story to tell us (my dad, my self and her son (my cousin)).

My cousin Stephen who is a lawyer, a very analytical guy and an atheist, myself and my dad sat down to take in the story of what happened. Well it turned out that my aunt had a mild heart attack and almost flat lined in the hospital, minutes after having a surgical procedure done she was told that she would need another. She instead told her doctor that she didn't want another surgery and was ready to die and had made peace with herself. Her heart rate began to rapidly drop. She then asked the doctors to allow her friends who were waiting outside to come in the room as witnesses, they came in and started to panic as they saw the heart rate monitor close to flat lining. THEN THEY BEGAN TO PRAY PROFUSELY, AT THE TOP OF THEIR LUNGS THEY PRAYED, AND PRAYED! One of them is a spiritual healer who began to perform energy moving rituals on my aunt waving her hands over my aunts body and praying in the name of Jesus so loudly that the hospital staff was taken aback. Then something ...possibly a miracle happened.....my aunts heart rate went back to normal, the doctors were in shock and said that they had never seen something like that. After an examination, she as told by her doctor that she did not need a second surgery and that she should keep on praying!

This lead to a huge discussion because for my cousin this was just a placebo and for myself and my dad it could have been a placebo or it could have been divine intervention but either way it worked and that is evidence the prayer is powerful. I'm just happy that my aunt is okay.

This whole real life scene, reminded me of the talk and movie presented by Dr. Ryder and the whole idea of spiritual healing. Did that scene with my aunt look as foreign and strange to the W.E.I.R.D. doctor who was in the room with her as the video seen in class may have looked to some students?

Spiritual healing dates way further back than modern medicine and it's something that I'm really accustomed to. My personal mantra is MEDITATION NOT MEDICATION. Since both of my parents are from Trinidad where natural healing through various roots, herbs, prayers and baths is very common...it doesn't seem strange to me at all that other forms of healing work. Though I am analytical, I also believe in Chi, energy and spirit.

I also have countless personal experiences with alternative healing. When I was about 10 years old, I was given a bath in something called blue, it's a little compressed cube of blue powder that is believed to be sacred. This was to cleanse my aura in some way because I suffered from night terrors and insomnia after my parents divorced. I remember taking the bath which my mother prepared for me as she read prayers....all I can tell you is that I felt clean and clear afterwards. My mother hand wrote a prayer on parchment paper and put it under my pillow then she told me that I would not have nightmares anymore and I didn't. I know that science can explain this as a placebo effect but science can't explain everything...who knows? I'm pretty open to various different possibilities and explanations about what actually caused my horrible nightmares to stop.

In our family when any of us move into a new home, we follow a tradition of energy clearing which consists of washing all of the walls, windows and floors- then using incense, sage or few candles to clear out the old energy and welcome in the new, a prayer can also be said. I always thought that every one did this until I realized that it was cultural thing :) to me it was just the normal thing to do.

What my aunt went through also made me think of nurse Wendy who spoke about culture in the hospital and how important is was for hospital staff to develop cultural awareness. I also thought about how god, spirituality and religion is a huge coping mechanism among black people and I found some pretty interesting articles.

Here is one of them: