Exploring the Connection of Spirit, Body

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Exploring the Connection of Spirit, Body

UC Berkeley symposium focuses on studies suggesting that strong

spiritual convictions can have a positive effect on physical well-

being.

By K. Connie Kang, Times Staff Writer

April 29, 2006 Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-beliefs29apr29,1,1778717.story

Many scientists are trying to quantify what religious traditions have

long preached: that strong spiritual convictions can mean a healthy

body.

Some recent findings are far from conclusive, but they raise

intriguing questions and suggest that more research is needed.

Indeed, a sense of possibility and exploration infused an

international symposium this month at UC Berkeley, where researchers

presented studies exploring connections between body and spirit.

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One study suggested that people with HIV remain healthier longer

when they believe God loves them. Conversely, when people see God as

punishing them for their transgressions, they do poorly, researchers

reported at " Spiritual Transformation: New Frontiers in Scientific

Research. "

" One's view of God is associated with disease progression, " said Gail

Ironson, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University

of Miami.

The symposium came a week after a study reported that prayers by

strangers had been of no help in the recovery of patients who had

undergone cardiac bypass surgery. That study, believed to be the

largest of its kind on the therapeutic power of prayer by strangers,

involved more than 1,800 patients.

The papers presented at the Berkeley conference focused not on

intercessory prayers, but the spiritual outlook of patients with HIV

and cancer. Also, the samplings were smaller — the HIV project

involved 100 patients — and not all of the studies had been subjected

to peer review.

Ironson's HIV research was among the 22 studies presented at the

conference, which brought together more than 50 scientists, medical

researchers, social scientists and theologians.

The symposium was sponsored by the Philadelphia-based Metanexus

Institute on Religion and Science, in partnership with UC Berkeley's

School of Public Health. The studies made public were fully or partly

funded by the institute as part of its five-year Spiritual

Transformation Scientific Research Program.

Founded in 1998 and initially funded by the Templeton

Foundation, the institute identifies itself as a nonsectarian,

nonpartisan group that encourages " the constructive engagement of

religion and science. "

The foundation also helped underwrite the recently released study on

prayer.

Two studies on cancer, also presented at the conference, mirrored the

conclusion of the HIV study that spiritual resources often play an

important role in the adjustment process for people facing a life-

threatening illness.

" That makes perfect sense to me, " said E. , a professor

of religion at USC.

" Whether or not there is external divine intervention, the very fact

of having a positive attitude could boost the immune system and could

have a healing effect, " said , also executive director of USC's

Center for Religion and Civic Culture.

At the symposium, presented his own research on the role of

spirituality in nongovernmental organizations in Africa.

In his study of Solace Ministries, which aids survivors of the 1994

Rwanda genocide, he found that religion and spirituality play an

important role in social, as well as personal, transformation.

Many survivors who attend weekly meetings at Solace consider the

meetings the most important thing in their lives, said. The

meetings open with Bible readings and singing, and continue for hours

as attendees talk about their struggles.

Creating a supportive community of survivors, in which " one can

return and hear in different variations one's own story told afresh,

is healing and reinforcing, " he said. It's the same sense of

community that brings people to Alcoholics Anonymous, he said.

" Solace has a quality that supersedes the therapeutic dimension, "

said , a specialist on the sociology of religion. " There is an

element of faith that anchors the convictions that all human beings

have worth, that everyone is of value, that we all exist for a

purpose. It is this spiritual dimension that gives depth to the

healing process. "

The researchers at the symposium came from many academic disciplines

and belief traditions, including Buddhism, Judaism, Roman Catholicism

and Protestantism. During the conference, speakers frequently used

the term " sacred " instead of " God " or " higher authority, " intending

to be inclusive.

Ironson told the symposium that the positive effects of an

individual's personal relationship with the sacred were " over and

above " church attendance.

" What also makes a big difference is whether a person turns toward or

away from spirituality at the time of diagnosis, " said Ironson,

former president of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine

Research. " People who increase in spirituality after receiving their

diagnosis have slower disease progression. The effects of a positive

spiritual orientation are very strong. "

In her study, 100 people with HIV were followed for disease

progression every six months for four years.

H. Katz, a professor of physical anthropology at the

University of Pennsylvania and principal investigator for the

Spiritual Transformation Scientific Research Program, said that for

too long, people have viewed science and religion as the opposite

ends of a spectrum.

" As a result, scholars have often avoided studying spirituality and

transforming experiences the way they study other phenomena, " he

said.

That researchers are now using contemporary scientific methodologies

to study beliefs and behaviors " is itself transformation, " Katz said.

Clinical psychologist L. Cole, an assistant professor at the

University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, was another researcher who

explored how faith and illness intersect.

She found that cancer can elicit changes in people's worldview, sense

of self, relationship with others and goals and priorities.

At the symposium, Cole said profound spiritual changes or

transformations are evident in the stories of cancer survivors. But

little is known about the nature of those shifts and how they affect

patients in coping with their illnesses.

What is known, Cole said, is that " even in the deepest and darkest,

there is possibility of growth and enlightenment. "

" Perhaps, " she ventured, " the world religions have got it right that

in the midst of suffering, we are shaken out of our complacency, and

that actually is an initiation into more devotedly seeking the

sacred. "