True Healing

By Bernie Siegel, M.D.

True healing is not about the condition of one’s body and is distinct from the curing of an affliction. Healing is derived from a word that refers to making or becoming whole. It is also closely related to the word holy. So an individual with an incurable physical problem can be healed and whole, as well as, holy.

As Thornton Wilder wrote in The Pool at Bethesda, an angel refuses to heal a physician and when the doctor argues that he is sick, too, the angel says, “Without your wound where would your power be. It is your melancholy that makes your low voice tremble into the hearts of men. The very angels themselves cannot persuade the wretched and blundering children on earth as can one human being broken on the wheels of service. In love’s service only the wounded soldier can serve. Draw back.” On the way home the doctor is stopped by many people who ask that he come to their home because he is the only one who has been able to help their loved ones.

If you don’t believe this go out into the world with a cane and limp and watch what happens. Or as I do when people ask, “How are you?” say, “Depressed. Out of my medication and my doctor is away. So I can’t renew my prescription.” Three quarters of the people say, “I know how you feel” and share their lives, reveal their wounds, and offer their medications to me. The rest are healed and give me love to help heal me.

A veterinarian wrote me about how her patients helped her through her mastectomy. “I can amputate half of a jaw or a leg and they awaken and lick their owner’s faces. They are here to love and be loved and teach us a few things.” Yes, animals know they are whole no matter what their physical condition and man has yet to achieve wholeness. The Bible tells us in many places that the animals and nature are our teachers and God didn’t have to give them instructions.

Adam and Eve’s indiscretion was meant to be. As soon as you tell children not to do something you know what happens. So we were meant to know we were mortal and look at the process of truly healing one’s life which is not about living forever. Only love is immortal.

When one is a patient one is a sufferer as derived from the root meaning of the word. When one is a doctor one should be a teacher according to its derivation. We are also told, “Physician heal thyself.” To truly heal others one must accept one’s wounds and then learn from the process of healing how to help others on their healing journey. Then one is truly a teacher and a native. A physician who is not healed is a tourist unwilling to be involved in the true experience of healing lives. Treating or prescribing for diseases or diagnoses is not what true healing is about. It does not treat the patient’s experience and does not relieve the suffering. We can all be physicians and healers only by having the courage to share our pain. You can’t fix everything but you can help heal everyone.

I was recently talking to my friend Patch Adams, telling him about an Internet program I was thinking of doing to help people I couldn’t ever see because of the distance that separated us. He said, “But people like to be touched.” It isn’t just people but all living things. Touch heals. I am fortunate to have one of our children be a massage therapist and his touch has healed me and our relationship. I see what it does to animals too as they touch each other and I touch them. When you can’t touch physically, touch with your words and prayers. Healing of others is not a local phenomenon as we are learning from the studies done on prayer for distant individuals.

In summary let me say the basics for healing one’s life relate to love and humor. They create a state of wholeness and holiness in which everyone can participate. When we love and laugh we are children again free of afflictions. One is in a trance state, free of bodily ailments and concerns, when one loves, laughs and loses track of time; one is truly in a state of healing and atonement, which to me means ‘at one ment’ with creation.

Dr. Bernie Siegel is a well-known proponent of alternative approaches to healing. Since his retirement from general and pediatric surgical practice in 1989, he has dedicated himself to humanizing the medical establishment’s approach to patients and empowering individuals to play a greater role in the healing process. He is the author of several books, including Love, Medicine and Miracles; Peace, Love and Healing; and his newest, 365 Prescriptions for the Soul: Daily Words for Healing Mind, Body, and Spirit.

Bernie Siegel, M.D. and Ruth VandenBosch, R.N. will be conducting a workshop/retreat, “The Art of Healing,” at centers in CT on various weekends. July 23-25; Oct 9-10, Nov. 13-14. Lectures by Bernie, Drumming, Reiki, Creativity sessions, Guided Imagery, Personal renewal and rest. To learn more, contact Ruth at (269) 857-5963 or email rvandenbosch@egl.net.