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Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)
Rain Dances, Voodoo, Wishful Thinking and Intercessory Prayer: Do They Do Any Good? (Part One of Two Parts)
I just returned from the First International Wellness Conference held in Galveston, TX. It was a fine event. The speakers, myself included, were interesting (we should hope so!), the topics were varied and provocative, the setting at Moody Gardens was spectacular and the organization of the multiple sessions over seven days for four distinct groups was dazzling. Participants had a choice of sessions in multiple tracks and there were many cooking demos as well as tasty, nutritious meals to die for (with fine wines, to boot!). There were many fitness and other activities, a large expo, comprehensive handouts, creative scheduling and much more -- all remarkably effective for a first-time convention.
That's the good news. The bad news is that only one point of view was expressed at all the keynotes! This, of course, is not unusual. It is my major complaint about the annual National Wellness Conferences (NWC) in Stevens Point, WI. However, even more so than at the NWC, this event featured speakers representing primarily alternative points of view and highly unconventional approaches. Fair enough, but the audience, in my opinion, would have benefited from stimulating, cordial challenges to unusual claims. Most of the keynoters represent ideologies at least partially at odds with scientific worldviews. How interesting it would have been to learn what skeptics, free thinkers, scientists and others might have contributed. There were so many provocative claims put forward, many in serious conflict with familiar takes on reality. I think even the gurus would benefit from having a few non-acolytes in the audience or, better yet, on stage now and then.
In my opinion, only one of the ten keynotes did NOT cry out for rebuttals and additional perspectives. This single exception was the noon lecture by Loretta LaRoche. When Loretta finished, nothing additional was needed save the energy to get off the floor and massage the platismus, zygomaticus and frontalis muscles, all stretched and sore from laughing so hard for nearly an hour.
Everyone exposed to the other keynoters would have benefited from a good dose of alternative explanations. Some rather wild claims were made that would have attracted interesting exceptions based on reason and critical thinking. In fact, a lot of additional information should have been included in the presentations based on alternative explanations for phenomena noted and interpretations expressed. Such input would have countered, or at least mitigated, the unchallenged assertions by the likes of Deepak Chopra, Rachel Naomi Remen, Dharma Singh Khalsa and others. Most important, other perspectives might have prodded audience members to think like responsible adults rather than nod agreement and take notes like obedient children. Informed rebuttals might have reminded all in attendance to consider that there are many possible explanations for most phenomena. Such a variety of viewpoints might have led to a better understanding than was available from the comforting and unchallenged words of the gurus, true believers and others whose careers depend upon the promotion of a single mindset on topics of their considerable expertise.
None of the speakers needed a strong challenge, an informed rebuttal and a different explanation of what science does and does not support more than did Larry Dossey. Dossey is a physician promoter of spirituality and prayer whose topic on one day was "Science, Consciousness and Healing" and "Prayer, Healing and Modern Medicine" the next. This essay about rain dances, voodoo, wishful thinking and intercessory prayer is dedicated to Dr. Dossey.
Claims for the medical benefits of prayer have become a profitable business for some entrepreneurs and a favorite subject for religious zealots who want to believe that The Big Guy or Gal in the Sky grants favors or, if that's a bit much, that there is in the universe ample opportunity to engage in what Dossey calls "communication with the Absolute." Got that? This is Dossey's definition of prayer! Excuse me if I seem skeptical but I have a sense that this definition does not exactly thrill the Pope, Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, or Pat Robertson, to mention just a few. Nor is it likely to sit well with many ayatollahs.
A dozen or so books on healing prayer with alleged studies lending credibility to such claims have been on The New York Times best-seller lists for years. The media, given that religion sells papers and magazines, periodically run tabloid-like stories about "the breakthroughs with prayer" and television producers are never far behind (as in "Dateline NBC", which devoted entire shows to this subject.) Dossey has hit pay dirt with such books as Prayer Is Good Medicine: How to Reap the Healing Benefits of Prayer (1996) and Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine (1993). All have been devoted to the idea that there is scientific evidence that prayer works.
Dossey remarked that the most common image of prayer in our culture is something like this: "Prayer is talking aloud or to yourself, to a white male cosmic parent figure, who prefers to be addressed in English." Of course, he acknowledges this to be a limited, culturally conditioned view of prayer. After a discussion of the extraordinary range of expressions and recipients of prayer, he expressed the notion of communication with the Absolute as his own "deliberately broad and ambiguous definition of prayer." The focus of his keynote and my essay is scientific claims for intercessory prayer, meaning "distant" prayer as in an individual being prayed for who is remote from those praying for him/her. Also, the recipient is unaware that the praying is being done on his/her behalf.
None of this is intended to mock religion or deny the value of prayer or other forms of relaxation, meditation, and communion with the ineffable and so on. In a free country, we have a duty to be respectful and tolerant of adult choices, and doing so is a part of a wellness lifestyle, in my view. Adults should be free to make whatever choices they like that do not harm others, including whatever ideas about meaning and purpose they find sensible. The problem I had with the keynotes, in general, and Dr. Dossey's lecture, in particular, is that they were advanced as scientifically sound, by a distinguished physician, without any benefit of other perspectives about the claims made.
Tomorrow I'll review the claims made by Dossey for such prayer, and the reasons I think such claims are preposterous. In the meantime, enjoy yourself and have fun. If that involves doing a rain dance, a little voodoo, some wishful thinking or intercessory prayer, by all means go for it. None of it will do anybody any harm and could be somewhat relaxing, comforting or entertaining. All the best -- look on the bright side of life.
Domain: mentalSubdomain: stress management
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