Healings Scientific Study

[Alla]

Yes, and so is any other vocation and means to understand and deal with life and the world around us. This is how Zion is a physical and temporal construct as well as a spiritual and eternal one. Zion then serves as an example in reconciling science (and other disciplines) and religion. Its adherents adjust or justify their perceptions, beliefs and knowledge to a standard that supports this world to the highest standard possible, and that also supports the yet-unseen world to its highest standard. Nephi said that all things are ultimately spiritual because all that which is real may not yet be seen without faith.

Why do I want to have Priesthood Blessing when I am sick? I just want to be sure that I do EVERYTHING I have to do when I am sick: proper treatment+blessing. Sometimes people get blessings and they are told that they won't be healed this time. Sometimes it says that they will be strong and overcome whatever they have to overcome.

To have a Priesthood blessing is to show Father that I totally trust Him, depend on Him, and beleive that He is the One Who can help me when nobody else can.

Blessing gives me spiritual strength. And when I have spiritual strenght I can overcome many things. It is a miracle.

[Monster]

The very fact that we even ask the question if priesthood blessing increase the cure rate tells me they do not, or at least not by any measurable amount. Even if say there were jus a 25% increase in cure rates Utah would be all over the news. Everyone would be here studying what was going on. Imagine 25% of cancer victims getting a blessing are cured. No sadly it is painfully obvious that blessing to not increase the cure rate at least in any measurable amount. Blessing may make you feel better or give you hope but when it comes down to it they do not effect your physical well being at all.

I challenge anyone to show any consistent evidence that they do. Not just anecdotal stories here and there, but real long term evidence that blessings heal the sick. It would be great if they did trust me I could use the help but sadly experience and common sense say no.

[Hamba Tuhan]

Blessing may make you feel better or give you hope but when it comes down to it they do not effect [sic] your physical well being at all.

I once assisted in giving a blessing to a man whose sight was restored. Call me crazy, but I suspect he'd disagree with your assertion here.

I challenge anyone to show any consistent evidence that they do. Not just anecdotal stories here and there....

Ah, there's the rub. You want this to be about some impersonal, natural phenomenon that can be measured and manipulated, not about a real God one actually has to come to know and love on a personal, experiential level.

[Hamba Tuhan]

Why do I want to have Priesthood Blessing when I am sick? I just want to be sure that I do EVERYTHING I have to do when I am sick: proper treatment+blessing. Sometimes people get blessings and they are told that they won't be healed this time. Sometimes it says that they will be strong and overcome whatever they have to overcome.

To have a Priesthood blessing is to show Father that I totally trust Him, depend on Him, and beleive that He is the One Who can help me when nobody else can.

Blessing gives me spiritual strength. And when I have spiritual strenght I can overcome many things. It is a miracle.

Precisely.

None of which seems to satisfy the crowd who need God to function like a light switch...and be just as demanding.

One of my favourite outcomes from blessings is when Heavenly Father chooses to bless the recipient with something s/he didn't even ask for. When my father was first diagnosed with a pituitary tumour, he asked me to give him a blessing. In it, the Spirit prompted me to promise him that he would recover fully and live to spend his days serving in the temple. When it was all finished, I was secretly bothered. My parents lived hundreds of kilometres from the nearest temple and were lucky to be able to afford to travel there once or twice a year. In my mind, I just told myself that I'd probably screwed up and let it go, placing my trust in the first part of the promise: that he would be healed. Later that day, I heard my dad tell my mum that he found the whole temple thing in the blessing odd since clearly it was an impossibility. Mum told him that maybe it just meant that he would still be able to attend the temple a few times a year. It seems that all three of us had doubts.

In the end, the tumour was removed sucessfully, and he healed miraculously. We'd been told that leaking spinal fluid was common and could result in very long hospital stays, but he was out of ICU in one day and home again the following day. We were all appropriately grateful. Then, toward the end of the year, the First Presidency announced the construction of a small temple about 15 minutes from my parents' house. Not one of us had ever considered such a thing since they lived in an area relatively thin with members. Three months after its dedication, both my mum and my dad were called to serve there, which they did for years, stopping only a few months before my father passed away.

[Alla]

Precisely.

None of which seems to satisfy the crowd who need God to function like a light switch...and be just as demanding.

One of my favourite outcomes from blessings is when Heavenly Father chooses to bless the recipient with something s/he didn't even ask for. When my father was first diagnosed with a pituitary tumour, he asked me to give him a blessing. In it, the Spirit prompted me to promise him that he would recover fully and live to spend his days serving in the temple. When it was all finished, I was secretly bothered. My parents lived hundreds of kilometres from the nearest temple and were lucky to be able to afford to travel there once or twice a year. In my mind, I just told myself that I'd probably screwed up and let it go, placing my trust in the first part of the promise: that he would be healed. Later that day, I heard my dad tell my mum that he found the whole temple thing in the blessing odd since clearly it was an impossibility. Mum told him that maybe it just meant that he would still be able to attend the temple a few times a year. It seems that all three of us had doubts.

In the end, the tumour was removed sucessfully, and he healed miraculously. We'd been told that leaking spinal fluid was common and could result in very long hospital stays, but he was out of ICU in one day and home again the following day. We were all appropriately grateful. Then, toward the end of the year, the First Presidency announced the construction of a small temple about 15 minutes from my parents' house. Not one of us had ever considered such a thing since they lived in an area relatively thin with members. Three months after its dedication, both my mum and my dad were called to serve there, which they did for years, stopping only a few months before my father passed away.

THANK YOU so much for sharing this great experience!

[Hamba Tuhan]

THANK YOU so much for sharing this great experience!

Just one of so, so many. I feel all the time like Joseph Smith did: 'If I had not experienced what I have, I should not have believed it myself.'

[Calm]

Just one of so, so many. I feel all the time like Joseph Smith did: 'If I had not experienced what I have, I should not have believed it myself.'

I hope that you are saving this stuff somewhere, I have loved so many of your posts talking about your experiences over the years. Was very disappointed to realize that your comments in Social Hall had been lost in the board updating so please don't rely on the computer to keep your experiences for posterity, but put it in writing somewhere safe even if you don't publish it as I can see it being of great benefit to friends and families over the years, if not just comfort and enjoyment for yourself later in life.

[Hamba Tuhan]

Thankfully, I'm a pretty consistent journal writer, though I've lost some, both on paper and on the computer, when I was robbed.

[Ralph Man]

The very fact that we even ask the question if priesthood blessing increase the cure rate tells me they do not, or at least not by any measurable amount. Even if say there were jus a 25% increase in cure rates Utah would be all over the news. Everyone would be here studying what was going on. Imagine 25% of cancer victims getting a blessing are cured. No sadly it is painfully obvious that blessing to not increase the cure rate at least in any measurable amount. Blessing may make you feel better or give you hope but when it comes down to it they do not effect your physical well being at all.

The gist of this is true, but it technically is wrong. Since priesthood blessings are common, if there was a major increase in the healing rate as a result of them, that would've been picked up by casual observation. But if the effect is sufficiently small, that could hide in the noise of placebo effect and large numbers. A more rigorous scientific examination is necessary to determine that. The underlying mechanism being proposed for increased healing is so implausible that one is right to be skeptical rather than merely neutral, but like the health benefits of wearing magnets on your wrists, the effect can be so small that it could theoretically go undetected until careful measures with controls are in place.