Finally! Medical Science and Spirituality Agree

Today we are going to look at how more and more doctors are finally starting to figure out that health and healing are not just about treating the physical body alone. And to that I say, Spirituality and Healthcare can work together, and it’s about time!

So in this episode, we are going to discuss how spirituality helps the body heal. And I’m going to teach you a ground-breaking exercise for connecting with Spirit that was created by a Harvard medical doctor named Herbert Benson, specifically to promote health in our physical body. It’s going to be awesome!

Just for fun, try to guess how many medical schools in the U.S. offered courses on spiritual health in 1992…Have a guess. The answer is three. One, two, three. That’s it. Now try to guess how many U.S. medical schools offered courses on spiritual health by 2004, only 12 years later…84! Okay, from 3 to 84–not bad. How about today? Well, today, the subject of spirituality and healthcare is offered in a whopping 90% of medical schools across the country, which includes some of the most prestigious medical schools in the world. Isn’t that amazing?

Okay, so here is what this ground-breaking doctor, Herbert Benson, discovered through his Harvard research studies on spiritual health that were so impactful to the medical community, that it is now studied throughout 90% of medical schools in this country:  

So, most people are familiar with the placebo effect, right? When in a controlled study, a person is given a simple sugar pill that has no medical effect what-so-ever but isn’t aware of whether or not they have been administered a clinical medication or a sugar pill—the placebo effect occurs when that person begins to experience a noticeable improvement in their condition that is similar to what would be expected of the medication—when this person, in reality, had not received any treatment for their issue. Just by believing they MIGHT be taking the meds, their body starts; to respond! Pretty wild stuff when you think about it.

So, that’s the placebo effect, okay? And what Dr. Herbert did was, he renamed the placebo effect “remembered wellness.” Wow! Remembered Wellness, meaning that our ability to feel healthy and heal from many illnesses is already stored in our body just like a memory, and when we help our body recall the feeling of being well, it has an amazing ability to restore itself to health. Isn’t that cool? Well, gosh isn’t that divine love built right into our DNA?

Another amazing contribution this doctor made to creating widespread awareness of the benefits of promoting spiritual health within mainstream medical communities, was to conduct one of the first Harvard studies on the health effect of practicing meditation. And what he concluded was that 10 to 20 minutes of meditation twice a day was the sweet spot for achieving health benefits that include increased metabolism, decreased heart rate, decreased intensity of chronic pain, and it helps to ease the symptoms of insomnia, anxiety, depression, and even infertility—and that’s just to name a few, okay? It’s amazing!! If you’d like some support with meditation, just check on my channel. I’ve published some guided Shamanic Journeys for you that will be perfect for evoking these benefits.  

He called this discovery The Relaxation Response. Concluding that, and I’m going to quote Dr. Benson directly—“To the extent that any disease is caused or made worse by stress, to that extent evoking The Relaxation Response is effective therapy.” And today ‘The Relaxation Response’ is the official term that the medical community uses to teach new medical professionals about the importance of incorporating Spiritual health into their practices.

So I thought, Wow, it would be SO awesome to pass along to you, the exact technique Dr. Benson recommends for those who wish to evoke The Relaxation Response so you can try it at home, and begin to enjoy some of these wonderful, scientifically and medically-proven health benefits in your own life. Now you can combine Spirituality and Healthcare:

So here it is!

• You choose one single word to focus on, something like peace, love, health, blissful, grateful, resilient, worthy—something beautiful and loving and kind.
• And then set a timer for 10 minutes.
• Next, get into a wonderfully comfortable position.
• And then start your timer, close your eyes, and repeat the word silently to yourself while taking deep relaxing breaths until the timer goes off.

And that’s it, ladies and gentlemen! That’s all it takes to begin powerfully incorporating the full benefits of spiritual health into your physical being. Isn’t that SO cool? Please give this a try, and be sure to let me know how it goes! Nothing brings me more joy than to hear about other people’s personal experiences with using new spiritual tools.

I just LOVE it when medical science and spirituality combine in harmony to create new ways to help people live better lives! It’s really exciting stuff, and I want to thank you for being here with me, and giving me this opportunity to share these discoveries with you. I love having you in the Soul Manifesto community, and if you haven’t joined yet, just visit us at SoulManifesto.com because we are always here for you, and we’re always seeking out new and exciting ways to connect to Spirit. Namaste.