The Relationship Between Health, Healing, and Religion - Term Paper Example

?The Relationship between Health, Healing and Religion Religion and healing have a deep relation. It can be said in the way, any religion is incomplete without adopting the techniques to maintain health. The spiritual and ritual prayers in most of the religion help in maintaining the metal as well as physical health of the believers. Different religions utilize different ideas about the healing. Some utilize the spiritual activities while some utilize the scientific approach and give medicines to heal a sick person. The medicine might come from the plant source or might be a modern medicine. The modern scientific community has taking interest in all the healing techniques that are utilized from the religious point of view and some of the religious activities considering the health and healing got importance due to the positivism towards the society and religion. Who or what causes illness? In general, illness is the phase of a body or mind where it is unable to work in its capacity or body or mind is unable to perform that it has the capacity of. However, different religions views illness differently. In the Voodoo religion, the believers have believed that an illness is caused due to the evil or bad sprits or sometimes sprits of the family members. Voodoo has concepts that “lwa” are the sprits that make an interaction with the people and are able to cause bad thing to the people. In the Kung religion, illness is caused by the dead Kung, the dead ancestor of a person or sometimes gods penetrate the illness into the person (Kingsley 41). In this way, in this religion it is very important to cure and heal the sick to try best to make the person healthy. Shaman has also the similar conditions that consider illness a spiritual deal of the person. In the shamanism, people believe that there is an invisible world around us and invisible creatures are present around us that are sprits. The sprits are able to put illness in a person. Yoga involves the practices that are capable of making the disease away from the practitioner. The practitioners have the faith that certain forces that block the life can cause illness. How is it best addressed? In different religions the illness is expressed in different forms and sometimes it referred to as the spiritual illness. In the religion ‘Kung’ people give special important to the sick because they believe that if the person dies of illness (Kingsley 42), he will spread the illness or give it to the other person. In the Voodoo, illness is paid a significant attention and 60% of the activity in the religion is to heal the person. In the similar way the yoga also addresses the illness in a proper manner and to remove it from the person’s body and soul special attention is required. Yoga is all about the methods that increase the blood flow in the body, increase the brain function and make the body flexible and healthy. The practices utilized in the yoga can help maintain the blood pressure and reduce the cholesterol that helps maintain the health of the heart and the lungs. What kind of healer is needed? In almost all the religion, some of the persons of the society work significantly to preach and heal the persons like the priests, which make give their lives to the religion to protect and preach the religion and make people understand what their religion is. In the similar way, in all the religion people consider then sacred and they are the person who work to heal the persons. In Voodoo, the priesthood presents both is man and women and these persons heal the ill persons with some rituals, herbal medicines and now a day the scientific medicines. Houngan is the word for the male priest and Mambo is the name of the female priest. Similarly, a healer is required in the Kung to make the illness away from the people and he can be able to fight with the gods to pull the illness away from the person, in this way, a healer should be strong both mentally and physical. In the similar way, in Curandero’s healing mechanism, saints play the role of the healer. In shamanism a healer is well known by the invisible world around the people and the sprits in the invisible world (Kingsley 13). The religious professional changes the consciousness and goes to invisible world and heals an ill person. What rituals what they perform? A person should have firm believe in the healing power of the religion. In the Kung, a dance is performed by the Kung men and women encircle the dancing men reciting the rituals to pull the illness or take it away from the society. Sometime the persons abuse the gods to show the love and devotion to their loved ones. In the Voodoo, different rituals are recited to heal the ill person. In shamanism, a religious professional change the consciousness and go to the invisible world, he then makes alterations in the invisible world to heal the persons residing in the community and the persons are healed in the real world. Yoga may implement an alteration in the diet. The scientific methods of healing utilize some the techniques and practices in the yoga to control the cholesterol and increase the metabolism. The meditation and the practices carry forces that penetrate disease into the human body away and maintain the practitioners healthy. What is expected of the sick person? It is expected from the sick person to keep faith in the religion and the religious professional. The medicines given by the religious professionals may come from the plant source or may be the scientific medicines. Many modern medicines come from the knowledge gained from the old religions and still science is taking footsteps to view the healing procedures and methods of utilization of the plants and herbs in the medicines. The sickness could be physical, mental, emotional, spiritual or relational. In this way, a healer should have should have motivational techniques to encourage the believers to prefer the religious healing instead of the scientific healing. In the Kung, sick person is cared as it is believed that if the sick person dies, he will spread the sickness that is not due to the hate but the person who dies, he become alone and he then sends the sickness to the relative. In the Voodoo, the central and main activity in the religion is the healing procedure of any sick person. Sick persons are supposed to heal with herbs, faith healing is also done in Voodoo in which healing is done with Iwa and other spirits now a day’s healing is also done with western medicines. In Curandero's religion, the word drives from Spanish verb which means to heal. Mexican Americans have a trust on Curandero’s power of healing and they used to visit Curandero when they are sick. There are three levels which are used in Curandero’s healing procedure that are the material level, the spiritual level and the mental level. In the material level consist of object through which healing is done that are candles, oil and herbs. In the spiritual level healing is done with the Curandero’s religious ethics and laws. In the mental law, Curandero check the whole physique of the sick patient for diagnosing the disease and give treatment. Curandros believe that God has a power to heal all the sickness. In the Shamanism, healing procedure needs two different stages that are to diagnose the problem and secondly properly treatment of the problem. What is expected of the community? The community is the base of any religion and religion is always is in the favor of the community. In fact almost every religion spreads the unity among the people of the society. In the religion Kung, the community plays an important role in determining the illness of the person and in this way community is required to cure the illness of the person through the ritual dance, where some members of the community participate in the dance and other recite the rituals to carry the illness away from the person. In shamanism, the community serves the ill person and makes efforts in the form of community to take the illness of the person away (Kingsley 14), the forces that cause the illness in a person are not able to overcome the good forces in the community and the combined rituals and meditation of the community is helpful to take the illness away. In Voodoo, religious ceremonies involve the community where combines ritual and prayers are made to make the illness away. In the similar way, in yoga community plays an important role, where members of the community meditate in a way that the forces that cause the illness remains out of the boundaries of the community. Works Cited Kingsley, David. Health, Healing and Religion: A Cross Cultural Perspective. London: Prentice Hall, 1995. Read More