MUNICH: A teen gunman who killed nine people in a rampage in Munich was “deranged”, police said Saturday, linking his actions to Norwegian far-right mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik rather than the militant Islamic State (ISIS) group.
Europe reacted in shock to the third attack on the continent in just over a week, after the black-clad gunman went on a shooting spree at a shopping mall on Friday evening before committing suicide.
“There is absolutely no link to the ISIS,” Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae said.
He describing the attack as a “classic act by a deranged person” and described an individual “obsessed” with mass shootings.
Andrae added: “The link is evident” with Breivik's massacre of 77 people, which took place exactly five years ago to the day.
Europe reacted in shock to the third attack on the continent in just over a week, after the black-clad gunman went on a shooting spree at a shopping mall on Friday evening before committing suicide.
“There is absolutely no link to the ISIS,” Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae said.
He describing the attack as a “classic act by a deranged person” and described an individual “obsessed” with mass shootings.
Andrae added: “The link is evident” with Breivik's massacre of 77 people, which took place exactly five years ago to the day.
No Doubt! I am first non-believer in my family, over generations. The "Conversion" started when I was 13. It started with a public school strike when I was in 7th grade. I was sent to private school. That's where I learned nobody was good enough for God. That had a lot to do with it. Don't want to go much further into this. I have before in the other room here. But not looking to offend people. Or even be right!
Along the way somewhere.
You got here knowing "God", as Men describe him.
The Key Scripture that they were too dumb to Take Out or Re-Write
bcuz they never understood it
is "I created you in my Image" which was completely mis-translated anyways.
Which begs the Question: "How could they understand it when it wasn't even Translated correctly?"
They Didn't They Don't, They Will, someday, but not anytime soon.
The Verse was: "You are of me and we are one"
Its what I meant by "You believed when you were Younger"
Meant to mean You Knew a Connection....with something.
You got here knowing "God", as Men describe him.
The Key Scripture that they were too dumb to Take Out or Re-Write
bcuz they never understood it
is "I created you in my Image" which was completely mis-translated anyways.
Which begs the Question: "How could they understand it when it wasn't even Translated correctly?"
They Didn't They Don't, They Will, someday, but not anytime soon.
The Verse was: "You are of me and we are one"
Its what I meant by "You believed when you were Younger"
Meant to mean You Knew a Connection....with something.
No One is Good Enough for The God of Men.
What Men have turned "Him" into, what they told you He was and what He wanted.
To say that You can't be possibly Good Enough for God is to say that you Disapprove of Yourself.
Which may be the case. We sometimes set High Standards for Ourselves, that wasn't the case when you turned away at 13 though....
...you turned away cuz you saw thru the veil, basically arrived not buying the lie
"The Answer" that you wanted is that what lies beyond this is what you mold your Soul to have.
By Your Thoughts but moreso by your actions, like that silly putty I described earlier the Soul is pliable.
It gets shaped by The Being that you are, what you expect to encounter after this is what happens.
Understand its Impossible to type any words to describe it. One Artist came closest.....of all....to describing
that moment between "Heaven" and "Hell" but there is not even anything remotely LIKE PUNISHMENT
Thats just a thing men made up to enslave people, to control.
Which is why you turned away.
Its not this Noisy and Chaotic and Al is.....yeah...."Crazy"....but a few people have tried to translate into Art whether that be Stage, Music or Painting that moment of "Judgement" but again its not even THAT, there is no thing "judging" just.......
YOU.
"life flashes before eyes" is a way to describe an "inventory" of who you were.....what you deserve.
If you know there is no life after this then yeah, there is definitely not.
I understand it is Harsh & Weird but 0:42 forward comes so close that its like this idiot died and got brought back, I mean if there was SOUND THERE BUT THERE IS NOT the screaming to represent not THAT but the progress of that show before your eyes of all that you were accompanied by
The Knowledge.
By Your Thoughts but moreso by your actions, like that silly putty I described earlier the Soul is pliable.
It gets shaped by The Being that you are, what you expect to encounter after this is what happens.
Understand its Impossible to type any words to describe it. One Artist came closest.....of all....to describing
that moment between "Heaven" and "Hell" but there is not even anything remotely LIKE PUNISHMENT
Thats just a thing men made up to enslave people, to control.
Which is why you turned away.
Its not this Noisy and Chaotic and Al is.....yeah...."Crazy"....but a few people have tried to translate into Art whether that be Stage, Music or Painting that moment of "Judgement" but again its not even THAT, there is no thing "judging" just.......
YOU.
"life flashes before eyes" is a way to describe an "inventory" of who you were.....what you deserve.
If you know there is no life after this then yeah, there is definitely not.
I understand it is Harsh & Weird but 0:42 forward comes so close that its like this idiot died and got brought back, I mean if there was SOUND THERE BUT THERE IS NOT the screaming to represent not THAT but the progress of that show before your eyes of all that you were accompanied by
The Knowledge.
Oh Absolutely. I've heard that phrase described as, "I am that I am." I pictured God with the long beard and everything.
When I talk to myself in my head, that's a substitute for talking to God.
I told my cousin, a female reform rabbi (yep) that I don't believe God exists. She said, "God is in our hearts. God is in the way we are close as family. In the way we care for our family and those we care about." I said, "Yeah but......"
People will across the board call you crazy but all it would take is one planet with a problem culture that they could not kill bcuz they did not believe in extinguishing Life so they cast their asses down here.
If People of Earth knew of a planet that they could live on by themselves, that we could use as a place to dump their asses and thus Free Ourselves forever from them, Muslims would get cast out again.
Kicked off of anther fucking planet
Howz that look on your resume Childfucking Coward pawn Bitch Mohammed?
Shit even LOOKS like a SNAKE
OK, let's go further. I was raised Jewish. I'm sure 4+ generations back there were rabbis throughout my family. My grandfather on my Dad's side was conservative, but he observed the Sabbath, kept separate dishes for milk and meat, etc. My Dad went to services on many Saturdays. We also kept two sets of dishes. My mom's side were less observant. But on her side was much tragedy. Many of her mother's siblings were murdered by the Russians as children.
I grew up in a neighborhood that was 70% Jewish.
Now in 3rd grade I started Hebrew school. It's after school from 4-6 pm 3rd grade until 7th grade until your Bar Mitzvah, 5 years. I hated it! Not because of what we did there. It was the getting there and getting home, after an already full day of public school. We carpooled, so a 10 minute ride was 30+ minutes. Fuck me if I didn't get carsick every God Damned Day!!!
OK, now we get to 7th grade, year 5 of Hebrew school. Bar Mitzvah year. Philly Public Schools go on STRIKE!!! So all my friends and all the neighborhood kids are having fun playing hoops or whatever at the local playground, or whatever. Not my younger brother and I. We get driven by my dad every morning on his way to work downtown to a Jewish Private School. Can you say, "Culture Shock?" (wait, more culture shock comes later in the opposite direction, lol). Pure Orthodox (or so I thought, but wait.....).
Grabbed by the hair the first day and ordered to get a haircut. And this guy turned out to be one of the nicer ones. All the rabbis were nice to us, actually. But basically from 8-12 was prayer and Torah study. All the kids read faster than us. So we faked. After lunch we had history, science, English, and MATH! MATH, *taught* by the meanest teacher you or I have ever encountered. If there's one thing I regret in life it's not telling 5 or so teachers during my formative years, mostly in public school, to "Go Fuck Yourself!" So many shit teachers deserve it. The best *teacher* I ever had was the lady who ran the "Vacation Reading Club" at the Free Library of Phila. If there's a heaven Mrs. Josephs is there
Anyway so here we are in this new world, judged by these snotnose kids who think they're better than us. Rabbis with heavy accents we can't relate to. There were a few other regular kids there. Nodody bullied us. But it was not fun by any means. God was slipping away.....
At least no more Hebrew school afterward. Bad enough the buses I had to take to get home! The motion sickness persisted. SEPTA, in the old day. Forget it! Fumes inside and outside.
(Damn you ML, you stole my Saturday afternoon!!!)
OK, it's bustrip to New York time! Now remember, my brother and I and all the strike boys (did I mention no girls in this school????) are not Jewish enough for this crowd. (ML Dog, read, "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok. See the movie as well. You might not relate but you won't put the book down either, I guarantee it! So we arrive in Brooklyn. I'm 12.5 years old remember. And what's the first thing that happens in Brooklyn? A hasidic man approaches our bus stopped at a red light, spits at us and calls us "gentiles!" LMAO as I find this so funny now! But at that moment for me God ceased to exist.
I went to that school the rest of the year. My public school friends and the kids on my street had nothing but good times. At the end of that school year I was Bar Mitzvahed. And I was done with God and religion.
Six months after my Bar Mitzvah we moved. 12 miles and a world away. I was now going to school in a rural area. With farm boys who wore shit kickers and smelled of Shit. At least for 8th grade I caught a break. 8th grade was still High School in Philly back then. But up here it was intermediate school, final year. For one year I got to walk two blocks to school. My HS graduation class had 749. 4 were Jewish. *Culture Shock x2*
Thats so incredible, that post, in a + way I mean...from a reading perspective, not + by any means you having gone through that a "+++ experience" but to say:
if by Chaim Potok's book is anywhere close to as good as your post, I can see what you mean.
About me needing to read that.
Naturally, I had expected that you turned away from a mundane religious/church situation, had not anticipated that you had suffered the misfortune of having had to endure Hebrew school and that we were dealing with a thing like that which is surely among the most Intense Religious situations that a Young Person as intelligent as you were can be forced to go through.
For an independent thinker, such as yourself and especially one that is challenged to locate **patience** when confronted with Bullshit, and respond to that in the non-combative manner demanded of a child in the position you describe, by the Jewish Culture...4 HOURS of prayer and Torah study MATH hosted by the meanest teacher on Earth....
....what "joke" could be more cruel? In the light of how people use the cliche concept of: "The Universe playing a massive joke on them" I mean.
I anticipated that we were dealing with a far less irrational and way less rugged situation than Hebrew School derailing a Youth that for every moment you had to endure that you knew that you deserved.....to be a normal kid doing normal kid things and hanging out with whoever you wanted, doing what kids do.
Freedom.
But No.
I don't even know what to say. I will need to read the post a few more times and even then I know I'll still be nowhere even close to being able to relate to the sheer misery that a Free Thinker having to endure Hebrew School would be but I will respond after reading the post some more, trying to "relate" as best as I can bcuz I want to understand.
I've not even encountered anyone in my whole LIFE who had to go through Hebrew School.
I am literally stunned. I don't GET "stunned Speechless" this doesn't happen. I need to try to Feel Your Pain
before I can even think about formulating a response. Presentation of "Hebrew School" within this conversation is like, I expected the normal what 99% of the rest of kids go through that then turned from their faith, you know...baptist whatever having to dress for church and be in that, I'd expected but was hoping that you'd not had to endure the rigors of the Catholic that so many kids had to deal with in their youth but
Hebrew School.
Wow.
The Cliche "That which does not kill us makes us stronger" and yeah, while its totally true and a great thing and is more applicabe here than it has been EVER to any other thing as your are DEFINITELY a vastly stronger, wiser more self assured person today as result of having went through that I am not sure that is a suitable "consolation" to having had to endure Hebrew School.
Wow. My Mind is Blown.
4 Hours of prayer and reading the Torah, just in itself......without even all of the other crap that you had to put up with all the way to age 13.....
There just are not adequate words to respond to a stealing of Youth such as this...4 Hours of prayer and reading the Torah.....thanks for the magnificent post, I'll read it over again to try and grasp better the length of the misery and internalize better the details of that and read "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok because.....
....the concept that is "The Chosen People". in regards to how YOU know that to be, within the Jewish Culture.....that is a huge part of any adequate response to such....
....in an Infinitely more Positive way than you might expect though.
Whats Important IMMEDIATELY though is that you get as "back on track" as possible with the Spiritual Being that you are naturally, got born here as and that every human shows up being. That "connection" that you did feel, do know to exist and I don't mean to ANY particular "GOD", I don't mean that in the LEAST bcuz as said in that previous post Men's Understandings of what God "said" "wants"
"needs" you to do etc....
....no "God" has ever existed that would want any child caged for 4 hours in prayer and reading a Torah. Its just not like that, the experience, the whole phenomenon of YOUTH, exploration, discovery and all else of YOUTH so necessary FREEDOM within that....to the formulation of the best adult possible, I am sorry that your own youth was derailed in such a manner.
I mean get as "back on track" as possible re: any discussion of "Religion" only to the degree that this involves "Fellowship" bcz thats literally all that really matters WITHIN the concept that is Religion as that relates to Man.
To whatever degree that YOU FEEL that is, that your experience in Youth is impeding your ability to have fellowship with people like you, If you don't feel personally that this is a problem, an issue then its not.
If you do though, feel like what you had to go through with Hebrew School has left a Barrier between yourself and the great benefits that would be found by you as result of that Fellowship then this is a thing that we need to address.
If a Hebrew School-created barrier does in fact exist thats a real easy one to hurdle though.....potentially very FUN JUMP in fact, potentially magnificently enjoyable Hurdle-Jump that one..
....hard for me to imagine that NO Hebrew School created impediments exist for you bcuz what you describe is a straight out Traumatic Event for such a smart and free-thinking kid, such as you were.
Especially with the JEWISH Experience having been what that has been, here on Earth, what that continues to be and all that combined with what you yourself had to endure in that regard.....
....Hebrew School.
It is vitally important that we address any Barriers that exist if there are any..
....that are standing in the way of you and Fellowship.
Its difficult to describe in words why its so important, specifically to The Hebrew, the total elimination of Barrier...
...where regards an individual and Fellowship. Its important for all people, of course. That which is and had been The Jewish Experience though...that which has shaped the "identity" of the "Modern Hebrew" if you will....
....there musn't be any Barriers left allowed to stand as result of the hand that you were dealt in your Youth.
For to allow such barriers....to allow that experience to keep you from Fellowship, would be to compound the tragedy.
The Tragedy that is, of the loss of your Youth.
....Hebrew School.
It is vitally important that we address any Barriers that exist if there are any..
....that are standing in the way of you and Fellowship.
Its difficult to describe in words why its so important, specifically to The Hebrew, the total elimination of Barrier...
...where regards an individual and Fellowship. Its important for all people, of course. That which is and had been The Jewish Experience though...that which has shaped the "identity" of the "Modern Hebrew" if you will....
....there musn't be any Barriers left allowed to stand as result of the hand that you were dealt in your Youth.
For to allow such barriers....to allow that experience to keep you from Fellowship, would be to compound the tragedy.
The Tragedy that is, of the loss of your Youth.
For Example....there is one person in particular that if you ever got a chance to talk with would be amazing...I don't know that he is JEWISH but he's walked a path similar to your own in some ways and that person is Maynard James Keating from TOOL but now I think he is making Wine in Northern Cali.
Also Neil Peart, the drummer from Rush. Those 2 Guys in particular come to mind as people that would have a unique understanding and ability to relate to what you went thru, where you are now etc.
just to illustrate how "Fellowship" is important and that there are people that DO understand, to a degree at least. People that have had unique and Intense journeys in regards to defining Spirituality as that relates to the human being.....
Also Neil Peart, the drummer from Rush. Those 2 Guys in particular come to mind as people that would have a unique understanding and ability to relate to what you went thru, where you are now etc.
just to illustrate how "Fellowship" is important and that there are people that DO understand, to a degree at least. People that have had unique and Intense journeys in regards to defining Spirituality as that relates to the human being.....
ML there is a BIG difference between Jewish private school and after school Hebrew School. Hebrew School is cake. Mostly secular, easy A's. But as I said it was the time of day, and the getting there and back.
With all I've experienced I still don't think I'd change much about my childhood even if I could. I got to see many different perspectives.
I devote myself to Judaism through my advocacy of Israel. And fortunately or unfortunately on that topic I never run out of ignorant people to teach.
Admittedly, to believe one day soon I'll die and after that absolutely nothing will happen well, that's a hard choice. And yet I can't force myself to again feel otherwise. People of faith are just more content; I can actually quantify it.
I once whispered to my Dad in synogogue, "Dad what if this is all a bunch of bullshit. I mean, I'm not saying we're wrong and another religion is right. I'm saying I think everyone is wrong (looking up toward the ceiling)." He replied, "I said the same thing to your Zeyde (Grandfather) many years ago." "What did he answer?" I asked. "You think I never had my doubts? Now PRAY!"
With all I've experienced I still don't think I'd change much about my childhood even if I could. I got to see many different perspectives.
I devote myself to Judaism through my advocacy of Israel. And fortunately or unfortunately on that topic I never run out of ignorant people to teach.
Admittedly, to believe one day soon I'll die and after that absolutely nothing will happen well, that's a hard choice. And yet I can't force myself to again feel otherwise. People of faith are just more content; I can actually quantify it.
I once whispered to my Dad in synogogue, "Dad what if this is all a bunch of bullshit. I mean, I'm not saying we're wrong and another religion is right. I'm saying I think everyone is wrong (looking up toward the ceiling)." He replied, "I said the same thing to your Zeyde (Grandfather) many years ago." "What did he answer?" I asked. "You think I never had my doubts? Now PRAY!"
For many people, there is value in such a concept. Tremendous value. Improves quality of life. (see links below)
Providing meaning, comfort . An aid to manage stress, cope
i agree with you, the narrative should stay clear of fear.
i think i posted the following before?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1305900/
[h=1]The role of spirituality in health care[/h][FONT="]The technological advances of the past century tended to change the focus of medicine from a caring, service oriented model to a technological, cure-oriented model. Technology has led to phenomenal advances in medicine and has given us the ability to prolong life. However, in the past few decades physicians have attempted to balance their care by reclaiming medicine's more spiritual roots, recognizing that until modern times spirituality was often linked with health care. Spiritual or compassionate care involves serving the whole person—the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual. Such service is inherently a spiritual activity. Rachel Naomi Remen, MD, who has developed Commonweal retreats for people with cancer, described it well:
Helping, fixing, and serving represent three different ways of seeing life. When you help, you see life as weak. When you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole. Fixing and helping may be the work of the ego, and service the work of the soul (1).
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[FONT="]Serving patients may involve spending time with them, holding their hands, and talking about what is important to them. Patients value these experiences with their physicians. In this article, I discuss elements of compassionate care, review some research on the role of spirituality in health care, highlight advantages of understanding patients' spirituality, explain ways to practice spiritual care, and summarize some national efforts to incorporate spirituality into medicine.[/FONT]
[h=2]COMPASSIONATE CARE: HELPING PATIENTS FIND MEANING IN THEIR SUFFERING AND ADDRESSING THEIR SPIRITUALITY[/h][FONT="]The word compassion means “to suffer with.” Compassionate care calls physicians to walk with people in the midst of their pain, to be partners with patients rather than experts dictating information to them.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Victor Frankl, a psychiatrist who wrote of his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp, wrote: “Man is not destroyed by suffering; he is destroyed by suffering without meaning” (2). One of the challenges physicians face is to help people find meaning and acceptance in the midst of suffering and chronic illness. Medical ethicists have reminded us that religion and spirituality form the basis of meaning and purpose for many people (3). At the same time, while patients struggle with the physical aspects of their disease, they have other pain as well: pain related to mental and spiritual suffering, to an inability to engage the deepest questions of life. Patients may be asking questions such as the following: Why is this happening to me now? What will happen to me after I die? Will my family survive my loss? Will I be missed? Will I be remembered? Is there a God? If so, will he be there for me? Will I have time to finish my life's work? One physician who worked in the pediatric intensive care unit told me about his panic when his patients' parents posed such questions. It is difficult to know what to say; there are no real answers. Nevertheless, people long for their physicians as well as their families and friends to sit with them and support them in their struggle. True healing requires answers to these questions (3). Cure is not possible for many illnesses, but I firmly believe that there is always room for healing. Healing can be experienced as acceptance of illness and peace with one's life. This healing, I believe, is at its core spiritual.
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[FONT="]Two examples illustrate ways to deal with questions related to meaning in life. Many studies have shown that people desire to be remembered (4). Some wish to fulfill this desire through their family, and others through their life's accomplishments or impact. One of my patients has had ovarian cancer for 7½ years. Recently, the cancer metastasized and is no longer as responsive to chemotherapy. She has been involved in lecturing to a class of my medical students for a 2-week period each semester, talking about medical care from a patient's perspective. Now that she is facing the end of her life, she is determined to continue those lectures; she finds purpose in the significant impact they have had on future physicians. Her treatment team was able to work around certain therapeutic protocols to enable her to achieve her dreams and goals. Another patient was dying of breast and ovarian cancer in her early 30s, and she was depressed. Antidepressants weren't helping. Through talking with her, I understood the cause of her suffering: a fear that her 2-year-old daughter would not remember her. I suggested that she keep a journal to leave to her daughter; the hospice nurses videotaped her messages to her children. These activities helped resolve her depression.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Erik Erikson has written about certain developmental tasks that he suggests children, adolescents, and adults need to accomplish as part of the normal developmental and maturing process (5). Spirituality has been recognized by many authors as an integral developmental task for those who are dying (6, 7). Unfortunately, people who are dying are often ignored. DNR—do not resuscitate—is often interpreted as “do not round.” As these patients deal with issues of transcendence, they need someone to be present with them and support them in this process. We need to advocate for systems of care in which that can happen.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Attending the dying patient is an important experience for physicians as well. In an article entitled “When mortality calls, don't hang up,” Sally Leighton wrote: “The physician will do better to be close by to tune in carefully on what may be transpiring spiritually, both in order to comfort the dying and to broaden his or her own understanding of life at its ending” (8). One Baylor nurse I spoke with said that her patients give back 400% more than she gives them. I have to echo that sentiment. Being in the presence of people who are struggling and are able to transcend suffering and pain and see life in a different way is inspiring for me, and I'm grateful for those experiences.
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[h=2]RESEARCH ON THE ROLE OF SPIRITUALITY IN HEALTH CARE[/h]
[FONT="][h=3]Mortality[/h]Some observational studies suggest that people who have regular spiritual practices tend to live longer (9). Another study points to a possible mechanism: interleukin (IL)-6. Increased levels of IL-6 are associated with an increased incidence of disease. A research study involving 1700 older adults showed that those who attended church were half as likely to have elevated levels of IL-6 (10). The authors hypothesized that religious commitment may improve stress control by offering better coping mechanisms, richer social support, and the strength of personal values and worldview.
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[FONT="][h=3]Coping[/h]Patients who are spiritual may utilize their beliefs in coping with illness, pain, and life stresses. Some studies indicate that those who are spiritual tend to have a more positive outlook and a better quality of life. For example, patients with advanced cancer who found comfort from their religious and spiritual beliefs were more satisfied with their lives, were happier, and had less pain (11). Spirituality is an essential part of the “existential domain” measured in quality-of-life scores. Positive reports on those measures—a meaningful personal existence, fulfillment of life goals, and a feeling that life to that point had been worthwhile— correlated with a good quality of life for patients with advanced disease (12).
Some studies have also looked at the role of spirituality regarding pain. One study showed that spiritual well-being was related to the ability to enjoy life even in the midst of symptoms, including pain. This suggests that spirituality may be an important clinical target (13). Results of a pain questionnaire distributed by the American Pain Society to hospitalized patients showed that personal prayer was the most commonly used nondrug method of controlling pain: 76% of the patients made use of it (14). In this study, prayer as a method of pain management was used more frequently than intravenous pain medication (66%), pain injections (62%), relaxation (33%), touch (19%), and massage (9%). Pain medication is very important and should be used, but it is worthwhile to consider other ways to deal with pain as well.
Spiritual beliefs can help patients cope with disease and face death. When asked what helped them cope with their gynecologic cancer, 93% of 108 women cited spiritual beliefs. In addition, 75% of these patients stated that religion had a significant place in their lives, and 49% said they had become more spiritual after their diagnosis (15). Among 90 HIV-positive patients, those who were spiritually active had less fear of death and less guilt (16). A random Gallup poll asked people what concerns they would have if they were dying. Their top issues were finding companionship and spiritual comfort—chosen over such things as advance directives, economic/financial concerns, and social concerns. Those who were surveyed cited several spiritual reassurances that would give them comfort. The most common spiritual reassurances cited were beliefs that they would be in the loving presence of God or a higher power, that death was not the end but a passage, and that they would live on through their children and descendants (17).
Bereavement is one of life's greatest stresses. A study of 145 parents whose children had died of cancer found that 80% received comfort from their religious beliefs 1 year after their child's death. Those parents had better physiologic and emotional adjustment. In addition, 40% of those parents reported a strengthening of their own religious commitment over the course of the year prior to their child's death (18).
These findings are not surprising. We hear them repeated in focus groups, in patients' writings and stories: When people are challenged by something like a serious illness or loss, they frequently turn to spiritual values to help them cope with or understand their illness or loss.
[h=3]Recovery[/h]Spiritual commitment tends to enhance recovery from illness and surgery. For example, a study of heart transplant patients showed that those who participated in religious activities and said their beliefs were important complied better with follow-up treatment, had improved physical functioning at the 12-month follow-up visit, had higher levels of self-esteem, and had less anxiety and fewer health worries (19). In general, people who don't worry as much tend to have better health outcomes. Maybe spirituality enables people to worry less, to let go and live in the present moment.
Related to spirituality is the power of hope and positive thinking. In 1955, Beecher showed that between 16% and 60% of patients—an average of 35%—benefited from receiving a placebo for pain, cough, drug-induced mood change, headaches, seasickness, or the common cold when told that the placebo was a drug for their condition (20). Now placebos are used only in clinical trials, and even there, generally about 35% of people respond to them. Study of the “placebo effect” has led to conclusions that our beliefs are powerful and can influence our health outcomes. Herbert Benson, MD, a cardiologist at Harvard School of Medicine, has renamed the placebo effect “remembered wellness” (21). I see this as an ability to tap into one's inner resources to heal. Benson, myself, and others see the physician-patient relationship as having placebo effect as well—i.e., the relationship itself is an important part of the therapeutic process. Benson suggests that there are 3 components that contribute to the placebo effect of the patient-physician relationship: positive beliefs and expectations on the part of the patients, positive beliefs and expectations on the part of the physician or health care professional, and a good relationship between the 2 parties (21).
Specific spiritual practices have been shown to improve health outcomes. In the 1960s, Benson began research on the effect of spiritual practices on health. Some people who practiced transcendental meditation approached him in the 1960s and asked him to determine if meditation had beneficial health effects. He found that 10 to 20 minutes of meditation twice a day leads to decreased metabolism, decreased heart rate, decreased respiratory rate, and slower brain waves. Further, the practice was beneficial for the treatment of chronic pain, insomnia, anxiety, hostility, depression, premenstrual syndrome, and infertility and was a useful adjunct to treatment for patients with cancer or HIV. He called this “the relaxation response.” Benson concluded: “To the extent that any disease is caused or made worse by stress, to that extent evoking the relaxation response is effective therapy” (22).
Different studies suggest that 60% to 90% of all patient visits to primary care offices are related to stress. I teach the relaxation response to many of my patients, and I have found it particularly useful for patients with chronic pain, high blood pressure, headaches, and irritable bowel syndrome. It takes only a few minutes to describe the meditation and to practice it with your patient in the office. The patient then needs to practice the technique at home. I usually suggest people follow up with me in the office more frequently initially as they are learning the technique. After a few semimonthly visits, they switch to brief monthly visits, which can then be tapered. Some of my patients follow up with me by phone if coming to my office frequently is difficult.
........
In summary, spirituality can be an important element in the way patients face chronic illness, suffering, and loss. Physicians need to address and be attentive to all suffering of their patients—physical, emotional, and spiritual. Doing so is part of delivery of compassionate care. I think we can be better physicians and true partners in our patients' living and in their dying if we can be compassionate: if we truly listen to their hopes, their fears, and their beliefs and incorporate these beliefs into their therapeutic plans.
here's a similar one;
[h=1]Religious commitment and health status: a review of the research and implications for family medicine.[/h]
The empirical literature from epidemiological and clinical studies regarding the relationship between religious factors (eg, frequency of religious attendance, private religious involvement, and relying on one's religious beliefs as a source of strength and coping) and physical and mental health status in the areas of prevention, coping, and recovery was reviewed. Empirical studies from the published literature that contained at least 1 measure of subjects' religious commitment and at least 1 measure of their physical or mental health status were used. In particular, studies that examined the role of religious commitment or religious involvement in the prevention of illness, coping with illnesses that have already arisen, and recovery from illness were highlighted. A large proportion of published empirical data suggest that religious commitment may play a beneficial role in preventing mental and physical illness, improving how people cope with mental and physical illness, and facilitating recovery from illness. However, much still remains to be investigated with improved studies that are specially designed to investigate the connection between religious involvement and health status. Nevertheless, the available data suggest that practitioners who make several small changes in how patients' religious commitments are broached in clinical practice may enhance health care outcomes.
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again creating a narrative that's nurturing has significant value.
keep in mind, spirituality does NOT mean one needs to believe in a God. Its value lies in providing peace-- IE., decrease stress (improving hormonal balance.............). A healthy mind a healthy body. The literature is loaded with the benefits of a nurtured mind
