Faith Healing

信心与治疗

Faith healing--apsychological approach.

信心疗法是一种心理治疗的方法。

The practice of faith-healing is prevalent in many countries. Many people are trying to influence the public through emotional persuasion designated as faith-healing. In order to impress on their patients the efficacy of their healing powers, some faith-healers use the name of a god or a religious object to introduce a religious flavor into their faith healing methods. The introduction of religion into faith-healing is actually a guise or a decoy to beguile the patient into developing more devotion and enhance the confidence or faith of the patient in the faith-healer. This healing act, if performed in public is intended to get converts to a particular religious denomination.

In actual fact, in so far as faith-healing is concerned, religion is not all that important. There are numerous cases of faith-healers performing their faith-healing acts without using religion at all. A case in point is the science of hypnotism, the practice of which involves no religious aspects at all. Those who associate religion with faith-healing are in a way engaging in a subtle form of illusion trying to attract converts to their particular religion by making use of faith healing and describing certain cures as miraculous acts.

The methods employed by faith healers are to condition the minds of patients into having a certain mental attitude with the result that certain favorable psychological and physiological changes invariably take place. This attracts the condition of the mind, the heart, the consequent blood circulation and other related organic functions of the body, thus creating a feeling of a sense of well-being. If sickness is attributed to the condition of the mind, then the mind can certainly be properly conditioned to assist in eradicating whatever illness that may occur.

In this context, it is to be noted that the constant and regular practice of meditation can help to minimize, if not to completely eradicate, various forms of illnesses. There are many discourses in the Teaching of the Buddha where it was indicated that various forms of sicknesses were eradicated through the conditioning of the mind. Thus it is worthwhile to practise meditation in order to attain mental and physical well-being.

很多国家都采用信心疗法。医生以感情说服病人、以信心感动病人来获得更高的疗效。某些信心治疗者藉「神」的名誉或宗教事物来达到目的。宗教介入信心治疗是一件无可奈何的事，信心治疗者以伪装来诱惑病患、欺骗病患，使病患对他更有信心，引导病患们去信仰他所推荐的宗教。实际，信心治疗在宗教并不是那么重要。很多信心疗法也没有把宗教带进来，催眠术就是一种与宗教完全无关的信心疗法。那些结合信心治疗和宗教的人，目的无他，只不过是为了替自己所信仰的宗教争取更多的信徒。他们把信心疗法的功效归功于宗教的神秘力量。

信心治疗者所使用的方法是调适病患的内心，使病患进入一种特别有利于身心的状况，然后影响病患的心理，使心脏和血液循环及其他的器官，进入一种非常宁静的状况，从而达到最高的疗效。信心治疗完全是一种心理治疗。透过心理的调整而达到治疗的目的。

从信心治疗看来，有规律和不间断的修学禅定，也能得到同样的效果，减少疾病的发生。在佛教经典中多处提到，很多疾病可以透过调御身心而获得痊愈，恐惧、紧张、焦虑也会在禅定中消除或断绝。因此，为了心理和生理的健康，禅定的修学是值得鼓励的。