"Clergymen & The Physician"
by Leonard Fouche, MD
It is well documented that in ancient times, the priest and physician were one and the same. In the Judeo Christian Bible in the Old Testament is the Book of Isaiah which is believed to have been written between 800 to 600 B.C. Chapter 61 verses 1 and 2 of Isaiah "read the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted; to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that art bound. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn." In Luke 4:18, Jesus read this scripture in Nazareth. This clearly shows that the "temple priest" healed broken spirits as well as broken bodies, i.e. priest and physician were one and the same person.
On the wall of the temple of Kom Ombo located about 30 miles north of Aswan, Egypt is carved a picture of the first know medical-surgical instruments. This suggest that the temple priest started teaching non-priest how to care for (heal) the sick and/or injured. The exact date of this temple is difficult to determine Champollian fund a gateway in the south wall that was 28th dynasty i.e. about 1550 to 1307 B.C. Stones of the new kingdom period of Egypt i.e. 304 to 30 B.C.
The medical-surgical instruments on the wall of this Egyptian temple corroborate the passage in Isaiah that a few hundred year B.C. the priest and physician were one and the same person. Isn't Jesus, the greatest of priest's also famous as the greatest of healers; he not only healed the blind, lame etc., he also raised the dead (Lazarus). Jesus taught his disciples (which means learners or followers) to teach, preach, and heal.
As stated in Concise World History by Ben Finger, Jr. (Philosophical Sibrarz, Inc. NY, NY 1959) on page 8, "...Eventually, the Bishop of Rome established himself as the supreme authority in the church. The church, when it became a centralized organization, did much good, but it leaned towards authoritarianism, legalism, superstition, and commercialism. Christianity as the organized state religion (of the Roman Empire) tended to drift away from the original spirituality of the its founder."
As Brain l. Weiss, M.D. states in Many Lives, Many Masters (Simon and Schuster, 1988) on page 35 and 36; the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great in 325 A.D. prohibited the teaching of reincarnation as part of the Christian religion. This action was upheld by the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 A.D. This council declared the concept of reincarnation a heresy. By the 1700's, the separation of priest and physical had been complected. (There were some instances where the touch of the King in England and France was reported to have cured the sick; King not Clergy.)
There is ever increasing evidence in the second half of this century to show that a merging of physician and clergy is occurring. Alfred J. Cantor M.D., a Colo-rectal surgeon published a book in 1965 called Unitrol staring on page 29, Dr. Cantor states "...A human being consists of more than a body and its component parts. There are certain built-in reactions in all of us, peculiarities resulting from the reaction of your body-mind to its environment. But the whole is still greater than the sum of its parts, and there is an indefinable something within each of us - the spirit. I would go still further and say that this spirit is indestructible and immortal. It is part of God. Indeed, you can say, with justification, that God dwells within you. (I interrupt Dr. Cantor to quote Genesis 1:26-27 "and God said, 'Let us make man in our image after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and every creeping thing creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image.") Resuming D. Cantor words, "In that sense you are God." If this is true, then the powers of God, His omnipotence and omniscience, are your powers.
"This is a startling statement. It means that you have the power to control your destiny. The power of God within you. You can make yourself ill or you can produce good health at will. You can lengthen your life or shorten it. You can make yourself old before your time or you can rejuvenate yourself exactly as you wish. There are no limitations to the powers of God and insofar as you believe that God dwells within you, and that His power are your powers, there are no limitations to your powers. (From the Book of John "Believe and all things are possible.")
"Unitrol takes spirit into account, and when I say that you control your mind/body unit, the you is your spirit, the power of God within you, your personality structure if you will.
"As I have already indicated, we must work through the power of God if we are to achieve maximum results with Unitrol. It is important to realize that when there is a conflict between your will and your emotions, your emotions will win. For example, if you say to yourself. I want to get rid of this pain, but I don't feel that I can do it, rest assured that you will not get rid of the pain. Your feelings always win out over your thinking. You will not get rid of the pain. Your feelings always win our over your thinking. You must have faith, you must implant positive suggestions on the emotional level if they are to be fully effective." (Matt 17:20 "If ye have the faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible unto you.)
Francis Mac Mutt, O.P., a Roman Catholic priest wrote a book called Healing, (Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, Indiana 1974) in which he tells about his training and experiences in healing. This priest had been accepted to medical school at Washington University in St. Louis, MO in 1944. However, he was drafted into the army ten days before the start of classes. He did serve as a medical corpsman in World War II and became a priest after the war. In the preface of this book, he stated that he was asked by a Protestant friend to pray for healing of his son's partial blindness. Rev. Mac Mutt's response was refusal, thinking that only saints could heal. Over a period of time he remembered that Jesus was very famous as a healer. He knew hat something was missing from his ministry. He goes on in the preface to say, "What kind of spiritual direction could I give to all these people coming for counsel, many them sent by their psychiatrist? They were depressed some to the point of attempting suicide; some were alcoholic, some homosexual, some hopelessly confused, feeling worthless and unlovable. they were not OK "people." Their emotional problems could not be separated form their "spiritual" lives; as human beings they were being dragged down by sadness and guilt." The book then goes onto tell how this priest again became a physician i.e. how he completed his training.
The American Holistic Medical Association was formed in 1978 by C. Norman Shealy, M.D. Ph.D. and a group of like-minded physicians. Their description of Holistic health was; "a system of health care which emphasizes personal responsibility and fosters a co-operative relationship among all those involved, leading toward optimal atonement of body, mind emotions and spirit. Holistic medicine encompasses all safe modalities of looking at the whole person including analysis of physical, nutritional, environmental, emotional. spiritual and life style values. Holistic medicine particularly focuses upon patient education and patient responsibility for personal efforts to achieve balance."
The above is their description of Holistic medicine; their description of Holistic Health is the absence of disease plus a harmonious balance between mind, body and spirit.
Thus we have seen that in ancient times priest and physician were one. For some centuries they were separated. In the last twenty five or so years with the work of physicians like Dr's Cantor and Shealy and Clergy like Francis Mac Mutt and NACH (Now Clergy Special Interesting Group/National Guild of Hypnotherapist); all are very much involved in healing mind, body, and spirit of their patients, priest and physician are again becoming one.
Article originally written for NACH Journal "Deepening" NACH is not "Clergy Special Interest Group/National Guild of Hypnotism
On the wall of the temple of Kom Ombo located about 30 miles north of Aswan, Egypt is carved a picture of the first know medical-surgical instruments. This suggest that the temple priest started teaching non-priest how to care for (heal) the sick and/or injured. The exact date of this temple is difficult to determine Champollian fund a gateway in the south wall that was 28th dynasty i.e. about 1550 to 1307 B.C. Stones of the new kingdom period of Egypt i.e. 304 to 30 B.C.
The medical-surgical instruments on the wall of this Egyptian temple corroborate the passage in Isaiah that a few hundred year B.C. the priest and physician were one and the same person. Isn't Jesus, the greatest of priest's also famous as the greatest of healers; he not only healed the blind, lame etc., he also raised the dead (Lazarus). Jesus taught his disciples (which means learners or followers) to teach, preach, and heal.
As stated in Concise World History by Ben Finger, Jr. (Philosophical Sibrarz, Inc. NY, NY 1959) on page 8, "...Eventually, the Bishop of Rome established himself as the supreme authority in the church. The church, when it became a centralized organization, did much good, but it leaned towards authoritarianism, legalism, superstition, and commercialism. Christianity as the organized state religion (of the Roman Empire) tended to drift away from the original spirituality of the its founder."
As Brain l. Weiss, M.D. states in Many Lives, Many Masters (Simon and Schuster, 1988) on page 35 and 36; the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great in 325 A.D. prohibited the teaching of reincarnation as part of the Christian religion. This action was upheld by the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 A.D. This council declared the concept of reincarnation a heresy. By the 1700's, the separation of priest and physical had been complected. (There were some instances where the touch of the King in England and France was reported to have cured the sick; King not Clergy.)
There is ever increasing evidence in the second half of this century to show that a merging of physician and clergy is occurring. Alfred J. Cantor M.D., a Colo-rectal surgeon published a book in 1965 called Unitrol staring on page 29, Dr. Cantor states "...A human being consists of more than a body and its component parts. There are certain built-in reactions in all of us, peculiarities resulting from the reaction of your body-mind to its environment. But the whole is still greater than the sum of its parts, and there is an indefinable something within each of us - the spirit. I would go still further and say that this spirit is indestructible and immortal. It is part of God. Indeed, you can say, with justification, that God dwells within you. (I interrupt Dr. Cantor to quote Genesis 1:26-27 "and God said, 'Let us make man in our image after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and every creeping thing creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image.") Resuming D. Cantor words, "In that sense you are God." If this is true, then the powers of God, His omnipotence and omniscience, are your powers.
"This is a startling statement. It means that you have the power to control your destiny. The power of God within you. You can make yourself ill or you can produce good health at will. You can lengthen your life or shorten it. You can make yourself old before your time or you can rejuvenate yourself exactly as you wish. There are no limitations to the powers of God and insofar as you believe that God dwells within you, and that His power are your powers, there are no limitations to your powers. (From the Book of John "Believe and all things are possible.")
"Unitrol takes spirit into account, and when I say that you control your mind/body unit, the you is your spirit, the power of God within you, your personality structure if you will.
"As I have already indicated, we must work through the power of God if we are to achieve maximum results with Unitrol. It is important to realize that when there is a conflict between your will and your emotions, your emotions will win. For example, if you say to yourself. I want to get rid of this pain, but I don't feel that I can do it, rest assured that you will not get rid of the pain. Your feelings always win out over your thinking. You will not get rid of the pain. Your feelings always win our over your thinking. You must have faith, you must implant positive suggestions on the emotional level if they are to be fully effective." (Matt 17:20 "If ye have the faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible unto you.)
Francis Mac Mutt, O.P., a Roman Catholic priest wrote a book called Healing, (Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, Indiana 1974) in which he tells about his training and experiences in healing. This priest had been accepted to medical school at Washington University in St. Louis, MO in 1944. However, he was drafted into the army ten days before the start of classes. He did serve as a medical corpsman in World War II and became a priest after the war. In the preface of this book, he stated that he was asked by a Protestant friend to pray for healing of his son's partial blindness. Rev. Mac Mutt's response was refusal, thinking that only saints could heal. Over a period of time he remembered that Jesus was very famous as a healer. He knew hat something was missing from his ministry. He goes on in the preface to say, "What kind of spiritual direction could I give to all these people coming for counsel, many them sent by their psychiatrist? They were depressed some to the point of attempting suicide; some were alcoholic, some homosexual, some hopelessly confused, feeling worthless and unlovable. they were not OK "people." Their emotional problems could not be separated form their "spiritual" lives; as human beings they were being dragged down by sadness and guilt." The book then goes onto tell how this priest again became a physician i.e. how he completed his training.
The American Holistic Medical Association was formed in 1978 by C. Norman Shealy, M.D. Ph.D. and a group of like-minded physicians. Their description of Holistic health was; "a system of health care which emphasizes personal responsibility and fosters a co-operative relationship among all those involved, leading toward optimal atonement of body, mind emotions and spirit. Holistic medicine encompasses all safe modalities of looking at the whole person including analysis of physical, nutritional, environmental, emotional. spiritual and life style values. Holistic medicine particularly focuses upon patient education and patient responsibility for personal efforts to achieve balance."
The above is their description of Holistic medicine; their description of Holistic Health is the absence of disease plus a harmonious balance between mind, body and spirit.
Thus we have seen that in ancient times priest and physician were one. For some centuries they were separated. In the last twenty five or so years with the work of physicians like Dr's Cantor and Shealy and Clergy like Francis Mac Mutt and NACH (Now Clergy Special Interesting Group/National Guild of Hypnotherapist); all are very much involved in healing mind, body, and spirit of their patients, priest and physician are again becoming one.
Article originally written for NACH Journal "Deepening" NACH is not "Clergy Special Interest Group/National Guild of Hypnotism
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