F
face analysis In Ayurvedic medicine, the assess-
ment of the skin, features, lips, color, and other
characteristics of the face in order to diagnose
impairment or disease process.
See also AYURVEDA.
faith healing A term coined in 1885, referring to
the use of prayer and belief in the power of God to
treat disease and other forms of distress. Faith heal-
ers may also employ a laying on of hands to
enhance the effect. Although certain factions of
conventional medical practitioners argue against
the effectiveness and premise of faith healing, there
have been many well-documented and observed
cases in which the ill person was cured of his or her
affliction. Miracles are reported to have occurred in
the process of faith healing in places such as Lour-
des, France, and Machu Picchu, Peru.
Strong belief in a higher power has evolved into
mind-body medicine, which is now embraced by
the general public and many health professionals,
many of whom also advocate treating disease inte-
gratively, that is, using both conventional and alter-
native and complementary methods that are
beneficial. Dr. Herbert Benson describes “the faith
factor” as “remembered wellness and the elicitation
of the relaxation response.... People who chose an
appropriate focus, that which draws upon their
deepest philosophic or religious convictions, were
more apt to adhere to the elicitation routine, look-
ing forward to it and enjoying it.... Affirmative
beliefs of any kind brought forth remembered well-
ness, receiving top-down, nerve-cell-firing patterns
in the brain that were associated with wellness....
When present, faith in an eternal or life-transcend-
ing force seemed to make the fullest use of remem-
bered wellness because it is a supremely soothing
belief, disconnecting unhealthy logic and worries”
(excerpted from Timeless Healing: The Power and Biol-
ogy of Belief, by Herbert Benson, M.D., New York,
Scribner 1996). In Love, Medicine & Miracles (New
York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1986), Bernie S.
Siegel, M.D., wrote: “We had a physician named
Herb who came to our group. He said he meditated
every night while he walked the dog. One night,
while walking down the street, he heard God say to
him, ‘You are Jesus.’ Herb said, ‘I’m Jewish.’ God
said, ‘I know that. So was Jesus.’ Herb thought, ‘I
guess God is telling me to heal myself by the laying
on of hands.’ He started patting himself all over as
he stood out there in the street. When he came to
the group and told this story, I asked him, ‘Did it
ever occur to you that God was saying, You need to
become loving and spiritual?’ Being a physician you
reacted in a mechanical way and did something
mechanical, like patting yourself all over, but the
message is ‘Change and be spiritual.’ “
In The Science of Mind (50th Anniversary Edition,
G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1926 and 1988),
Ernest Holmes wrote: “It would be difficult to
believe in a God who cares more for one person than
another. There can be no God who is kindly disposed
one day and cruel the next; there can be no God
who creates us with tendencies and impulses we can
scarcely comprehend, and then eternally punishes
us when we make mistakes.... Most men who
believe in God believe in prayer.... But we should
bear in mind that the prayers which are effective—
no matter whose prayers they may be—are effective
because they embody certain universal principles which,
when understood, can be consciously used.”
Larry Dossey, M.D., author of Healing Words: The
Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine (Harper-
SanFrancisco, 1993), maintains that it is the inten-
tion of the healer or the one who prays that
accounts for effectiveness. “Everyone has heard of43