Where Does Healing Come From?

Do you ever wonder where healing comes from? The power to remove illness and bring health? Laughter, music, tears, and the saltwater of the ocean—each of these has been credited with healing a sick mind or body. Wendell Berry believed the cool shade of the forest would cure him, as he wrote, “I am not bound for any public place, but for ground of my own where I have planted vines and orchard trees, and in the heat of the day climbed up into the healing shadow of the woods”—and who is to say it didn’t? For some of us, pills, antibiotics, and gleaming hospital equipment have been healing, and for others it was cups of tea, prayer, and extra sleep. Sickness and health are experienced by everyone, yet addressed in very different ways—culturally, scientifically, and individually.

The ways people find (or don’t find) healing is diverse: I once knew a woman who overcame several illnesses using only the power of prayer, and I knew a man in his 50s who succumbed to brain cancer despite access to all the major medical advancements. Yet I am the daughter of a registered nurse and a pharmacist who have witnessed modern medicine save countless lives.

These examples bring up a flurry of questions in my curious mind: where does healing come from? The provenance of healing has been a matter of speculation and doctrine for as long as people have gotten sick. When someone recovers, we wonder: where did that power come from? Exactly who possesses that wondrous and complex ability to heal? Surprisingly, we’ve turned the profound ability to heal into a 40-hour a week job, complete with benefits and paid time-off.

What Are the Origins of Healing?

When we allow our minds to truly wonder about the origin of recovery against disease, we ask some very pointed questions. Does healing originate with the doctor? I’ve met some physicians with countless letters after their names who seem to know very little, as well as people who seem gifted with healing experience who never even got a diploma. Perhaps healing is a spiritual endeavor that comes directly from God—or that funnels through its ministers, shamans, and priests who perform God’s earthly functions. If healing is from the Divine, is there a lovely, unseen energy that opens portal-like when we get sick, sending us healing love?

This, of course, begs the question about prayer, and whether we, as many believe, can shape our health destinies with meditation, positive thoughts or intentions. This is a particularly confusing one, because plenty of negative people get well while positive-thinking people succumb to illness, and our own state-of-mind, intention, or “karma” may or may not have something to do with recovery from indigestion, headaches, fibromyalgia, or cancer. 

Then again, perhaps healing comes from the tools we use; it’s possible that chemistry—the pills, syrups, antibiotics, and herbal medicines used by various people across the world—may be ultimately responsible for healing disease. Or maybe, true healing comes from within, and when we get sick, we are our own best healers.

I originally published these thoughts in Taproot Magazine, Issue #26: HEAL and I shared them live when I spoke in England at the Botanica 2018 International Conference. In this Blog Series, I want to share it with you to explore the myriad of ideas, so please continue to the next installment.