Summary: There are no statistics on the success or failure of faith healing for MCS. The author did not have success with faith healing work, but the success of other MCS persons with faith healing cannot be ignored. This article shares first hand experience with faith healing, faith healing authors, and other related sources to help the MCS person who would like to work with a faith healer. Information about faith healing theory, ethical considerations, and strategies are provided to aid the MCS person for a successful outcome in choosing and working with a faith healer.
Healing by Faith
Periodically, over the past 19 years with MCS, I have considered the option of faith healing. I know two persons who I believe have been healed in this manner. One has been healed to the point that she has been working as a professional for over 10 years, and has no shred left of chemical sensitivity. When her MCS friends heard that she was healed, some believed it, as I did, and others felt that her MCS must have been psychologically based. From my experience with her, I knew that she was an authentic MCS. Another friend has had a partial healing that enables her to live in an apartment in the city, does volunteer work at a women's shelter, and can travel to many places. MCS does not limit her activities, but some fatigue does. She was very severe with MCS and it is a miracle that she is alive and functioning to this extent. She is a devout Christian, and a warm and friendly person. She believes that she has been healed by God directly through her faith, through total surrender to the will of God. She has done this on her own and not with the help a faith healer.
Disease is a Manifestation of an Underlying Spiritual Disease
Faith healing is founded on the belief that disease is the manifestation of an underlying spiritual disease. I have disagreed with this with respect to my MCS, and felt some resentment about being judged as being overridden with fear, emotionally weak, or had a tainted or bitter soul. If my illness is spiritually based, then how could I have had physical healing significant enough to be able to live indoors, which saved my life? To keep living and functioning in the chemical world, I have had to exercise more control over my fears than a healthy person. Am I really emotionally weak or controlled by fears, when I continue to walk out the door and risk facing severe nausea, vertigo, burning skin, or seizures? The risk can also involve contamination of my clothes, shoes, or other personal belongings. This brings on the stress of loss and increased financial drain on a limited disability income. Concerning a tainted or bitter soul, I have worked hard on self improvement through therapy and my relationship with God. I have had, and continue to have professional counseling to deal with the overwhelming problems and crises from this illness and to maintain supportive and positive relationships. God has been my refuge and strength to help me through the homeless times, and the current times when my clothing and shelter are threatened.
Months ago, when my health took a downward turn, I became desperate and considered faith healing. I picked a faith healer that I believed would "do no harm." I was totally ready to do what it took to heal. I investigated all the issues that he raised about my blocks to healing. I felt I made progress emotionally and was deserving of total health. I did not work with the healers mentioned in this article, but the sources are published faith healers.
MCS is Caused by Fear and Anxiety
The "spirit of fear" or "fear of pain" are expressions that are used to describe the emotional issues and spiritual condition of the person wanting health. Fear and anxiety has been established as a major component to physical disease by all the healing disciplines, medical, psychological, and spiritual. Fear or chronic stress can compromise the MCS's health, because it causes changes that can suppress the immune system and/or create inflammation. If adrenalin is released, it can create symptoms confused with an exposure, by triggering detoxification. Fear or any negative emotion is something to be dealt with, but how can negative emotions single handedly create this disease? The disease process is complex, and it is evident that all persons with chronic or high stress, or resentful, bitter persons do not acquire MCS.
Fear is a significant part of the MCS life, and it is possible that fear based on the pain of past experiences could stop their progress. An MCS person could have had healing, and if they do not test their limits periodically, they could remain restricted by unnecessary limitations. At times the healer may ask or require that you test your limits. Take the time you need to consider your risks and make your own decision. The Council on Spiritual Practices has provided a "Code of Ethics for Spiritual Guides" which outlines your rights and treatment that will do no harm. www.csp.org/development/code.html?FACTNet However, in my experience, MCS persons have no problem testing their limits to acquire more freedoms.
Emotional issues are brought up for you to investigate as being blocks to your healing. Hope and /or promises of complete healing are made at the outset in order for the person to visualize total healing. The power of positive thinking plays a strong role from the beginning, but please remember that no human being can guarantee that total healing will be your outcome. Evaluate whether or not you think someone has crossed the line into manipulation if healing is promised for all who want it.
There are realistic fears that remind us to protect ourselves. If you decide to enroll in any residential program, please get information about the chemical or pesticide use on the premises. You are not healed yet. Also, consider bringing friend or family member to help with your special needs.
Can Demonization Be Disguised as MCS?
If you have MCS long enough, you might hear an opinion or two about diabolical origins of this illness. I have asked myself, if I believe in the devil, how much of an impact would he have on my life? If we consider our free will, the answer is, "as far as we let him." Can people really become possessed? If free will is everyone's right, then does a person choose to become possessed? When we hear of persons being exorcized, several accounts mention that the person was not aware of his or her possession. John Wimber, in Power Healing, acknowledges that man does not normally choose demonic possession, but he can chose "demonic bondage" indirectly by living with "habitual patterns of temptation or moral weakness not changed by repentance . . ." (p.108) www.amazon.com
Many years with MCS and periodic desperation brought me to investigate the signs of demonization. I have had seizures from pesticide exposures, but I was ready to consider other causes. Wimber states that "The severely demonized person still has some control over his own life . . . (and) . . . inhabiting demons exercise influence episodically, often precipitating epileptic like seizures with convulsions . . ." (p. 111) I have considered at times, the possibility of diabolical origins of my suffering, pain, and downward spiral of unfortunate circumstances. My Catholic upbringing reinforced the existence of the devil, and I had great difficulty overcoming my nightmares in college when I saw the film, "The Exorcist." My nightmares ceased only after I faced that my biggest fear was of isolation. I felt that the worst possible fate of a human being would to be surrounded by persons that they love, but cannot be helped or communicated with. Little did I know that this scenario would be manifested many times as a result of acquiring MCS. Wimber says that severe demonization is extremely rare, and judging from his list, MCS symptoms do not meet the criteria for demonization.
It's Your Fault if It Doesn't Work
Over the years, I had witnessed both overt and disguised blame of those that worked with faith healers. I imagined how hurtful it would be to do my best, and be blamed for the failure. This blame has the greatest potential to do damage to the faith of the client and their relationship to God. Now the person asks why, God, did you not heal me? Am I not worthy of healing in Your eyes? Wimber comforts us for our failures by saying, " Limitations are not sinful: none of us is God." (p.164) In his chapter, Not Everyone Is Healed, Wimber cites a Christian author who says it is erroneous to assume all healing can be claimed by faith. Donald Gee states, "We make our own problems because the Almighty does not always do what we . . . think he ought to do." Trophimus I Left Sick (London: Elim, 1952), 27-29. Gee also states that it is unreasonable to assume "all divine healing happens supernaturally." Ibid., 27. Isn't it true that God can work through the medical profession? When someone is in the hospital, do we ever pray for God to help the surgeon or that the medicine will work?
Some healers, blame to protect their ego and reputation, and others may take it as a personal failure, unable to surrender the outcome to God. It is hard for some to admit that they do not have all the answers. Training for the helping profession warns about the Messiah complex. The Messiah complex hurts both parties. The practitioner can get too wrapped up in the success of the client, and in doing so, sees himself as savior of the client. The overly invested helper will eventually experience burnout, in which his/her effectiveness and length of career is cut short. The helper sees his motivation solely as compassion for the client's pain. The client feels responsibility to the healer instead of to himself, and a lack of freedom to make his own choice. The client accumulates an added burden of responsibility and resentments toward the healer, which blocks the client's progress. Helping professional ethics teaches it is essential that the client has the dignity to make and live with his own choices. When Helping You Is Hurting Me: Escaping the Messiah Trap, by Carmen Renee Berry, can pave the way for healthy helping relationships. www.amazon.com
Promises of Healing
As the faith healers claim, does the Bible actually teach that unlimited healing and prosperity awaits for all who claim it? Is this really God's plan? In Does God Always Heal? Elliot Miller cites many references that give spiritual meaning to the suffering and pain in our lives. It can be a tool for good, learning, and compassion. In Psalm 119, Verse 67: "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word." Verse 91: "It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes."
The classic story of Job's test begins with a testimony to the goodness of his character. Job 1: 8 ". . . My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil . . . " Satan challenged God that the goodness of Job was due only to God's protection and Job's prosperity. He said that if Job were to loose what he had, including his health, ". . . he would surely curse You to Your face!" Job 1:11 So the test began, and Job's faith remained until the end of his test.
God allowed affliction to come upon Paul, and did not answer his prayer for deliverance, 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. Paul received the Lord’s answer to his prayers, verse 9: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Some people are surprised to find out that the Apostle Paul himself had to endure an illness in Galatians: 4:13 Paul says: "But you know that it as because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time; and that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition you did not despise or loathe, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself. Paul refers to his eyes as an indication of his source of illness, and the concern and sympathy of the Galatians indicates that he had not been healed. From the Founder column of the Christian Research Newsletter, Volume 6: Number 3, 1993. www.equip.org/free/DH018.htm or www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-nwsl/web/crn0064a.html
Elliot Miller continues to say that, ". . . divine healing is for today. We see no Scriptural basis to doubt that we can expect to see healing take place here and now, when it is God's will. Healing should be prayed for, and should be a regular part of the life of all churches (James 5:14—16)." An MCS friend gives us a reassuring thought, " . . .even when God doesn't heal physically, the Christian can rest in the help, comfort, and hope he has in God, "looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2) knowing he has his treasure and reward not in this life, which is passing away, but in heaven for eternity.
Working with the Faith Healer
When I decided to begin working with a faith healer, I interviewed him beforehand to determine if he would blame the client for not healing. I asked if he was able to help everyone, and if not, why didn't it work out? He freely admitted that he couldn't help everyone. I thought this was a good sign that his ego was not so wrapped up in his work and that he could answer this question honestly. When he answered the question about what if doesn't work out, he said it was due to how attached the person was to certain issues in his/her life. The fact that this was the only reason for failure offered, should have been my warning. I would have been better to ask for any other reasons why a person might not get well. I believe the cause for MCS can be the result of a physical injury as clear cut as a broken bone. In hindsight, I settled on his answer because at that moment, this person was promising the health that I wanted. I had seen what medical help could do, and at that point, it wasn't enough.
After 2 months, my reactions continued to be just as severe as when I had started. The principle of "things get worse before they get better" helped me to be patient. I have experienced aggravation of symptoms in psychological counseling as well as physical treatment such as sauna therapy and homeopathy. I had been told that I could be healed in 8 sessions, and we had completed 10. This seemed to be a reasonable length of time to get some degree of improvement. Conflict did not surface until I called to end the sessions. He said that even if I try something else, I may never see permanent recovery unless I deal with the underlying emotional issues. He called later to apologize for being harsh, but still maintains that the reason for my lack of healing is my unwillingness to deal with my emotional blocks. I don't know why healing men of God insist that the client is the only reason for failure in healing. How can they be so sure? "We do our best and the rest is up to God," would be a fair and considerate way to end the treatment. Who knows? If it ends with good will, the client may try again later.
Discernment: Staying Free from Manipulation
The sole reason for ethics is for the professional to do no harm. It is important to know what these guidelines are, and if the rules are being broken, to stop the sessions. The Council on Spiritual Practices has provided a "Code of Ethics for Spiritual Guides." It sets limits and guidelines for everyone's well being and safety on the behaviors of all involved. Examples of some guidelines are: Not for Profit, Tolerance, and Peer Review. www.csp.org/development/code.html?FACTNet
There is a spiritual risk working with a faith healer if you become more focused on the healer, than your relationship with God. Look for statements or exercises that would lead to your dependence upon the faith healer instead of God. Is your faith in God respected, or do they automatically assume they know a better way? My healed friend who had MCS, gives testimony to this fact. She said, "I pray these truths will be an encouragement to many. We are all very vulnerable when we are sick and hurting for so long. That was a big motivation for me to study the Bible the way I do...I was approached by several different ministries claiming they could give me healing. They really only tempted me away from the one I really needed to turn to. Ironically, it was when I learned to find my contentment in God, no matter what my circumstances, that He healed me.
It is important to trust based on how you are being treated, and not based on the person's title, authority, or how many other persons trust him or her. Look for double messages. If they say, "We do not care about the money," but later tell you that they are having difficulty making ends meet, that is a mixed message and is manipulative. It is the client's responsibility to meet the payment terms that were agreed upon, but not to keep the healer afloat.
Strategies for a Win - Win
Healing Results
After all is said and done, I am glad for the experience regardless of the outcome. I learned about myself and feel more confident about who I am as a person with MCS. The judgment that if I could only get to the underlying spiritual CAUSE, I would not have to suffer, created some doubt in my mind that I had to investigate. I invite anyone with those doubts to do the same, as long as steps are taken do no real harm. This confidence frees up my energy to focus on new challenges and healing ahead.
May 2004