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At least three of my doctors would order oxygen if I asked.
We're considering buying an HBO unit if insurance won't pay; it would cost about $6-7000, and could be resold later. I don't think they're as good as the professional units in the hospital, but better than nothing. You need a Rx to buy those, too. Not a problem.
We'll probably find out if insurance comes through in the next few weeks; we're literally waiting out the billing cycle, which just processed August appointments.
Gotcha.
If you are wanting to feel something spiritual, try engaging in acts that promote an increased quality of life for yourself and others. You can start or continue with reduce, reuse, and recycle.
I'm an atheist, by which I mean I don't believe in a deity. There may be one, but I don't see anything to make me believe. I'm specifying my position since there seems to be some variation in atheistic stances.
A friend is a psychic healer. He says his angel answers his questions and advises on treatments. He truly believes in this (I've known him for decades, and he doesn't charge me anything), and has many satisfied clients. It's pretty far out in the woo zone for me, but he's made some remarkably accurate observations (confirmed by my surgeon) and helpful suggestions.
He tells me that I need to get in touch with my spirituality to heal a persistent wound from a recent surgery.
I reach deep inside for spiritual feelings, but, like a Puerto Rican girl trying to feel the snow, there's nothing.
So any atheists who feel some kind of spirituality that might give me a direction to look?
Please, no deists telling me to put my trust in god. That's just waste of bandwidth.
I'm an atheist who think of themselves as a spiritual person, but what your friend is referring to, isn't really spirituality as such, it's a belief in healing - what's referred to in clinical research as the placebo effect. My husband, who works in the design of clinical trails has to take this into account as part of any drug development.
To explain, basically some patients are given the real drug and some are given what's called a placebo (a pill or something similar with nothing in it). The patients know they'll be getting one or the other but won't know which. Some patients show improvement anyway even when they haven't been given the actual drug, but improve due to a belief that they have been given the drug. It's necessary to have a placebo to test if the real drug is working for comparison, but also a patients mental attitude has to also be taken into account.
Mental attitude can have a very real effect on healing however it will only take you so far and it's NOT any substitute for medicine. For example if you have a nasty bacterial infection, no amount of wishing it away is going to help - you'd need antibiotics.
That said I think a positive attitude as well a general healthy environment can help stave things off. I'm one of the lucky ones who has never had covid for example, despite being heavily exposed many times. Never tested positive. I have no proof why that is but in my mind it's because don't have the time to have covid. I'm being slightly facetious there. I'm a very strong believer in conventional medicine but I'm a strong believer in mental strength as well. I hope I have explained myself. Also I hope you get better soon.
I'm an atheist who think of themselves as a spiritual person, but what your friend is referring to, isn't really spirituality as such, it's a belief in healing - what's referred to in clinical research as the placebo effect. My husband, who works in the design of clinical trails has to take this into account as part of any drug development.
To explain, basically some patients are given the real drug and some are given what's called a placebo (a pill or something similar with nothing in it). The patients know they'll be getting one or the other but won't know which. Some patients show improvement anyway even when they haven't been given the actual drug, but improve due to a belief that they have been given the drug. It's necessary to have a placebo to test if the real drug is working for comparison, but also a patients mental attitude has to also be taken into account.
Mental attitude can have a very real effect on healing however it will only take you so far and it's NOT any substitute for medicine. For example if you have a nasty bacterial infection, no amount of wishing it away is going to help - you'd need antibiotics.
That said I think a positive attitude as well a general healthy environment can help stave things off. I'm one of the lucky ones who has never had covid for example, despite being heavily exposed many times. Never tested positive. I have no proof why that is but in my mind it's because don't have the time to have covid. I'm being slightly facetious there. I'm a very strong believer in conventional medicine but I'm a strong believer in mental strength as well. I hope I have explained myself. Also I hope you get better soon.
The OP's scenario is the opposite of a placebo. The medium is acting as a pseudo-healthcare practitioner.
I'm an atheist, by which I mean I don't believe in a deity. There may be one, but I don't see anything to make me believe. I'm specifying my position since there seems to be some variation in atheistic stances.
A friend is a psychic healer. He says his angel answers his questions and advises on treatments. He truly believes in this (I've known him for decades, and he doesn't charge me anything), and has many satisfied clients. It's pretty far out in the woo zone for me, but he's made some remarkably accurate observations (confirmed by my surgeon) and helpful suggestions.
He tells me that I need to get in touch with my spirituality to heal a persistent wound from a recent surgery.
I reach deep inside for spiritual feelings, but, like a Puerto Rican girl trying to feel the snow, there's nothing.
So any atheists who feel some kind of spirituality that might give me a direction to look?
Please, no deists telling me to put my trust in god. That's just waste of bandwidth.
My opinion is that your friend cares for you but is interpreting something based on his/her bias. Spirituality is nowadays a buzz word for anything perceived to be non-physical that makes you special. Do not feel like you have to have some "feeling" that fits anyone else's idea of what spirituality is. It is possible that he actually is trying to get you to face a fear you have that is holding you back, that could be considered spiritual. None of us are really honest about our fears until something causes us to actually face them. I am just grasping here since I have no idea what health issue he is trying to help you with.
I believe we are all more than the sum of our physical parts. There are so many things that are not easily explained and religion or belief in a diety makes them even less explainable, not more. I have had a lot of experiences that people think are spiritual but I don't think they are, I think it is just proof for myself that I am more than a body with a brain and that my consciousness is made up of more than chemicals and electrical connections. But I do not believe in any creator deity as described by most people, as that description is too human and too small to be a real. I think we all are creators and we are each here experiencing being human on planet earth for something different. Everyone is spiritual in the context that we have to have some consciosness in order to function in the body we are using.
Interesting answers. Let's add some logical thinking...
Since one cannot prove a negative (i.e., that god does not exist), anyone who claims to know that is just making it up, and pretending their belief is reality. Just as bad as deists, who pretend to know that god *does* exist.
If believing you have an angel makes you insane, then believing you know god does not exist must make you equally crazy. But I'll just assume it's a lack of critical thinking on both sides.
Incidentally, we were told we each had a guardian angel way back in the '60s, so the 1990s date is inaccurate. Though that might be when they started being referred to as "personal" angels, I duuno.
Being in nature and helping others releases endorphins, which give a shot of good feeling. If that's what is meant by spirituality, then I can be spiritual by eating ice cream and shopping, too. Seems pretty superficial, but rather appealing.
I'd say no, but I have visited places where I seem to have felt - something beyond just the empirical.
Verdun is one. It's so obviously a place of great violence. Even the landscape is ripped apart. If ever I were to believe in ghosts, they're to be found wandering in the low, unkept forests now covering the battlefield.
At this comfortable distance, I'm ascribing it to my knowledge of what took place. But I felt what I felt.
I've been to concentration camps, but they were just incredibly depressing demonstrations of the banality of evil. Factories that produced suffering. There was not the same sense of place, of a spot being, as it were, branded.
But I will say there's nothing like standing outside alone in the middle of nowhere during a light snowfall for a sense of peace. The sound of snow falling on snow is the most peaceful sound to me. That's probably the closest thing.
In fact, I have a hard time thinking that someone who believes in the existence of angels, or spirit guides, or whatever you might want to call them is an atheist. For me, the same logic that persuades me that there is no such thing as a god persuades me that there are no other spiritual or supernatural entities.
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