Many cancer patients are turning to a powerful ally: their faith and spirituality. Spanning all religious and humanist boundaries, the approach gives these individuals and the families a source of courage and determination at a time when it’s easy to feel hopeless and helpless. Whether it is through consultation with chaplains, prayer, inspiring poetry or music, or time spent in nature, people are using spiritual means to better cope and make sense of their condition and future.

A survey by Harvard Medical School researcher Annie McCaffrey, MD, revealed that 35 percent of people in the US use prayer as a means of seeking better health. A poll conducted by Newsweek magazine reported that nearly three quarters of Americans believe praying to God can cure someone. It is human for us to have a belief system. When our life is threatened by an illness such as cancer, what we believe in is an important part of our healing and coping process. For some, this means daily talks with God to keep their strength and spirits up. For others it is reading about staying positive and having hope or receiving beneficial treatments of acupuncture or Reiki massage for healing.

Cancer patients deal with uncertainty. They face spiritual questions of meaning, hope and relationships. Some people recognize faith as a very important component for healing. Whether it is faith in your doctor, your body or in a higher power, faith is a wellspring of strength in a pool of uncertainty.

For some believers, faith is the only method of healing. Faith healing is the belief that certain people or places have the ability to cure and heal by eliminating the disease or healing injuries through a close connection to a higher power. Faith healing can involve prayer, a visit to a religious shrine or simply a strong belief in a supreme being. There is no scientific evidence that faith healing can cure cancer or any other disease but it does promote peace of mind, reduce stress, relieve pain and anxiety and strengthen the will to live. When a person has a strong belief that a healer can create a cure, a "placebo effect" can occur which makes the person feel better. Taking part in faith healing can evoke the power of suggestion and affirm one’s faith in a higher power, which may promote peace of mind. This may help some people cope more effectively with their illness.

Faith healing is done either near the patient or at a distance. When practiced at a distance, it can involve a single faith healer or a group of people praying for the patient. When near the patient, the healer touches or lays hands on the patient while calling on a supreme being. Faith healing is believed to be an ancient tradition. In the Bible, both God and holy people are said to have the power to heal. In Medieval times, the "Divine Right of Kings" was thought to give royalty the ability to heal through touch. Today, several religious groups including Christian Scientists, Protestant evangelists and some Orthodox Jewish sects practice faith healing.

The negative aspects of faith healing are when those who seek help through faith healing and are not cured. They can develop feelings of hopelessness, failure, guilt, worthlessness, and depression. Relying on this type of treatment alone and avoiding conventional medical care may have serious health consequences and there are some organizations trying to work towards creating laws to protect children from inappropriate treatment by faith healers.

Other forms of helpful healing is in the actual medical field. More than half of the medical schools in America offer classes that teach students how to talk to patients about faith and illness because more patients are demanding more spiritual care. Scientists are seeking the most ethical, effective ways to combine patient’s spiritual and religious beliefs with high-tech treatment. In an effort to understand the health differences between believers and nonbelievers, scientists are beginning to look for the individual components that compose religious experience. Using brain scans, researchers have discovered that meditation can change brain activity and improve immune response. Other studies have shown it can lower heart rate and blood pressure both which reduce the body’s stress response. Relaxation techniques, breathing practice, and massage also have outstanding health benefits and possible healing properties. No matter what the technique, it is the faith in something that has the power to help someone heal.

Another holistic approach is hypnotherapy. A clinical hypnotherapist uses a one-on-one interview with a client to define the problem, teach them how the mind works, and plan hypnotic suggestions. The client is then taken into a state of relaxed alertness called "hypnosis". Here, suggestions are presented to the client’s subconscious mind to help it modify old ways of thinking and feeling. Afterwards, clients often feel relaxed, refreshed and optimistic. Hypnotherapy taps into the power of the subconscious minds more effectively to improve lives, physical symptoms, behavior and attitudes. Granted, it cannot cure cancer or other major diseases but it can reduce symptoms, help create a more optimistic attitude and provides faith in something.

Our minds are powerful. Whether one uses hypnotherapy, faith healing, acupuncture or prayer, any modality that taps into the power of the mind and provides "faith" in something will always have a positive outcome.