Religion, Health, & Healing

In Kerry Egan's "On Living," one of her patients held on to the hope and
the possibility that he would be able to be physically healthy enough to receive
his lung transplant so he can start a new life.

In both faith healer videos each individual who wanted to be healed put all of their
faith and hope into these faith healers after exhausting all other options.

In Bowler's book, she followed her religion faithfully, thinking that the more good she did then, the better her life would be. Even after receiving the news that she had cancer, she still believed
in her faith and hoped that she would get better.

In different cultures, their perspectives regarding medicine and healing are very different than what Western culture may believe in. "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" gives us
a better perspective on how different cultures handle sickness and disease. We also saw the communication issues that may arise when two cultures intertwine regarding medicine.

One thing that stood out to me the most while reading Fadiman's book was the fact that
no one from the Western culture really took the time to get to know the Hmong culture and see
where they can bridge the communication gap and work together.

Our culture seems to shape our perspectives regarding how we heal our mind, body, and soul.
Western culture seems to take the physical approach when trying to heal while other cultures feel it's not just physical but also spiritual which also needs to be healed in the process.

In the Hmong culture, when making decisions regarding health-related issues, they must ask multiple family members for advice on what they should do. Because of that, the relationship between Western doctors and the Hmong culture was challenging when they both had the same goal of helping the sick person.

I always wondered why some people's faith strengthens after going through sickness and why some lose faith. Is it that they still have their faith but lose hope? Egan's book made me question many things regarding my spirituality and my life choices.

The Hmong culture reminded me how important it is to have a great support system. The amount of love and support that they received from other immigrants showed that relationships are important regarding health and healing.