The late
Dr. David McClelland of Harvard University was an expert on inner motivation
and healing, researched the impact of Mother Teresa on a group of students who
watched a film about her. Some of the
students appreciated and affirmed her ministry while others were "turned
off by her religiosity." The way
Dr. McClelland judged the healing impact of Mother Teresa was to do a pre- and
post-test analysis of the immunoglobin A secreted in each student's saliva. “We decided to work with movies of healers,
to see if a film could transmit the feeling of caring and loving and then see
if that had positive effects on the immune system and it did." Listen to the dialogue between the interviewer
and Dr. McClelland.
Dr.
McClelland: If you watch this
documentary on Mother Teresa you see that in addition to performing an
incredible service, she is also a wonderful person.
Interviewer: It really comes through, this love and caring
that she has. I'm tempted to call it
divine love and caring.
Dr
McClelland: Exactly. Not everyone reacts to it consciously as you
and I do, but the interesting thing is that their bodies react anyway. The curious thing is that their opinions of
the movie in no way related to whether their immune functions improved. Immunoglobulin A (IgA) is the body's first
defense against cold viruses. We found
that salivary IgA increased even in people who disliked Mother Teresa...[S]he
was contacting these consciously disapproving people in a part of their brains
that they were unaware of and that was still responding to the strength of her
tender loving care...[B]elief in the healer is [not] necessary to get
healed. At the conscious level a person
may not believe at all, but at the unconscious level, something in the person
may still respond to the healer.
Interviewer: What was it that correlates to the release of
IgA?
Dr.
McClelland: The students who responded
to Mother Teresa by releasing IgA in their saliva have motives of "doing
something positive to help someone, or to establish a love relationship. But
the curious part of it is that the
person is not invested in the outcome of the thing. There are no statements about anxiety of
tension if it fails."
Interviewer: The unconditional love.
Dr.
McClelland: That's right, unconditional
is exactly the same sense as Mother Teresa's activity is unconditional. She's asked in the film "How can you
expend all this energy on these dying babies when you know that they are going
to die anyway?" And she says that
it is irrelevant, that whether they live or die isn't important to the act of
love. It's a variation on the old
instrumental argument if you are in love with somebody because of what it gets
you somehow it isn't love."
Traditional
healing and religion [always] stress non-involved striving. I mean, striving without being concerned
about the outcome. We have a computer
label. We call it "div luv"
for divine love, but obviously we can't use that terminology for science. I wish that somebody would give me a nice
name for it.
This report gives
us a real insight into the power of love to heal. Mother Teresa was able to touch people deeply
via a film. Second, her love and grace
caused a positive physiological response even in people who consciously
disliked her. This is a stunningly
profound way to show that God's love in us can impact non-believers. This must be at least part of what the
Scripture means when it says "Jesus went about doing good."
Dr.
McClelland found that love in both the seeker and the caregiver was
important. This is not to say that God
cannot use His supernatural power to heal someone's broken body or emotion
despite their lack of love. This research may help us better understand those
who relapse.
Could it be
that they could not appropriate God’s healing because of a lack of love? Jesus
says that to be forgiven we must forgive. Is this research pointing to the
reasons why? Does this have an implication for a new definition of faith? How
do we help people develop more love? If we begin to love and serve others
unselfishly will our health improve?
Learn to love and you learn to heal.
Love comes from the Holy Spirit
See my books on healing and growth at the web bookstore.
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