Our Love Can Heal People that Dislike Us

The late Dr. David McClelland of Harvard University was an expert on inner motivation and healing. He researched the impact of Mother Teresa on a group of students. He set it up so they watched a film about her to see its impact. He wanted to discover whether she influenced people in a positive manner. 

Before the film, Dr. McClelland wanted to find out how the students felt about her as a Nun doing good deeds. He discovered that some of the students appreciated and affirmed her ministry. Other students were "turned off by her religiosity." This gave him a base line to test them afterward to see I their beliefs going in made a difference.   

The way Dr. McClelland judged Mother Teresa’s impact was very interesting. He did a pre- and post-test analysis of the immunoglobin A secreted in each student's saliva.  

He said; “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." The following dialogue between the interviewer and Dr. McClelland is fascinating.

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. (People of Peace.)

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. Loving behavior can bring positive changes even to observer. Mother Teresa was able to touch people deeply even through a film.  

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 impacts non-believers. Of course, we are not at the level of Mother Teresa but with God’s grace, truth, and love flowing through us, the impact can be wonderful. 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. It is obvious that God can heal anyone at any time. However, motivation is important in both people.   

It helps me better understand people who relapse from illnesses, addictions, and spiritual growth. Could it be that they did not appropriate God’s healing because of their own a lack of love? Jesus said in the Model Prayer that to be forgiven we must also forgive those who have wronged us.

Is this research pointing to the reasons why Jesus taught forgiveness?

Does this have an implication for a new definition of faith?

Does blessing people with peace bring healing?

How do we help people develop more peace and love?

If we love and serve others unselfishly will our health improve? 

As Jesus said in Luke 10. “Go meet people and bless them with peace”. That alone will bring healing to a fallen world. We need to learn to love and you learn to heal and develop places where there is no condemnation or rejection. Places of peace and serenity. Places where people are like Jesus and “Do good things as we go about the places we live and work. So, when people come in contact with us they will feel better and their bodies will react positively even if they disagree with us.

This report is a summary of the full article found in “The effect of motivational arousal through films on salivary immunoglobulin A by David C. McClelland and Carol Kirshnit” Psychology & Health Vol. 2. Issue 1, 1988

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