Your attitude towards psychics and healers

Hello! How do you feel about psychics and various healers? I recently read an article and it says about a Russian psychic and healer who heals people with cancer and other diseases. At the same time, the parents of the healed children confirm that he helped them. Do you think this is possible? Or is it all fiction and media advertising? What does science say about this? Thank you!

The most interesting thing here is that the official Russian medicine recognizes that this psychic heals people. Even the Russian Orthodox Church awarded him an order. I donā€™t know how to feel about it.

I have mixed feelings, Alexey. I believe God can and does heal miraculously, but those times it occurs outside of a natural explanation are very few and far between. Note that I give God credit for those who are healed with demonstrated scientific methods as well in that statement.
In my medical career of 37 years, I have never seen anyone recover from illness that was not explainable by completely naturalistic means. There are spontaneous remissions from cancer that occur. They occur regardless of religious belief, regardless of prayer, and with enough data collected, can be quantified as their frequency. My thought is, the miracle that occurs is not just in the cancer cure, but in how it affects the lives of the patient and those around them.
I have also seen quite a few patients reach out to clinics across the border touting miracle cures when a terminal illness is diagnosed. They all died in short order, usually with their families much poorer.
If you have not read it, a good start is the book by Paul Offit titled ā€œDo You Believe in Magic?ā€

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Well there are some here who believes in supernatural magical powers still existing today. They believe in apostolic successional powers being handed down by the Holy Spirit such as healing the sick and etcā€¦ they may or may not believe in witchcraft.

I donā€™t believe in any of it existing today.

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Nothing breaks the statistical surface. How is that?

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Placebo effects are usual and people tend to lift up cases that seem to confirm their beliefs (positive or negative). These can explain the success of different ā€˜healersā€™ in most cases.

If we believe what the biblical scriptures or various church fathers told, miraculous healings are possible although mostly rare (if something is common we do not call it a miracle). Such healings are possible even by persons who do not follow Christ - Jesus told that there will be persons that will do miraculous acts in his name but are not his own.

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And weā€™ll never know as they never break the statistical surface.

I do believe in miracles and that God wants to heal us. I also believe that miracles are rare. But there are plenty of cons out there.

You might be interested in this video:
Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes: Investigating medically unexplained cures

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Thanks for the answer. I believe that God can heal people. But can psychics heal? The church has always treated psychics and healers badly. Almost all priests say that psychics are servants of the devil.

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this healer positions himself as a bioenergetic who heals people with cosmic energy. I highly doubt this is possible. therefore, I asked how science and Christians relate to this.

I think they are frauds and hucksters. God heals, people donā€™t.

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Yes I agree. But what confuses me is that even Russian official medicine admits that this healer can heal people. Also some people testify that he helped them. I think it could be some kind of conspiracy.

Maybe. Or it could be people needing explanations for unexplained phenomena. We know people sometimes are inexplicably cured of diseases. Itā€™s human nature to ask how and why, but we arenā€™t always entitled to those answers.

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I take a dim view of psychics.

I think itā€™s bunk

But you know, some diseases are psychosomatic-- no physical cause. So simply believing in this stuff could cause a ā€œhealingā€ of sorts.

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I think you are right. Governments (and churches)have lots of influences that affect what they endorse that are not always based on what is true. We see it in Russia here, you see it in folk medicine many places where popular pressure makes authorities accept things that are ineffective but people want to believe are true. Maybe not a true conspiracy when it is actually the popular opinion that pushes it, but almost a reverse conspiracy.
I know people will object, but to a large extent, the alternative medicine movement into mainstream acceptance is a prime example in our own country, lest we think we are above such nonsense. And is popular within the church.

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So what stops Him?

I donā€™t know.

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A Russian psychic? Hope the last name is not Rasputinā€¦

All kidding asideā€¦the Bible opposes occult practices. I am not sure how the Russian Orthodox Church interprets thisā€¦BUT, I do know that God can heal peopleā€¦Big topic in many ways!

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It all depends, Klaxā€¦

On what mate?

How? Apart from the gospel accounts and Acts.