Are Healings Caused by the Power of Suggestion?

It is possible that some people are healed of psychosomatic illnesses by suggestion. I do not question that this occurs. But that is not to suggest that all healings take place because of suggestion. There are many examples of healings that could not be explained in these terms. Here is just one.

At age 19, Barbara Cummiskey was diagnosed as having multiple sclerosis. By the time she was thirty-one, the MS had helped cause a slowly paralyzing diaphragm, bouts of pneumonia and asthma, a collapsed lung, and tumors on her hands. She was technically blind and confined to her bed. These were well-diagnosed medical problems, and she was operated on more than once. But on June 7, 1981, she heard a voice say, "My child, get up and walk." She did just that and was healed! Barbara's legs had atrophied from lack of exercise. When she first got out of bed, however, her legs had muscle tone. Her mother shouted, "Calves! You have calves!"

Similarly, I have come across instances where people were not near a television set when "The 700 Club" was used by God to heal them. One man went to bed blind, but a prayer request came in to our television program for him, and when he woke up, he could see.

I know of instances where little children have been healed. The power of suggestion could not have been responsible for these healings.

Excerpt taken from Answers to 200 of Life's Most Probing Questions, Copyright 1984 by Pat Robertson.