Angels in Norway and Demons in America

Norway's Princess Märtha Louise is talking to angels. 54 % of American physicians want their patients to do the same.

Märtha Louise is the daughter of King Harald V and Queen Sonja, and the older sister of Crown Prince Haakon. In a recent interview, she explained how she learned to communicate with horses and talk to angels.

"Some feel the angels, others see them. Everyone experiences them from their own standpoint. For me, they are beings of light, like a feeling of a powerful presence, a strong sense of love," she said.

To spread the news, she recently opened an institute in Oslo, offering courses to help people to get in touch with "the angels and the divine Universe". According to her website , these insights could be yours if you enroll for a fee of US$2200 per semester. The classes, which started last week, are already sold out.

"I am very happy that I don't live a few hundred years ago, because then I would have been burned at the stake a long time ago," the Princess stated.

The Norwegian Princess doesn't live a hundred years ago, and she is not the only one invoking her title to promote personal beliefs. According to a recent American survey on Physicians' Observations and Interpretations of the Influence of Religion and Spirituality on Health, 54 % of American doctors indicate that they believe God or a higher supernatural force influences the condition of their patients.

Moreover, 14 % of the same physicians reported that their personal religious beliefs justify withholding from their patients information about the existence of perfectly legal procedures, inter alia abortion in the case of failed contraception.

If theses ideas translate into their practices, more than 14 % patients or more than 40 million people in this country may be "cared for" by physicians who do not believe they are obliged to inform their patients of available treatments they consider objectionable, including vaccines (such as those for hepatatis, polio and rabies) derived from aborted fetal tissue.

In a recent editorial in the magazine Psychosomatic Medicine, Professor Richard P. Sloan at the Behavioural Science Program of Columbia University states that in addition to influencing the availability of medical procedures, such supernatural beliefs intruding into professional practices threatens to violate the norms of patient autonomy by manipulative or even coercive means.

He refers to a report by the Christian Medical and Dental Association, a professional society half as large as the American College of Cardiology, which recently published a handbook instructing physicians on how to use their practices to evangelize.

The Princess of Norway and Professor Sloan's editorial resonate a collection of essays by social critic Wendy Kaminer called "Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety", published in 2000.

Here, the author grapples with the various manifestations of what she calls "irrationalism", or believing in something without material proof. She discusses inter alia the New Age spiritualism of Deepak Chopra and The Celestine Prophecy, contemporary angel lore and accounts of alien abduction to the recovered memory movement, from school vouchers to the "junk science" basis for the "war on drugs".

Kaminer is not criticizing individual beliefs. Rather, she is concerned with the possible public consequence of such beliefs, especially when held by a dominant or influential group or individual in society. In her view, this poses important and necessary questions about what it means to live in a democracy based on justice and reason.

What would happen otherwise?

The Des Moines Register recently reported that an Iowa City VA Hospital doctor attempted to convert a Jewish veteran to Christianity during several hospitalizations over a period of two years, as per advice from the Christian Medical and Dental Association. And in 2004, a Colorado orthopedic surgeon insisted that all of his patients pray with him while they were "gowned and supine on the gurney, ready to be wheeled into surgery".

If such individuals are allowed to continue with their practices, be they hereditary or professional, I would recommend them to renounce their titles now.

Because the world cannot afford to follow anymore misguided "visionaries of faith".

Comments

[davidly]

I'm skeptical when a person of means, and born with those means no-less, takes money for doing what in their view is for the betterment of those paying. Unfortunately, that's capitalism. As long as a buck can be made, we gotta be on the look out for hucksters and charlatans.

That said, the psychosomatic benefits of positive thinking vis a vis faith, ie. belief and hope, are what most of the doctors are referring to, however. Studies indicate that we are just beginning to understand the power of positive thinking.

There is a slippery sloped double-edged sword involved here. We should always be careful as a society to balance our tolerance for individual and collective belief with a vigilance towards those beliefs being imposed on those who need protection from them.

Zealous evangelicals in doctors' uniforms wield too much influence, and remind us that though one might be intelligent enough to have excelled in the field of medicine, that doesn't mean they are emotionally intelligent. Deepak Chopra, on the other hand, merely offers a form of spiritual guidance to those seeking it, and he doesn't deny standard science. Neither one of these examples are my way, but I am tolerant of the latter.

There are likely to be continuing challenges to our belief in religious freedom vs. our need to keep us free from its undue influence, and while I think there is no perfect model on how to deal with all of these, I do believe that there exists a system of separation of religious doctrine from our educational and governmental functions which is fundamental to the preservation of said protections. The hard part is to not give an inch in this regard, while at the same time being sensitive to those who look "beyond" for a guide to the here and now.

[GenericBlogger]

Your post is refreshingly informative and reflective.

It wasn't too long ago that most doctors and their profession denied the effects of positive thinking and other psychosomatic effects. Many doctors still deny or discount those effects preferring chemical remedies. Many doctors still deny the effects of natural or holistic treatments and chiropractors. Each group has its share of sincere advocates and shysters but the doctors per se stigmatize other groups with elitist claims of denial.

Your comments on secularism and its values and well expressed. Secularism is invaluably necessary for a multi cultural society's survival.

Historically, religious movements ebbed and flowed. Our times are characterized by a flow. The fundamentalist rise exists in other religions, not just Islam Christianity, and Judaism. The Christian movement bent on eliminating secularism in favor of their preferred theocracy menaces our society. Fundamentalist Christians are the barbarians at the gate of secularism.

Unfortunately secularism and religion are not clearly demarcated like two contrasting colors. A large gray area gives opportunities to both sides and sparks do fly. I don't believe total tranquility will ever exist between these two opposing practices. At best an impasse will be reached with occasional debates and struggles where they clash.

[MARSCMDA]

I am interested in your statement referring to the Des Moines Register recent report that an Iowa City VA Hospital doctor attempted to convert a Jewish veteran to Christianity during several hospitalizations over a period of two years, as per advice from the Christian Medical and Dental Association. Can you validate that statement as I cannot locate it at the Des Moines Register.

Also what is the name of the handbook "instructing physicians on how to use their practices to evangelize" which you referred to in your article?

[GenericBlogger]

Sogaard wrote "Kaminer is not criticizing individual beliefs. Rather, she is concerned with the possible public consequence of such beliefs, especially when held by a dominant or influential group or individual in society. In her view, this poses important and necessary questions about what it means to live in a democracy based on justice and reason."

Wendy Kaminer is quite right on this. I went to a doctor who talked about religion and Jesus as much as medicine. He had a Bible in the examination room. I dropped him like a rock.

People of faith need to understand that when they live in a secular society, they trample on the freedom of others when trying to convert, impose or intimidate.

If someone wants to rely on faith, have at it as long as they keep it to themselves.

[ParanoidAndroid]

once again, religion poisons everything.

[GoodwithWood]

There are some rational scientists speaking out about this. Check these links out.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1964171996506271039&hl=en
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8669488783707640763
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4720837385783230047

[Pyroklst]

Next time I'll visit a doctor, I'll ask her if my condition and outcome will be influenced by God. If the answer is yes, I'll get out of there and look for someone else to treat me.
Now that I think of it, I'll also ask the IT guy here at the office if he will solve my printing problemes or he would wait for an angel to fix them through a ray of loving light.

[rmreddicks]

When my girlfriend was dying 5 weeks ago the damn attending doctor started pushing her religious views on her. Donna told her (well wrote her, she couldn't speak) to shut the hell up.

[GoodwithWood]

That's Fucked up.

[mommamia526]

I do not know why everyone is getting SOO excited about all this. Praying is nothing other than speaking to God, or an angel, for catholics.The issue is ARE YOU GETTING AN ANSWER? Does the answer help? I agree with progressivegreg, partially at least. There are common folk, and you meet them everywhere, who are the real angels. I see them on the bus, in the hospital. He/she is my doctor and cares about me. The person next door who shares a meal. They are people who live their lives, help others, give of themselves and of their possessions. And if you are *spiritually sensitive* at all you see actual light surrounding them. The room lights up when they come in. They wear a smile. They have a kind word. They recognize your presence and your humanity. Belief is not speaking about it, proseletizing, it is living it. We do, indeed, only have the present to work towards good, and to ward off evil, and it is in every step we take, every word we utter, a smile for another person, and a helping hand. It is also working towards goals to make life better for everyone. This could even be through politics. Angels never charge for their work; they just do. Maertha is in business for herself. If she receives money for her status as princess, someone needs to take a look.

[progressivegreg]

I'll tell you my view of an "angel"! The person who stops and changes your tire for you on a rainy night. A person who smiles and says hello to a stranger and (though they don't know it) improves your outlook for the day! There are "angels" amongst us, but they aren't supernatural, they're common everyday folk just being themselves and helping in the process. Why can we not accept that this (life) is the real thing and not a dress rehersal, why do we have to attribute our best qualities to the supernatural...WE are all WE have!!!

[mommadona]

There's one for every one.

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/blogs/jm/images/hierarchy.jpg

[mommamia526]

I think, mommadona, that the hierarchy of needs has to do with management, and nothing with angels. Anyone who has studied business has seen that one.

[dryfactoidobotanoid]

Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angelic orders?
Beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, which we are still just able to endure,
and we are so awed because it serenely disdains to annihilate us.
Every angel is terrifying.
Ah, whom can we ever turn to in our need?
Not angels, not humans, and already the knowing animals are aware
that we are not really at home in our interpreted world.
Oh and night: there is night, when a wind full of infinite space gnaws at our faces.
Don't you know yet?
Fling the emptiness out of your arms into the spaces we breathe;
perhaps the birds will feel the expanded air with more passionate flying.

- Rilke, Duino Elegies

[wayoutleft]

wow rilke makes an impression and i love the translation...

[ShanghaiGuy]

Witchdoctors with MRI scanners. Shamans with gene-splicing technology.

If only Reason had angels to protect us.