By Jean Baptiste Ndabananiye
A certain book reads “Within the experience of serious illness, empirical research reveals an indelible connection between medicine and spirituality—broadly defined as the way individuals seek and express meaning and purpose, and experience connectedness to self, others, the significant or sacred. Spirituality, experienced individually and/or within communal, religious forms, impacts patient well-being, satisfaction with care, medical decision-making and medical care outcomes. However, evidence demonstrates the medical profession largely neglects the spiritual dimension of patient well-being and illness. Collectively this evidence demands reevaluation of how medicine interfaces with spirituality and religion.”
“When exploring the indelible connection between medicine and spirituality, follow the evidence” constitutes a sentence immediately following the title of the feature—‘Do spirituality and Medicine Go Together?’— summarizing the book. The sentence already suggests that it exists undeniable evidence substantiating that spirituality and medicine support each other. Is the evidence actually trustable? This is a question that this article seeks to explore, based on the book and some other credible sources.
Exploring medicine and spirituality—the lens of the Balbonis
The article was published by the Center for Bioethics/ Harvard Medical School on June 1, 2019. It covers the book authored by Michael Balboni and Tracy Balboni. The book was titled “Hostility Towards Hospitality: Spirituality and Professional Socialization within Medicine (Oxford University Press, 2019). Tracy is a physician while Michael is a theologian. With the book, they explore ways in which modern medicine disregards, and potentially opposes the humanistic concerns of paramount value in spirituality and religion. Their book proposes, among other things, that “both spheres (medicine and theology) become more whole through the light shed from the other.” It is the Balbonis who have produced this feature.
As we read it in the article, Michael Balboniis also asocial science researcher at Harvard, and a minister at Park Street Church, Boston. Tracy Balboni is a radiation oncologist at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. They are co-directors of Harvard’s Initiative on Health, Religion, and Spirituality.
The authors point out “In the following we present a summary of our studies of this phenomenon and conclude with four recommendations for how medicine can better respond to patients’ spiritual experience of illness. Additional evidentiary support of our findings can be found in Hostility to Hospitality: Spirituality and Professional Socialization within Medicine.”
“In a study of 108 women with gynecologic malignancies, 49 percent reported becoming more religious after diagnosis, with none reporting becoming less religious. This has been termed the ‘foxhole’ effect —a reference to the adage that there are no atheists in battlefield foxholes. Freud thought this shift emerges out of a direct confrontation with, or heightened awareness of, one’s fear of death or hope for immortality. This effect does not necessarily explain the origin of religion, as Freud believed, but it is a dynamic that sheds light on why religion and spirituality become increasingly operational when physical health wanes.”
Michael Balboni and Tracy Balboni highlight that within the context of serious illness, a plethora of spiritual needs arise. They specify fear of dying or being punished, to difficulty in finding meaning in illness, and searching for the presence of God. “In our survey of cancer patients at Boston teaching hospitals, 51 percent of patients wanted help to overcome their fears, 42 percent in finding hope, and 40 percent in finding meaning.
In a multiregional sample of 230 patients [cancer patients at Boston], religion was considered important by 68 percent of terminally ill patients, the highest rates being among Blacks (89 percent) and Latinos (79 percent). While religiousness and spirituality are affected by regional variation, taken as a whole, this data shows U.S. patients are highly spiritual and frequently religious. Data suggests that many patients interpret their illness through this spiritual lens.”
Instructor [at]
Harvard Medical School,”—Harvard University.
Michael Balboni and Tracy Balboni have also found that religiousness and spirituality rise, as people age and fall seriously ill. “There is also some indication that as people age and encounter serious illness, religiousness and spirituality increase.” But “Consequently, surveys of spirituality/religiosity among the general population will always underestimate the role of spirituality and religion in the context of serious-illness.”
The authors conducted another study of 727 racially/ethnically and religiously diverse patients employing general medicine, cardiology, and neurology services at Duke University Medical Center. The study disclosed that 79 percent reported bearing at least one spiritual need. The authors performed a study with 100 terminally-ill patients at palliative care outpatient clinic in MD Anderson in Houston. The study indicated that 58 percent of advanced cancer patients reported experiencing “spiritual pain.” “Patients with spiritual pain had significantly lower self-perceived religiosity and spiritual quality of life. In a Boston-based study, 85 percent identified one or more spiritual issues with a median of four issues per patient among 14 spiritual issues assessed.
Key spiritual issues among patients included ‘seeking a closer connection with God or one’s faith,’ 54 percent; ‘seeking forgiveness (of oneself or others),” 47 percent; and “feeling abandoned by God,” 28 percent. Surprisingly, among the 22 percent of patients who said that religion or spirituality was ‘not important’ to their cancer experience, two-thirds had at least one spiritual issue and 40 percent reported four or more spiritual issues. We found that only 7 percent of all patients were consistently non-religious and non-spiritual.”
The Balbonis add“The results of these studies suggest that there is a high prevalence of religious/spiritual needs among patients facing serious illness, and that even among patients who do not consider themselves religious/spiritual, spiritual needs remain frequent. Large majorities of patients turn to religion and spirituality to cope with illness. Many find new meaning and purpose within serious illness, and some receive practical help through supportive spiritual communities.
This evidence demonstrates how spirituality and religion are important and prevalent within serious illness. Growing evidence gathered from the past two decades demonstrates that religion/spirituality is associated with quality of life measures, satisfaction, and utilization outcomes.”
More on the quality of life, satisfaction and utilization
When serious illness strips away so many aspects of daily living, the question of what truly sustains a person comes sharply into focus. Research, according to the writers, has shown that spirituality and religion can profoundly shape patients’ quality of life, often offering strength where medicine alone cannot.
“Quality of Life: In 1999, Brady et al. carried out a multisite, cross-sectional study of 1,610 cancer patients. After controlling for other predictors of quality of life, higher patient religion and spirituality (R/S) was found to be associated with improved patient quality of life. Furthermore, among patients with a high burden of physical symptoms (e.g., pain), those reporting higher R/S had better quality of life scores than those reporting lower R/S. Likewise, greater patient religious coping and patient spirituality has been reported to be associated with better patient psychological well-being and overall quality of life.”
“Similarly, unaddressed spiritual concerns of patients are associated with decreased psychological and overall quality of life within advanced illness. Recently hospitalized patients viewed ‘being at peace with God’ and ‘freedom from pain’ as the two most important elements of quality of life at the end of life. In contrast, other studies have found associations between spiritual pain and adverse physical and emotional symptoms including increased depression, anxiety, and anorexia.”
The relationship between spirituality and health outcomes has increasingly drawn attention in medical research, establishing that beyond physical treatment, patients often look for deeper forms of support when facing life-threatening illnesses. “Moreover, in a multi-regional study of advanced cancer patients followed through death, patients who reported high support of their spiritual needs by the medical team at baseline had better quality of life near death. These studies provide initial evidence that R/S plays a key role in the well-being of patients with serious illness and influences quality of life when facing death. Improving quality of life within serious illness must entail engagement by the medical community to support the spiritual lives of patients,” the article reads.
As for satisfaction with care, Michael Balboni and Tracy Balboni explain “A cross-sectional study of data drawn from the University of Chicago Hospitalist Study found that patients who reported their spiritual needs were not being addressed by medical staff were more likely to negatively assess overall quality of care and be less satisfied with their medical care.
Similarly, a study of 542 patients seen for management of depression at Duke University Medical Center showed that patients reporting greater spiritual needs had lower ratings of satisfaction with care and lower perceptions of the quality of care. While these initial studies do not prove causation, they suggest possible association that requires future research.”
While navigating the final stages of serious illness, the kind of care that patients receive often extends beyond medical interventions to include the support of their spiritual and emotional needs. Evidence suggests that when these needs are met, patients not only experience a greater sense of peace but also perform positive choices about their end-of-life care. “End-of-life utilization:patients reporting a high level of support of their spiritual needs by their medical teams (e.g., doctors, chaplains, nurses) have been found, as part of a prospective cohort study of 340 advanced cancer patients, to have a three-fold greater odds of transitioning to hospice care at the end of life as compared to patients receiving low spiritual support.
In the same study, high religious coping patients whose spiritual needs were well-supported by the medical system were five times more likely to transition to hospice and five times less likely to receive aggressive care during the final week of life.”
End-of-life care is influenced by more than just clinical interventions; the spiritual and religious dimensions of a patient’s experience can significantly shape outcomes. Research indicates that attending to patients’ spiritual needs not only affects the type of care they receive but also produces measurable consequences for healthcare utilization and costs.
Michael Balboni and Tracy Balboni say “Hence, while high religious copers are more likely to receive aggressive care at the end of life as found in the Phelps et al study, subsequent analyses suggests that medical system spiritual support reverses this outcome. In a follow-up report, the associations of spiritual care with medical care received at the end of life were found to impact end-of-life medical costs.
The medical care of patients whose spiritual needs were poorly supported cost on average $2,441 more in the final week of life than that of patients who were spiritually well-supported by the medical team. These studies suggest that spiritual care in the medical setting—acknowledging patient spirituality/religion and addressing spiritual needs—impacts patient end-of-life outcomes. Religion and spirituality are not peripheral to the medical experience, but have measurable effects within several domains.”
The authors recommend “Evidence of the role of spirituality within illness and patient outcomes should serve as a trigger for the medical system to constructively respond to patients’ spirituality/religion as part of patient-centered and culturally sensitive care.
As empirical evidence mounts, medicine can no longer allow neglect of spirituality and religion to remain the status quo. Simplistic divisions between body and soul fail to account for patients’ experience of illness, or how medical decisions are approached by many patients. Dichotomous approaches fail to be patient-centered and are leading to costly gaps in the care of the seriously ill and those at the end of life, both to patients and the health care system.”
Power of spirit:Rediger, Michaels, and human capacity
Humans possess an extraordinary, often untapped power that can transform adversity into growth when recognized and consciously harnessed. This latent potential becomes vividly apparent in the lives of those who align mind, body, and spirit toward healing and purpose. Figures like Dr. Jeffrey D. Rediger and Brenda Michaels underscore this capacity, showing that profound recovery and personal transformation are achievable, when spiritual awareness is fully embraced.
The renowned Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Jeffrey D. Rediger exemplifies the growing recognition of spirituality’s role in healing. Once a skeptic of spiritual healing, he spent 17 years meticulously studying cases of spontaneous recovery—patients who defied medical expectations, achieving profound improvements or complete remission from severe illnesses. His 17-year research—having generated the book “Cured: The Life-Changing Science of Spontaneous Healing” has led him to conclude “Western medicine has it all wrong,” emphasizing that conventional approaches often overlook the person behind the disease.
Rediger identifies a deep connection between mind, body, and spirit, showing that thoughts, emotions, and beliefs can significantly impact physical health. He has formulated four pillars of healing—strengthening the immune system, improving nutrition, managing stress, and “healing our identity”—which collectively illustrate how spiritual awareness catalyzes transformative change in the human body. For more about this physician’s discovery and other various renowned physicians who have endorsed his book as well as typical examples of spontaneous cancer healing cases, open Once a skeptic of spiritual healing, a prominent physician is now its fervent promoter — https://lifeinhumanity.com/once-a-skeptic-of-spiritual-healing-a-prominent-physician-is-now-its-fervent-promoter/ If you want to be more enlightened on the profound link between health and spirituality, you can also click on Spiritual health, thoroughly explained for you to deeply understand it. “Western medicine has it all wrong” .
Brenda Michaels’ extraordinary journey mirrors these principles in practice. Diagnosed with cancer at age twenty-six, she endured fourteen years of illness that devastated her body, finances, and personal life. Yet, instead of surrendering to despair, she eventually embraced a profound mind-body-spirit connection that ultimately led to her healing. Michaels emphasizes that humans are spiritual beings, capable of accessing solutions beyond the ego-mind, which she describes as limited and preoccupied with fear and powerless thinking. “Living this way takes us down the path of heartache, disappointment, and inevitably illness,” she explains.
Her story demonstrates the transformative potential of spiritual engagement. By embracing her illness as a teacher rather than a curse, she ignited a deep internal shift that enabled both physical recovery and personal growth. “Once that passion was ignited, an internal shift began to take place,” she recalls. Michaels’ experience complements Rediger’s clinical research and reinforces the Balbonis’ advocacy: addressing spirituality is not peripheral but central to patient well-being. Together, these cases—scientific and experiential—show that when individuals and medical systems acknowledge the spiritual dimension, profound healing and restoration—which can be assuredly called ‘miracles’—are possible. For more about this case of Michaels, open this article which features her.
In sum, the convergence of rigorous research, clinical observation, and extraordinary lived experience offers a compelling case: spirituality and medicine are inseparable in promoting true healing. The Balbonis’ empirical studies reveal that addressing spiritual needs improves quality of life, satisfaction, and end-of-life outcomes. Dr. Rediger’s research demonstrates that mind-body-spirit connections can catalyze remarkable recoveries. Brenda Michaels’ journey exemplifies the transformative power of embracing one’s spiritual capacity. Together, these examples underscore that healthcare is most effective when it honors the full human experience—body, mind, and spirit—and that attending to the spiritual dimension is not optional, but essential for profound healing, resilience, and meaningful restoration.
“How then can medicine constructively and without defensiveness respond to patients’ spiritual experience of illness?” ask the Balbonis. We will come back to this in one of our next articles.