What is faith healing?

Miraculous recoveries have been attributed to a myriad of techniques commonly lumped together as "faith healing in the name of a greater power.” But what is this spiritual side of healing touch--a side that some claim as miraculous, yet that is controversial among many?  Faith healing is a process through which someone is healed, whether physically, mentally, or spiritually, by what is said to be the direct intervention of divine or super natural power. Faith healing is unlike conventional medicine, which treats disease with specific therapies developed through observation and research, and from alternative medicine, which fights illness with remedies gathered from ancient or traditional lore.

While most Western scientists will tell you faith healing is no substitute for medication or surgery, the belief that prayer, faith or divine intervention of a healer can actually cure illness has been known since the beginning of recorded history. The efficacy of faith healing to effect cure of disease has not been scientifically proved, but the popularity and subjective potency of such interventions is indisputable.