When thinking about medical conditions and spiritual healing, you might first think about faith healing. Usually the term “faith healer” connotes negative images of money-hungry frauds, but in reality, most spiritual healing methods are, at least in some way, faith-based. This is not to say that spiritual healing doesn’t have its critics. But even if all that is offered is a placebo effect, the many healing methods that fall under this category have a large following.

“Spiritual healing” has long been used as a general term to describe the methods for aiding in conditions including wound healing, depression, diabetes, tumors, epilepsy, fibromyalgia, heart disease, breast cancer and other cancers, pain management and more. Spiritual healing is, by definition, the use of non-physical means to treat illness or affliction. Sometimes referred to as “faith healing,” spiritual healing is a type of treatment generally considered to be classified as “alternative” or non-traditional. Yet the roots of spiritual healing go back for centuries, and some form of this treatment have been shown to exist is almost every culture known to history.

Some people claim that spiritual healing is a “New Age” phenomenon, but in reality that is not so. Most organized religions invoke some aspect of spiritual healing, through prayer, meditation or special intentions, and praying for the sick is a widely recognized and respected tradition. Prayer has long been used to heal medical conditions. In one study, prayer was documented to cause patients to require fewer antibiotics, it helped to prevent edema (the lungs fill with fluid when the heart can’t operate properly), it made insertion of a breathing tube less likely and it was believed to have made death less likely for the patients involved.

Prayer can be used as a healing device even if the person getting prayed for is miles away, and even if that person isn’t aware he or she is being prayed for. By combining exercise, posture and breathing patterns, Qi Gong (sometimes called Chi Kung) helps to strengthen the body and the immune system, which not only helps to cure illness, but can help to prevent it as well. Polarity Therapy, which blends Eastern and Western ideas by combining bodywork, self-awareness, diet and exercise, has been said to help with symptoms of PMS, migraine headaches and digestive disorders including irritable bowel syndrome.

Acupuncture, a treatment that has seemingly gained respect in the medical community in recent years, uses needles (painlessly) in various “pressure points” along the body to ease the flow of the body’s chi (energy) through the proper channels (meridians) of the body. It has been used to treat arthritis, fibromyalgia, allergies, insomnia and skin conditions, as well as conditions linked to anxiety. It has also been effective in disguising the effect of wrinkles and under-eye bags.

Reiki channels energy through the hands of a practitioner into the relaxed body of the client, reducing stress and recharging the body’s chi (life force). It is used in hospitals to decrease pain, to help patients recover after chemotherapy, to improve appetite and ability to sleep and to reduce stress. Using spiritual healing methods to treat medical conditions at the expense of seeking conventional medical help is not recommended. But when used to complement conventional medicine, many people have found these treatments to be very effective. At the very least, they might offer some hope to someone who desperately needs some. And when thinking about what “spiritual healing” is – the mind, body and spirit working together as one – it’s obvious that spiritual healing and conventional medicine are not mutually exclusive.