DR. MARC SIEGEL: Miracles unite Americans across political divisions through shared faith
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At a time of great political division, we need common ground to bring us together again. Most of us believe in miracles. A recent Gallup poll found that three in four Americans identify with a particular religious belief, the majority are Christian, and nearly half say faith is very important in their lives. We can use this to unite as a country.
When we learn that someone has miraculously survived a heart attack — as NFL safety Damar Hamlin did on a football field in Cincinnati in 2023, or as Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., did after being struck by a gunshot on a baseball field in 2017 — the last thing we think about is whether he is a Democrat or a Republican.
As I describe in my new book, “Miracles Among Us,” in Rep. Scalise’s case, the doctors who performed a combination of interventional radiological and surgical procedures to repair his badly torn iliac artery after transfusion of 50 units of blood said it was the most miraculous event of their careers. They also believe Scalise’s “gratitude to God” played a direct role in his recovery.
DR MARC SIEGEL: MY PERSONAL MIRACLE: A DOCTOR’S LESSONS ON FAITH AND HEALING
Scalise told me: “I felt no fear. After I placed my life in God’s hands, an incredible calm and relief came over me. My mind wandered elsewhere. Whatever was going to happen that day was up to God, and He got me through, and I felt Him as I healed.”
Many of the subjects in my book say that when they experience a miracle, they find peace knowing that their lives are in God’s hands.
House Majority Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., walks from the House chamber to his office at the Capitol with his wife, Jennifer, on his first day back in Congress on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017. Scalise was shot during baseball practice for the Congressional Baseball Game in June 2017.
NYU chief of surgery Dr. Robert Montgomery suffered seven heart attacks before receiving a heart transplant. “In these experiences, I feel a connection to a vastness, a connection to something much greater than my experiences on earth. I begin to become aware of my own breathing and at first I am not sure what the sound is. And just before all my thoughts and memories come back, I am conscious of the transcendence that is far beyond the human or this planet Earth we are on. I feel calm and serene. I feel my soul right before I enter my body. When I wake up, this overlap of awareness of this vastness and then I know that I am a living being.”
Many of the subjects in my book say that when they experience a miracle, they find peace knowing that their lives are in God’s hands.
Montgomery says this experience helped him come to terms with his own identity and helped him become a much more effective doctor and surgeon.
Neurophysiologist Jordan Grafman of Northwestern University recently discovered through functional MRI imaging and brain lesion mapping that belief in miracles relies on similar networks in the right and frontal part of the brain, the same as partisan political belief. Moreover, both politics and spirituality are experienced in similar ways, leading to a desire to be part of a common community; This shows that sometimes one can replace the other.
BILLS SAYS DAMAR HAMLIN’S HEART BEAT STOPPED DURING THE GAME, AND HIS HEART BEAT RENEWED ON THE FIELD.
In fact, I do not believe that a strict separation of church and state is good for patient care or society. Why would a deeply religious doctor leave his robe or suit at the door of the hospital or office? Why wouldn’t a religious doctor pray with his patients the way Congressman Scalise’s doctors do?
Damar Hamlin watches the Buffalo Bills from his hospital bed on January 9, 2023. (Credit: @HamlinIsland / SPORTS REPORT+ /TMX)
Consider that acknowledging a higher being in charge can reduce one’s desire to fear or oppose another. “Fear God, not your friends” is the lesson from both Scalise and Montgomery’s experiences. This is a common theme in many religions and can help alleviate the anger that fuels our politics.
My 102-year-old father survived an emergency bowel and hip surgery, a high-output fistula, a month on a ventilator, and more than three years of dialysis because of his love for my 100-year-old mother.
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Last week he told me how he had lived so long: “When someone punches me, I duck,” he said.
Dr. Part of the book cover of Marc Siegel and Miracles Among Us. (FNC)
Praying for my patients means understanding that they are more than just bodies that need to be fixed, they also have precious souls that need to be nourished.
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That’s the secret to great medicine, and it keeps me from writing off any of my patients too soon. In any case, there may be another miracle to happen.
Belief in miracles is a path towards mutual respect, regardless of political affiliation, in today’s tortured and divided times.
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