Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
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 out of four Americans identify with a particular religious belief — the majority are Christian, and nearly half say so 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 cardiac arrest – as NFL safety Damar Hamlin did on a football field in Cincinnati in 2023, or Rep. Steve ScaliseR-La., on a baseball field after being shot in 2017 – the last thing on our minds is whether they’re a Democrat or a Republican.
As I describe in my new book: “The wonders among us“In Rep. Scalise’s case, the doctors who performed the combined interventional radiology and surgical procedure to repair his severely ruptured iliac artery after transferring 50 units of transfused 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: LESSONS FROM A DOCTOR IN FAITH AND HEALING
Scalise told me: “I was never afraid. When I put my life in God’s hands, an incredible calm and lightness came over me.
Several of the subjects in my book report that when they experience a miracle, they feel a sense of calm knowing that their lives are in God’s hands.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., walks with his wife Jennifer from the House chamber to his office in the Capitol on his first day in Congress, Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017. Scalise was shot during baseball practice for the Congressional Baseball Game in June 2017.
Dr. Robert Montgomery, chief of surgery at NYU, suffered seven cardiac arrests before suffering one 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 breath, and at first I’m not sure what the sound is. And just before all my thoughts and memories come back, I am aware of a transcendence far beyond anything human or beyond the planet Earth we are on. I feel calm and serene. I feel my soul, right before I am in my body As I wake up there is this intersection of the awareness of this vastness and the knowledge that I am a living being.
Several of the subjects in my book report that when they experience a miracle, they feel a sense of calm knowing that their lives are in God’s hands.
Montgomery says this experience helped him feel comfortable with himself and enabled him to be a far more effective doctor and surgeon.
Jordan Grafman, a neurophysiologist at Northwestern University, recently discovered this using functional MRI imaging and brain lesion mapping Believe in miracles relies on similar networks in the right side and front of the brain as partisan political beliefs. Furthermore, both politics and spirituality are experienced similarly and lead to a desire to be part of a shared community – suggesting that one can sometimes replace the other.
In fact, I don’t think a rigid separation of church and state is good for either side Patient care or for society. Why would a deeply religious doctor leave his regalia or tallis at the door of the hospital or doctor’s office? Why shouldn’t a godly doctor pray like this with his patients? Congressman Scalise’s Doctors did?
Damar Hamlin watches the Buffalo Bills from his hospital bed on January 9, 2023. (Source: @HamlinIsland / SPORTS REPORT+ /TMX)
Keep in mind that acknowledging a higher being in charge can weaken a person’s desire to fear or challenge another. “Fear God, not your fellow man,” is the lesson of Scalise and Montgomery’s experiences. It’s a common theme across many religions – and it can help ease the anger that drives our politics.
My father, 102 years old, survived emergency colon and hip surgery, a high-performance fistula, a month on a ventilator and more than three years on dialysis out of love for my mother, 100 years old.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE OPINIONS ON FOX NEWS
Last week he explained to me how he had lived so long: “When someone hits, I duck,” he said.
Division of the book cover by Dr. Marc Siegel and The Miracles Among Us. (FNC)
Praying for my patients means understanding that they are more than just bodies to be repaired – that they also have precious souls that need to be cared for.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
This is the secret to great medical work and it keeps me from writing off any of my patients too soon. In any case, there could be another miracle.
Belief in miracles is also a path forward to mutual respect, regardless political affiliation in today’s tormented and divided times.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM DR. MARC SIEGEL