Prayer and religion have long been invoked to help cure disease; now they are gaining attention from some medical practitioners.

Dr. Marilyn Baetz and her colleagues at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon evaluated 88 patients admitted to a psychiatric unit. They concluded that those who attended church worship regularly had less severe psychiatric symptoms, a shorter length of current stay, and a higher satisfaction with life than did those with little or no religious affiliation. However, an analysis of scientific studies evaluating the benefit of prayer on recovery has not produced definitive results.

The Cochrane Collaboration is an international organization of scientists in 15 countries who evaluate the effectiveness of health care interventions. Their look at prayer, completed January, 2000, concluded that "data in this review are too inconclusive to guide those wishing to uphold or refute the effect of intercessory prayer on health care outcomes. In the light of the best available data, there are no grounds to change current practices."

Dr. Grant Mullen, however, is one physician who is convinced religious intervention can assist those with a spiritual aspect to their lives recover from depression and mood disorders. Mullen is a general practitioner in Grimsby, Ont., who now specializes in treating mood disorders. Raised in a conservative evangelical church and a frequent speaker at the charismatic Toronto Airport Church, Mullen was shocked to find, as a young physician, that "so many Christians were in emotional pain".

They would not admit that they were in pain and their religion had become a barrier to their obtaining relief, he says, and the church is reluctant to address emotional issues. So he set out to show that the teaching of Christians can be integrated with modern medicine in order "to bring emotional recovery."

Mullen says that before salvation, we are "outside God's kingdom and in the domain of Satan." Satan molds us into his image by wounding us in as many ways as possible and this leaves deep scars on us and creates a lifelong emotional bondage, he explains. The longer we live, "the greater will be our accumulated wounds and personality damage."

This part of us Mullen refers to metaphorically as the "bag" that, prior to salvation, "is accumulating pain and scars that Satan is putting into it to mold us into his image." It is God's desire to heal us of this but that does not happen automatically at salvation, Mullen says. Man can only empty this bag when he is filled with the Holy Spirit.

Mullen describes the existence of three links in the chain of emotional bondage that must be broken in order for his patients to become emotionally free. These are the physical illnesses of thought control (chemical imbalances in the brain), the harassment of Satan (demonization) and personality injury (woundedness). Medical conditions such as mood disorders and schizophrenia are treated both with drugs and divine healing. The drugs treat the chemical imbalances while deliverance will end the harassment of Satan and counselling will help to treat the wounds.

When Mullen began treating mood disorders in his medical practice, he believed they nearly always had a physical cause treatable with drugs. However, his patients taught him otherwise. Many of them who were not psychotic, he says, heard voices and had supernatural experiences.

In an interview, however, he did admit that he really he has no way of differentiating between psychotic voices and what he calls supernatural experiences.

One of his patients told him during an office visit that she had difficulty concentrating, as the voices she was hearing were disturbing her. Mullen says he didn't know what to do so he stalled for time by making notes in his chart and muttered to himself "God, I don't know what's going on here. If this woman is hearing from evil spirits, in the name of Jesus, could you please shut them up so I can finish this interview."

Unexpectedly, he says, the woman told him that for the first time in 20 years, the voices went away. He was as surprised as she was. That, he says, is when he realized that people may be tormented by the voice of demons and that the "authority of Christ" drove them away.

This revelation resulted in him becoming "somewhat efficient in exposing demonic activity in my patients both Christian and secular."

Unfortunately, this did not seem to aid in the cure.

"I noticed," he says, "that the majority of people who were having occult experiences never returned for their second visit."

Those who did said the demonic attacks became more severe and their lives or those of their loved ones were threatened if they ever saw him again.

Dr. Mullen says he has learned that "Satan will resist detection. It has also taught me to pray prayers of protection every time I enter my office since it is a battle zone."

Mullen did say he doesn't personally deal with Satanic harassment, but does recommend a book to those patients being harassed and he will refer them to counsellors who can offer deliverance or exorcism.

The book he recommends is The Bondage Breaker by Neil Anderson (Harvest House, 1997) which, he says, is an extremely effective tool for people to understand demonic bondage and to expel Satan from one's life. The book is so powerful, he says, that Satan will oppose attempts to read it.

He recalls one patient who tried to buy the book but every time he went near it he felt a tight band surrounding (his) body and arms. Another patient reported that she was beaten by her husband when she tried to read the book in bed.

Satan finds it very easy to fill the mind of depressed people with "even more condemning thoughts or suggestions" and to take advantage of their illness. Once the chemical imbalances are treated medically with drugs, deliverance will add to the healing process.

"In most cases, the demonic influence will magnify a pre-existing mood disorder and take advantage of it. The best treatment, of course, will always be a combination of medications, deliverance, and inner healing."

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