In this age of advanced knowledge, it is both ironic and appropriate that medical attention is turning inwards to an area of study little understood but recognizably powerful: the relationship between spirituality and health.

The idea that people are purely physical beings is vanishing. It turns out that what we can't see, but can feel and think, is just as important to our wellbeing as what we can.

Perhaps you've already intuited this yourself. In times of physical illness or disease, you may have turned to your chosen form of prayer or worship and, in some cases, attributed recovery, at least in part, to a higher power.

As little as 20 years ago, researching a spirituality-medicine connection was an unwritten no-no in science and medicine. Now, a growing number of studies argue we shouldn't neglect this invisible aspect of our self. Regularly attending religious services, the practice of meditation and other spiritual acts have been found to strengthen our immunity and response to stressors, and even increase life expectancy.

Scientists can't yet explain how all these connections work, but Bryan Farnum, for one, has some ideas. A merchant banker by trade, his calling to spread what he refers to as "spiritual truths" came about after his young son's healing of cancer.

Catching him between his projects, which include hosting Blunt FM Internet radio and working with a University of Toronto neurophysiology study group, he explains that sickness and chronic disease often stem from a disconnect between our spirit or soul, and our physical
body. Energetically, the body's fields are affected by emotions such as shame, guilt and anger. By identifying the reason behind the emotion and by releasing the body of the emotion-related "disease contract," as Farnum calls it, through forgiveness and unconditional love, this disconnect can be healed.

"Everybody has an issue to deal with," he says, "and that's why we're
here." The longer negative emotions pile up, the greater their impact on the physical body, according to Farnum, resulting in an "accumulation of spiritual debt." He says that one of the simplest things people can do on a daily basis for health and well-being is to forgive. Utter a few words before bed to the effect of forgiving yourself and others for any unintentional harms from the day. Meditation is also excellent, he says.

These matters and more are being debated at places such as Duke University and the University of Florida, in their relatively new religion and medicine centres, and in the spirituality courses popping up at medical schools. At the same time, does something in the intangible essence of spirituality get lost when we attempt to analyze it objectively? Maybe so. At least we know enough to know we should do something-spiritually speaking.

"The key to spirituality," says Farnum, "is having a purpose. If you don't have a purpose, you're dead. What fuels purpose is when you give unconditionally. If you want to have good fortune, you have to give on a continual basis unconditionally. Once you stop giving, you start to lose your purpose. You become a taker. That's when you start to harm other people and increase your risk of getting ill."

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