Three Faith-based Factors in Healing – A Need to Relook in Modern Medicine

Abstract In the era of rational and evidence-based medicine, three belief or faith-based healing factors, namely placebo effect, Hawthorne factor, and spiritual beliefs, have been sidelined from mainstream medical practice. However, in the past four decades, these faith-based forces of healing are being studied using modern scientific tools to unravel how they promote positive healing responses and how these endogenous healing factors could be incorporated into scientific medical practice.