Introduction

I first planned to study the Buddhist perception of health and illness, but was quickly overwhelmed by the dozens of Buddhist inspired communities only in my region. So I switched to the Baha’i community, a religious group I had only vaguely heard of before. I had once missed the opportunity to visit their impressive temple in Haifa, while in Israel. The picture of the temple, under which the prophet Baha’u’llah’s body is buried, can be seen on your left. In Montréal, I walk by their library regularly but never considered stopping by. I thought this to be a good opportunity to further investigate about this obscure but intriguing religion.

I found the contact information on the Baha’i Community of Canada Website. I called a few times and left a message on their voice mail. After a few days with no reply, I contacted them by email, explaining my request. I received a swift and warm answer, with an invitation to attend their next religious gathering on the following Sunday.

Now, I am French Canadian. The dark era of Duplessis with his government's association with the Catholic Church is not very far away in my parent’s memory, and I was raised to be highly suspicious of organized religion. Later in life, I became an atheist. Because of this background of mine, I must admit I was a little apprehensive to enter this unknown religious place of worship…

A religious gathering

The gathering was at the same address than the library. I took care to be there in time, knowing that in some religions, being late at a religious gathering can be a sign of disrespect. The librarian received me with a welcome smile. We spoke very briefly as the gathering was already starting, and he invited me to join in.

Behind the library is a larger room where chairs were disposed in a circle, around a round table. A few religious books and freshly cut flowers sat on the table. I noticed the picture of a bearded man on the wall. I later learned that this was Abdul-Abba, the son of Baha’u’llah. You can see the picture on your left. A few men, women and children were sitting in silence, but two thirds of the chairs were empty. I remember thinking that catholic churches are also quite empty, these days. On the right, there was a long table with plates, the promise of a meal after the ceremony.

I sat down in silence and listened to the prayers. A man was reading. He was sitting in a chair like every one else, but because he was the one reading, I assumed him to be a religious minister of some sort. I changed my mind after realizing that every one was going to read, in no specific order. Men and women read in French, English, Arabic and at least another language I could not identify. Children started to play in silence between the chairs while more people kept coming in to sit and read. One man, sitting behind a keyboard, sang in English and Arabic between the prayers. The prayers themselves sounded very similar to what I had often heard at mass. They praised God’s virtue and asked for protection and guidance.

The reading lasted for an hour, after which every one got up and started to prepare for the brunch. The sounds of the children laughing and of parents talking contrasted with the meditative quietness of only a few moments before. The man I had met at the library invited me to join in for their meal. A few other men came to talk to me. They asked me since when I was Baha’i, and talked to me about their own faith.

The Baha'i religion

The Baha’i faith is an emerging global religion founded by Baha’u’llah, a nineteenth-century Iranian exile. There is between five and eight millions Baha’i devotees around the world.

The Baha’i religion’s main precept appears to be the belief that every thing and every one is united. As one can read in the online Wikipedia encyclopedia: “Bahá'í theology speaks of three interlocking unities: the oneness of God (monotheist) ; the oneness of his prophets or messengers; and the oneness of humanity (equality, globalism).”

It is therefore understood that conflicts in the world – or in a person’s health – are the result of disunity.The Baha’i religion is said to be very liberal, to encourage equality and discourage intolerance. Core values to the Baha’i follower would include gender equity, family values, spiritual values, education and knowledge, democracy, progress, and acceptance of all differences.

History

The Baha’i religion actually derives from another one, the Babis. The Babis are the followers of Siyyid Ali-Muhammad of Shiraz, Iran, who in 1844 proclaimed to be the “Bab” (which means the “Gate” in Arabic). The writing of the Bab introduced the concept of “He whom God shall make manifest” the one meant to unit all word’s great religion. In 1863, one of the Bab’s follower, Husayn `Alí of Nur, claimed to be this messiah, and took the name of Bahá'u'lláh. The baha’I religion was born.

Baha’u’llah and his followers were quickly persecuted and still are in some parts of the world. According to the Wikipedia encyclopedia, only in Iran, “200 believers were executed between 1978 and 1998. Bahá'ís have been banned from attending university and holding government jobs since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, and many Bahá'ís were imprisoned during the early 1980's. Bahá'í cemeteries have been desecrated and property seized and occasionally demolished including the House of Mírzá Burzurg, Bahá'u'lláh's father. The House of the Báb in Shiraz has been destroyed twice, and is one of three sites to which Bahá'ís perform pilgrimage. As of mid-2005, arrests and persecutions of Bahá'ís by the Iranian government have continued.”

Rituals in the Baha'i Faith

May be because of its democratic and accepting precepts, the baha’i religion appears to be very suspicious of any religious ritual or ceremony. At the brunch, when I mentioned to my Baha’i interlocutors the religious gathering we had just attended, they told me not to call it a mass or celebration. They preferred the more secular terms of gathering or meeting. I was told how the religion had no minister. When nine adult members of the religion gather, we have a local spiritual assembly, which administrate Baha’i concern on a local level. On the same model, the entire Baha’i followers are under the administration of the Universal House of Justice, a group of nine people who are elected democratically and oversee the religion’s concerns internationally.

There are no rituals surrounding birth and very little prescriptions for death rituals. Children are invited to join the religion at fifteen years old, if they wish to. All this was confirmed by the writings of Shoghi Effendi, one of the main authors of the faith. Effendi (1980) writes that: “It is free from any form of ecclesiasticism, has neither priesthood nor rituals, and is supported exclusively by voluntary contributions made by its avowed adherents.”

The reasons are further explained: “In former ages priesthoods were necessary, because people were illiterate and uneducated and were dependent on priests for their religious instruction, for the conduct of religious rites and ceremonies, for the administration of justice, et cetera. Now, however, times have changed. Education is fast becoming universal, and if the commands of Baha'u'llah are carried out, every boy and girl in the world will receive a sound education. Each individual will then be able to study the Scriptures for himself, to draw the Water of Life for himself, direct from the Fountainhead. Elaborate rites and ceremonies, requiring the services of a special profession or caste, have no place in the Baha'i system; and the administration of justice is entrusted to the authorities instituted for that purpose.”

Of course, marriage requires some form of symbolic ritual to happen. But directives are left to the strict minimum: “Ideally, once approval has been given, the marriage should take place within 3 months. The Baha'i marriage ceremony itself is very simple. All that is required is that the bride and groom each say, in front of witnesses, "We will all, verily, abide by the will of God". Everything else is left to the couple's choice and can reflect the culture of the area or of the participants. Usually the couple will choose prayers and readings and will have their friends and relatives sharing the ceremony.” Effendi (1965)Bahá'ís believe that the soul is eternal and that even after death the physical body should be treated with respect. When a person dies, the body must be buried the next day at less than an hour’s journey from the place of death. Embalming and cremation are prohibited for Bahá'ís, unless required by law.

Organ donation is allowed. Bodies may be donated for research but must be treated with respect and eventually buried within one hour's journey from the place of death. (National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of New Zealand)

If the Baha’i faith holds very little rituals, adepts still have some simple prescriptions to follow. One of them is a daily prayer and daily meditation. Another one is a yearly fast between the 2nd of March and the 20th, similar to the one of the Muslim faith, when no eating or drinking is allowed between sunrise and sunset. Baha’is are also forbidden to drink alcohol or take drugs, unless this is prescribed by a doctor.

Conception of health and illness

Unity being of such importance in the Baha’i faith, illness is understood, here, as disunity within the person or between the person and the world.

“The essential oneness of all the myriad forms and grades of life is one of the fundamental teachings of Baha'u'llah. Our physical health is so linked up with our mental, moral and spiritual health, and also with the individual and social health of our fellowmen, nay, even with the life of the animals and plants, that each of these is affected by the others to a far greater extent than is usually realized. There is no command of the Prophet, therefore, to whatever department of life it may primarily refer, which does not concern bodily health.” (Abdul-Baha, 1990)

It was explained to me that there is three stages of illness in the Baha’i faith.

The first one is strictly physical. It has physical causes often easily identified by western medicine. I was given the example of a cut or a bruise. In those specific cases, the use of medical treatment is taught to be at least as important as prayers. Prayers might help, but “when you cut your finger, you need a plaster to heal the wound, prayers alone won’t do”. The Baha’i are open to the use of western medicine, with only a few limitations.

The second stage of illness is of spiritual nature. Mental illnesses are included in this category, but also losses of faith, adjustment disorders, marital conflicts, etc. The accepting precepts of the Baha’i religion, open to every one’s differences, were hinted to be good to prevent this form of illness. As for treatment, prayers and meditation were mentioned, but also social changes to end prejudices and intolerances.

The third level of illness is the most severe. It includes the illnesses that have a physical and a spiritual cause. Because the body and the soul are one in the Baha’i faith, they both are expected to interact and affect each other. Here, western medicine and spiritual guidance are both necessary for the person to fully recover.This mixture of the spiritual and the physical appealed to me, partly because I am an atheist. As such, I don’t believe in a soul disconnected from the body, but that the two are actually one. As a nurse, I also learned to appreciate the complex imbrications between the biological, the psychological and the social aspects of health and illness. Those views of mine, strangely, put me closer to the Baha’i conception of health and illness than I had expected.

While our medical knowledge always increases, the nursing profession and the western society in general are slowly turning toward a more holistic vision of health and illness. It seems that something similar was happening at the time Shoghi Effendi wrote, making his writing very contemporary. This was first written in 1923 : “In the Western world of today there is evident a remarkable revival of belief in the efficacy of healing by mental and spiritual means. Indeed many, in their revolt against the materialistic ideals about disease and its treatment which prevailed in the nineteenth century, have gone to the opposite extreme of denying that material remedies or hygienic methods have any value whatsoever. Baha'u'llah recognizes the value of both material and spiritual remedies. He teaches that the science and art of healing must be developed, encouraged and perfected, so that all means of healing may be used to the best advantage, each in its appropriate sphere.” (Effendi, 1980)

To initiate the conversation at the brunch, one Baha’i member told me: “Food is like medicine for us” Indeed, prevention is very important in the Baha’i conception of health and illness. As Abdul-Abba (1990) wrote: "The bearing on health of these commands relating to the simple life, hygiene, abstinence from alcohol and opium, etcetera, is too obvious to call for much comment, although their vital importance is apt to be greatly underestimated. Were they to be generally observed, most of the infectious diseases and a good many others would soon vanish from among men. The amount of illness caused by neglect of simple hygienic precautions and by indulgence in alcohol and opium is prodigious."

Spiritual healing

While the Baha’i followers do not reject Western medicine, there are no less than four kinds of non-physical healings within the faith.

The first one is compared to contagion. Since the foundation of the Baha'i faith appears to be this belief that every thing is interconnected, it is believed that a person's health, not only illness, can affect others, but in a positive manner. This form of contagion is said to be very slow in action and with subtitle results.

The second form of non-physical healing is described as a "magnetic force": "The other kind of healing without medicine is through the magnetic force which acts from one body on another and becomes the cause of cure. This force also has only a slight effect. Sometimes one can benefit a sick person by placing one’s hand upon his head or upon his heart. Why? Because of the effect of the magnetism, and of the mental impression made upon the sick person, which causes the disease to vanish." (Abdul-Abba, 1990)

The two other kinds of non-physical healing are said to be of spiritual nature. With the first one of the two, someone called a "spiritual healer" could cure a sick person through intense concentration. "where the means of cure is a spiritual power—one results from the entire concentration of the mind of a strong person upon a sick person, when the latter expects with all his concentrated faith that a cure will be effected from the spiritual power of the strong person, to such an extent that there will be a cordial connection between the strong person and the invalid. The strong person makes every effort to cure the sick patient, and the sick patient is then sure of receiving a cure." (Abdul-Abba, 1990)

While this is described in details in the Baha'i writings, cautions are added further in the text: "There is no such thing as Baha'i healers or a Baha'i type of healing. In His Most Holy Book (the Aqdas) Baha'u'llah says to consult the best physicians, in other words, doctors who have studied a scientific system of medicine; He never gave us to believe, He Himself would heal us through `Healers' but rather through prayer and the assistance of medicine and approved treatments." (Abdul-Baha, 1990)The fourth kind of non-physical healing, also of a spiritual nature, is made possible through the intervention of the Holy Spirit. This form of healing has no boundaries, as God can act when and how it suits him.

Nursing implications

As we read, the Baha’I faith shares many views with contemporary nursing theory and Western medicine. Baha’i followers are ready to turn toward the later one whenever necessary. Knowledge and research are important for the Baha’i, and they are looking forward to the next breakthroughs in western science. They believe that these new discoveries will only confirm their belief in a thigh interrelation between the body, the soul, the community, and the rest of the universe.

Nursing also believes in a thigh interrelation between the bio-psycho-social dimensions of health and illness. Because of these similarities and the importance the Baha’i followers attach to a healthy lifestyle, prevention teaching and measures might be better received by Baha’is than in the general population. The nurse could even use medical knowledge as a basis to validate her arguments. Her teaching will also be much facilitated by the great importance that education holds in the Baha’i faith.

In fact, the Western’s most revolutionary conception of health and illness, with its attempts to democratize medical knowledge and focus on prevention and the Baha’i faith agrees perfectly. The most recent nursing and social models I’ve learned, like the Ecological Framework, the Calgary Family Intervention Model and the McGill model of nursing, would be the most efficient ones to apply when working with a Baha’i patient. A nurse working with Baha’i patients would be wise to integrate the family or even the community in the care plan, as many illnesses, according to the Baha’i faith, can be the result of disunity between the person and his or her environment. Letting the family or the community members visit the patient might also facilitate recovery.

But these similarities between the Baha’i view of health and illness and our own body of knowledge must not let us forget that we are dealing with a religion emphasizing the spiritual dimension of health and illness. Patient must be allowed time to pray and meditate. Between the 2 and the 20 of March, Baha’i patients will need to fast between sunrise and sunset, but will continue to take their medication as prescribed.

Compliance to medication might be a problem in some other cases. While following the doctor’s prescription is in accordance with the Baha’i faith when the person is sick, Abdul-Abba clearly advised: “Do not neglect medical treatment when it is necessary, but leave it off when health has been restored. Treat disease through diet, by preference, refraining from the use of drugs; and if you find what is required in a single herb, do not resort to a compound medicament. ... Abstain from drugs when the health is good, but administer them when necessary.” (Abdul-Abba, 1990)

This might make it challenging to convince patients to follow prophylactic prescription or to continue to take any medication after they feel better. Taking many pills might also be difficult for a Baha’i follower. In those cases, the most helpful approach might be to limit the amount of pills to the strict minimum and accompany each pill with a good teaching regarding its use to prevent illness. Encouraging a healthy lifestyle, on the other hand, might be much easier with Baha’i than with the general population.

Conclusion

I've been impressed, during the entire course so far, to discover such a diversity of believes and conceptions surrounding health, illness, the body and the soul, birth, death, maternity, etc. In my first paper, interviewing my Japanese roommate, I was shocked to found out that someone so close could hold views of the world so different from my own.

On the contrary, in this paper, I discovered conceptions of the world and of health and illness more similar to my own than I had expected. It made me realize the importance of never assuming about my patient’s conception of health and illness. What appears obvious to us might not be so for our neighbors, friends and patients, while one might find in cultural groups far from one’s own points of agreement that were never suspected. So much for my pride of having little prejudices!

I wonder how often our nursing interventions are limited by such hidden divergences in our conceptions of health and illness – or by our prejudices about these divergences while we might actually share more than expected. How can we uncover those differences and similarity in the most tactful manner? How can we adapt to them and use them to better help our patients?

I took this glimpse into someone else's religion as a starting point for my own reflections on this richness of worldviews that exists only in my city. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

The picture is from the Baha'i House of Worship in New Delhi, India.

Bibliography

Abdul-Baha. (1990). Some Answered Questions. US Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1990

Esslemont, J.E. (1923). Baha'u'llah and the New Era; An Introduction to the Baha’i Faith. Illinois : Bahá'í Publishing Trust Wilmette.

National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of New Zealand. When your patient is Baha’i. http://www.bahaiwny.org/patientisbahai.htm. Retrieved 28th of October 2005

Robinson, B.A. (1996). The Baha’i Faith and Homosexuality. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_bah.htm. Latest update 17th of August 2004. Retrieved 28th of October 2005.

Shoghi Effendi. (1965). Messages to Canada. Toronto : NSA of Canada.

Shoghi Effendi.(1980). The Promised Day is Come. USA Baha’i Publishing Trust.

Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Warwick. Baha’i Marriage. London: Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Warwick. http://www.manvell.org.uk/warwick-leaflets/marriage.htm. Retrieved the 28th of October 2005.

Wikipedia; The Free Encyclopedia. Baha’i. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baha%27i. Retrieved 29th of October 2005