I've done a lot as a doctor to sustain myself and my patients. Nearly 200 doctors, nurses, rabbis and therapists attended the daylong seminar at Fort Mason Conference Center in San Francisco. Bay Area Jewish Healing Center and co-sponsored by more than a dozen Jewish and medical organizations. Saper, who spoke first, defined the issues. Disease is a biological process.
Illness is a subjective experience of disease.
It's physical, spiritual and social. To cure is to eradicate. Healing is more complex. To help patients in the healing process, Saper asks them about religious and spiritual beliefs, conscious and unconscious fears, and how they cope with their limitations. The experience is holy.