Seminar at Sunnybrook, Dr Koenig from the University of Duke, USA. What a guy!

Yesterday was a fun day for me as I met up with some peers and listened to another speaker. Dr Harold Koenig is “the co-founder and Director of Duke University’s Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health in Durham, North Carolina. He serves on the faculty at Duke as Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Associate Professor of Medicine.” He has published more than 40 books and has peer reviewed approx. 400 articles. I wished more of my profs were like him. He was funny, inspiring and looking for us Canadians to go South to do research with also the promise of scholarship. And why not? We have not kept up with our own research here at home. I don’t like research myself. I think it is extremely important but I also think that my own boring experience with statistics and research methods in undergrad was a good indication of why I did not like it so much. Our courses was more of how to get rid of students and force them into social science rather than let me turn you into a great researcher, it is very easy and it is really needed in the area of religion and spirituality up here in Canada. If you like, why don’t you come down here and I will train you, but you need to show potential. Potential? Yup, I got lots more than that! I am a potential in progress. Yes, sir, I am. This was the second American speaker in a month and I loved his style. Today he is back in the States seeing his patients as a medical doctor. I am impressed. “Where does he get his energy?” I remarked to colleagues. He was talking all day and never took a break. I always leave people alone when we are given breaks because I think they need them too. But this guy was like the ever ready battery that does not stop. “He’s American. They are all like that. They have an abundance of energy that does not quit.” My colleague responded. I looked at him to see if he was joking, but he wasn’t smiling. He was serious? Do Americans have more energy than Canadians? Better rephrase that. Do Professors of Psychiatry at Duke University have more energy than Professors at ……………? Wait, how are we going to measure that? Rephrase again. Naw. I do not have enough energy and I need to get ready for another event. Plus I have an enduring cold that will not go away. I don’t normally impress easily but Dr Koenig impressed me with his kindness, passion and humour. He has lots of it. He also suffers from chronic pain. He is the second physician that I know of who suffers and is such an amazing healer. The morning was spent with the results of his research. In a nut shell people who are depressed and are religious fare better, live longer and are heavier than people who are not religious. These are people who are seriously ill. This did not apply to people who identify themselves as spiritual. I am not doing the research justice and I have to admit I was surprised by the findings. I remember from undergrad and other seminars that controlled studies where people in hospital were prayed for by a group without their awareness became better more than the control group who were not prayed for. This has been repeated with the same results. I had to wonder why we in Canada are not doing more of this kind of research especially since there is always money in research. The closest I came to research was my grad research proposal. I required a research course for my Masters. I did that at the University of Guelph which was not accepted on my list of courses at U of T. That is annoying because sometimes I forget to submit it as part of my Masters qualification. However, I had more courses than I required. I remember that all my text books in psychology were American and I inquired about this. We just didn’t have enough of us wanting to write the books. That has changed as I see the authors of some psych books who I recognized as profs. We have a lot of talent in Canada so do research and write books. Hey, you can go South. They have lots of scholarships. I am still paying for my years after undergrad. But, I am not complaining. We do have a good education here and that is why people, down under like us. We need to maintain that quality and not think quantity. So for more information about Dr Koenig check out http://www.spiritualityandhealth.duke.edu/. The afternoon was mostly about research and that I had already studied to death but I stayed because of the company. Refresher never hurts. I also felt I was rather living a pampered life having a private practice. I don’t work in prisons, nor do I work with the criminally insane so I feel that I am relatively safe in my work with others. Not, that I have anything against prisoners nor the criminally insane. But, my interest is in emergency response workers. Someone needs to care for those who care for others. Someone needs to care for those who do the work that no one else can.