I have been thinking a bit lately about belief. This came up in the context of a number of conversations I've had with people recently which have related to "miraculous" healings of ills, whether physical or psychological. The supposed sources of the cures of these ills were various - Buddhist, Catholic, Wiccan, pseudo-scientific.
Thinking about it, it dawned on me recently that perhaps it is not the thing which is believed in which is doing the curing, but instead the belief itself. Like a trumped-up placebo, it only works as long as you believe it's going to work; and telling yourself you believe, acting like you believe, is not the same as actual, unstinting, no-holds-barred belief.
It is said that our minds are more powerful than we realise, and perhaps it is here, at the nexus between the physical, the psychological and the supposed supernatural, that this can be most clearly seen, as we, by evincing a belief bigger than our everyday reality, ourselves create, are ourselves somehow the, or an inextricable part of the supernatural in which we believe, empowering ourselves to produce a cure which would not otherwise be possible.
This would account for the fact that "miraculous" cures are apparent across many different belief systems; and perhaps also the fact that many prayers for healing and relief go apparently unanswered.
I don't think that such an interpretation of the known facts destroys the mystical or indeed miraculous nature of such healing - rather it increases it; if nothing else it makes me think of a Sufi proverb I read once: "I searched for God and found only myself. I searched for myself and found only God."