faith above all

(published in Northern Ohio Live, August 2005 issue)

With conventional training and deep devotion, Dr. Nemeh calls upon the Holy Spirit to cure people’s ills

By Robert Sberna

When Fadia Nemeh was four or five years old, she realized that her father, Dr. Issam Nemeh, was different from other kids’ dads. Recalling that it wasn’t uncommon for him to be away from home all night, praying at the bedsides of sick people, Fadia, now 21, says, “I’ve always been aware that my dad wasn’t a conventional nine-to-fiver. His mission is to change the world one person at a time, so there’s a lot of work to do.”

Issam Nemeh, a former anesthesiologist who now practices a form of acupuncture, continues to pray over the sick long into the night – either at his Rocky River office or at public healing services throughout the Greater Cleveland area.

Over the past several years, the Syrian-born Nemeh (pronounced Name-y) has attracted worldwide attention for the purported healing powers of his faith-based ministry. Hundreds of people say their health has been miraculously restored after a hands-on prayer session with the doctor and his healing team, which consists of his wife, Cathy; Father Robert Welsh, SJ, the former president of St. Ignatius High School; and Sister Monica Marie Navin, of the Sisters of the Incarnate World in Parma Heights.

Ron Russell, a Strongsville real estate broker, says Nemeh’s prayers alleviated the severe fibromyalgia-related pain that had plagued him since the late 1970s. Longtime multiple sclerosis sufferer Liz Simmons claims that symptoms of her disease all but disappeared after the doctor prayed over her last year. Dr. Mike Hudec, a Westlake oral surgeon, says Nemeh had a major role in curing his testicular cancer. Rocky River accountant Shannon Cain says he cured her bladder problem – an ailment that she hadn’t told anyone about. Sister Ursula Ann Hanna, an Ursuline nun and a registered nurse, is convinced that the doctor’s prayers are responsible for relieving her of the excruciating back pain that often left her unable to walk. After Nemeh prayed over Joe Mueller at a recent healing service, the Marietta, Georgia man stood and walked for the first time since a 1999 auto accident put him in a wheelchair.

Attendance has surged at his healing ceremonies, which typically last from noon until 4 the next morning. At Sts. Peter & Paul Church in Garfield Heights, organizers turned away more than 7,000 people due to lack of room. Services at St. Bernadette Church in Westlake and Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center each attracted more than 8,000.

In his first public interview, the 51-year-old Westlake resident tells Northern Ohio Live that he has known since childhood that someday thousands would gather for his healing touch. But he’s quick to point out that the “real” healer is the Holy Spirit, explaining, “I have a gift of faith, not a gift of healing.”

Dr. Nemeh says he realized that the growing popularity of his healing ministry would be accompanied by skepticism and critical media coverage. “That’s why I never went out and publicized my work,” he says, his soft voice colored by the accent of his native country. “When you say someone was paralyzed, but now they can suddenly walk again, it’s difficult for the mind to comprehend.”

For many years, he conducted his healing services in his office, at private homes or in small chapels. Stories of his healing were spread by word of mouth. But this past February, NewsChannel 5’s Ted Henry presented a series of stories that transformed Nemeh into an instant media phenomenon. Shortly afterward, the Associated Press, MSNBC, CNN, ABC News, and many U.S. and foreign newspapers reported the story of Cleveland’s faith healer.

“What I find most fascinating and ironic about this story is that you have a conventionally trained medical doctor who has brought healing into people’s lives through prayer,” explains Henry, who says he first learned of Nemeh four years ago.

Now in his 34th year as a TV5 newscaster, Henry says, “As a journalist and as a seeker of spiritual truth, I have strived to suspend judgment of all people and all events at all times. But as I tried to suspend judgment in this story, what I’ve allowed to impress me about Dr. Nemeh is the amount of accumulated evidence. I’ve personally spoken with dozens of people who say they have benefited from his prayers. When I hear from surgeons, nurses and other medical professionals that Dr. Nemeh has healed them, I have to scratch my head and ask, ‘What is going on here?’ I’ve come to believe that what is happening has to do entirely with faith and the power of prayer.”

Recent newspaper articles, however, have criticized Nemeh’s healing techniques, especially those that occur in his office. While he does not accept offerings at his public services, a private office session costs $250.

During the session, he prays over his patients while administering acupuncture techniques that don’t use needles. Instead, the doctor uses one of several devices to apply painless electrical currents, low-level sound waves or light waves to the afflicted areas of his patients’ bodies. The electrical stimulation equipment, which is similar to devices used by physical therapists and chiropractors, employs the ancient Chinese principles of acupuncture and Qigong. In traditional Chinese medicine, the body’s vital energy (known as chi or qi) circulates through channels (called meridians) that have branches connected to bodily organs and functions. The Chinese attributed illness to imbalance or interruption of chi. Acupuncture, acupressure and Qigong are some therapies used to restore that balance.

Some journalists have noted that Nemeh’s method of acupuncture does not require extensive training and uses equipment that is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for clinical safety or effectiveness. Nevertheless, his office is booking appointments well into next year. Although Nemeh believes the emergence of his healing ministry was predestined, he says that he wanted to delay his public exposure as long as possible. A quiet man with a seemingly ingenuous aversion to publicity, Nemeh recently spoke at length about his healing services, the power of prayer and the practice of complementary (also known as alternative) medicine.

“I pray over everyone, no matter what religion. I have Hindu, Muslim, Jewish and Christian patients. They all get the same benefits from prayer.” – Dr. Issam Nemeh

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the story’s narrator observes: “It occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well.”

For those fortunate persons who are not coping with terminal sickness or suffering extreme chronic pain, it may be difficult to understand the appeal of a Dr. Nemeh. When conventional medicine is unable to provide relief or cure, Nemeh’s prayers and his battery of complementary medicine techniques offer the sanctuary of hope.

And that’s okay, says Dr. Jamilé Wakim-Fleming, a specialist in geriatrics, internal medicine and gastroenterology at MetroHealth and the Cleveland Clinic. Ascribing a practical benefit to prayer, she says, “For many people, prayer can promote a positive outlook and ease stress. We know definitely that stress exacerbates and even causes disease. If prayer is calming, then it’s the opposite of stress. With that in mind, maybe prayer can help cure diseases.”

While following a conventional medicine regime, complementary techniques such as prayer, acupuncture, meditation, t’ai chi and mind/body visualization can offer many benefits, says Wakim-Fleming. “It’s all about the quality of life. When you have a life-threatening disease such as cancer, it’s difficult to sleep or relax. But just as jogging leads to the release of endorphins that make you feel good, praying and acupuncture can also cause the release of chemicals that make you feel good and reduce pain. And that can help the healing process.”

Wakim-Fleming says skepticism of complementary medicine stems from its unproven effectiveness. “In conventional medicine, we prescribe drugs that have been thoroughly tested in labs and on animals, and then on humans. If you could use the same process to prove that complementary and alternative medicine was effective, we would all use it.”

She predicts that the medical community will increasingly become more receptive to the benefits of spiritual healing. “Hospitals today use a team approach to treat illness,” she says. “You may have a primary-care physician, a specialist, a psychologist and a behavioral therapist on the team. In the future, that team may very well include a spiritual counselor.”

When asked whether at least some of Dr. Nemeh’s many healing successes can be attributed to a placebo effect, rather than the power of prayer, she answered, “I can’t say for sure if someone has experienced a miraculous healing. But if a person says she feels better, how can I say she’s not?” Perhaps surprisingly, Nemeh himself says the placebo effect may have a key role in pain relief and healing. “There’s a lot of science involved in the body’s physiology, and ‘mind over matter’ is a part of that,” he says. “Everything is a part of healing, whether it’s prayer, electrical stimulation or other methods. The placebo effect may be what binds it all together.”

In Ted Henry’s view, however, the enduring results of Nemeh’s healing prayers can’t be attributed to a placebo effect. “Placebos do work sometimes, but usually not for a long period of time,” he says. “I have seen that the positive effects of his prayers have lasted a long time. I believe that Dr. Nemeh, as he says, has found the faculty to allow the power of prayer to work.”

Henry adds that when he first began reporting the Dr. Nemeh story last February, he solicited feedback from viewers. “Since then, I’ve received and read more than 3,000 e-mails,” he says. “Of those e-mails, I’ve read only five that weren’t positive about his ministry. Isn’t that compelling? Unlike other faith healers, Dr. Nemeh seems to have affected an uncanny number of people with his healing prayers.”

As public awareness of her father has increased, Fadia Nemeh says she and her three siblings have experienced a collateral loss of privacy. While she shares her father’s reserved nature, she says she doesn’t resent the media’s recent intrusion into her family’s life. “I support my dad,” she says. “I understand that anyone who has a lot of faith and puts that in God will be controversial. But my dad has always told me: ‘You can’t let the world change you. You have to change the world.’”

rchas@aol.com

216-702-5860