A spiritual treatment?

A spiritual treatment?: "The Hmong spiritual tradition believes in multiple souls, explains Kang Ye Yang, 70, the shaman who performed the woman's ceremony. 'Western medicine doesn't believe in spirits,' Yang said through a translator. 'That is why so many patients die in hospitals. The doctors treat the body, but they have nothing for the spirits.'

That night, the shaman began by burning incense and throwing animal horns to communicate with the spirits. The burning herbs' sweet scent filled the room as the family and Culhane-Pera watched the priest balance the incense across a large bowl. He then plunged a knife through the smoldering bundle. The shaman entered a trance, communicating with unseen spirits until he determined that one of the woman's souls had returned to Laos for reincarnation. A long ceremony would bring it back."

At the hospital, the surgeon invited the shaman to join him as he reviewed the case and prepared for surgery...

A 1998 study of physicians found that 64% say they believe in God, contrasted with 95% of all Americans. "A lot of us don't believe in spirituality per se; we're more science based. I'm not sure I can relate to a patient's spirituality."

...Although a 1994 study found that 77% of Americans felt physicians should address patients' spiritual needs, the same study discovered that only 11% of doctors actually participate in such discussions.