Is this author genuine?

I can understand meditation, there is enough evidence to clearly show this can help to relax the mind and improve health, although in a very passive sense.

Religion and the fantasy it is occupies a position in contemporary life, functioning both as a scapegoat for every failure and as a catch-all for every hope and expectation of society.

When you're born into this world and if you are indoctrinated by religion either by your parents or self delusion, you are given a free ticket to the freak show.

In the case of this article it would appear the author has a front row seat.

Never mind spirituality, you can't beat mental health benefits of being in a properly resourced hospital with experienced and caring staff. I was in one such - once. I felt like a million dollars when I left. On the other hand the lovely Christian lady who asked if she could pray for me when I was in a run-off-your-feet public hospital had no discernable impact.

I felt like a million dollars when I left.
Candide,
How much do you feel now ?

Ah, if Christianity could only be proven to cure disease, then humankind might be able to bury at least one hatchet - or at least have to find some other 'man-made' excuse for cultural and ethnic rivalries.

My, how we clutch at straws in fervent hope of 'panacea', yet it is the natural world which, over millions of years of evolution, holds the key to combating infirmament and disease. So, as we increasingly debase and destroy our environment, so we diminish, if not eliminate, all hope for combating all the 'super-bugs' rapidly evolving to 'cure' our arrogance.

Our 'pride' commeth before a major fall; but we are a slow 'learner', it would seem.

In "There's a change coming to the sick room" Kay Stroud - posted wrote (25 July 2013): "UWA has made some progress, offering elective units like Spirituality, Suffering and Healing.". But when I searched the UWA website I could not find a course by that name: https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Auwa.edu.au++%22Spirituality%2C+Suffering+and+Healing%22

Meditation makes Jackman feel calm and happy. Why is he not calm and happy in the first place? Wouldn’t it be better to seek the reasons for his lack of calm and unhappiness so that they could be removed from his life altogether? Then he would have an extra hour or so per day to do other things.

Meditation does not get to the heart of the problem. It is like giving medicine to ease the pain of a patient when surgery would eliminate that pain forever. When people are in hospital and concerned about their health it may be very reasonable and natural to be anxious and stressed. The best thing is to do everything physically possible to give them the best medical treatment. Anything else is beyond the responsibility of health professionals.

Some health professionals may want to include ‘spirituality’ into health care because they want it to be true that meditation is good for you. That may be for a number of reasons. They may use mediation themselves to anaesthetise themselves from unhappiness. They may not like being unable to control things that are beyond their control in the hospital. They may want to appear cool or cutting edge for the sake of their ego.

When medicine spends time on these dubious developments it is wasting time and taxpayers’ money which could be better spent on finding better ways to deal with real disease and sickness