Medical textbooks have their limits according to a top doctor.

For while medicine is a science, Dr Clare Gerada learned from her GP father it was also an art, demanding skills that can't be gleaned from just reading.

Interviewed recently on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, the outgoing Chair of the Council of the Royal College of GPs insisted: 'Textbooks help you - of course it's a science - we follow rules.

'But actually nothing prepares you for the consultation with the patient in front of you - dealing with their psychological, their physical, their social and increasingly their spiritual needs.'

The physical, mental and social needs of the patients have long been acknowledged. Yet why should patients increasingly be bringing their spiritual needs to the doctor's surgery?

Perhaps a large survey of adults by think tank Theos is a pointer. 'The Spirit of Things Unseen' found three quarters of adults - including three fifths of those describing themselves as non-religious - believe 'there are things in life that we simply cannot explain through science or other means'.

Overall, the results indicated that 'a spiritual current' runs through our nation as powerfully as ever, if not more so. Commenting on the research, Theos Director Elizabeth Oldfield said of belief in Britain today: 'Rather than becoming more secularist or more material it is becoming more plural.'

She was speaking on a panel discussing the research results at the launch of an intriguing new podcast series called things unseen, designed to appeal to 'people of faith and those who feel that there's more to life than meets the eye'.

The panel was generally unfazed by the trend towards an 'alternative, more free-flowing spirituality' - a phrase the BBC's Jane Little, facilitating, used to summarise the survey's findings.

Tony Lobl | read the full story on huffingtonpost.co.uk