GUEST ARTICLE
Breaking through the walls of illusion
Healer
by Brian Allan
brian allan, healer, chaos magic, shamans, herbalists, Knock, Medjugorje, Lourdes, Reiki, crystals, salacin, quantum science, Ayahuasca, trees, holy wells, stigmata, spiritual healing, spirit healing,
Forword
It goes without saying that some practitioners of conventional medicine do not accept the reality of faith, or spiritual healing and flatly refuse to countenance any possibility that it is an effective adjunct to their profession of chemically based treatments. This is of course not to say that their treatments are not effective, for with some exceptions they usually are, although there are still arguments and concerns about the unwanted and sometimes dangerous side effects caused by the various chemicals used in manufacturing the drugs prescribed. However, while some conventional medical practitioners still actively mistrust spiritual healing, it is nevertheless recognised as a therapy under the British National Health Service. Added to this, it is only comparatively recently that the proven therapeutic reality of both hypnotherapy and acupuncture as valid medical tools became generally accepted and prescribed by mainstream medicine.
While there can be little doubt that these therapies when properly applied are effective, the reason for this is still poorly understood. This article will attempt to present some of the history behind ‘spiritual’ healing and healers and present a rational explanation behind the positive results obtained. One thing that should be made clear from the outset is the difference between ‘spirit healing’ and ‘spiritualist healing’, because the two are not the same. The latter implies a link with the dead with faith secondary and as such merges with the occult; not surprisingly it is specifically forbidden by the Church (Deuteronomy 18:9-18), whereas ‘spirit healing’ is more about interacting with and harmonising the ‘life essence’ of the patient. This is sometimes expressed as ‘soul’ or ‘spirit’, yet neither description fully covers what is happening nor describes what ubiquitous energy is involved. As we shall see, the attitude of the Church to healing, irrespective of how it is achieved, is both inconsistent and hypocritical. Hopefully this article may help demystify the whole subject and bring it out of its quasi-religious and magical sub-culture and demonstrate that the ability to heal is innate in all of humanity, providing the will is present. One thing that is very difficult to achieve is removing the religious dimension from the phenomenon, because traditionally they are synonymous, and this is simply not the case.
Healer
The Religious Connection
Perhaps one of the few instances where an average person can claim to emulate a God is in the remarkable practice of faith healing. This talent is used by a variety of people to produce cures in those suffering from a wide range of medical conditions both psychological and physical. Just how this is achieved is, of course, open to conjecture but nevertheless, there are numerous fully attested cases where the victims of various diseases have been cured of their ailments, in some instances where the condition was previously deemed incurable. As we shall see, the gift and practise of healing predates religion and was originally attributed to invisible forces at the heart of the universe, an instinctive line of reasoning that was not too far away from the truth. However, before examining the case for faith healing it is as well to make clear that healing and curing are two different things. Healing, depending on the context, can mean a variety of things, covering everything from the physical, i.e. temporary or permanent relief from the symptoms of an illness to the psychological, viz. the sufferer coming to terms with and accepting a medical condition that may be terminal. A cure on the other hand is exactly what it says, the permanent removal of a defined medical condition, what is of concern is the mechanism by which faith healing, or indeed non-medical healing is achieved.
At its most basic level, faith healing as it is accepted today, involves direct interaction between the healer, either male or female, and the person desiring to be healed. Healers will often state that they feel the ‘healing energy ‘coursing through their bodies into their patient and the patient often reports feeling this energy flow. Subjectively, it is normally described as a feeling of relaxation mixed with tingling and warmth. If this is the case, what then is the nature of the ‘healing energy’ and where does it originate? Before examining this enigma, we should look at the wider implications of healing and healers and how the practise evolved. Predating organised religions by millennia, healing had been the traditional domain of the tribal shamans and ‘wise men’ that looked after the physical and spiritual needs of their tribe or clan. This was the social and cultural laboratory that was so instrumental in the development of the skills and techniques of healers etc. This tradition grew as man developed the need for various formalised Gods and the power invested in the God was channelled through the high priests (or healers) whose position in the group was often interchangeable.
As monotheistic beliefs took root, they too adopted a healing tradition done in the name of their God. Originally the early church accepted healing as a natural function described in scripture but this changed. Over time this slowly disintegrated as the views of the church altered, until in a Christian society, the majority of mainstream churches looked upon healers, along with spiritualists, with deep suspicion, distrust and downright hostility. This appears to fly directly in the face of Christian teaching and values, given that Jesus Christ and his disciples made a virtue of healing and practised it at every opportunity and scripture is quite clear about this; ‘These will be the signs that will be associated with believers; they will lay their hands on the sick and they will recover’ (Mark 16, 16-18). In fact we are told that Christ gave his seventy-two disciples that ability to heal, ‘Cure those who are sick and say, “The Kingdom of God is very near you”, (Luke 10, 9-10). By inference he also gave anyone who truly believed in Him the ability to heal, ‘He will perform the same works as I do myself’, (John, 14; 12). This of course raises important questions relating to why non-Christians and indeed non-believers have the ability to heal the sick. It appears that the ability is innate in anyone who can find the ‘switch’ to activate it. Although there are suggestions that the accounts of Christ’s healing may be allegorical and are used symbolically to indicate that He was aware of the suffering of the people around him. Equally, if it can be demonstrated that healing really is still viable in this day and age and is practised by normal human beings, then there is no good reason to suppose that Christ was not also a healer in a very real sense, however, whether he was the literal Son of God and drew His power from this source is an entirely different matter. If true then it also lends credence to the claim that modern healers also extract their abilities from the same source, as indeed did healers who predated the arrival of Christ.
While this may appear a logical conclusion the church vehemently rebuffed it in medieval times when personal illness was automatically equated with sin and a lack of faith in the person afflicted. The logic ran, that if God had seen fit to visit some ailment upon the person, then they probably deserved it and it should also be borne in mind that doctors, if they were not very careful could be branded as witches and suffer the drastic consequences. It follows therefore, that the role of healers in this era was particularly ambivalent and the prevailing superstitious climate also spilled over to include country midwives when, although the process of procreation was as old as humanity, it was till shrouded in mystery. In the Middle Ages it was also commonplace for royalty to have healing abilities attributed to them, a belief based on the superstitions associated with the divine right of kings. One French dynasty circa AD600, the Merovingians, were specifically known as sorcerer kings and possessed of great curative powers. It is likely that this belief was encouraged and fostered by the church since the church and the state were more or less one and the same thing.
With the advance of education and science these superstitions gradually subsided although healing was still regarded with the utmost suspicion. While nowadays there is no danger that healers are liable to be burned at the stake, the practise of spirit healing is still marginalized by science. Although are no ostensible links there is still a lingering attachment to religious accoutrements surfacing in the names of a number of diseases that retain religious overtones, e.g. St Vitus dance. Where healing it is given any credence, its successes are more likely to be attributed to psychosomatic conditions than any lasting physical cure; in short, the victim was only imagining the ailment.
Healing Places
As the centuries passed, healing was still not regarded as anything more than an ignorant superstition, although healing abilities also became attributed to places and things, like healing wells, streams and trees. There are several sites around the world associated with healing and have healing miracles associated with them, Fatima in Portugal, Knock in Southern Ireland and Medjugorje in Bosnia but perhaps the best known and attested to is Lourdes in the French Pyrenees. Although there all these areas have strong religious connections, usually attributed to visions of the Virgin Mary, it is perhaps no accident that the water from Lourdes and sacred wells are linked and this may be more to do with the nature of the water than anything external. It is quite possible that healing wells contained traces of minerals deficient in the diet of some people and consuming these substances may have contributed to their well being.
There is of course another possibility especially in the case of the healing water from Lourdes; is it possible that in addition to the expectations of the faithful who travel to Lourdes, the water is different in some incredibly subtle manner at a molecular level or are the results entirely psychological. While there have undoubtedly been fully corroborated cures, conversely there have been many deaths too so this phenomena deserves closer examination and may ultimately depend on the mind/consciousness of the sufferer. Another important factor in cures produced in places of healing based on religious belief like Lourdes, depend on the nature of the illness and the emotional state of the person claming the cure. It is known that ‘A’, in cases of religious ecstasy, symptoms of certain illnesses can temporarily vanish creating the appearance of a sudden and miraculous cure and ‘B’ some conditions can and do spontaneously remit, which means they disappear of their own volition.
This is an important distinction, the cure and the miraculous cure and once again it opens a semantic minefield. If cures directly attributed to religious intervention are deemed miraculous, then why are all cures alleged to have been spiritually induced not considered miraculous? Surely all cures brought about by apparently spiritual and divine intervention are by definition miraculous? The answer to this of course comes from the assertion that cures (or healing) not obviously achieved by divine input may be demonically inspired. We are reminded that Satan can also perform miracles to suit his own ends and confuse the unwary. This is exactly the same set of values against which all manifestations of religious ecstasy are judged. If the demonstration, irrespective of what it is, e.g. stigmata, bilocation, prophecy, levitation etc. is accompanied with visions of God or his saints then it is deemed miraculous. Conversely, if the manifestation leaves the person ill or shaken, then it is deemed demonic. This is still one of the litmus tests enshrined in the Catholic Church’s process to define divinely inspired events or phenomena.
In the case of healing trees, especially the willow tree, it should be remembered that any potion prepared using parts of the willow contains a form of aspirin. Shamans and herbalists traditionally used willow bark in the treatment of headaches, fevers, pain and rheumatics. It was not until the 18th century that the active ingredient of willow bark, salicin, was discovered and was eventually developed into acetylsalicylic acid or aspirin. It has been found in clinical trials that preparations made using willow bark and its active ingredient salicin, when administered in suitable doses although slower acting that aspirin, produced a beneficial effect on low back pain. A more ritualistic use of trees and holy wells involved tying ribbons to the branches or placing small, floating offerings in the wells, a practice involving a form of ‘transference’ or symbolically placing the infirmity in the offering, the effect of this practice, where effective, is almost certainly psychosomatic. On the other hand, the use of natural substances to induce enlightenment has been known for millennia and part of the repertoire of a shaman (or healer) involved knowing which plant induced a given effect. It was through experimentation and observation that the consciousness enhancing effects of ‘psilocybin’ from mushrooms, mescaline and peyote from cacti and ‘Ayahuasca’, (more correctly known as dimethyltryptamine or DMT) which is extracted from a vine were recognised. Although not directly beneficial to the patient, the healer, after having consumed the psychoactive substance, allegedly received instruction from the entities he (or she) encountered on how to relieve the ailment.
Before leaving this section, it is a little known fact that places of healing are not necessarily confined to religious sites. Over the centuries, perhaps due to the violent times in which people lived, over time, those injured in battles discovered that their wounds healed more swiftly if they were taken to certain specific places to rest and recuperate. This was no accident; it is also part of the reason that many churches and other ancient sites of worship were built on or near these sites. Our ancestors had stumbled upon the curious fact that in areas of higher than normal natural electromagnetism wounds healed more quickly. This anomaly has been exploited by the medical profession to assist in the regeneration of bone fractures and is directly attributable to the fact that we are electromagnetic creatures and are directly affected by electromagnetic fields, although not always beneficially. As already mentioned, the presence of naturally occurring electromagnetic (EM) fields generated by tectonic faults etc. is also the reason that ancient places of worship and standing stones etc. are often located on or near these faults. The presence of EM fields, natural or otherwise, causes electrical imbalances in areas of the human brain leading to altered states of consciousness, which often literally propels the experiencer into other realities. Perhaps the entities seen there were equated with the gods and deities they worshiped and the area became associated with magic and visions. In a similar vein, the ‘healing touch’ of the healer may even be related to the individual EM field generated by the healers themselves. Healers can frequently be observed moving their hands in a stroking motion close to, and sometimes touching, the body of the ‘patient’ at the point closest to the affected area. This causes a measurable interaction between the ‘energy field’ of the healer and their patient and may stimulate the energy field of the sufferer in much the same manner as an acupuncture needle.
Healing and ‘The New Age’
Apart from a standard range of therapies including Reiki, crystal healing and aura therapy etc, one interesting take on the subject of healing comes from a New Age technique called, ‘Visualisation’ and the active alteration of reality. At first glance this seems ludicrous, because the technique of visualisation involves moulding your environment by willing it to change. This is not as unlikely as it seems, and statistically this method of healing seems to work under certain circumstances, although the results appear purely subjective. The actual technique appears to exploit a facet of quantum physics involving probability waves which implies that each and every action and thing exists in an infinity of all possible states until someone decides to act and by so doing causes it to adopt one particular state. If that is the case, then by concentrating on one subject or outcome, then it may be possible to actively affect it. So, by concentrating on a person becoming well, then it may be possible that someone could be literally ‘thought’ into a state of well-being. This may be the same process that empowers prayer as a therapeutic tool, the more people who participate in the prayer; the more likely it is to succeed. There is another facet to healing that is directly analogous to prayer power, i.e. ‘remote healing’, and it may function in exactly the same manner, although the churches would officially deny this. Curiously, it may be fair to suggest that the practise of ‘Chaos Magic’ operates on the same principle since this, too, relies on powerful visualisation techniques. These are perhaps the most obvious examples of the power of will over the physical world but it operates on a level normally inaccessible to human beings. In effect, is the interaction and focussing of consciousness (energy) at the subatomic level, with the nature of reality itself. At the end of the day, irrespective of the catalyst, what we see is a practical demonstration of the interaction between a psychological and a physical process.
Conclusion
In the final analysis there is sufficient evidence to suggest that healing, whether achieved by faith or a disembodied spirit actually works in certain cases. However, there are many variables associated with this phenomenon, not least being the very nature of illness and disease and how it manifests, neither can the psychosomatic nature of some illnesses be discounted. There is also the added dimension of prayer and how this further complicates the issue. Although there are a range of possible explanations ranging from the suggestible nature of the human brain to the manipulation of reality, perhaps we shouldn’t look into the phenomenon too closely and just accept that it works, because the mechanism may be too subtle to easily understand.
There are reports that the ‘gift’ of healing can be lost just as quickly as it is developed, sometimes this is attributed to the healer’s lifestyle and sometimes it is said that God took it away. However, the real reason may lie in the individual physiology of the healer, and in electro/chemical imbalances in the individual energy field that renders it incompatible with an external field, whether this can ever be restored is a moot point. Whatever the reason, we should accept it for what it is and be thankful that it is available.
© Brian Allan 2004
