Normally, you would see an ad here. Maybe you are using an ad blocker. I respect that, but this site relies on revenue from ads to continue. Maybe as an alternative you would consider making a donation on the Contribute page.
Normally, you would see an ad here. Maybe you are using an ad blocker. I respect that, but this site relies on revenue from ads to continue. Maybe as an alternative you would consider making a donation on the Contribute page.
Copyright © Sirius Publishing 2006-2019
Spiritual Healing
Spiritual healing is practiced by many Christian churches, at Temples and Shrines by Spiritualists and Agnostics and in every country and culture from time immemorial. There are many varieties of this so for the time being we shall refer to spiritual healing as that which takes place in Europe and America by the laying on of hands.
Many healers, and particularly those of a Christian persuasion, will insist that this healing comes ultimately from God, with the healer as a passive intermediary. Other schools of healing may say that the force comes from ‘the light’ or from the universal being. In all cases the process is the same, the patient sits or lies down and is asked to relax and be open to what might happen next. The healer then tunes themselves with the source, whatever name it is given, and allows it to flow into the patient. Sometimes the healer attempts to direct energy to the afflicted part, sometimes not. Sometimes hands are laid on the whole body from head to foot, sometimes not.
Patients will often attest that they feel and energy flowing into them, whether as heat, cold, tingling, shaking or occasionally larger movements. Healers will usually say that they feel an energy flowing through them. It is not however essential that either healer or patients feel such a force as healing can still take place.
It is typical of critics to say that any positive benefits derived are simply due to suggestion. The term ‘simply’ is unnecessarily derogatory as suggestion can be a powerful factor and should not be dismissed in the healing equation. The healer and patient have come together in a special place to perform a significant ritual with a degree of expectancy of a positive result. If this adds to the effectiveness of the healing this is all to the good, but cannot be used to explain away the process.
A look at the results of healing indicates that there is something more than suggestion at work. Hypnotism or suggestion has measurable psychological benefits and can be of aid to the subject in pain control and combating addiction as just some of the benefits. There are few medical hypnotists who would claim to be able to redress physical illnesses or injuries, but spiritual healers will say that these can also be redressed and sometimes dramatically so. If hypnotism or suggestion is at work here, it is on a level not claimed by medical hypnosis.
It would not be such a terrible thing to consider that the healer induces some sort of super hypnosis in the patient, which turns on their psychic or mystical centres allowing these control of the lower centres and ultimately bringing about a healing effect. Wouldn't that be a great thing that we have a way of turning on the patient's own healing abilities.
While many healers would readily accept that the healing power utilises the patient's own ability to heal they would say that this realignment is initiated not by the healer or the patient but by a higher intelligence usually called God.
To remind you, this model is of human awareness and cannot ultimately say anything about what is ‘really’ going on, but it is an attempt to contain as many aspects of human awareness as possible. We will accept people's reports of this process as truthful accounts of their ‘field of awareness’. Healers may report feelings of energy flow, peace and love, but they are generally present centred and in touch with their surroundings. Patients can have similar experiences but may also have feelings of such intense relaxation and well-being as to feel raised out of their bodies. A smaller percentage, an exact figure is hard to say, experience altered states of consciousness that correspond to psychic, mystical and absolute experiences as described elsewhere. It is not that common for a patient to say that they have touched the ultimate but it does happen and often to people who are least expecting it.
It is difficult to say how the more powerful effects of healing can take place within our current understanding of suggestion and hypnotism. It would be convenient to assume the transfer of some influence between healer and patient perhaps having a source beyond both of them. At present the existence of a 'healing energy', which both patient and healer regularly testify to, is difficult to support from any scientific study. This is partly because scientific studies of this subject are rare due to lack of funding but also because those studies which have been performed have failed to register any currently known energy.
A solution to this dilemma does present itself from our model. This would suggest that it is not energy which is transferred from healer to patient but information. It will be noted from our discussion of cybernetics and the concept of negative entropy that it is data that flows between the various levels of our model. There is no need for the introduction of any additional energy.
Healing generally, quite aside from spiritual healing, involves an increase in organisation. The remediation of a cut or a bruise involves an increase in organisation towards the healthy state. It means an increase in negative entropy. And so with organic illness it is always the quest of the doctor to restore balance to the patient, a move from the chaotic to the ordered.
As we have already discussed an increase in organisation in a system involves the importation of information into that system.