Spiritual Healing

Dan Benor

Definition: Spiritual healing is the intentional influence of one or more people upon one or more living systems without utilizing known physical means of intervention. It is commonly practiced in two major ways: 1. With a laying-on of hands - the hands lightly touching or held near to the body, often combined with visualizations; and 2. With meditation, prayer or other focused intent, again often combined with visualizations. The two are often used simultaneously. Sceptics claim healing is no more than suggestion. Suggestion is inevitably part of any therapeutic intervention, and placebo responses are variations of self-healing. It appears that suggestion and healing can potentiate each other.

History: Spiritual healing is practised in every known culture. England is a world leader in integrating spiritual healing with conventional medicine. In the mid 1970s British healers formed a healing organisation which lobbied to allow healers to treat patients in NHS hospitals. With one governmental (not medical) decision, 1,500 hospitals were opened to healers. In the early 1980s, the major healing organizations joined in a Confederation which standardized a code of conduct. The code of conduct was approved by the Royal Colleges of Medicine, Surgery, Nursing and Midwifery.

Since 1988, the Doctor-Healer Network in the UK has provided a forum for doctors, nurses and other conventional health care professionals to meet with healers, other complementary therapists and clergy to explore how healing can be integrated with conventional medical care.

Clinical reports: Healing is an excellent complementary therapy with nearly every known illness. Its effects are not predictable, and appear to be related to factors that are not as yet identified. Research confirms it is particularly helpful with pain, arthritis, cancer, AIDS, anxiety, and depression.

Anecdotal reports abound on instantaneous, "miraculous" healings. These are actually rare. Healing more commonly produces gradual improvement with periodic (often weekly) treatments over several months.

Research: In over 200 controlled studies of healing (in humans, animals, plants, bacteria, yeasts, enzymes, DNA and more), nearly three quarters demonstrate statistically significant effects.

Theory: Albert Einstein pointed out, early in the 20th century, that matter and energy are interchangeable. Quantum physics has amply confirmed his theory. Conventional, Newtonian medicine continues to address the body primarily as matter. Healers have been saying for a long time that they are addressing the energy body when they do healings.

Healers report that several interpenetrating, subtle energy fields surround the physical body. They claim that the physical body is an expression of the states of these energy fields, each of which is distinctly related to an aspect of being (physical, emotional, mental and spiritual). The fields are said to be hierarchically organised. The emotional, mental and spiritual fields can therefore also influence the physical body.

Many healers claim they channel energy from an Infinite Source, making it available to healees as needed. Others claim it is their own biological energies that enhance the energies of healees.

Finding a healer: Many types of healing are practised, including spiritual healing, Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, prayer healing, and more. In the UK the National Federation of Spiritual Healers can recommend healers in most parts of the country. It is often helpful to have a personal recommendation, as with any health care practitioner. Healing is particularly dependent on the gifts and personality of the practitioner, and on the delicate interactions between healer and healee

Key texts

Benor, D.J. (in press), Healing Research, Volume I (Revised Edition), Southfield, MI: Vision Publications.
Details a broad spectrum of healer practices and views. Places healing in the spectrum of parapsychological effects. Reviews 198 controlled studies of healing (in humans, animals, plants, bacteria, yeasts, cells in laboratory culture, DNA and more), as well as clinical studies and surveys of healee satisfaction.

Brennan, B, (1987) Hands of Light, New York: Bantam.
Excellent description of the energy aspects of healing and Brennan's clinical approaches, with illustrations of the energy bodies and chakras. Brennan left her work as an astrophysicist for NASA to found a school of healing in New York.

Krieger, D, (1993) Accepting Your Power to Heal: The Personal Practice of Therapeutic Touch, Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Co.
Excellent description of this method of laying-on of hands healing, developed by Krieger, a professor of nursing at New York University, with Dora Kunz, a gifted psychic and healer.

LeShan, L. (1974) The Medium, the Mystic and the Physicist: Toward a General Theory of the Paranormal, New York: Ballantine; UK edition -- Clairvoyant Reality, Wellingborough, England: Thorsons.
Outstanding discussion on states of mind and levels of reality through which healing occurs. LeShan, a psychologist, started out a skeptic, studied healers, developed his own method of teaching healing, now taught by Joyce Goodrich, PhD, in New York.

Gerber, R, (1988) Vibrational Medicine, Santa Fe, NM: Bear.
Excellent discussion of a spectrum of theories to explain energy medicine.

Casdorph, H. R. (1976) The Miracles, Plainfield, NJ: Logos International.
The best collection of medically documented clinical reports of healing, mostly by Kathryn Kuhlman, an American spiritual healer.

Rose, L, (1971) Faith Healing, London: Penguin.
Excellent historical review of healing. Rose, a medical doctor, explored the reports of healings by an extraordinary British healer, Harry Edwards. Shows the difficulties in retrospective clinical assessments of healing.

Benor, DJ, (1992) Intuitive diagnosis, Subtle Energies, 3(2), 41-64.
Clinical exploration of a simultaneous panel of healers reporting their energy field and intuitive perceptions of people with known medical diagnoses. Shows the challenges in research in intuitive, energy medicine.