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Posted: 22-09-2002 02:02 Post subject: Faith Healing

What's everyone's views on this? Has anyone had a personal experience?

When I was in my first job, in my mid-twenties, I used to suffer periodically from quite painful ear infections. One day I was suffering quite badly from such an infection (it was very painful and myear had completely 'bunged up') and my friend at work suggested I speak to one of the lads down in the foundry. He was at the time in his early twenties and, while not mentally deficient or anything like that, he was a bit 'slow'. However, he attended the local spiritualist church and was, I was told, a 'trainee faith healer'.

My friend, who was eager for an excuse to satisfy her curiosity about such matters, got him to come up to my office and have a go at 'healing' me. I must stress that I had a completely open mind about this. I was as interested as my friend to see what he would do and had already decided that it probably wouldn't work but, if it did, well and good. Whatever happened, I decided, I would be no worse off.

I sat in my chair and he stood behind me and put one hand on each side of my head over my ears and, according to my friend who was watching avidly, he was muttering a prayer to himself. As he stood behind me I felt my affected ear begin to feel rather hot (the same sort of sensation that your face feels hot when you blush).

After a couple of minutes, he took his hands away and said just to let him know if anything happened. Throughout the afternoon the hot sensation in my ear continued and, a couple of hours or so after my 'treatment', my ear 'popped', my hearing was restored and the pain was gone.

I told my 'healer' what had happened and he just smiled and said 'I thought so'.

I must stress again that I had an open mind about this at the time and, if anything, was rather sceptical.

I didn't suffer from any ear infections again, until two years ago, when I had the mother of all infections and was away from work for two weeks . . . Sad

Carole

Posted: 22-09-2002 03:07 Post subject:

I am a believer Carole. As far as I know there hasn't been a single spiritual tradition anywhere at anytime that hasn't believed in healing. I am a Christian now, but I'm not as yet a regular church goer. I'm still looking for a church that feels right to me, and that includes the possibility of the laying on of hands.

I practiced an American Indian spiritual tradition for a time, which did include regular healing ceremonies. Everyone was considered capable of healing and was welcome to take part. When the shaman was asked to do a healing, everyone present would help from a distance. I laid hands on others and once requested a personal healing from the shaman. The shaman's healing was a singular experience in my life. I experienced a release of fear unlike anything I had felt before. I really don't know what it was he healed in me. It may have been physical or it may have been emotional. I was suffering from a love affair gone bad at the time. The physical concern which prompted me to request the healing never materialized. I've had a level of willingness to accept God's will ever since then that is much greater than I had before.

I personally believe that when we lay hands on another, we are only vessels that direct the healing energy of God. Heat is something regularly experienced by both the healer and recipient. There are many different styles of healing within some tribes, but my natural tendency is to pass whatever it is through my own body/mind. I had positive feedback from recipients, but that way is painful for the healer, and probably dangerous. I hope to learn the Christian way at some point.

Posted: 22-09-2002 03:27 Post subject:

No direct personal experience, but my mother went to a faith healer during her hunt for relief from her chronic back pain. She's very religious, and inclined towards evangelism, despite seeming fairly comfortable in the Church of Scotland, (which organization isn't exactly notorious for 'witnessing'). Before she went to the healer, she'd tried all the conventional pain remedies prescribed by doctors and specialists (essentially surgery and opiates), but while the faith healer was something of a last resort there was no doubt in my mother's mind that it would work.

It didn't.

So she tried again. And that didn't work either. (So far as I know, she only tried the 2 healers, both highly recommended, and neither of whom were able to do a thing for her.)

She didn't get any relief at all until her GP talked her into trying acupuncture (which at the time she was convinced was 'mere superstition'.) It worked better than anything else.

Posted: 22-09-2002 03:42 Post subject: My lil' experience

I saw a faith healer in the single paranormal psychology class that I had in college.

To set the stage: the whole quarter, I sat behind and older, generally skeptical fellow in class. He thought the overall topic was interesting, but wasn't a "believer". He was an old southern buisnessman who needed an elective to round out his degree, hence his attendence in class.

About 2/3 of the way through the quarter, our teacher brought in an old souther faith healer. She was dressed a bit like Dolly Parton, was very Southern, and attributed her healing abilities to God. But other than a little spiel at the begining about her faith, she didn't bring it up. We were told she would pick some people in need, and the skeptical old dude in front of me was one of two people she picked. She accurately diagnosed that he had an old football injury that had been acting up for him, and she healed him by placing her hands in various places, holding for a moment, then moving on.

Every week after that, the skeptic guy was a believer, and said that his condition hadn't came back, and that he and the one other woman in class had a pleasant dream with the healer that was part of the healing process - that her presence was cleansing.

(Every time I re-read this passage, it sounds pretty "purple")

Of course, he could have been a plant to boister the idea that she was a real healer, but who would sit through a whole class just to be a plant? Plus, he seemed pretty honest to me.

Posted: 22-09-2002 22:10 Post subject:

OK, so if some people have this particular power of 'healing' what exactly might it be? With my own experience, I wasn't expecting to be healed, but I apparently was. I might add that my ear infections used to follow a route of gradually getting better and my hearing gradually returning rather than suddenly, as happened in this case.

So do some people have a particular power in their hands? No doubt with some people who claim to be healed, there is the 'placebo' effect, and, of course, some are fakes to boost the reputation of the 'healer'. But I'm convinced my 'healing', however it happened, was genuine.

For those of the Christian faith, Jesus is described in the Gospels as healing various people. Was he a faith healer, or are such powers natural to the Son of God??

Carole

Posted: 29-09-2002 15:19 Post subject:

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Posted: 09-06-2004 07:13 Post subject:

One of my daughters had a healing experience a few years ago when she was about 13.

She'd badly sprained her wrist and it was painful. A friend of mine asked her mate, who was apparently a healer, to look at it.
He held his hands around the wrist for a moment, not touching her at all.

Daughter says she felt a sort of bolt of heat hit her wrist at the painful point, after which the warmth spread up her arm and down to her hand. The wrist felt instantly better and she took off the sling and bandage. The wrist looked normal and she was able to use it right away.

The healer was a bloke in his 50s called Graham. He was tall, ginger and rather fat, and walked with a stick. A very nice bloke though, courteous and humorous.
I was told he was diabetic and remember thinking, he's not long for this world, which sadly he wasn't. Sad

Posted: 09-06-2004 18:49 Post subject:

Erm, if he was such a good healer, why did he walk with a stick:confused:

Posted: 09-06-2004 19:04 Post subject:

Folk belief about this is that they can't heal themselves.
Otherwise they'd turn their energies towards their own health and general well-being and be tempted to use the healing ability for profit instead of for doing good.

Also, their own suffering reminds them of the need of those in pain to be healed, and of course recalls the suffering of Christ who was himself a healer.

Hmph

Posted: 10-06-2004 19:09 Post subject:

Couldn't they just pair up and do each other?

This kind of thing always reminds me of Vineyard founder John Wimber, who was famed for revitalising the charismatic movement in the 1980s and early 90s. One of his main selling points was his healing ministry, and many many wonderous claims were made as to its achievements.

Unfortunately for Mr Wimber, they came to b*gger all when he got throat cancer.

Posted: 10-06-2004 19:47 Post subject:

It should be a fairly simple matter to test the abilities of a faith healer under controlled conditions. Has it ever been done?

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