08 Spiritual Healing.pptx

Spiritualism and Healing Andrew Jackson Davis • 
Andrew Jackson Davis became known as a "medical medium" (via mesmerism) as early as 1845, three years prior to the Fox sisters' demonstraGons of mediumship. • 
Under the influence of A.J. Davis, spiritual healing became an integral and universally accepted element of Spiritualism. • 
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According to Davis, “The best natural judgment, though crowned with the diplomaGc glory of a scienGfic educaGon, is oPen incapable of reaching with certainty below physical disturbances to their primal causes. In the detecGon of the hidden sources of human misery, and of the condiGons that generate corporeal discords, no sight less penetraGve than that of the genuine clairvoyant can ever avail much.... “ (1861) Davis never intended clairvoyant diagnosis to replace medical analysis, however: He wrote: "The careful instrucGons of the scienGfically-­‐trained judgment are to be preferred as superior, and as being more in harmony with raGonal sense,, than the blunderings of undeveloped or non-­‐medical clairvoyants." (1861) Contemporary North American Spiritualists argue essenGally the same thing today – that modern biomedicine and spiritual healing work together to produce the best healing, and that some illnesses have spiritual “primal causes” that biomedicine cannot detect. For example, one anthropologist who studies Spiritualists in Brazil includes the following quote: "Dr. Lacerda turned to the visitors to inform them that perhaps 75 to 80 percent of all illnesses begin on the astral body. Medicine... cannot treat them unGl they appear on the somaGc body... with apometry, however, the illnesses of the astral body can be treated quickly and easily by spirit doctors long before they ever appear on the flesh.” (Greenfield 1992:36) Contemporary Spiritualist healing •  The Healing prayer – recited at each worship service –  I ask the great Unseen Healing Force To remove all obstrucGons From my mind and body And to restore me to perfect health. I ask this in all sincerity and honesty And I will do my part. I ask this great Unseen Healing Force To help both present and absent ones Who are in need of help And to restore them to perfect health. I put my trust In the Love and Power of God. Laying on of Hands • 
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1. Healer prays/meditates 2. Ritually washes hands 3. Stands behind siher, hands on shoulders, for a few minutes to sense a diagnosis. 4. Once achieved (never spoken), healer gradually moves around siher to focus energy where needed. –  If the spirits have diagnosed a physical ailment, the healer will be drawn to move slowly around the siher with hands held two to three inches away from the body, with occasional touches at head, shoulders, back, hands, feet or other areas that need healing. –  If the diagnosis is of a spiritual or emoGonal nature, the healer will make sweeping gestures around the siher, starGng at the head and working down, with occasional touches on the floor to "ground" the siher's "vibraGon." Siher sits in “open posture” so as not to “block the vibraGons” Healing ends with phrase “God bless you,” or “Take this healing energy with you throughout the week.” Laying on of Hands • 
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Spiritualist laying on of hands is linked to Eastern idea of Chakras. Spiritualists integrate the alternaGve healing pracGce of Reiki into their laying on of hands. A healer will someGmes sense an imbalance in one or more of these areas, and send healing energies to the person via their healer/spirit guide: Root Chakra The root chakra is posiGoned at the bohom of the pelvis. The organs that are under it are the kidneys, adrenal glands, leg bones, large intesGnes, rectum, and spinal column. It is the chakra that keeps a person grounded to his physical existence. Sacral Chakra The Sacral Chakra is posiGoned on the navel. The whole reproducGve system belongs to it, including the bladder and spleen. This chakra can fuel one's creaGvity, emoGons, and sexuality. Solar Plexus Chakra This chakra directly affects the liver, stomach, gall bladder, small intesGnes, and pancreas. It is associated with a person's intellectual processes. The Solar Plexus Chakra is also the seat of power. Once open and balanced, it can transform all of your aspiraGons and hopes into reality. Heart Chakra As its name implies, this chakra is posiGoned right on the heart. It controls many of the funcGons associated with the heart, including the arms, lower lungs, skin, and the thymus gland. This is the chakra of the enGre circulatory system. The Heart Chakra is the one that creates the link from the physical world towards spiritual existence. It is also the center of one's emoGons, especially the emoGon of love. Throat Chakra The throat chakra controls the thyroid gland, throat, jaw, upper lungs, and vocal chords. It may also affect the digesGve system. This chakra governs a person's ability to communicate. It also inspires mental creaGvity. Third-­‐eye Chakra The third-­‐eye chakra corresponds to the brain, nose, face, eyes, and almost all of the organs situated in the head. It also has power over the lower brain, pituitary gland, and the central nervous system. This is the chakra that opens one's intuiGon. It allows a person to visualize, manifest, and even create visions beyond ordinary sight. Crown Chakra The crown chakra corresponds to the person's whole being. It is one's direct connecGon to the spirit. It can lead the way on the path towards universal existence. It is also through this chakra that one can experience inner peace. It opens the path towards spiritual wisdom and can enhance one's psychic abiliGes. • 
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Kim: "The paGent you first get will determine which guides will work with you. If I start off with a chest complaint, that's what I get all night. People are drawn to me who all have the same complaint, because that is the kind of doctor I have working with me that night." Vera: "There is all kinds of spirits, doctors that have passed on, in spirit, and every one of them has a specialty, or is best at something.... one says `I just can't come up with the right cure, I didn't work enough with rheumaGsm,' there's going to be another one who says `Ah, but I did and I have found this to be very effecGve let ME work through Vera for a while.'" • 
Stan: "I and a few friends were doing the table one Gme and we didn't have a quesGon to ask, so I asked `How many doctors do I have working with me?' Well, it went knock knock, knock knock a number of Gmes and then stopped. So I asked, `Is that it?' And it said no, so I asked `How many more?' and it said thirty-­‐five hundred. I got thirty-­‐five hundred doctors working with me. I got father and son heart doctors. I got an osteopath who comes through lots of the Gme. An osteopath is just like a chiropractor, only they can do surgery.” • 
Ann: "When I heal, the doctors who work through me can SEE what's wrong with a person. They don't need x-­‐rays or cat scans to see what's wrong.... For me, that's hard, because of being clairvoyant, 'cause I would see body parts, and I thought, what's THIS, it's like, yech! So aPerward I would get medical books, and figure it out, cause they would give me big words, I'd hear these great big words about diseases and how you're supposed to do this or that and it will get beher, or see this doctor or that, and I thought, this is nuts! So I had to get MEDICAL books with PICTURES, because it drove me so crazy, 'cause I couldn't believe what parts I was seeing unGl aPer I'd seen them in print!" • 
Spirit Doctors Healing of Colors • 
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Healing of Colours most oPen occurs in the clairvoyant porGon of the Spiritualist church service. In Healing of Colours, the medium usually idenGfies the source of the message as a loved one or family member, or occasionally as a spirit guide. This spirit tells the medium that someone in the congregaGon is suffering from a parGcular problem, which the spirit wishes to help alleviate. In my own case, a "spirit vibraGon on my mother's links" informed the medium that I had been expending too much energy on my studies and that this had weakened me physically, leaving me Gred. I agreed that I had been very busy and was feeling Gred lately, at which point the medium told me that this spirit was sending me the colour red, to replenish my energy. The medium idenGfies both the problem and the specific colour soluGon: yellow is sent for pain relief, white for protecGon, blue or green for healing, red for strength, pink for love or emoGonal support, gold or purple for spiritual development. This type of healing does not require any physical contact between the medium and the person who receives it. Absent Healing • 
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EssenGally healing by prayer. Names of those who need healing are placed on a list, and the congregaGon focuses healing energies via concentraGon, and sends them to the person in need. Healers can contact their healing spirit guides to help channel the energy. Trance Healing • 
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Healer enters full possession trance. Spirit Guide is trained in some kind of medicine – western biomedicine, Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, etc. Treatment specific to spirit guide – varies widely. Not so common anymore – increasing re-­‐evaluaGon by Spiritualists on advisability of full possession trance. – 
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`Only a low spirit would barge in and take over control of another person's body. `We have personal responsibility, and that means responsibility for our bodies. To give up control of your body to another person is morally wrong. What kind of spirit would take that kind of control from you?' "too many people are allowing any old thing to take control of them... You wouldn't lend your car to just anyone so why do that with your body? A wise being will not ask you to surrender complete control.... Only an evil or under-­‐
developed enGty will ask or demand that we surrender completely to their will, lerng them assume complete control.” Rev. Baines: “I'm a first class healer. Had the giP for about ten years now... the doctors in the spirit world use me as a medium to pass their knowledge through me to the afflicted. Like they all get together for a consultaGon and they say, `Well, let's try such-­‐and-­‐such,' and they try it through my hands. That's a lot of expensive talent, you know! Dr. BanGng, Louis Pasteur, Hippocrates. They are all way ahead of us in research.” Psychic Surgery • 
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Non-­‐North American Spiritualist (SpiriGst) In South America, the modern introducGon of psychic surgery can be traced to Zé (José) Arigo, the Brazilian trance medium and healer who became somewhat famous in the 1960's as the "surgeon of the rusty knife" (Fuller 1974). North American Spiritualists someGmes make pilgrimage to Brazil to experience it. IntervenGonist – surgical incisions under trance. Psychic Surgery • 
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Max: "The guy with the needles [Dr. Geddes], that I was talking about before, [pointed to] this poor girl that was with us. She's the first one, she's one of those kind of people that steps forward, and this guy goes into trance, and he says "Okay, let's go," and he puts her on the table, and he does an enGre operaGon on the small of her back. I mean, he CUT her open, using all kinds of instruments, yeah, he'd clip them on and then he goes for another one, did the whole number on her, with the clamps and everything. She says to Marco [the Spiritualist coordinator of the pilgrimage to Brazil], she says "Hold my hand, Marco." This guy hasn't got any training, he's in trance. He's a beer salesman!... And this is the guy in the book, you know, the surgeon with the rusty knife.* And no anaesthesia, you know, and no, no anaesthesia and no, ah, what do you call it? AnGsepGc. No anGsepGc… And you know what else? All the Gme he's curng, his eyes are closed. I'm serious! He's in trance, he's in trance..." (* Max is incorrect in this asserGon, for Max witnessed this scene in Brazil in the summer of 1991 -­‐ twenty years aPer the death of José Arigo. It is possible, however, that Max meant to imply that Dr. Geddes works under the influence of Dr. Fritz, the spirit surgeon who also worked with Arigo – to date (and to my knowledge!) there have been 6 different psychic surgeons who have claimed, sequenGally, to channel Dr. Adolf Fritz.) • 
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Elizabeth: "When we got to this Mr. Geddes, he said, "You're supposed to come tomorrow," but we said "No, we're here now." We were leaving [Brazil] the next day, so it was either see him that night or not at all. And he, the last Gme when we were there, last year, he had twelve mediums sit in meditaGon for half an hour before he went into trance, and then he had all kinds of helpers around him, nurses and people calling people up, and I mean, a full house so to speak, and [this Gme] it's just us and he's saying he's not going to do it. And we all held hands and did a lihle circle and prayed, you know... And ALL of a sudden out of NOWHERE he just went into trance, and he banged the table and said, "Let's go." And his WIFE said "NO, NO, you can't!" She was afraid, 'cause all the mediums weren't there, you know, for the energy... But we were all healers, too, you know, maybe not to the extent that he is, but we knew, you know, to keep sending love and support. So he worked on all the people who were there. And the first one that he worked on was someone who was having a lot of trouble with the small of her back, and he just took a knife and opened her back up and took lihle chips of bone out of her spine, there must have been something wrong, I don't know quite what it was, and then he just closed his hand over her and it looked like, the holes that you would see from sewing, but there was no sGtches, but it looked like sGtches, and I watched that girl throughout the week and by the end of the week there was nothing but a thin red line. And lihle pin holes... it just healed, so quickly.” Psychic Surgery