Hi folks.  I thought I'd start a series about healing, from some of the lesser known healers from the past. Here to start off, is the subject of Cancer and healing.
 
      Some cancer patients have received  successful treatments  from  a ‘natural' or spiritual healer such as  Harry Edwards, George Chapman, and Stephen Turoff, and in Brazil, Arigo (de Freitas)  and Tomas .....
They are sometimes called  psychic surgeons, because their healing guide (who does all the work) was once a practicing surgeon, now no longer with us, but able to carry on operating, through the healer.   Another such healer was Tom Pilgrim, who sent me an autographed
copy of his autobiography a dozen years ago.  He since passed away himself in 2002 at the age of 92.  He had a German surgeon working through him, one Dr. Robert Koch (1844 - 1910), a Nobel prize-winner (for his tuberculosis research).  My great uncle Ernest Weatherhead knew of him, since he was himself a tuberculosis specialist in practice from 1900 to 1950.
During WW I he survived the Gallipoli campaign.  He told me he enjoyed the excitement of war, in spite of the tragic loss of life.  Well, I don't know about you, but I think war is not the best way to go about things, but it still seems to be the last resort.
     Anyway, Tom had a number of successful cures of cancer cases amongst others, where orthodox or ‘allopathic' medicine had given up.   He himself went to a spiritualist healer for a nasty  stomach ulcer which ordinary medicine had failed to cure, even after a year's treatment.  The healer, J. J. Thomas, had this Dr. Robert Koch as his guide, who, once J.J. was
in trance, came through and thumped Tom on the stomach.   Tom relates what happened next:
 
    ‘ "No good," said the spirit doctor.  "I'm going to take this ulcer out. It will take twenty minutes.
Do you want to talk?"
     "Yes," I answered, and whilst he was operating, he told me the story of my life from childhood to that day.
     "We know more about you than you know yourself," he commented.
     "Spirit operations" are performed on the etheric counterpart of the physical body: they take place in a different dimension, and so you never feel any pain
when the actual operation is carried out, but the results are transferred to the physical body, which has to "catch up" as it were and that is a process you may feel.
     "Tomorrow you may have much pain," said Dr. Robert when the operation was over; "but don't regret having come here.  When you're in pain, just call me.
Say: "help me, Dr. Robert", and I shall be there.  The pain will become less each day and at the end of a week you'll be cured.  I'm leaving now.  Speak to my medium."
     Mr. Thomas came out of trance, an astonished expression on his face:  "You are going to do this work yourself one day," he said.
     My cure happened exactly as Dr. Robert had foretold.  After a week of intermittent spasms of pain and frequent calls for help, which Dr. Robert always
answered, I was fine.  When I went back to my ordinary doctor, and X-rays showed that my ulcer had disappeared, he was astounded.
     "It was a large, serious ulcer! How come it is no longer there?" he asked in great puzzlement; but he was an open-minded man, and when I told him I had been
to see a spiritual healer he said: "Good for you!"
     The other prediction also came true: round about 1960, after J.J. Thomas had passed on, I became Dr. Robert's medium.
     In the beginning I used to go into trance when Dr. Robert took over, just as Thomas had done, but I didn't like it.  I wanted to know what was going on and what was being said, which of course I couldn't, being in deep trance.  When I asked Dr Robert what I could do about it, he advised me to have some music playing during the healing.
     "Music will act as a kind of ‘anchor' to your consciousness, preventing it from being blotted out completely; it will be dimmed whilst I'm taking over, but you'll be aware of what's happening.
     It's a method that works very well for me and I've been using it for many years now; but if for any reason I treat a patient without music - off I go into
a trance!'
 
    I digress. I  intended to quote a few of his rare but documented cancer cures;  here goes:-
 
     ‘Mary Reilly, a young woman of twenty-two and mother of a baby girl, belongs to the rare cases where a cancer cure was achieved.
     As I've mentioned before, cancer is one of the most difficult diseases to heal, but progress is being made.  Dr. Robert has told me of the great efforts made in the spirit world to find ways of dealing with this scourge of mankind.
     "Man will not find a cure as long as he misuses animals in cruel experiments in his research laboratories.  This is not the way.  Never will health be found by the torture of creatures who are ‘man's lesser brethren'.  Nature will provide the answer when
man has learnt to live by the laws of the Great Spirit."
     Mary Reilly had no great hopes when she arrived for her first appointment.  Her doctor had diagnosed an ‘active uterine cancer' and she had decided to come and see me before submitting to an operation.  She was very depressed, but listened attentively to all I told
her about spirit healing and my ‘spirit doctor'.
     When I told her after the last healing session that Dr. Robert wanted to assure her that the cancer had completely disappeared, she brightened considerably, but was not one hundred per cent convinced.
     To her immense joy her doctor, as well as his laboratory, confirmed what they almost refused to believe: the cancer had indeed vanished.'
 
     ‘When "Rosemary" came for healing during our last stay in Victoria, B.C. in Canada we didn't really know what was wrong with her.  She just complained of feeling run down and asked if she could have healing for general debility.
     Well, the real reason for her wanting healing was that she had a lump in one of her breasts and had been told that it was malignant.  She had said nothing about this to anybody, except to one close friend.  I had no idea of the seriousness of her case.
     Dr. Robert, however, went straight to the affected breast, telling me as he did so that this was breast cancer - early stage - and that he could cure it.
     At the end of her healing session Rosemary broke down and burst into tears.  She cried and cried, and not knowing that Dr. Robert had already told me the truth, she confessed the real reason of her plea for healing.
     She had been worried stiff when she had discovered the lump and had gone straight to her doctor. The examination confirmed her worst fears.
The lump was diagnosed as a cancerous tumour.  She was in utter despair.  Under no circumstance did she want to have her breast removed - I was her last hope.
     Two weeks after Dr. Robert's treatment she went back to the hospital for another examination.  This time the result was negative.  The astonished medical men and their colleagues at the lab admitted that there was no trace of cancer.  The lump had disappeared.    A month later, when we were back in England, we received a charming letter from Rosemary.
  "Tom," she writes, "I can never thank you  enough for the wonderful healing you gave me.  To be free of the lump in my breast is a true miracle."'
 
     ‘One of the first really remarkable healing successes I, or to be more correct, Dr. Robert
achieved, was with a man desperately ill with leukaemia.
     This particular person was a real ne'er-do-well; a materialist who didn't believe in anything ‘spiritual' whatever. I was through his wife, who turned to me as a last resort, that I got to know of this case.  According to medical opinion there was no hope.  Hospital treatment had been discontinued.
     For two months I went to his house regularly twice a week to give him healing.  He submitted to it without enthusiasm, not believing for a moment that it could work.
     One evening, when I placed my hands on him to give the usual five to ten minutes healing, I felt an odd burning sensation in my fingertips and when I
withdrew my hands I saw that I had a large black blister on the tip of each finger. Painful they were too!
     "I'm drawing out the bad blood and replacing it by a fresh supply," I heard Dr. Robert say.  The blisters are caused by the bad blood.  Don't worry, they'll disappear again quite quickly."  Which, thank God, they did.
     This was the turning point.  From that day on the patient improved rapidly until a complete cure was achieved.
     It caused a sensation!  The doctors at the hospital were non-plussed.  At the time - it happened over twenty-five years ago - no effective medical treatment for leukaemia was known.  Patients always died sooner or later.
     The medics at the hospital certainly did not accept that the cure was due to "spiritual healing".
The final verdict was that my patient's cure was due to "remission!"  Whatever that may have meant, the man is still alive today, enjoying a healthy old age.'
 
    Of course, some patients arrive with the disease too far progressed for a cure, and Tom is quite honest about such cases.  He and the spirit doctor try their best with advanced stages of throat cancer or rheumatoid arthritis, ease the pain and assist with a smooth transition when the final moment arrives.  He does not believe in euthanasia, but helping accept the inevitable and easing the pain are matters of love and compassion, and a totally different outlook towards death.

     Excerpts taken from "Autobiography of a Spiritualist Healer" by Tom Pilgrim, Sphere Books
Limited, London.  1982
 
 
Spirit and distant healing (3) Healing notes from Sylvia Browne's new book, and more from Brother Mandus.

I bring these cases of healing and of spirit communications from long ago to share with you since often the most recent cases can't be discussed because many of the people concerned are still living, and wish to retain their privacy and anonymity. Probably many on the List have recent cases or stories which have to remain unpublished for now for this reason.
However, some writers have obtained permission from their clients to tell their story, and Sylvia Browne has been able to do that in her latest book, "Insight: Case Files from the Psychic World." [Dutton. New York. 2006]. It is a good read, covering her 50 years as a medium and one chapter contains cases of healing. According to her, there are five elements that are essential to every case of contact or distant healing: God, Prayer, Belief, Affirmation (that healing is possible) and Knowledge of when it is time for us to let go and move back to the world of spirit (our true Home). This last element she calls the Exit Point, and explains it in detail in a separate chapter.
She acknowledges that the medium or healer doesn't heal, but is merely the facilitator. God, the Great Spirit or Infinite Intelligence, effects the healing with the help of the spirits, guides and helpers close at hand. Examples of healing in her book include several cases of cancer, leukemia, encephalitis, drug addiction, tendonitis, kidney infection, heart trouble, eye lesions, various pains and stiffness of joints, irritable bowel syndrome and remission from ALS and MS. Her church does a daily healing prayer ritual similar to SpiritualismList's.
In the book there is also a brief account of the world's psychic history and the development of Modern Spiritualism, and many of her cases over the years including police and missing persons work, and she mentions some fraudulent mediums and psychic hotlines she has exposed, sued and closed down, including a few copycat "Silvia Browns!" Her websites are: www.sylvia.org and www.novus.org

Now, here are a few more excerpts from the autobiography of Brother Mandus (9th January 1907 - 8th March 1988), a non-denominational healer, who founded what became a world-wide healing sanctuary in Blackpool. Although not a Spiritualist, he was well aware that the spirits were working with him, and he noticed that whenever mediums were present at his healings, they could see the presences, and the auras surrounding the patients.

"An elderly lady hobbled in one day, locked up with arthritis in every joint. She could not use her fingers or lift her arms. Her back was bent and her legs semi-locked. In twenty minutes she was almost completely free. Her arms and fingers unlocked. Her back became straight. She ran up and down the Sanctuary, stretched her arms above her head, touched her toes and cried with joy. All her pains had melted away like a handful of snow in a fire.
I remember a gentle lady with a very serious heart disorder and kidney trouble of many years' standing. She was never free from backache and her heart was pulsing and bumping in a most alarming manner. During the first treatment her kidneys were perfectly healed and she has never had the slightest trouble or pain since. Her heart quietened at the same time and in three or four weeks it was as well as mine. She has run a private hotel of her own ever since.
One of my wonderful experiences was with an old lady, eighty years old. I was called out to her home and found her wracked with pain in her stomach and right side. She had some years previously had an operation on the liver for removal of cancer and this wretchedness was gripping her again. I laid my hands on her swollen side and asked God to manifest His Perfection there NOW. Suddenly it seemed as though I could "see" inside her body. In my "vision" was what appeared to be a fold of the liver. On the surface there was an ugly growth. Then a pencil-like shaft of brilliant white Light moved from side to side over the affected part, and whenever the Light touched the ill cells they melted away. When the vision faded I thank the Father, and she was healed. All the swelling and pain had gone. She has never had any return to this day - 18 months of freedom.
Whenever we can get out of the way, all the ever-present Love is longing to sweep us clean. How simple and natural it is!"

Another man was healed of osteo-arthritis of the legs, for which he had to wear a spinal jacket. After the healing, he was able to walk long distances and return to a full day's work. His daughter had earlier been healed through absent healing of a long-standing skin disease. An 86-year-old lady had her vision restored after near-blindness, and a case of multiple sclerosis was cleared completely in a few minutes, and a year later, there was no recurrence. An ankle ulcer that wouldn't heal was treated for ten minutes, by prayer and the laying of a hand over the place, and by the next morning it was completely healed.
A man came along with the ‘uncurable' silicosis. The poor chap could only breathe with difficulty. He said he worked where there was a lot of stone dust, and his illness was due to the dust clogging the respiratory organs, where it set like stone. God took it all away. We all felt it happen simultaneously, and joyfully declared our realization of his release. His breathing was quite normal, and he was thrilled to feel his lungs full of cold air again.
I do not wish to place too much emphasis on instantaneous healings. They illus trate the point that all things can be wrought through prayer and that, from God's side, his perfection is an instantaneous power like light blazing into darkness. Many healings take place over a period of time, and people who persist in seeking the Great Light become richly blessed in many other ways as well as eventually receiving their healing. Unfortunately, there are those who have tried every kind of remedy for years, and failed to get relief. If they are not then instantly hea led when they come very hesitantly to God, they will not persist and thereby miss a great opportunity the Father had opened out for them. We receive according to our ability to realize and accept the perfection that is always there. The law is perfect and we must learn to abide by it.
The greatest field of exploration left to humans is in the realm of Divine Mind. What an adventure for those who will rise up to do and to dare! The world is hungry for the simple Truth. You, my beloved friends, can be pioneers in the ranks of those who bring Light into darkness. Pray with faith and love - then you can heal and transform your own life and the lives of all who touch yours. From this very hour you can begin to leave trails of blessings behind you down the years - and many will bless the day you came their way. And God will bless you.

In absent or distant healing we find that God requires no intermediary to span the space of a continent or a world. We ask, and if we accept, healing and blessings are inevitable. Daily prayers and our friendship and teaching are gladly offered to anyone in any part of the world. Prayer in the Sanctuary is clear and definite. Our minds are not hampered by pain or distress* and, as proven by absent healing records, wonderful blessings enfold those who will steadfastly join us in seeking that union with God which brings health and happiness and new life."

*[This does not mean that we ignore the pain and disease, or refuse regular or allopathic medicine. Medical science is God's work, too. At the time of spirit healing we merely hang our illness or our client's illness on the hat stand, along with our hat and coat, at the door, ‘epoche' before we go into our literal or mental Sanctuary, and put our focus on the spirit body, and the healing power of spirit, from higher sources, whether these are conceived of as God, the Great Spirit, Divine Love-Intelligence, one of the prophets or masters, healing doctors or other guides and helpers]. Richard T.C. R.

"A lady came to me once and said, ‘Were you taking a healing service last Sunday? I was ill with neuritis. Suddenly I realized the pain had disappeared.' Things like that happen all the world over. We are to be more spiritual in our lives and through our behaviour pass to others the greatest message that the world has ever known. [‘There is no death. The life of the spirit continues for ever in love and joy.....'] Become a living flame of service. It is not good for the minister, pastor, healer or medium to do all the work. Both people and pastors should create a living unity of the absolute power of spirit. You should do your part. Then we all become channels for God's work.

I live in a world of people who are seeking truth, happiness, health or success. They are conscious of a deep need, and for many God has become the last resort after every other channel of hope has failed. I am daily confronted by trouble, manifesting as physical illness, disturbed mental states, problems in home or business, together with worry, fear, or distress about the condition requiring adjustment.
All these ills MUST have a cause. If we seek to remove the effect and leave the cause untouched, the distortion will naturally re-appear in the same or some other form. Causes always produce equivalent effects. As we live in a spiritual-mental universe, and because our lives represent the sum total of our mental experiences, there must be a mental cause for any condition of misery or joy manifesting now. Our thoughts, reactions to life and environment from birth have created the personality we now express and, to a large extent, the states of health or sickness, success or failure, happiness or unhappiness through which we pass.
The human tragedy is that we are forever seeking forcibly to eject the effects, the ills or troubles, but seldom attack the cause. It is like looking through the wrong end of a telescope or trying to disperse darkness without putting on the light.
In my experience most sickness in the mind, body or affairs, is cause by long sustained fear, worry, bitterness, resentment, hatred, selfishness, criticisms, emotional conflicts due to maladjustment at home or at work, shocks, frustration of maternal or paternal instincts, grief, remorse, guilt, parental pressure and restriction during childhood, anger, dislike of vocation, and wrong or negative thinking of any kind.
The disturbed condition manifesting outwardly is the equivalent of an inner mental state. ‘As within, so without,' for what is held in mind must be pictured forth into outer manifestation. It is not always possible to isolate the specific mental cause, especially when it belongs to some past experience, which has long been forgotten. Nevertheless millions of us are daily thinking ourselves into misery and death, and it is high time we tackled the real causes of our personal and world troubles. There is a way, thank God, by which every inner tension, known or unknown, can be swept aside forever.
The majority of us, of course, are daily sowing the seeds of good wheat and thistles indiscriminately mixed. We do not always understand that the harvest is still produced of both kinds. The good farmer gets rid of the weeds and thistle in his field, and enjoys his greatest abundance of good crop. When we think this and survey the world scene we begin to understand the cause of national and international tribulation. We are all one with each other, part of the whole, and our individual conflicts in the world body. Mankind is quite capable of destroying itself physically and materially by hatreds, resentments, selfishness, greed etc. - all mental states of mind held in some degree by most of us.
It all adds up to this: the evolution of our individual happiness, health, success and eternal progress is advanced or retarded exactly according to the negative or positive quality of our thoughts. The evolution of our families, and friends, our nation and the world society is also your responsibility and mine, as individuals whose thought-power affects all.
In short, it is all a matter of plain commonsense. As soon as we know the truth about the destructive power of negative thoughts we change our minds. It is easier to think positively than it is to torture ourselves with black thoughts. And when we disintegrate our weakness by allowing Divine Power to help us, then it is the simplest of all processes. We decide to think with God and Spirit in all experiences, and all the Love of God is immediately right there. It involves a decision as simple as a choice between rotting fruit and luscious pears, or a frozen windswept cave and the warm hearth of a loving home."

[To be continued, with actual examples of negative thoughts CAUSING disease from Brother Mandus and Richard R.].

 Cases of Spirit and Distant Healing (4) Looking at the causes of illness, not just the symptoms.

The Causes of diseases and physical and mental illness, as best we can figure it out, from Brother Mandus, Louise Hay and Arthur Guirdham.

Brother Mandus was saying that most illness fundamentally resides in the mind.
"A lady was healed of a prolapse of the womb caused by a miscarriage after three months pregnancy. This couple had no children. The mother longed for a child but was fearful about bearing it. This was the third false birth, and the first intensified her fears and frustration to such an extent that she was convinced she could not successfully bring forth a baby in the normal way. In turn the second and third failures resulted.
The intense emotional-fear conflict in the mind exactly expresses its equivalent in the abandonment of the pregnancy and, in the third instance, produced physical distortion in a prolapse.
The healing took place by allowing God to take complete control and accepting His elimination of every false concept.
We all know how prevalent is the painful and crippling condition of arthritis. And of all complaints it is so clearly expressive of the restricting tensions of fear, worry, resentment, grief, bitterness, or escape from the responsibilities of life. It is also one of the easiest of ills to disperse when full cooperation is given in the cultivation of right thinking and prayer. I am thinking of the lady who was suddenly released from the crippling grip of this malady in the Sanctuary. As her mind leapt in eager response to Divine Love, her spine, arms, hands and legs gladly accepted the same health and harmony.
She told me a sad story. A cultured lady well traveled; yet her life was a trail of frustrations. Her childhood had been very unhappy, fearful of her father, haunted down the years by troubles and insecurity even when things were going well. When war came she was in France and the tide of German invasion flowed over her.
She got into trouble with the occupying authorities and spent some time in a concentration camp. Her conflicts and fears became concentrated into an intense bitterness, bitterness, resentment and hatred towards everyone exercising authority in the prison, and very soon the venom in her mind, the fear, perhaps terror, gripped her body in the same bondage. The mental pains, torments and bitterness had to manifest outwardly also.
We can have nothing but compassion for people caught in such traps, especially when largely caused by the inhumanity of others. So many troubles are not the fault of the individual who suffers, and the reaction of the victim to circumstances is often instinctive and without any understanding of the destructive power being liberated into the self. We can only check this wastage by realizing the power of thought and taking preventive action. When we know the truth we cease to think negatively just as surely as we guard against sitting on a fire, drinking poison or breaking the laws of the country in which we reside.
I met another lady who was bound in mind and body by these chains. In this case the mental conflicts, fears, resentments and frustrations were all bubbling and frothing in the conscious mind. Some of the resentments were fierce and strong, and particularly set against a vicious father in years gone past. The astonishing truth that gripped my mind when I met her was that the entire condition, from the widely surging and strongly emotional thought stream to the arthritis-locked joints, was ready to evaporate like snow on a summer's day. Her conflicts and fears, including a rotted fear of men, a longing to escape from the responsibility of facing up to life, put her out of action physically. Yet, potentially, there was a wonderful strength of character, a spiritual power and capacity, just waiting to be unleashed into positive, constructive living. And as the light of understanding and Divine Love broke through, the mind began to claim its freedom and the crippled joints ‘sang' the same song.
Whenever we try to run away from life, from our responsibilities, even when done ‘unconsciously, we are heading for trouble.
There is the example of the baby Timothy, gripped with pain, unable to take his milk, refusing to put on weight. The child was perfectly all right in himself, but was locked in the grip of over-anxious, fearful, mother love. When this lady, a really wonderful soul, wrote to me, God showed me exactly what was the trouble. I replied and fortunately she was able to release the baby, and herself, to the Great Father in perfect trust that all was now well. The child's pains and troubles ceased from the day intercession, or prayer, began.
I have observed with precision, and sorrow, that so many children suffer through parental fears. Asthma, bronchitis, fevers, throat and nasal disorders, stomach troubles, sickness, nerve tension and almost any ill can be so quickly and easily caused by the terrific impact of a parent's intense love, loaded with fear for the child's safety. Thoughts are living things and children are so sensitive to the immediate environment and the thoughts of all with whom they come into contact. Guard these precious ones and let your love enfold them under the protection of God. Children quickly respond to the thoughts of those who love them. Eliminate fear; quarrelling between parents, anger [one of the seven capital or deadly sins - there's no excuse for ‘road rage' either, it includes the other sins of impatience and intolerance. R.R.] resentments and all conflicts of negative thought, and through the infinitely more powerful God thoughts, these children heal quicker than they become ill.
I should emphasize that we cannot always trace the mental cause of any given ill. There must be a cause in the inner realm of the mind somewhere; it might even be a cause originating in the mind of one of our forebears.
Neither can we say that all cancers, for instance, originate through hatred, resentment and bitterness only, for the mind reflects an equivalent according to the individual thought pattern. Mental causes are often a complicated pattern of fears, frustrations, emotions, resentments and irritations. It is enough to recognize clearly that negative thought of any kind will inevitably thrust forth trouble in some form or other into the body and jar the life experience as expressed in work, business or play. Quite apart from the inevitable physical distortions resulting from every kind of negative thought, the real suffering is in the mind. People in the grip of worry, resentments, bitterness, selfishness, grief and conflicts are unhappy and often become overwhelmed by constantly recurring difficulties, which appear to be greater than their capacity to overcome. Such mental states naturally reflect in personality and character. And as we can only know and express ourselves through our minds, the quality of our thoughts determines the degree of happiness, satisfaction and success in life.
It would be bad enough if these power-laden distorted thoughts were confined to our own being. But they blaze out, like living devils, into our environment and distort that also. They grip the minds of our loved ones, make our friends turn away from us, create negative reactions to us in the minds of our employers, business associates and others with whom we must share experiences in work or play. And we become forced into further difficulties and failures, all self-created, usually unconsciously by our own power of thought negatively expressed."

Reviewed from the book "Healing in His Light" by Brother Mandus, one of ten books of his published by www.world-healing-crusade.org.uk

Louise L. Hay has the same story to tell ("Heal Your Body," 1982 and "You Can Heal Your Life" 1984, Hay House. Santa Monica, C.A.) She says: "If we are willing to do the mental work, almost anything can be healed" and "mental patterns create diseases in the body." Her journey to ill health and back again to fitness started after her parents divorced when she was 18 months old. Then came the terror of her being boarded out whiled her mother worked, then living through the depression years of the 1930s, experience of rape and other physical abuse, running away from home, teenage pregnancy, low self esteem, traveling the world as a fashion model, marriage and divorce and finally being diagnosed as having "incurable," terminal cancer.
She decided not to have surgery, but went to a therapist to clear the howling rage inside her, and took responsibility for her own healing, and six months after her fatal diagnosis she was tested again and found to be absolutely cancer free.
Her books helped publicize the mental aspect of the causes of disease, and although each person has his or her own disposition, attitude and history, so that it is impossible to generalize about the diagnosis of specific causes, it is possible to show the quality and tendency of thought that can create the symptom of a specific disease. For example, arthritis has a probable cause in feeling unloved and criticized, hence causing resentment. The antidote is love of self and others. The antidote for cancer is joy, love of self and others and forgiveness. The thought behind cancer is deep hurt, longstanding resentment, deep secrets and grief eating away at the self, and the carrying of hatreds or just giving up on life ("what's the use?") - a form of suicide. Ingesting toxic substances, exposure to too much sunlight or radiation, and smoking, chewing or sniffing tobacco (as snuff) are physical hazards which can cause cancer, but there may be hidden reasons for a person to take these risks. Nobody, I am sure, WANTED to die at Bhopal, or after the Chernobyl disaster, but little by little the human race is learning not to "play with fire," and these tragedies, and events in Rwanda or Darfur, for example, are meant to wake us up to the realities around the world, awaken our conscience and make us focus more widely than just on our daily living, work, sports and entertainment. We are aware now that soldiers are raping and murdering women and children in Africa, destroying their villages, and many people knew that half a million machetes were purchased by politicians from a foreign source, before the Rwanda massacre. That was planned. The manufacturers and traders were "in on it", just as were the builders of the concentration camps and gas chambers in Germany and elsewhere seventy years ago. What we see and know from our TV screens and the Internet is not just entertainment. It is life, and we need to awaken our ethical and spiritual values and act responsibly if we are not to become sick as a species. God will help us if we ask for help, but we must also take personal responsibility the best we can.
There are prophesies from spirit guides that an epidemic many times worse than AIDS will soon be upon us, since we have been mistreating and abusing the animal kingdom for so long. Knowledge, compassion and understanding come to us from spirit through our minds. If we open our minds and hearts, and change our attitudes, we will find a cure.

Arthur Guirdham the psychiatrist brings three other factors into this perspective of the mental causes of disease, and of mental illness itself. They help explain why bad things happen to good people, and to innocent children. These factors are tendencies and influences from other lives, the influence of obsessive or possessive spirits, and the influence of evil in a person or place which can cause an instantaneous and sometimes long-lasting depression, for which there is no ‘apparent' cause. I will quote from his article on this topic and generally from his books in a future post in this series, since these factors are not often recognized or discussed, but need to be.

I have seen all the influences discussed in this post at work in the lives of many of those I have taught and worked with, and I will mention a few of these cases in the next post, together with more from Brother Mandus and some spirit guides. Richard R.

Cases of Spirit and Distant Healing (5)

In any type of healing we allow all levels of God's energy to flow; call it what you will - the life force, our ground of being or the cosmic love-intelligence. At the unconscious level, the ground of being is allowed to flow naturally, the life-force restoring balance and healthy growth. At the conscious level, we apply what remedies we can and clear away our own negative thoughts, the cause of fears and unhealthy emotions which block the life-giving energy, leading to stagnation and the growth of infection and disease. Spirit guides and doctors can see the damage done by accident or disease, and help to restore the etheric body so that the physical body can move back to balanced functioning, curing the problems. Healing takes place every day without our knowing it, as scratches and abrasions and minor ulcers and ruptures are taken care of and heal themselves ‘naturally'.

When no apparent cause for a disease can be found, often there is a connection with another lifetime. There are a number of instances of this given in Sylvia Browne's new casebook: "Insight." Undiagnosable and apparently incurable neck and wrist pains and cancer in patients vanished after Sylvia located the causes in past lives, the one patient having been guillotined during the French Revolution, the other having lived in Persia and having her hands cut off as punishment for stealing. A painful foot, the symptoms of which had never been successfully treated, was cured after been traced back to a life as a farmer's boy with a club foot living in Virginia in the early 1800s. The pain was released in the healing light of spirit. A lady who couldn't stand the smell of wood fires found she had been burned at the stake three centuries ago as a witch. A mother was afraid to let her son go and leave home to get married, as he had also been her son during the Civil War, and had left to serve in the army and never returned. A drug addict was cured after realizing she had other lives where she was addicted to morphine or had been given strong medication. I had a similar problem in a past life, but it worked the opposite way for me. This lifetime I have avoided drugs and medication like the plague, and apart from the occasional drink, have never had a craving for alcohol.

Phobias, neuroses, tendencies, attitudes and depressions can have a past life connection, as can gifts and talents and many ‘déjà vu' experiences. So ‘nature and nurture,' our genetic inheritance, and our present lifetime's environment are not the only constituents of our character, state of health and abilities.

Amongst my own family, friends and colleagues I have sensed connections with other lives which have brought us together at one time or another to deal with certain situations, diseases or conditions. I can't go into specifics here, but they do tally with what others have reported. Arthur Guirdham's books deal with the subject in great detail, with corroborative evidence from the past. Leslie Flint together with his guides and one or two of his sitters and communicators formed a group of souls who reincarnated a number of times together, and their life themes, problems and relationships interlinked. So healing takes place within a much wider and all-embracing perspective which modern medicine has ignored as it continues to search for cures of symptoms only. Great sums of money, including charitable donations, are invested in this futile research, well-intentioned though it may be; and not only humans suffer, but animals too as they are often used in the horrible tests and experiments. There is a vast spiritual debt being incurred here, which will only result in further disease for the human race until it starts to look for deeper causes, and change its own behavior.

On a more specific level, from my own experience, I have seen a chronic case where asthma was healed after specialists, osteopaths and surgeons had given up hope. The young man had suffered from asthma from early childhood, with the father also asthmatic and an aunt suffering from bronchitis. After all the doctors had failed to cure him, he was sent to live in Switzerland, in the hope that mountain air would ease the condition. He was cured over a ten year period after returning to England, but leaving the family and all the negative influences there, finding love in a caring girlfriend, and becoming responsible for his own health and career. He since married and raised a family and is still in good health forty years later. Two mediums were told by spirit that they would be working together on a special project. They did work successfully for spirit for many years while continuing their daytime jobs. However, when their spiritual work was done, they both developed heart trouble which had to be put right with surgery. Perhaps they did the spirit work out of duty rather than for love, and it resulted in the illness.

Looking back in history, another medium, Emily French, had heart problems, yet sustained a long career of independent direct voice mediumship. She lost her husband early on when he was killed in the Civil War, and never remarried. However we cannot judge or interpret other people's lives, as we can never know all the circumstances. We can merely observe and take note of correspondences and tendencies to help us in our understanding.

In two cases of rheumatoid arthritis, one was alleviated but the other ended in early death. One was a pastor with a wife and children, the other the wife of a university professor. The pastor was inflexible, stubborn and rigid in beliefs and behavior. The wife in the other case was a caring mother but grew bitter and jealous because of her husband's infidelities over the years in affairs with his students. Both developed serious arthritis, of which the pastor eventually died after amputations, carrying his inflexibility to the grave. In contrast, after the professor retired and died of cancer, his wife's arthritis became less severe, and after forgiving and forgetting and letting go of the past, she is mobile and living a pain-free old age. One of her children never married, the other enjoyed a brief marriage and then divorced. Perhaps the ‘atmosphere' at home unconsciously influenced their lives too. Incidentally, both Mrs Maynard and Jane Roberts died of this painful disease at the end of their careers as mediums.

Two professional men I knew both developed ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) in middle age, and died within 3 or 4 years of the diagnosis. They had both pursued energetic business careers and had taxed their bodies to the limit in vigorous sports activities. There is a human cost in living for the bottom line and pursuing the almighty dollar, or trying to keep up to impossible standards of physical fitness.

I will just mention here how I noticed home life affected students I taught at all levels of primary, elementary and high school education. Each student brought aptitudes, attitudes, interests (or lack of them) into the classroom, and it was impossible to make contact and help in a lot of cases since the troubles were so insurmountable, and love was very much lacking in so many cases. Although many students had good home lives, others were physically, emotionally or verbally abused, neglected or spoiled, and taught no standards to live by. Some became dropouts from school. Us teachers just had to give what we could with so little time and energy available. Teaching and facilitating in the classroom, and other forms of social and police work, are very energy-depleting occupations, and we have to pray for God's help if we are to continue without burning out, and we can't pray out loud, since religion is kept out of the classroom. That is a great mistake, I think. We can respect the different backgrounds students come from, while at the same time giving a general course in ethics and comparative religion.

But here we are discussing healing, and now here is a brief message from Brother Mandus, excerpted from his book : "Healing in his Light."

"The Kingdom of God is that state of high consciousness within you which is perfection in your life. As you dwell therein the Lord will express in you as love, health, joy, success and all good. In my own experience many people have healed in mind and body of awful ills simply by realizing the presence of God.
I do not ask you to rely solely on what I tell you. You can prove it for yourself. That is the most wonderful truth about a person's relationship with the spirit within. We have instant contact, and the natural right to go to our Heavenly Father at all times. I only ask you to fulfil his law of Love, and to enter into his Kingdom with definite and simple faith.
Ministers, who would long to ease the burdens of those in need through ‘divine healing', do please accept my word that healing is not a special gift given to few. If it were so, then prayer itself would be a very poor channel. If you have love, and faith, then the Lord can and will heal through you.
If I may presume to advise, I advocate inspirational instead of formal prayers. I feel the need is to abandon ourselves completely to the Lord, knowing that we are channels, which He makes perfect for his purposes. Then we shall lay hands upon the sick and they shall recover.
I would further emphasize that although divine healing registers on the body by removal of some illness, the action actually takes place in the mind, or spirit, of both minister and patient. It is indeed spiritual healing, which usually transforms the sick person spiritually first and then physically. In this way both cause and effect are healed in the divine love."

Other teachers and guides from spirit such as Silver Birch give the same message. In essence, they say that every illness reflects a weakness which may come from the present life's astrological or environmental influences, from the patients own thinking, or inherited from another lifetime, which we mentioned earlier in this article. The level on which the weakness manifests (physical, mental, emotional or spiritual) depends on each person's stage of development and experience, or spiritual maturity. Behind every physical illness there lies a deeper and higher meaning which we can discover very easily if we meditate on it, even while we are ill. We can always discover the true cause of an illness. Intuitives, mediums and aura readers can sense and sometimes see this; our guides know this too. Zen Tao, the guide who helped the medium bring through the Ramala teachings at Glastonbury had this to say on this matter.

"You physical body, having its own consciousness and will, can of its own volition become ill. It requires, therefore that you heal that body in love, that you explain to the body that you as the soul-being dwelling within it cannot fulfil your destiny unless you have a healthy vehicle in which to function. The body must be made aware of the reasons why you are seeking to cure the illness and of the steps that you are taking to bring about healing. The body, respecting the higher consciousness which is you, just as you respect the higher consciousness that is your God, will respond to your demonstrations of love .......Remember that mental illnesses have physical counterparts and that spiritual illnesses have counterparts on both the mental and the physical levels. Look therefore to the spirit, to the centre, to the core of your being. Look with honesty and love at what you see there. Talk to your spirit, communicate with it, and from the understanding of that union will come the abolition of illness."*

This is what Brother Mandus was also saying just now.

[* Reviewed from "The Wisdom of Ramala", C.W. Daniel. 1986. the second of three books of teachings from spirit. More information at <www.ramalacentre.com> ]

God Bless! Richard T.C.R.

Wake up call: healing music and "Spirit and distant healing" (6) Miracle cures and an animal healer does distance healing.

Today the healing music heard was the old musical round, "Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques, Dormez-vous?" etc.
(Brother Jack, Are you sleeping? Wake up and ring the bells for Matins)
So we need to wake up and continue our work of service through prayer. Our healing prayers are effective, and much in need today. The spiritual laws of supply and manifestation apply in the healing area just as for our other activities. We get what we really intend and pray for.
Here are a few more examples of this from healers in past times, before the advent of modern Spiritualism.
With "Sonnez les matines" ringing in our ears, we'll go to France where Jean Baptiste Vianey, the Catholic Curé d'Ars, (1786-1840) was much sought after for his healing powers. He was not well educated, but he was a powerful medium. He spent much of his time in prolonged and fervent prayer, and when he talked to a friend about raising money for charity he said: "One can get anything one wants if one fasts and watches long enough." He acquired the same psychic and healing gifts as the desert fathers, the monks of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the aboriginal shamans and medicine men, the Eastern yogis, swamis and rishis and our modern Spiritualist mediums. The practices differ but the results are the same.
He certainly did get results, as historical records testify. He lived very simply, eating mostly cold, often moldy potatoes which he cooked for himself once a week. Many paranormal occurrences happened around him, including raps and knockings and the noises of regiments marching past or wagons rumbling by. Doors opened and closed by themselves, furniture would be moved around, and curtains were twisted and drawn, and his name would be called out. In spite of all these distractions, he continued with his prayers, and eventually built three chapels, established a home for poor children and another for "friendless" women [probably unmarried mothers].. Whenever anything was needed such as fuel or food, he prayed for it and it was provided.
Here are a few more details of his work, taken from his biography:* "From childhood on he had devoted much time daily to meditation and prayer. This inward concentration which he continued to practice all his life brought about the development of his mediumistic gifts which is the prerequisite for the influences exercised on people by the spirit world.
"Those people who did not require his help were recognized by Vianey at the first glance. He used to ask them in a friendly way not to take up his time, occasionally telling them: ‘Go home and do not worry. You have no need of me.' The healing of ailing souls [and their spiritual problems] who could not effect their own cure, was the main object of the curate of Ars. In his eyes the healing of physical ailments was of much less importance.
"There were many to whom Vianey gave information concerning the lot of their departed dear ones in the Beyond, whenever he thought it conducive to their spiritual good to do so. He was able also to foretell the future by clairvoyance, and that, to such an extent, that it might be said that while during his lifetime nothing aroused so much interest as his battles with the evil spirits, after his death all the world began to speak of his predictions. These, in almost every case, related to the fortunes of individuals and not to public matters. To some of those who had reformed he predicted the imminence of their death; in other cases, he foretold this to the person's relatives, in order that they might be prepared for the event.
"He also had mental pictures of distant happenings which concerned persons with whom he was engaged in conversation. One day, noticing a man in the crowd who was waiting to be admitted, he said: ‘Get back to Lyons as fast as you can. Your house is on fire.' A message which proved to be correct. On another occasion Vianey ordered a peasant woman who had just confessed to him, to go home at once, telling her that a snake had crept into her house. The woman hastened home and searched the house all over, but found nothing. Finally it occurred to her to shake out her pallet, which she had laid in the sun to air; as she did so, she saw a snake crawling out of it. A young girl whom he saw standing in the church was directed by him to return home without delay as her presence there was urgently wanted; on her arrived, she found her sister, who had hitherto been in perfect health, lying dead. Once a woman, who had been given a bottle of an alleged miraculous remedy by a "sorcerer" came to Vianey to confess her sins. After he had listened to her confession he remarked to her: ‘You have told me nothing about the bottle that you hid in the bushes outside of Ars.'
"Even more frequent were his demonstrations of his ability to read the secret thoughts and feelings of others. This gift invariably manifested itself in cases of particularly difficult treatments. It happened almost daily that Vianey left his confessional [box] and beckoned to those persons who were the most pressed for time or the most unhappy in order that they might be the first to receive his attention.
"Among his visitors were some who merely came to test his powers. All of these left greatly crestfallen. One of them confessed a number of imaginary sins; after listening to him, Vianey remarked quietly: ‘You have indeed much guilt upon your conscience; but the evil which you have actually committed does not consist of the sins which you have just recounted to me, but of the following ones,' whereupon Vianey, to the great dismay of the impostor, revealed all of the latter's past misdeeds!
"Those who could not visit Vianey personally and were obliged to communicate with him by go-betweens (proxy) or by letter, were healed, advised, consoled or reformed by him at a distance. Another manifestation was the miraculous replenishment of the food supply just as occurred in the New Testament story. Everyone in his parish was witness to this. He maintained a home for poor children, and one day discovered that there were no provisions left except a few handfuls of grain in the corn bin. With a heavy heart he made up his mind to send the children away, but before doing so, he offered one more prayer to God for help. On going back to the corn bin he found it filled to the top with grain. All of his parishioners likewise came to see the miracle. In the end even the bishop visited the home and was shown the height to which the corn bin had been filled."

Now, Vianey was a Catholic priest who venerated saints and relics, attributed all cures to Saint Philomena, who celebrated Mass and regarded confession as essential to the forgiveness of sins, believing in transsubstantiation and all the other teachings of his church. These tenets are not held by Spiritualists, yet the results of his clairvoyance and healing were in no way different from those of a Spiritualist medium or healer. What we all have in common is a profound faith in God and spiritual law, and a great love for both the Almighty and for all mankind and the other kingdoms of nature. Religion is only an outer garment supplied to mankind, a patchwork of human errors which protects us through all the storms and adversities as we journey along towards the truth.

Spiritualists are well aware of the opposition and often bitter attacks on the work for spirit. Although Vianey was a Catholic priest, there were similarly no bounds to the attacks by his colleagues. "He was persecuted, criticized, slandered, abused and made the object of suspicion by them for ten years, and was even threatened with physical violence. When the Catholic clergy of his immediate and more remote neighborhood saw their parishioners hastening to Vianey and paying more heed to his opinion than they did to those of their own priests, envy and jealously were added to their hostile feelings. They spoke of him as the ignorant priest, who had barely been able to acquire a little Latin and had nearly been expelled from the seminary. This gossip caused the measure of hatred harbored against him by the other divines to overflow. He was slandered most shamelessly. Priests forbad their parishioners to go to Ars for confession, and threatened them, in case of disobedience, with barring them from the sacraments and denying them absolution even in the hour of death. Sunday after Sunday they thundered against the curate of Ars from their pulpits. Speaking of this in after days, Vianey once said: ‘The Gospel was given a complete rest in the pulpit, while everyone was busy preaching sermons against the poor curate of Ars.' While some ridiculed his ignorance, others past reflections on the life he was leading. He was the recipient of countless anonymous letters in which the most blackguardly charges, couched in the vilest language, were brought against him. Mornings, on opening his front door, he would find it decorated with posters accusing him of having passed the night in the most shameful debauchery!"
The spirits supported Vianey in his work, in spite of his orthodox beliefs, and only intervened in his personal practices when they would have caused him to lose strength and be no longer fit for his work. Once he heard a commanding voice clairaudiently reminding him of his real task, that of healing and prayer, and not to do penance himself and starve and mortify his body.
Vianey was eventually canonized by the Roman Catholic church, in spite of the earlier opposition from the local priests. The early Spiritualists suffered in the same way from rough opposition and even physical abuse from mobs of protesters against the new manifestations of spirit. *[Vianey's biography is titled "Leben und Wirken des Johannes Baptista Vianey, Pfarrers von Ars" by Joseph Vianey, published by Gebr. Steffen, Limburg a.d. Lahn. 1930].

In Bristol, my home town in England, George Müller established and maintained homes for boys by prayer alone, never asking anyone or allowing anyone to be asked for anything. He will be the subject of my next post, followed by a return to Europe for more of the earlier healers and mediums.

Not a year goes by when we could not assemble a gospel of these and similar spiritual events to supplement those in the Old and New Testaments, the Koran, the Granth Sahib, the Bhagavad Gita and all the other holy books. The old teaching and the new without fail demonstrate the natural flow of spiritual law.

I will close this post with a brief account of a contemporary animal healer who can effectively do remote distant healing. He is Martin Cox of Torquay, U.K. He is a medical clairvoyant, a healer with x-ray eyes. For distance, remote healing, when he can't visit the animal, he puts its photo up in the corner of his mirror in the hallway. He glances at it for a couple of days. After a week he is able to get through to the animal. He knows where it is and can picture it in its surroundings. Once the scene is set up, he can then communicate with it. It's not verbal, it's just something his mind tells him, and he can pick up where the illness or disorder is. He narrows it down and concentrates on the injured part. For example, if there's a digestive problem, he'll imagine squeezing the intestines all the way down until the badness comes out at the end. He will spend ten to fifteen minutes doing that, then ten to fifteen minutes building up the aura. Once he's got good protection round the animal, he backs off, leaves it and goes back in a couple of days. "It's the animal that does the healing: all I'm doing is triggering it," he says. He has successfully cured a fox of usually incurable mange in this way, and other wild animals have been healed, as well as horses, cats and dogs and other pets. More about him and other West Country healers and mediums can be found in "Spiritual Guides in the West Country" by Jane E. White, Bossiney Books, Launceston, Cornwall. 2001.

Healers (7) Cases of Spirit Healing and the power of prayer. Another spirit doctor.

George Mueller (1805 - 1898) the Victorian preacher and founder of orphanages in and around Bristol, U.K., was not a healer, but his reliance on prayer to provide all his needs just shows how effective sincere and persistent thoughts on the power of spirit can be. He was himself healed of near fatal illness in his early twenties, after which he became a pastor and gave himself over to the will of God. He never asked for money or donations, nor led fund-raising campaigns. Yet his foundation, which continues to operate to this day, has provided care and education for the poor, and the needy, young and old, with help from beyond. Charles Dickens himself visited one of his orphanages and was greatly impressed.

George put all the needs for his operations into the hands of divine providence, and in trusting in this, help eventually came in the form of staff, housing, or financial support. During the last seventeen years of his life, Mueller traveled the world as a preacher and missionary, visiting 42 countries, and covering hundreds of thousands of miles, quite a feat in those days. All his expenses were covered by his trust in divine guidance. He never asked for a penny or cent, but somehow, help was always at hand to provide food, lodging and a passage to the next destination. In that respect Peace Pilgrim was later to follow in his footsteps.

Help from spirit has always been at hand for healers if they have complete trust in their guides and spirit doctors. Just as Tom Pilgrim, described in the first of this series, had Dr. Robert Koch to support his healing work, so in the same way exactly 100 years earlier in the 1850s in Boston, U.S.A., Mrs. J. H. Conant (1831-1875) the healer and medium had her support from a doctor in spirit. Like Tom Pilgrim, she had first visited another medium for healing. At the age of twenty-one she had consulted several doctors about a severe consumption of the blood, apparently some form of tuberculosis, which they were unable to cure. However, the teenage medium Anna Richardson brought through her own spirit doctor, Dr. John Dix Fisher, a former Boston physician. He carefully considered Mrs. Conant's condition and said:

"Your case has been pronounced hopeless, but I do not consider it so. If you will obey my instructions, and do what I require in payment, in three weeks I will have you well; but I shall charge you what perhaps you will call a heavy fee. You have some of the finest mediumistic powers that I have ever seen, and the world ought to have the full benefit of them. You are yet to be a remarkable medium if you will give your consent."

Then, just as a hundred years later, Dr. Koch had cured Tom Pilgrim's stomach ulcer while giving him a complete life reading, Dr. Fisher proceeded to render a correct synopsis of Mrs. Conant's past life and experiences, fully explaining those sights, sounds and occurrences which had been so strange to her from childhood. These, he informed her, were perceived and recognized in consequence of her mediumistic capacity of discernment, in other words, her second sight. [We have more recent accounts of second sight in Mia Dolan's books listed in a recent post].

Dr, Fisher continued: "You are a spirit medium, and the fee I require in consideration of your case (of healing the consumption) is that you will give your powers to the world hereafter, by becoming a public medium. I want you for a medium myself, and this is the fee I exact for your cure."

After some hesitation, in which wonder and anxiety were nearly balanced in her mind, she finally accepted. The spirit physician then began working for her benefit, and in three weeks from that date - as he predicted in commencing the case - his medicines had wrought such a perceptible improvement in her that all her friends united in declaring they should not recognize her as the same person they had known previous to the commencement of his treatment.

The doctor then prepared for business with his new medium, and as an introductory step, by writing through her hand while entranced, demanded that she should change her place of abode, not giving any particular reason for it at the time - though the benefit was afterward apparent - but seeming to wish to test her confidence in him. She indicated her willingness to comply, but when he directed her to go to a certain place on Hanover Street, Boston, which she knew to be a large and very popular boarding-house, where rooms were rarely, if ever, vacant, she did not entertain much faith that her errand would be successful. She however called at the house, saw the landlady, and was told, as she anticipated, that there was not a vacant apartment therein. The landlady desired to know who recommended her to come, and upon Mrs. Conant's telling her (after some misgivings concerning the landlady's belief in her sanity,) that John Dix Fisher, a ‘dead doctor' had sent her there, she exclaimed: "Oh, Dr. Fisher told you to come, did he? Then there must be something in it. He always has a reason for what he does; he would not have sent you here if he had not seen that I was soon to have a vacancy. Call again tomorrow, and we will see what can be done."

It appeared that the landlady, Mrs. Cates, was herself a medium, and many of her patrons were firm believers in the new doctrine of spirit return - that George A. Redman, the celebrated medium, was at that time in the house, giving public séances for physical manifestations every evening, and that Dr. Fisher had thus introduced his medium - unwittingly to herself - into a congenial home. That very evening, Mr. Redman called upon the landlady and gave notice that as he was in a short time to remove his office further up town, his room would be vacant. Upon Mrs. Conant's calling next day she was so informed, and securing it, was at once the possessor of a location, already magnetized by the presence of a powerful medium and the oft-repeated séances which had been held there; an advantage which, however hidden to the skeptic, will be immediately apparent to those at all conversant with the delicacy of the conditions necessary for successful and easy control.

Dr. Fisher now desired her to commence her mediumistic duties, as per agreement. She resisted for awhile, but yielded at last and began serving him as a public instrument for medical examinations and prescriptions, having wonderful success in all the cases undertaken, and being from the first, literally overburdened with employment. At this house the most singular manifestations occurred in her presence, both of a mental and physical character. At first it was found that the magnetic aid of the sister of the landlady - Martha Smith - was necessary - she serving as a battery to supply the vital force required for spirit manifestations - but in time Mrs. Conant became developed to such an extent in mediumistic power as to no longer require her presence. A gentleman boarding at the house was also found to be similarly gifted, and with such a degree of strength that it was inadvisable for himself and Mrs. Conant to sit at the dinner table at the same time. Whenever such a circumstance occurred the table was violently lifted, or rocked from side to side in a manner suggestive of dining on shipboard in a heavy gale. Therefore when Mr. Conant and his lady drew near the table it was their custom to see if the gentleman medium was already there, in which case they remained in waiting till he had retired - the same course being adopted by the other party.

The first person who came to test her capacity as a physician, was a medical gentleman from Bridgewater, Mass., who was desirous of settling in his mind, beyond doubt, the verity or falsity of spirit return. He had heard that Dr. Fisher controlled her, and as he had been acquainted with him while in earth life (having been a college classmate of Dr. Fisher's) he determined to convince himself as to the correctness of the report. At the close of the sitting - during all of which Mrs. Conant was unconsciously entranced - he told her that he had propounded to the influence speaking, a regular series of questions similar to those put by a medical board to an applicant who desired fellowship as a physician, and that every one had received a correct answer. This fact, together with the giving of various items of information, of which the medium could have had no knowledge, greatly astonished him.
"Are you satisfied?" asked Mrs. Conant.
"I am sure that I have been talking with John Dix Fisher, and nobody else," he replied.

The astonishing power of penetration possessed by the spirit physician regarding the troubles of those yet in the physical form was soon evinced in an unexpected manner, and concerning a much dreaded matter. A young lady residing in the same house with Mrs. Conant began to be ill, exhibiting mysterious symptoms, and Mrs. Cates the landlady desired the medium to give her a medical examination. Dr. Fisher, having carefully diagnosed the case through her, declared the patient to be suffering from small-pox in its incipient stage. The inmates of the house became alarmed, and demanded that a regular physician should be summoned. Dr. Ayer, who lived not far off, was called in, and gave it as his opinion that the girl had only a bad cold - "he couldn't help what the .dead doctor said, it was nonsense to call it small pox." Dr. Fisher then controlled Mrs. Conant, and sent a message to his medical critic to the following effect: "Tell Dr. Ayer, that in two hours Nature will settle the case." In two hours, as he had predicted, the patient exhibited unmistakable signs of the disease, and Dr. Ayer was obliged to concur with the unseen practitioner - which he did in a half scornful way, saying with a laugh: "Of course the ‘dead doctor' could see inside a person better than I could."

Several other instances of the disease came up for consideration in the house, and as she was constantly surrounded by investigators and seekers after medical advice, from 9 o'clock a.m. to sometimes late at night, it became necessary that the small pox patients be removed for the safety of her visitors. When the time arrived for their departure, Dr. Fisher gave orders concerning their transportation, and the measures to be observed for cleansing the house, (which arrangements were implicitly carried out.) He then directed Mrs. Conant to lock her door, and to refuse to allow the lady who was having a sitting at the time he came, to leave until he reported that all was right; alleging that if his requirements were followed no trouble would ensue, and that the disease should be stayed, as far as this particular dwelling was concerned. Mrs. Conant obeyed with regard to the door, but the lady, after satisfying her curiosity, was very desirous of retiring from the room, and as no word of release came from the spirit physician, the anxiety of the medium increased to perturbation, which was finally dispelled by his writing through her hand that all was sell, that the patients had been removed, that he had so prepared the house that the lady could safely go out, and that no one would hereafter be in danger of taking the disease by coming therein. Subsequent events did not disprove the truth of his assertion, although the disease was very prevalent in the neighborhood.

The ‘dead doctor' was speedily summoned, on account of this success, to treat several patients for this malignant malady. At such times as he made visits to them, he would thoroughly entrance his medium, call at the house in question, make his prescription, and take her home again - she all the while unconscious of what she would have considered her dangerous errand. At one time he thus attended five cases, all of which terminated favorably. In one instance, however, by reason of some unexplained circumstance, he lost control of Mrs. Conant while at the bedside of one of these small pox patients; she, gaining a knowledge of her position, and seized with a deadly fear of contagion, ran home with the utmost speed. Mrs. Cates met her in the hall of the house, exclaiming, "What is the matter?" but Mrs. Conant was only able to gasp something about "small pox" as she hurriedly sought her apartment. The landlady, who was herself a medium, followed her to her room, and, after some time, succeeded in magnetizing her so that she became quiet. Dr. Fisher then resumed control of his medium and informed the landlady that there was not the slightest danger of Mrs. Conant's taking the disease herself, or imparting it to others - that she was perfectly shielded from it by the power of her invisible guardians.

[to be continued]

[This account of Mrs. Conant's healing work with Dr. Fisher is excerpted from the "Biography of Mrs. J. H. Conant" by Allen Putnam, William White and Company, Boston, 1873. Information about George Mueller was obtained from the George Mueller Foundation's website: www.mullers.org ] Richard R.

Cases of Spirit and Distant Healing (8) Mrs Conant and the dangers of invoking disruptive spirits for demonstrations in physical mediumship. More healing work.

The authoress of "Flashes of Light" was also a physical medium and healer working with the spirit surgeon, Dr. Fisher of Boston, in the 1850s, a hundred years before healers like George Chapman, Tom Pilgrim, Arigo and Tomas were providing similar services with spirit doctors and surgeons in England, and in Brazil, and other parts of the world. That identical methods were used to effect healings both in Victorian times and at the present day shows how universal is the presence of spirit, and so has been for all time. Religions and cultures, empires and political ideologies come and go, but the world of spirit remains constant, supporting and animating all forms of life and existence.
These are the facts which support the Spiritualist movement. We do not rely on blind faith, or religious authority, but on the living, demonstrable contact with spirit.
So saying, I'd like to continue quoting from Allen Putnam's account of Mrs. Conant's Physical and Healing mediumship in Boston 150 years ago.

"The public reception room of Mrs. Conant at about this time (1852) began to be the scene of very unique physical manifestations, varied in character as to violence or quiet humor; some of the most important of which are here recorded. The table used for her sittings was of oak, three feet six inches in length, and very heavy. When the company sat around it in the circle, sometimes it would be made so light by the agency of the spirits, that Mrs Conant could lift it with one hand; at others, the same table was rendered so heavy that four men found it impossible to raise it from the floor. It would frequently - and sometimes without warning, when no seance was being held - be tipped at an angle of 45 degrees while the pens, paper, ink, and other paraphernalia which covered it, would be held in place - not an article falling upon the carpet. The individuals generally composing her circle were finally told that if they had the patience to sit and wait for the manifestation, they should see clearly-defined spirit forms. They announced themselves possessed of a sufficiency of that quality.
One evening when a party of six were gathered around the table, the promise was renewed, and all those present became quiet save Mrs Conant, who found it impossible to do so by reason of the magnetic draught which was kept up upon her vital powers. The party continued to wait patiently from six p.m. to twelve o'clock, midnight, and at last, as if to reward their faith or persistence, there suddenly appeared behind Mrs Conant what seemed a fleecy cloud of steam or light smoke, luminous and bright. It rose gradually, expanding itself into a pillar-like form some five feet in height, when it slowly parted, disclosing a human figure, which bowed to them and smiled - the lips moved, but gave forth no sound. The apparition remained in plain sight of all present - including Mrs Conant, who turned around in order to view it - long enough to be fully cognized as to details of countenance and drapery, and then became enveloped again in mistiness; the cloud of steam or smoke, which before curtained it, closed around it; it sank gradually down to the floor and disappeared. It bore the aspect of a beautiful female....
The table then ascended high above the heads of the circle. The company arose and sang the old melody "Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove...." - the table keeping time to the music by swaying to and fro. The greater part of the manifestations occurring in the presence of Mrs Conant, took place in a brilliantly illuminated room, but on this occasion the lights were turned down so as to render objects barely visible - the electric rays furnished by the spirits themselves then completed the illumination so that all forms, such as the above, together with faces, arms and hands were distinctly apparent.
Another manifestation of a seemingly violent character would often take place: Mrs Conant would be requested to take her seat upon the top of a small round table - similar to the bouquet stands now in use - and while there the invisible powers would furiously rock the frail support as if to dislodge her, but she was not allowed to fall from it in a single instance. At the close of this manifestation she would frequently be lifted by the spirits in a direct line from the top of the table, and come to the floor, without injury, behind a sofa which was arranged across one corner of the apartment where the seances were held.
Sometimes the more mischievous order of invisibles - for the experience of the investigator of the present day shows that all classes of minds exist in the unseen world, as here in mortal - would play various pranks at her expense, creating in many cases merriment, and in some a perplexed state of mind. Upon the table in the room where she held her public and private sittings, she had placed a bell, together with a written request, or notice "Ring!" to those who might enter the apartment in the event of her absence in any other part of the house. This apartment was situated up three flights of stairs from the street, and on numerous occasions, after descending them the medium would hear a warning note from the bell, and hastening back would find - no one! This was repeatedly done, when persons were on the watch to see that no mortal was in her room. She would frequently find the door of her apartment locked by the passing of the bolt upon the inside, when she arrived at the top of the stairs, and could not enter till it was unlocked from within, when the closest scrutiny failed to discover any person concealed, and escape was impossible without detection, the great height from the ground precluding egress by the windows, and the door through which she passed, being the only avenue by which to safely quit the room. On several occasions, on meeting those who desired sittings, as they ascended the stairs, she would be obliged to inform them that she was locked out - that "the spirits" had possession of her room, and she must wait till they saw fit to open the door. Looks of incredulity would speedily appear on the faces of the said investigators, and as soon as the door was unlocked, some of them would spring into the apartment and search vigorously for the person who withdrew the bolt, but always without success.

On one occasion a party of seven gentlemen favored her with a call for a seance. They were placed, as usual, around the table in the light, with the medium, and all sat in silence -no manifestations occurring - for half an hour, at the expiration of which time Mrs Conant, becoming impatient at the long delay, called on Dr. Fisher to know the reason. He immediately took control of her hand and wrote: 'If these gentlemen will become honest investigators and throw off all their disguises, we will do what we can to give them satisfactory manifestations.'
This missive she read to them, and they greeted it with laughter, after which they proceeded to remove the various means they had assumed of preserving a physical incognito [disguise]; such as false whiskers, spectacles, etc., etc., and when the transformation scene was completed, she found that she could not recognize a countenance before her as belonging to any of the seven individuals who sat at the table before the edict of the spirit physician was promulgated. They then declared themselves as honest investigators, and Dr. Fisher went on to say: 'You will now allow me to introduce you to my medium;' they stoutly declared that they desired no such honor, Mrs Conant also said she did not wish an introduction, but the incorrigible spirit went on to give their names - correctly in every instance - much to their astonishment. They proved to be some of the 'grave and reverend' city fathers, who, desiring to see if any good could come out of that den of Spiritualism, had chosen the Nicodemian path to that knowledge, but had been (at least so far as the medium was concerned) brought to light despite their disguise.
As the result of their obedience to the conditions required by the spirits - which example it would be well for skeptics, generally, to follow at the present day, instead of endeavoring to block the wheels by unreasoning demands - a most remarkable sitting occurred, and all the manifestations they desired were promptly given. This occurrence made such an impression upon the minds of these gentlemen that they determined to have additional experiences, if possible. They accordingly asked Mrs Conant if she would give a séance in another house and room - the same to be selected by themselves - they evidently having an idea that by some means unknown to them, her room had been fitted for the performance of the manifestations. She replied that she was willing to try the experiment. Accordingly the gentlemen proceeded to obtain the use of a house then vacant, on Joy Street at the West End of Boston, and fitted one of the parlors temporarily for the sitting. A heavy walnut extension table and a sufficient number of chairs alone composed the furniture of the room of the house. At the appointed time in the afternoon a carriage sent by them conveyed Mrs Conant and Martha Smith to the designated locality, where all were awaiting their arrival, full of high expectations of ‘exploding the humbug' as their vigorous vernacular conveyed it. The medium was full of anxiety and earnestly hoped that if possible the spirits would accomplish more startling results than usual. She had previous to this séance heard of a Black (African-American) spirit of great power who gave the strongest physical manifestations through the mediumship of George A. Redman and others, and she desired Dr. Fisher to secure his services for the occasion. Although he objected at first to her coming en rapport with such an influence, he finally consented to remove his opposition, and the African-American made his appearance - through his works at least - producing the most convincing exhibits of invisible force, and performing feats of strength far beyond the united power of the medium and all present. The gentlemen in attendance desired that the table be lifted to the ceiling, to which the spirit replied in the affirmative, providing Mrs Conant would sit upon it. She did so, and the table at once began to gradually ascend. Four of the party laid hands on it, and exerted themselves to the utmost to keep it down, but it easily broke from their grasp, and reached the top of the apartment, so that the medium was able to write her name upon the ceiling above her head. All the party then seized the table by its legs, and endeavored to pull it down, but in vain, until Mrs Conant - who, between the danger of being pressed against the wall overhead by the spirit's exertions to draw it away from the gentlemen, and the peril of slipping from the table to the floor, by reason of the tipping caused by the struggle to draw it down - became alarmed, when the spirit lost control of the heavier body, and the table came crashing to the floor, being somewhat broken by the fall. Mrs Conant, however, was not harmed, as she was slowly let down among the ruins of her former seat, and quietly confronted the amazed skeptics, who anticipated for her some severe bodily injury. This circle, occurring like the other, in the full glare of day, seemed to be perfectly satisfactory to the investigators, who, after a playful parley with the spirits as to who should pay for the table, (Dr. Fisher assuring them that they must - which they did) - dissolved the meeting.
At the conclusion of the séance the medium found herself obliged to pay the penalty of overruling the desire of her spirit physician, for the guest spirit followed her home, very unexpectedly, and, when her husband and herself had retired for the night, commenced amusing himself with various antics, which, while they were probably sources of enjoyment for him, did not meet the approbation of the servant girls who were in a room nearby, but had not yet fallen asleep. These came rushing in to the landlady, full of fear, declaring that the house was being torn down by the ‘devil' who was at work in Mrs Conant's apartment. The confusion continued, tables and chairs were upset, and the bed was violently rocked, upon which Mr Conant and wife arose, the former (who was not in the least mediumistic) declaring that it was best to be ‘out of it,' and that he meant to see what was the cause of the disturbance.
Mrs Cates the landlady being admitted advised Mrs Conant to summon Dr. Fisher, for an explanation, and they accordingly sat at a table, which they raised from its overturned position on the floor, for the purpose. The spirit physician at once came, recalling to the mind of his medium the fact that he had strongly objected to her coming en rapport with the African American. As she had insisted on doing so, she must abide by the consequences. Finding she must settle the matter herself, the medium at once, on the recommencement of the disturbance (which occurred as soon as Dr. Fisher had retired from control) opened a conversation with the unruly spirit, telling him in a way that appealed to his reason that, on all proper occasions she would be happy to meet with him, but that at the present time he was tgreatly annoying the occupants of the house, and she would prefer that he depart. He appeared to listen, as any one would while yet in the body, and, at the conclusion of her remonstrance, went away, giving her no further trouble. That the inmates of the house might see the tangible results of this nocturnal visit, Mrs Conant allowed everything in her room to remain undisturbed in the position in which the spirit left it (save the table mentioned above) till next day, and morning revealed a most extraordinary state of confusion, as to furniture, in her apartment. The same spirit came to her at different times, at subsequent periods, and was so violent that she was often frightened at his exhibitions of strength. She was therefore much gratified when he at length took his final leave of her.
The writing phase of Mrs Conant's mediumship now became very strongly marked, [as can be seen in her writings for the ‘Banner of Light' and in the compilation of the communications published as ‘Flashes of Light from the Spirit-Land,' now available free on-line at Aart Bosman's website and other e-book sources]. She would frequently transcribe the thoughts or desires of two invisibles at the same time - one using her right, the other her left hand. Kate Fox was also to develop this ability, and Branwell Bronte in England had the gift of writing simultaneously with both hands. Had he not died early of drug and alcohol addiction, he too might have developed into an excellent medium around this time.
Sometimes while her medical control, Dr. Fisher, was writing out his prescriptions with one, the other hand would be engaged in answering the questions of a visitor; thus indicating that the mind of the medium had not the slightest connection with these dual manifestations of intelligence. [Mozart composed music in this way while his mind was engaged in small-talk or playing games. Spirit inspired the creation of his compositions].
Another phase of mediumistic development soon made its appearance in Mrs Conant's case, being the power of discerning hidden things, and giving information regarding lost articles. As an instance in point, a gentleman boarding in the house came one day to the landlady and said: ‘Mrs Cates, I have lost some money from my room; this is the third time it has happened. I want to know whether the spirits can tell me anything about it.'
Advised by Mrs Cates, he made a visit to Mrs. Conant's room, in the upper part of the house, and asked for a sitting. He was immediately informed by the influence controlling her hand that the lost sums could be recovered. ‘Call the landlady,' next directed the spirit. Mrs Cates was summoned. ‘Follow the medium' was the written order, and the exploring party of three, [plus the accompanying spirits] set out upon its errand.
‘Where am I going?' demanded Mrs Conant.
‘We will tell you,' replied the guides, in whom she had implicit trust. She led the way to the gentleman's room, went up to the bed, which was situated in one corner, wheeled it around, and, stripping back some two yards of the carpet on the floor beneath it, displayed to the astonished eyes of Mrs Cates and her boarder three rolls of bills there concealed, saying to the gentleman: ‘There is your money.'
‘Who put it there?' he asked.
The spirits replied that they would tell him if he would promise to give good advice to the thief, and not deal harshly, but as Jesus would have acted under similar circumstances. This he promised to do, when he was informed that the theft had been accomplished by the chambermaid of the house. The spirits advised Mrs Cates not to discharge her, and thus throw her into the world with the taint of suspicion fixed upon her character, but to take her to her room and talk to her in such a manner as to dissuade her from the evil course she was pursuing. The lady did as directed and was rewarded by the penitent expression of the girl, who acknowledged that she took the money and concealed it where she thought no one would think of looking for it - intending to go after it when the excitement concerning its loss had subsided; she faithfully promised to avoid such operations in future, and was ever after an exemplary person - thus, as well as the gentleman receiving substantial benefit from the mediumistic powers of Mrs Conant, the young girl was turned, by the gentle means which the spirits counseled, from the winding path of duplicity to the fair though rugged road of honesty in all things.

Healing continued to be given along with these other demonstrations of mediumship. Mrs M.A. Pope, who had been previously located at Watertown, Mass., removing to Tileston Street, Boston, was very desirous that Mr and Mrs Conant should make a home at her house, which they finally decided to do, going to their new quarters in October, 1855. Nothing of particular interest occurred to diversify the even current of her experiences for sometime after, but one afternoon in the month of December of the same year while she was engaged in giving a sitting for a gentleman, Dr. Fisher took control, saying that he regretted to bring the séance so suddenly to a close, but his medium was needed for another purpose. The gentleman at once left the house, and Mrs Conant remained in a disturbed state of mind, not knowing what was about to happen. While sitting in her room she heard the door bell violently ring, and though it was not her custom to answer it, yet led by an incontrollable impression, she hastily obeyed its summons, and met at the threshold a party of men bearing Colonel Pope home in their arms. She retained her consciousness long enough to hear that he had met with an accident, by which one of his lower limbs had been fractured, after which Dr. Fisher assumed control of her organism, not quitting his hold for two hours. He first skillfully examined the wound, pronouncing it a severe one, but was of opinion that he could soon restore the patient if the parties interested were willing to put the case in his hands. The Colonel and his family expressed a wish that he should undertake the treatment, so the spirit physician continued to work over the broken limb till all was settled for the present, as far as bandaging and preventives to the arising of inflammation were concerned.
A brother of Colonel Pope, who was present, ridiculed the idea that the spirit doctor could be of any service, and announced his intention of sending for a regular physician. Although Mr and Mrs Pope declared that such person should not be allowed to interfere now that the limb was dressed, Dr. Fisher told them that a doctor could be sent for if they chose, in order that others might be satisfied of his skill. Accordingly, the family physician made his appearance, but as soon as he had seen the work of the spirit surgeon he declared that it was well performed, and that there was nothing left for him to do. In the astonishingly short space of three weeks Colonel Pope was able to go out of the house and was soon after fully restored - experiencing no trouble since from this limb, but finding it in every way in as good condition as before the accident."
[to be continued] Richard R.

Cases of Spirit and Distant Healing (9) Dr. Fisher and Dr. Kittredge working with Fannie Conant

Dr. Fisher's healing of Colonel Pope through the mediumship of Mrs J.H. Conant awakened much interest at the time (December, 1855), an account of it appearing in the Boston 'Daily Mail' and people coming from various parts of the State to question concerning the matter for themselves.  Not long after his recovery, while Colonel Pope was riding in an omnibus on Washington Street, the conversation among several of the passengers turned upon Spiritualism and the late surgical operation said to have been so successfully performed by a 'spirit medium.'  One of the party doubtingly remarked, 'I should like to see that man whose leg was set by a female spirit medium.'
  Colonel Pope immediately replied, 'Gentlemen, I am the man, and can vouch for the entire truth of the statement.'  Colonel Pope is still alive - residing in Boston - and bears willing testimony to the truth of this account.
     Many difficult cases were brought for the consideration of the spirit doctor, after his
treatment of the foregoing;  the time of his medium was entirely consumed by the demands of patients, and many wonderful cures were wrought by him during Mrs Conant's residence at the house.  Whenever Dr. Fisher perceived on the morning of any particular day that he was about to have a serious matter presented for examination, he would control his medium, and through her, give orders to Mrs. Pope that she must be exceedingly careful of Mrs. Conant's diet, and give her nothing, till further orders, but plain 'gruel' - a provision which was not very agreeable to Mrs Conant, but seemed to be indispensable for his successful operation through her organism.  These directions were implicitly obeyed by Mrs Pope, whose
confidence in Dr. Fisher was unbounded.
     Her invisible guides now gave directions to Mrs Conant that she must discontinue manual labor in any form; proscribing even her sewing for herself; but she being of an active turn of mind, found it impossible to remain seated, when she HAD a leisure moment, without some employment to occupy her attention.
Among her attendant spirits was an old Indian chief, Wapanaw, who particularly (in his capacity of magnetic adviser) objected to her so doing, giving as a reason, that by wasting her bodily strength in physical labor, she was expending the life force which was necessary for consumption by the spirits in their operations.
On one occasion, shortly after the accident just recounted, as she sat sewing upon a black silk dress which she desired soon to complete, this Indian friend continued especially near her, and great was her annoyance at the obstacles which he threw in her way with a view to discouraging her personal efforts to finish it - he desiring her to employ some one else.
At the time Colonel Pope and his wife were in the room.  A skein of silk which Mrs Conant was using suddenly disappeared, and could not be found, although, vexed at its loss, she continued to search for it for sometime.  She then abandoned the chase, and prepared another, saying, 'I will hold this fast enough.'  Just as she had so expressed herself,
Colonel Pope, who was seated on a sofa at the opposite side of the room from her, cried out: 'Look over your head.'  She did so, and there, suspended by some invisible power, was the missing skein, which was then dropped upon the floor at her feet.  The Indian explained that he had abstracted the silk, and held it suspended in the air - at the same time rendering it, by a process known to himself, invisible to their eyes; but that finding her determined to go on with the employment, he thought he might as well return it to her.
     This aboriginal friend, on many occasions, proved his interest in her welfare by endeavoring to minister to her health through the subtle powers of spirit
chemistry.  The medium was extremely opposed to taking medicine, but, owing to her enfeebled condition, found it absolutely necessary that she would overcome her
dislike.  While thinking the matter over on a certain evening, she was entranced by Wapanaw, who demanded that Mrs Pope should bring him a glass of water.  When it was before him, he referred to Mrs Conant's dislike to medicine, and said he would arrange the matter for her; the hand of the entranced medium was then placed over the top of the glass.  In a moment or two he declared the water to be sufficiently medicated.  On Mrs Conant recovering from the trance she again complained concerning the disagreeable medicine she was to take on retiring, when she was told by Mrs Pope that all she need do would be to drink the contents of
the glass.  She partook of the water it contained, with little faith as to its efficacy, but found that its results were identical with the prescription which had been intended for her.
     Samuel Upham, a trance medium, then in ill health and since deceased, called on her one evening in February, 1856, for an examination by Dr. Fisher, with reference to his disease.  Hardly had both seated themselves, when the male medium became entranced by
the spirit of an Indian chief who gave his name as
'White Cloud.'  Mrs Conant, most unexpectedly to herself, was immediately controlled by an Indian influence whose love for 'White Cloud' was not of that tender sort supposed to rule in the 'happy hunting ground,' and a fierce struggle ensued, each hostile
spirit endeavoring to destroy its enemy; the warfare, was, however, of short duration, as the medium of 'White Cloud' being much reduced by sickness, was no match for his brisk opponent, and when Colonel and Mrs Pope rushed into the room, attracted by the uproar,
they found the lamps broken, the table overturned, and Mrs Conant - unconsciously entranced - belaboring the unfortunate Upham with a chair!  In al probability he would have been killed - as 'White Cloud' still held control of him with true Indian pluck, and would not yield - had not the Colonel and his wife interposed as a rescue.  After considerable difficulty they finally
succeeded in separating the combatants, and then set about convincing the belligerent chiefs that THEY were dead - that if either killed anybody now it would be one of the mediums who would die, NOT the enemy they desired to destroy.  The curious combat then closed, leaving the visitor in a somewhat battered state, while Mrs Conant was found to have sustained no injury.  This manifestation - rather startling, it must be confessed - was but a representative of one of the characteristic phases of undeveloped spirit communion at that early day."
     Physical phenomena continued to occur around Mrs Conant as coins, brushes, combs and hair pins disappeared and reappeared in other parts of the house or were taken away to friends' houses.
   "A Boston businessman, William Barry, came to Mrs Conant wishing her presence at North Cambridge, Mass., to examine a sick girl there residing.  She made the journey and so pleased were the relatives with the statements made by Dr. Fisher that they greatly desired that he would treat the case.  To this he consented, but told them, in advance, that it was impossible for the young lady to entirely recover; that she would probably live a long while, but would
never be restored to sound health.  The lady, in verification of this prediction, continues to this day a hopeless invalid.
 
     In the winter of 1856 Fannie Conant left Mr. Berry's residence at North Cambridge, where she and her husband had resided for that year, and boarded at the National House, Haymarket Square, Boston, at that time kept by Mical Tubbs.  Here the physical
manifestations followed her.  The cures, also, performed by Dr. Fisher, were remarkable in character.
  Among his patients was Mr. Tubbs, the landlord.  So powerful were the remedies prepared under direction of Dr. Fisher that he warned Mrs Tubbs that the administration of one drop too much would be likely to ‘send her husband to the other side of life in les than half an hour.'  His skeptical friends became alarmed, and said to Mrs Tubbs:
     ‘Why you surely do not intend giving him that medicine?'
     ‘Certainly,' was her answer; ‘I shall follow Dr. Fisher's direction with regard to it.'
      Mrs Conant was in the room when the first potion was given; the patient soon complained that he could not see, and that his sense of hearing appeared to be failing; he remained in this condition for several minutes, after which he became insensible.  Great anxiety supervened in the minds of all concerned, but the result indicated that this state was exactly what
Dr. Fisher desired to produce, for when the patient regained the use of his faculties - which happened after a brief period - he began a successful journey toward renewed health.
     Mrs Tubbs next yielded to the approach of disease, her special trouble being rheumatic fever; so severe was the attack, that at its height but little hope was entertained of her recovery.  Dr. Fisher attended her through all her sufferings, and though several physicians in the [living, physical] form, who called to see her, said that if the ‘dead doctor' brought her out safely ‘he  would be smart,' he finally was the instrument of the Higher Power to
restore her again to life and usefulness.
     Another striking instance of Dr. Fisher's curative capacity is evidenced in the experience of gentleman - a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, which was then in session) - who was brought to her for treatment by Mr Tubbs.  Paralytic tendencies nexisted in his case - his head trembling and moving from side to side.   Dr. Fisher prescribed for him, after looking thoroughly into the causes of the complaint, and was more than usually particular in his directions regarding the remedies he prescribed.  He ordered the medium to be very careful in copying the recipe for the druggist from his own handwriting - which was not very plain - in order that no mistake might arise; and by his request she read the prescriptions aloud in the hearing of the patient and the spirit physician - the one declaring that he perfectly understood the matter, the other (by writing) that his ingredients and the proportions thereof had been correctly recorded.  One portion of the prescription was intended for external, the other
for internal use.  The case continued with favourable symptoms till the third day, when by some mistake the gentleman on going to the State House put into his pocket the bottle contain the external remedy - which had previously been explained to him by the spirit doctor as containing an active poison - and did not discover his error till he had swallowed a sufficiency to throw him into violent spasms.  He was apparently dying, and had only strength enough left to tell where he obtained the preparation.  Several of his friends, full of blended indignation and fear, started in search of Mrs Conant.  On their finding her, Dr.
Fisher speedily controlled her, and, after writing a prescription to neutralize the poison, exclaimed to them:
     ‘Don't stand here talking! Go and get this put up - give it to the patient as soon as possible; he will live, if you return to him in any decent season.'
     On their arrival with the remedy aforesaid, they found the sick man dead, to all appearances, the physicians who had been summoned in the interval of their absence considering him beyond the reach of medicine;  but on the administering of the counteragent ordered by Dr. Fisher, he began to show signs of life, and was removed to his lodgings.  When he was sufficiently strong to make the effort, he called on Mrs Conant at the hotel to express his regrets at having, by his own mistake, caused her so much anxiety and trouble.  With him came two physicians who had witnessed his case, and were
desirous of seeing the person who made the prescription - they declaring that no such preparation
should be used - that ‘whoever ordered it was deficient of a knowledge of the medicinal substances.
The spirit physician, controlling Mrs Conant, soon proved to them that as to curative remedies he was in his element, his knowledge in this respect being superior to their own.  Thus the case, which at first threatened such serious consequences, resulted in establishing yet more firmly the reputation of Dr. Fisher and his medium.
     Early in 1857, Luther Colby, who was also a lodger at the National House, had the misfortune to dislocate his arm at the elbow joint by a fall as he passed out into the street.  He returned to the hotel, and sought a speedy audience with Dr. Kittredge, another of Fannie's guides, a Portsmouth physician of great repute who had been several years in the spirit
world, requesting that he might through Mrs Conant reduce the dislocation.  Dr. Kittredge, on entrancing the medium, found that from want of physical power in the hands of Mrs Conant, he should be obliged to abandon the operation, although nearly able to accomplish it.  Mr. Colby, on perceiving that the spirit physician was unable to consummate the
almost-concluded process, said:
     ‘In passing up stairs, just after meeting with the accident, I heard a gentleman in the office
addressed as ‘Doctor.'  Perhaps he can do the work.'
     ‘Very well,' answered Dr. Kittredge, ‘I will go and examine his capacity as a surgeon, and report the result of my investigations.' [The spirit doctor left
the room].
     He soon returned, and wrote through the hand of the medium: ‘I know the gentleman - he was a student of mine in Portsmouth, N.H., many years ago.  Call him up.'
     The doctor was accordingly sent for, and on his arrival, being informed of what was required of him, at once set to work, and soon restored the limb to its natural condition.  At the conclusion of the operation, a written message, signed R. [Rufus] Kittredge, was handed him by the medium, in which he was addressed as ‘Friend Pike.'  This somewhat astonished him, as he was a stranger to all present, and was confident that he was not known to them by
name.  After giving him, in answer to questions, several tests as to his identity, Dr. Kittredge
notified his medical friend that if he would meet him at a private sitting he would firmly convince him of the reality of spirit return.   Dr. Pike acceded, and was ere long thoroughly satisfied of the truth of the new gospel of Spiritualism.   Desiring to afford his wife an opportunity for inquiring into the mystery of spirit communion, the Doctor soon after introduced her to Mrs Conant.   Mrs Pike was very much alarmed at first, but yielding to the request of her husband, attended the séance, during which her mother came into control, and so natural and undeniable was her presence to the daughter, that at the conclusion of the sitting, Mrs Pike threw her arms about the neck of the medium. tears filling her eyes, and said: ‘I shall never be afraid again.'"
 
[More about Fannie Conant's healing, physical and mental mediumship to follow.  Richard R.

13) Spirit and Distant Healing. The art of healing and spirit rescue. Sister Briege McKennas's story (continued).

At any given time in our world there is someone suffering or in pain, someone is dying and someone is being born, and someone is experiencing the joy of a creative act, while yet another is taking part in a criminal or violent act.
If we are sending out our prayers and thoughts for healing, generally, the energy and good will towards giving assistance will find its place amongst those on our healing and prayer lists, amongst our patients, clients, students and loved ones, and generally around the world where the need arises. The joy of being alive will be increased for those acting in a positive way and birth and death will be eased into the natural process of passing into and out of incarnation.
The power of the mind is immense, and thoughts create the situations we find ourselves in, including our state of health, good, bad and indifferent. Interwoven with our own self-created and self-chosen lives are those of others, and the patterns from the past encroach on us to give us a fuller depth or layer to our existence. All these influences help create the ambience we live in. We may think we are victims, but rather we are participants even if we seem to have done no wrong, or no good - just letting it all happen. Whether it seems that our wills, egos and personalities are in command, and we have success, or that we are apathetic victims, it seems that there is some kind of fate or destiny which we can't escape, like Murphy's law if we were ‘born unlucky,' or the law of Nemesis, or Retribution, or one or other of the spiritual laws. We may believe that we are slaves of our astrological signs. The spirits and elementals of the stars in the sky no doubt influence us, but only because we have chosen this life and its time and place. From moment to moment, if we are awake and aware, we have the power of choice in what we think, do and say, and in this we have an advantage over other life-forms. Those thoughts, words and actions have results in the nature and quality of the world we find ourselves in, and this will continue to be so when it is our time to pass on to other planes of existence.
So we can heal ourselves and those around us, as far as we and the recipients are open to receive the natural flow of life energy. We cannot alter their chosen path by the force of our own will, but we can encourage them to look for and see the "light" in as many ways as that expression can be interpreted and understood, with or without religious or medical connotations. Healing is one part of rescue work, and we help people move into the light at whatever stage and quality of life they have reached and achieved. Wherever they are, they will continue on in joy, balance and harmony.
So the skill of our surgeons, doctors, therapists, nurses, psychiatrists, teachers, pastors and mediums are enhanced and supported by our thoughts and prayers, and we can be confident that our good thoughts will not have been wasted. Though we may see ourselves as healers as we direct our thoughts and energies towards the mentally, emotionally and physically distressed, we are merely the intermediaries for the spirit doctors, or the agents of God's will. What we see and know and understand personally and what we believe, is not so important as having the intention to do the best for those we love and care for, through whatever means are at hand. If we are open to that, then right thought and action will have a positive and beneficial outcome.
If we are interested in trivialities, our lives will be trivial and we only attract trivial spirits to communicate with us. If we have deeper, more meaningful thoughts, interests and activities, we will attract the more interesting spirits. Like attracts like. Spirits who communicate with us, like W.T. Stead in "The Blue Island," tell us that what attracts them is the light of the more spiritually-minded amongst us as we go about our daily tasks on earth, and so they are led to make an appearance when we take part in a circle, séance or healing session. This also explains why skeptics and materialists get poor results at the séances they attend. Their cold minds and skeptical thoughts are unattractive to spirit.
The level of attraction is of particular importance in healing. If we focus on the fear of certain diseases and on fatal and terminal diagnoses, we will only attract negativity and further manifestation of the disease, rather than find its cause, and hence its cure. At present we have endless and costly research into several of the diseases we fear, but we still fail to understand the causes and when a spontaneous healing DOES occur, we call it a miracle. A lot more is involved than that, and yet in a way it is so much simpler. It is the natural outcome of the workings of spiritual law.

Now this would be an appropriate time to continue with the story of Sister Briege McKenna's "miracle" cures, reviewed from her book "Miracles Do Happen" (1987) and a feature on CBC Radio's "Open House" from the 1990s. While Sister tells her story as a Catholic, relating her development as a healer within the beliefs and imagery of that faith, we as Spiritualists can see the same manifestation of spirit in healings and cures as occur within our own field. The results are the same, the means are the same; only the names and images and rituals (if any) differ. With regard to distant healing, these methods are effective no matter what means of communication we use, whether we write, use the phone, radio, tape, telegraph, television, film, transmit our thoughts and prayers silently, meditate, write in a book, letter or magazine, or send an e-mail, sing a song, play a melody or compose a piece of music. The intention, concentration, and attunement are the factors that are all-important.

In the summer of 1972, Briege went home to Ireland for a visit. At the request of the father of a friend of hers, she went to a hospital nearby to pray for a woman who was dying of cancer. "The doctors had said there was no hope. On my way out, I noticed this poor man suffering from shingles, and I prayed with him [also]. The woman, a few days later, went home from the hospital in perfect health. When they came to examine her again, they could find nothing wrong with her. And the man with the shingles was healed, too."
Her friends told her to be careful with her healing work, which in fact she didn't advertise. But it was thought that she could get into trouble with the bishop. So she went to the cathedral to pray and said, "Look, Jesus, I'm home on my holidays, is this your will that I should be doing this? I don't want to do anything against your will." Then she asked him to teach her how to pray for people.
"As I prayed, an old man came into the church. He knelt down on the opposite side of the church. After a while, he shouted out to me, ‘Sister, would you pray for me?' He held up his arm and said, ‘I fell off my bicycle and hurt my wrist.'
"I called him over and asked him, ‘Have you heard of me?' He said ‘No, I just noticed you were a nun and thought you might say a prayer for me.'
"I prayed for him and he promised to say a decade of the rosary for me. He went back to his place in front of the statue of our Lady. I could hear him praying the rosary. In the middle of the decade he looked over and said, ‘God, that was a powerful prayer. Could you write it out? The pain and the swelling are all gone!'
"I heard the Lord say, ‘You see, I brought in a man off the street. That's why I brought you home, to touch my people.' That answered my first question.
"Next, the Lord showed me a picture of an enormous pink telephone over the tabernacle. I thought it was a distraction and I wanted to get it out of my mind. But there were these words in dark print under the telephone: ‘The telephone is a means of communication. People talk to each other on it. I can also use it. You use the phone. People will hear you but experience me.' It was then that he told me to pray over the phone with people, that I didn't have to see them, that all I had to do was unite with them before Jesus. He is not limited by time and space. That answered my second question."
While still in Ireland on vacation, she was told of a teacher whose daughter was in hospital with a serious skin problem. She couldn't visit, but she asked for the mother to call on her, and they would pray together. They did so, and with a few days, the girl was totally healed and had skin like a new baby. Briege thought that the Lord allowed her to see and experience these physical healings not so much for the people as for her own instruction as to what could be done. Even when she returned to the convent in Florida the healings continued. One of the sisters told her that a man from England wanted to come to see her for prayer. He too had a severe skin problem. Briege told the sister: "He doesn't have to come here, I'll pray for him by phone."
She looked at her and said, "Does it work that way, too?"
She said, "I don't know but we'll have a go,"
When the man phoned her and she prayed with him, he was completely healed.

[to be continued]

Subject: Cases of Spirit and DIstant Healing (14) and Harry Edwards booklist.

Books by Harry Edwards (in order of publication).
 
The Science of Spirit Healing.  Rider. 1945.
 
Psychic Healing.  Spiritualist Press.  1946.
 
A Guide to Spiritual Healing. Spiritualist Pr.1950.
 
Evidence for Spirt Healing: A Challenge to Medicine  and the Church. Spiritualist Press. 1953.
 
The Mediumship of Jack Webber.  Rider and Co. 1953.
 
The Truth about Spiritual Healing. Spiritualist Press. 1956.
 
The Power of Spiritual Healing. Herbert Jenkins. 1963.
[The Power of Healing. 1967. Tandem :- probably the same book as above].
 
The Healing Intelligence.  Herbert Jenkins.  1965.
 
Thirty Years a Spiritual Healer. Herbert Jenkins.1968.
 
A Guide to the Understanding and Practice of Spiritual Healing. Healer Publishing. 1974.
 
Life in Spirit: with A Guide for the Development of Mediumship. Healer Publishing, Guildford. 1976.
 
Magic Minds, Miraculous Moments. [biographies of famous psychics]. Healer Publishing. 1994.
 
  Many of the above books are available new from the Harry Edwards Sanctuary :-               <www.sanctuary-shop.org.uk> plus healing tapes, a current magazine and a biography of Harry Edwards. All his books are available in used bookstores: search in <www.bookfinder.com> or similar sites.  The organization's website is <www.harryedwards.org.uk>
 
 The four aspects of healing. Brother André of Montreal . Cases of distant and spirit healing (15)
We are looking for cures for diseases and not finding them in spite of costly research because we tackle symptoms rather than looking for the causes. Take cancer, for example. Our doctors and scientists try to find ways to prevent malignant cells from multiplying, by applying chemotherapy, radiation, surgery and transfusions. Spiritual healers zap energy into the body to shrink the tumors and slough away the decaying cells. Other therapies use visualization techniques to attack and kill malignant cells. These methods are often successful, but the root causes of the disease are scarcely ever found and examined. If they were, we would be able to eradicate this and every other life-threatening disease within a very short space of time.
What is needed is not a one-sided approach treating the physical symptoms, but a four-sided onslaught on disease: find the root causes not only in the physical body, but also in the emotional, mental and spiritual dimensions. This means going deep into our philosophies and religions as well as applying the common-sense of science.
In the first place, we fail to use our common-sense because in the modern world we assault our body from every angle, over-exposing it to the sun's rays, thus risking the formation of melanomas. We ingest and digest all kinds of chemical toxins in our food, mostly in the form of preservatives, coloring, hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, inorganic fertilizers and excessive salt, fat and refined flour and sugar. In this way we are gradually embalming our bodies as we live! When we die and are carted off to the funeral parlor, most of us won't need formaldehyde. Our body is already sufficiently pickled and our flesh has long been more dead than alive.
The Californian healer William Gray told us this half a century ago, but not much notice was taken of his wisdom. Many of our body's cells are dying as a result of this daily onslaught of chemicals and add to this the fumes of pollution; carcinogens like the tar in tobacco smoke and the tar from our road surfaces. Our healthy body cells cannot provide enough resistance to the decaying cells and so the latter form malignances and grow out of control. So the first element of our campaign to eradicate disease is to stop exposing our physical body to all these toxins and stresses. The greening of our environment is one step in this direction, but we have to go further. We have to stop the personal intake of toxins in our food. We must eat fresh, pure, unadulterated products, and campaign to persuade our manufacturers, suppliers and politicians to ensure that regulations prevent our food and drink from being contaminated. There are far too many chemicals, hormones and antibiotics and elements of irradiation creeping into the food chain. Now that we are aware of this, we must stop it.
So that's the first step. The second step deals with the emotions, but also incorporates our mind and spirit. The very thought of some diseases scares us to death. We are afraid of death, as well, which doesn't help. A negative diagnosis can send us into the depths of panic, despair and depression, which saps the vitality of our already depleted body energy. If we have some spiritual knowledge, provided by our own philosophy, culture and religion, we can combat these fears, and regain an optimistic view of life. We then have a fighting chance to cure our disease, if we avoid the life-style that invites in all these toxins. Sometimes the medication we take to ease pain and alleviate some mental illnesses actually brings on further problems of dependency and deepen the depressions which plague modern living. Often an alternate lifestyle can reverse this, and our attitude and sense of values changes. Then ultimately we are not afraid of death, when it comes, since we know that only the body dies.
Once we have this second optimistic fighting spirit under our belt, emotional stability, we can look at the third line of attack on disease, which is mental. We can incorporate some form of visualization to attack the disease, or embrace it until it is no longer a cause for alarm. We are familiar with the work of the Simontons and many other therapists in this area. Prayer, distant healing and other types of mystical understanding and science of mind all come under this heading, but they originate in the fourth and most important and powerful line of attack on disease, which is the spiritual level.
This is where we come up against huge blocks to finding a total cure for disease, where we find opposition not only from skeptical scientists but also from many religious-minded and spiritually-minded people. Disease is not only sometimes inherited from genetic deficiencies, leaving us prone to certain forms of cancer or other deformities, but it can also reach over from one life to another, forming emotional and sometimes even physical scars from times past.
Those of us with second sight in some form can see or sense these imbalances and influences in the energy bodies or at different levels of the aura.
Our mistreatment of animals used in experimental procedures in the search for cures here form a karmic block against our finding causes and cures for disease. Cruelty incurs a spiritual debt which prevents healing, and affects every level of our being.
So here, in a nutshell, are the four ways to combat disease. They need looking into in far more detail than can be dealt with in this short article, but perhaps we can examine them all further in the future as we continue to look at the work of our best healers, past and present. So here is a look at another healer from the Catholic faith.

[the above Copyright 2007 by R.T.C. Rowley].

St. Joseph is the patron saint of Canada, and Alfred Bessette, (1845 - 1937), later to be known as Brother André, dedicated his life to him, and to healing. A simple country boy, he came to act as porter for the College of Notre Dame in Montreal. There he developed his healing abilities, effecting many cures with simple massage or the application of olive oil. Soon news of his miracle cures spread, and people started coming to the college, and then to Mount Royal where he established a shrine to St. Joseph and eventually the great Oratory which has become as well-known as Lourdes as a centre of healing. Brother André lived very simply on a diet of dumplings made of flour and water. He had a poor digestion and all his life was never in good health. In this he reminds us of another healer, Jean Baptiste Vianey, the Curate of Ars, who lived on a diet of cold boiled potatoes.
Although uneducated and practically illiterate, like Vianey, Brother André was allowed to take his vows as a novitiate, and as he worked as porter, he was noticed to be quite devoted to Saint Joseph. It was then that cures started to take place. One of the brothers suffered from a running wound on his leg. At Brother Andre's suggestion he made a novena in honor of Saint Joseph, and on the morning of St. Joseph's Day, (19 March), he was cured. Then a student at Notre Dame College took sick with a malignant fever. Brother Andre saw him and told him: "You have no more fever. You can go out and play." Which the child did. The fever had gone. [To be continued]. Reviewed from the book "The Miracle of the Mountain: the story of Brother André and the shrine on Mount Royal," by Alden Hatch. New York, Hawthorn Books, 1959. Richard R.

Bad Vibes and Good Vibes - Brother André (Continued) Cases of Distant and Spirit Healing (16)

Over the years I have taught in many different schools and classrooms in England and across several Canadian Provinces, and I noticed that in some of them it was practically impossible to conduct constructive and useful lessons. There might be one or two annoying or disruptive students or pupils, but that is an ubiquitous situation found in any classroom. But there were some places where the atmosphere just reeked of years or decades of negative rebellion against any learning or creative activity at all. There was a thick wall of indifference and even hostility, or an uneasy feeling of mental disturbance. I think the vibrations of year after year of unwilling learners coming from dysfunctional or abusive family situations in many cases, had built up this atmosphere of doom and gloom, and I just could not function effectively there as a teacher. Perhaps some of these places were actually haunted by some former students holding a grudge against a cruel teacher, or perhaps some unfortunate teacher was earthbound in his or her former classroom. Whatever the case, the bad vibes sapped my energy, and I had to move on to another post.
The same kind of negativity can be found in places of work, in certain houses and apartments, and even on outdoor sites. Bad energies linger on from accident and crime scenes, battles, burial sites and the discord of political assemblies, just as good energies are found in gardens, churches, theatres and concert halls, libraries and art galleries, and some well-run restaurants.
Good and bad energies can also be found in and around our bodies, and depending on the quality or our thoughts and feelings, we may invite in earthbound and other spirits who may help or hinder us in our work and quality of living. Positive inspiration comes to us from the world of spirit, and that is beneficial and to be sought after, but so also, from another level, come the undesirable effects of obsession and possession. Addiction, alcoholism, and bad habits such as over-eating can attract discarnate entities or earthbounds who can turn a slim attractive body into an 800 pound slab of obesity which can scarcely walk. How can such a thing happen? In many cases it is not a glandular disorder, but a body inhabited by many discarnates wanting to experience a physical body at any price, regardless of the health and well-being of the original owner of that body! Also, many mental health problems, especially in old age, with the onset of diseases such as Alzheimer's, are caused by earthbounds taking over the vacant mind of the patient.
So when our spirit healers come to heal any of the above conditions, they have many factors to deal with, not only at the physical level, but at the emotional, mental and spiritual levels as well. Now, the physical mind and body of the healer may not be aware of, or see, all these conditions and influences that have to be dealt with, unless he or she has clairvoyant abilities, but he or she lets the spirit doctors and helpers who CAN see take the necessary steps to eject the intruders, and heal the mental, emotional and physical disorders. This what I meant in the previous article, when I said that healing, to produce a cure, has to undertake a four-part onslaught against the problem, and not just treat the symptoms with drugs, herbs, crystals, manipulation, passes, hypnosis, analysis or psychotherapy, helpful though these may be.
Bearing this in mind, we could take a look at some more of the healing work undertaken by Brother André of Montreal, and see how he had entire faith in the world of spirit, in the name of St. Joseph, in his case, to do what was necessary to effect cures for all kinds of conditions. Richard Rowley

Brother André (continued).
There was a plague of smallpox at the College of Saint Laurent, and many died. In spite of his weakness and bad state of health, Brother André went to pray to St. Joseph in the College's chapel, and from that time on there were no more deaths, and the plague rapidly disappeared.
On another occasion, in 1884, while Brother André was sweeping the floor a woman suffering from rheumatism was brought to him. Without stopping his work, he remarked "Let her walk!" The woman and her companions asked for some more attention from him, but he merely continued sweeping while insisting "You are not sick any more. You can go home." Then she did go home, completely cured.
Sick people started to visit Notre Dame, rang the bell, and hoped Brother Andre would speak to them, or touch them, and very often they did go away cured. Then the brother started the practice of giving each sick person a medal of St. Joseph, and then he took a little oil from the lamp burning in front of St. Joseph's statue and rubbed it on the person's outer clothing, not actually on the diseased limb or wound. Towards the end of his life, André admitted that the medal was merely metal, and the oil merely olive oil from the lamp, but it made the sick people think more about St. Joseph and so strengthened their faith.
So many people came to the college to be cured that the parents of the students were afraid their children would be contaminated and catch all these diseases, doctors complained, and even the church authorities in Rome were worried. But André stubbornly persisted with his healing work while refusing to take personal credit for it. He said, "How stupid people are to think that I, Brother André, make miracles. The good God makes the miracle, Saint Joseph obtains them. I am only the wire which transmits their blessings."
In 1896 the church acquired more land on Mount Royal, and over the years the shrine to St. Joseph, the chapel and then the great Oratory were developed, Brother André always giving a helping hand along with many volunteers. One of these was a man dying of stomach cancer, as thin as a wraith. André gave him a good meal and all traces of the cancer disappeared, and the man worked for many months on the site.
One year the brother was visiting a nearby community and a youngster of five or six limped up to him on one crutch and asked to be cured. André told him to get his mother's permission. The boy ran over to his mother, cured, completely forgetting about his crutch!
In July, 1909, Brother André left his post as porter at Notre Dame after thirty years there, and went to Mount Royal to reside near his shrine to St. Joseph, where he remained to the end of his days. There he first cured Father Clement of near blindness, merely telling him to read his breviary that night, and that the next day he would say the mass. And so the Father served as Curate and then the Superior at the Oratory, able to read the services and carry out his duties at Mount Royal for the rest of his life.
One time a man was carried in to see the brother, because his back and legs were twisted so that he looked like a frog, and one side of his face was paralyzed by nicotine poisoning. He very soon was cured, walking out tall and straight, his face relaxed and perfectly normal.
Still complaints continued to be made against this "ignoramus" effecting miracle cures. A group of Catholic and Protestant doctors said he was endangering the health of the people of Montreal, caring for sick people when he was not a doctor. The newspapers labeled him a charlatan. But in spite of this negative publicity, people continued to come for cures. The Board of Health set up a commission to look into his case, and although they could not collect scientific proof of the cures, they were able to conclude that "the most extraordinary happenings which we have studied seem indeed to be the result of a supernatural intervention due to the goodness and power of Saint Joseph." Father André was allowed to continue healing.
Many people attested to the extraordinary energy surrounding the little man. He was only a small man for a healer, not like William Gray of California, or Harry Edwards of England, who were large men enjoying robust health. The electric energy which was emitted from William Gray's hands during healing often left burn marks on his patients. But around Brother André at times was a strange light, as many witnesses attested. Paul Corbeil appearing before a tribunal said, "One night I accompanied Brother André to his little chapel. After our prayers at the moment when he had closed the door I saw him standing in the attitude of one turning the key. For several seconds, as he stood there immobile in the obscurity of the night, he was illuminated by white rays of light such as we see depicted in the paintings of the saints. That created an extraordinarily unforgettable impression in me." Some years later, a friend of the brother, Adélard Fabre, had a similar experience. "It was about half-past nine in the evening. I saw Brother André kneeling on the floor of the nave of the Oratory at the foot of the Communion rail. He was enveloped by light. I was standing about six feet from him. He was in the light, I was not. There was no light in the Oratory except the lamp before the sanctuary. Far back, some votive candles were burning. The stream of light covering a distance of twenty feet stopped at the brother. The statue of Saint Joseph was in obscurity, but the luminous rays seemed to be parted by the statue. Later Brother André moved to the altar of the Holy Virgin, next to the main altar. He was still enveloped in light. As he left the Oratory to go to his room, the light disappeared." The light had come from no worldly source. There was no moon even, that night.

To be continued.

Remembrance - the good and the bad - lest we forget, let's accentuate the positive. Brother André (continued) Cases of Distant and Spirit Healing (17)

There is so much gloom and doom about Remembrance Day, Memorial Day, Veterans' Day, and similar celebrations of Military Might, Heroism and Sacrifice, and somehow there is an inadvertent glorification of war and sacrifice, especially of the mostly young men and women who have died or been injured while fighting for their country or to police conflicts abroad. Now, I say this even though I have trained in the army, taken part in Remembrance Day Parades when I was in the army, with the Queen present at the Cenotaph, and on other occasions, and even though my father served in both world wars, and was twice decorated for heroism, and he was one of the troops who opened up the concentration camps after WW II. What I am saying is that there must be a better way for us all to go about things than to glorify war. We must in the first place, stop enjoying warfare and violence in our entertainments, sports, movies, video and computer games and the like. Otherwise we will soon become callous and revert to enjoying the primitive cruelty and carnage of the Roman Colosseum.

We fight for freedom and positive values in opposing unfriendly and evil forces, but the way to do this, in the future, is not to glorify war and victory in battle, by keeping on replaying the old conflicts of the past, the war of Independence, the Civil War, the wars of Civil Rights and Equality, the Wars against Fascism, against Communism, against Military Dictatorships, and wars to stop further wars and genocide in several countries around the world. We must remember that every European country, and not just Nazi Germany, at one time or another has carried out genocide against their Jewish populations, and other minorities. Colonial countries have committed similar crimes against aboriginal populations, and before that, inter-tribal warfare in Africa, Australia and the American continents, and in the Far East, in fact everywhere, there has been continuous warfare of one clan, tribe or nation against another. All because humankind somewhere along the line lost contact with its spiritual destiny.

Now that we are acquiring a fully-aware global consciousness, tribal and ethnic disputes and battles for temporal power in one country or region have no practical meaning. Any act of violence affects us all. So we need a new global approach to political issues, and find practical ways to heal the planet, in the same way we look for ways to heal the body and mind in each one of us, by the four-pronged onslaught against disease and disharmony.

So on Remembrance day we need to accept responsibility for our past history, where no country in the world has been free of prejudice and murder against its minorities, of whatever race, color or creed. Just read the history books with open eyes, and remember, not to accrue further hate, and sense of vengeance, but to learn to look for a better way to live. Then, just as in local politics, so in international matters, we need to negotiate with our neighbors, not to hate and go to war against them. Bombing the hell out of them is not going to bring about a glorious outcome, no matter how heroic our efforts may be. We are going against spiritual law if we try to win by killing or torturing other people and destroying their land and property. By such conduct we lose all the values we were fighting for in the first place. We have also got to base our economies not on the production of weapons and vehicles and aircraft of mass destruction, but to invest our money more wisely in manufacturing environmentally friendly products. Investors have to become aware, and no longer put their money into the military industrial complex. That industry, I must say it, is evil and corrupt and without conscience. I worked in it myself, for a short while, I have to admit, without realizing it.

We can see the four different levels of life in operation here, the spiritual, mental, emotional and physical. International politics at present are unspiritual and irrational. Our leaders have lost their mind and spirit, and like small children, they act from a low emotional level in their own selfish interests on the physical plane, fighting for this piece of land, or for that particular profit. Just look at the infantile or childish inflationary and emotional language in the speeches of the leaders of some of the military dictatorships, and even listen to what some of our own politicians are saying. It is quite shocking, literally!

In spite of our religions there have been appalling atrocities carried out by the human race all through history, and in increasing numbers over the past 200 years; pogroms, massacres, executions, acts of genocide, wars and more wars. There will be no God on earth to intervene, until we bring him here by our good actions and behavior. There is no God to be seen because we neglect to believe in such an entity or power, and think that we have all the answers in our instincts and biological drives. There is no all-powerful personal God in human form looking after one people or nation, or even the planet. There are guides and spirits and a planetary intelligence and higher powers that tend the universe, about which we know little, but in our own human affairs we are left to our own devices. Our ancestors, loved ones in spirit, all the billions of people who have ever existed, they are alive somewhere in spirit, and some will help us and inspire us, if we listen to their advice. There is also a Divine mind which existed prior to form, prior to our cosmic existence, but mostly unfathomable. There is so much more which lies beyond our physical and psychic senses, but to look for God and find him, we must value and respect all forms of life, and not kill and destroy them. The rule of Love, not Might, must prevail.

How can we extend our healing prayers to reach not only our small circle of patients needing physical, mental, emotional and spiritual healing, but also to reach all life at large - to heal the unrest, hate, revenge, suicidal terrorism and all these awful rituals and customs of "honor" and "respect" and "vengeance" that cause fear, pain and suffering down through the generations.. We must start at home, and move ever outwards. But so much ignorance, so many young souls struggling to live and understand, and even find enough strength to fight off disease or find enough to eat....there is no end to this hell on earth.

On this remembrance day we have to remember all those who have died or been maimed and injured defending our countries, in combating crime, keeping law and order, and others who have made sacrifices to ensure that the world becomes a better place to live in. We must remember all those persecuted and killed out of prejudice, hate, greed and religious fanaticism. We must develop our powers to love and have compassion. To cure all the ills of the world, and the ills of our body, emotions, mind and spirit, we must investigate more fully the four levels of our campaign against disharmony.
First of all, at the spiritual level, we need to be aware of, and observe, all the spiritual laws. Marilyn Awtry-Smith's latest book "The River of Life" is the most recent treatise which can help us here. All our religions teach these truths. We have to think and act on a spiritual and ethical level, way above personal and local self-interests. This combines spiritual, mental and physical levels. At the mental level, specifically, we can study history, philosophy, math and other intellectual disciplines to lift our minds out of ignorance and learn to think and reason for ourselves, rather than let some dimwit politician, journalist, pop star or soldier try to do it for us. We idolize the wrong people. Make no idols, the scriptures tell us, very wisely. Even to idolize a wise man is to become foolish, as Socrates himself taught.
Thirdly, at the emotional level, psychology will help us to overcome the negative feelings: hate, prejudice, fear, guilt, envy, greed and so on, and develop our power to love and have compassion. As we combine mind and emotion with spirit, we develop a conscience. Then lastly, at the level of the material world, we have to develop a sense of right action. Here we are helped by the teachings of the Buddha and Jesus and those of the prophets of other religions. We can't get into an argument about which is best, since they were all right and appropriate for the time and place they came into being. It is now time for a global ethic, combining spirit with matter. This is most difficult when the theories of economics, politics, business and education are flawed, emphasizing competition, profit, interest, power, misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and general dishonesty and malpractice. We have to eliminate self-interest, impatience, selfishness, thoughtlessness and so on and replace them with harmony, cooperation, sympathy and compassion.

The world at large at the moment is living on the lowest levels of the emotional and physical planes, in a mindless, thoughtless way, in almost total ignorance of spirit law. We are all guilty of hate crimes against our siblings, parents, friends and neighbors as well as our enemies. Just think of road rage, and the flaming that goes on in our e-mails. We have to admit our guilt, grow up and move above all this self-indulgence and violence in thought, emotion and action. We can do well to become peaceful and humble, following the example of workers for humanity, like former President Jimmy Carter, and, to continue with this series, healers like Brother André, whose story we will now continue.

Richard Rowley. November 11th, 2007.

There was one terminally ill man with heart disease, coughing blood, and plagued with throat and digestive problems, who came to see Brother André as a last resort. His doctors told him that even climbing the steps to the Oratory might bring on a fatal heart attack. However the man persisted, and stayed with the brother for nine days, unable to eat a proper meal or exercise.. André rubbed him with oil two or three times a day, and then on the ninth day he massaged him for three hours, and prepared a meal of beef, potatoes, spices and vegetables in the evening, which he offered him for lunch the next day. Despite his protests, he was able to eat it, and felt fine during the afternoon. He ate a similar meal in the evening, and slept soundly for six hours, for the first time in nine days. The next day his full health had been restored. He was able to take a streetcar home, rode his bicycle for two miles, took a train to a neighboring village, and then rode a further five miles on his bicycle to his destination. This was in the full heat and humidity of August weather. Three weeks later he had gained eighteen pounds in weight, and remained in the best of health for the rest of his days.
On November 17, 1912, Archbishop Bruchési came to give his benedictions to the new nave of the Oratory, and in his address said,
"In the beginning a hand, pious and simple, placed a statue here. Each day people came to pray. Soon a little chapel rose on this spot. But the devotees of Saint Joseph became more and more numerous and it was necessary to enlarge the chapel many times. Today this is the last addition which I shall come to bless. But this work is only beginning, and I foresee in a future, perhaps not far distant, a church, a basilica worthy of Saint Joseph rising on Mount Royal and facing that most magnificent horizon.
" What shall I say of the miracles which take place here? If I deny them, these crutches and braces, witnesses of all the donors, will speak in my place. I had no need of the inquiry. It is certain that extraordinary things have taken place here, and even greater prodigies than physical cures....the greater things are the spiritual healings. ...I beg you to come here often to pray."
Father André's biographer notes that as always on these great occasions the humble healer stood in an obscure corner, and "must have been almost overcome as the Archbishop thus publicly declared his complete confidence in him, and for the first time sanctioned the little brother's fantastic dream of a basilica dedicated to Saint Joseph of Mount Royal."
There was no fixed pattern to the cures. Sometimes, as in the above case, there was much vigorous rubbing with Saint Joseph's oil, and many days of prayer. At other times a single application would be enough. Quite often Brother André did not even touch the sufferer, but merely looked at him and said, "You are well. Put down your crutches and walk!"
Some cures took place by distant healing, without the brother ever seeing the sufferer. Once the Fire Chief, a friend of his, came to see him, telling of his six-month old baby girl, sick at home with a temperature of 104. The doctor couldn't be sure she would survive. Brother André continued with his service, telling the Chief to stay for the prayers, and that his baby would be all right. When he got home, after the service, and a four and a half mile streetcar journey, he found the baby sitting up in bed playing and singing, the fever completely gone. She had recovered exactly at the time he had begun praying at the service.
The brother once told a friend that those with little or no faith were often quickly healed, so as to give them faith, while the faithful often took longer "for the good God prefers to allow them to suffer so that they will be sanctified even more.!" That we learn, grow and evolve spiritually through suffering is not new to us, especially at this time of remembrance.
Often, the brother could foresee the results of his prayers and treatments. This prevision or predictive ability was part of the cure. One young workman crushed his leg under a heavy stone. Gangrene set in and the doctors decided to amputate. One the way to the hospital, the sick young man decided to stop off at the Oratory and see Brother André who said "Go home and we will make a novena (prayer) to Saint Joseph. There will always be time to cut off your leg." The sick man returned to his home and at the end of the novena was completely cured. In gratitude this man and his two sons often came to work on the road of the Oratory."
When the brother saw that a patient was going to die, in most cases he told them, or the parents, exactly when. But he always would say some gentle, calming and encouraging words such as "You are not cured. You will die a week from today, but do not be afraid. Saint Joseph is watching over you, and you will not suffer." A friend of the biographer told him "I believe that it was not that Brother André had a knowledge of the future, but that he was in constant contact with Saint Joseph who put the words on his lips." A Spiritualist would say the same thing about a healer, but that it was his guide or spirit surgeon who told him of the prognosis.

To be continued The above cases are reviewed from the many recorded in the biography by Alden Hatch: "The Miracle of the Mountain." Hawthorn Books, New York, 1959.

Subject: Brother Andre (Concluded) and Spirit and Distant Healing (18) - minor proof-reading corrections - apologies

People continued to be cured or helped without seeing brother Andre at all, simply by coming to the Oratory to pray, or after his death, by visiting his tomb. A long-time journalist with La Presse as their Ottawa correspondent lost his job. Desperate for work he came to the Oratory to pray, and was offered the task of writing the history of Saint Joseph's Oratory.
After completing this, he never failed to find work again in his chosen profession.
From early in his life, Brother Andre used to visit those too sick to come to him, walking or taking the streetcar until he was seventy. Eventually, by 1915 friends sometimes arranged a car pool to shuttle him around on his 17 hour working days. At the end of the day, the brother would invite his friends to the Oratory for prayers and meditation. On a pew he placed
a candle that burned for an hour. Then he knelt before the Sacrament for that time, motionless in ecstasy.
On a visit to his sister in Rhode Island he cured an eighteen-year old girl of blindness. Doctors and specialists had pronounced her incurable, the result of uncontrollable eczema. He simply told her that she would see again clearly, and within a year her sight was restored, and thirty years later was still perfect. She had not been given any further medical treatment.
Also while in the States he cured a victim of tuberculosis of three spinal vertebrae. Specialists
had pronounced him an invalid, giving him crutches.
Brother Andre got him to put down his crutches and start walking without support, which he did, faster and faster. After that he had no further problems.
Another man, from Chicopee, Massachusetts, had been lying in bed for four years in a partial coma, unable to speak and with no memory. After Brother Andre's visit he woke up the following day singing a French song. He thought he had been asleep for only one
night!
In many cases we could say that Brother Andre was also effecting a kind of mental healing, implanting thoughts that there was no disease, or that it would soon be gone. This is similar to the method used by hypnotist Milton Erickson, and Ernest Holmes and his Science of Mind. Mary Baker Eddy and her Christian Science probably strays too far in this direction, implying that disease doesn't exist at all. This is to turn a blind eye to the suffering we find all around us. There is no doubt perfection on the highest spiritual dimensions, but down here on earth, with the checks and balances of everyday living, we need a lot of love and compassion to get through our life. To say on the one hand that this life is perfect, the "best of all possible worlds" or on the other hand that we are all sinners needing redemption, otherwise
we are destined for eternal damnation - these are two extremes that ask the impossible of us. Humble workers for spirit like Brother Andre or our own healers, and doctors and nurses saving lives every day with their treatments and operations, all take a positive and practical approach to tackling disease and daily living. Most doctors will accept the emotional and mental causes, but will not go so far a to recognize the spiritual dimensions, the help obtainable from there as well as causes originating there, from previous lives, or from the influences of ancestral or national history, with its fears, feuds and obsessions.
On 31st August, 1924, the three hundredth anniversary of the naming of Saint Joseph as the
patron saint of Canada was celebrated at the Oratory by 35,000 people, the largest congregation on the mountain until then.
Bother Andre received hundreds of letters every day, telling him of their woes. Brother Hyacinth, his secretary, answered them in a general way, unless there was a difficult problem, in which case Brother Andre was consulted. When the Great Depression came and people lost everything, the brother said in the early 1930s, "Money is nothing. You ought to be worrying about your soul. You might lose it as well."
As he grew older, Brother Andre's cures became more frequent, and doctors began to support him, testified to his work and often sought his help in difficult cases. Dr. Lamy thought his cures were extraordinary. He cites a case in which another doctor phoned the brother, saying that his wife had not slept for a long time. Brother Andre replied by saying, "your wife is asleep now." The doctor checked, and found his wife in deep sleep. This kind of clairvoyance at a distance is also to be found amongst our Spiritualist mediums, Shinto priests, shamans, and with some of the Indian Swamis: Paramahansa Yogananda, Swami Rama or Satya Sai Baba, for example. Brother Andre treated people of all faiths or none.
He once cured a Freemason from Los Angeles of intestinal cancer. He remarked, "Notice that this man came a long way to Saint Joseph's Oratory, that he took six days and six nights for his journey. His Masonic Insignia is nothing but a piece of tin, but there was great confidence in his heart and that is what matters."
On his ninety-first birthday, August 9th, 1936, it is said that half the world paid tribute to him. He sent a message through the reporters to the people of Canada's great neighbor: "The United States is ever in my prayers. Always I pray for everyone in America.
She must have faith; even more faith. When chaos prevails in the world we, each one of us, are to blame. We are lacking in faith. Always be prepared to die! We think least of the most important thing that is to happen to us."
    Facts reviewed from "The Miracle of Mount Royal" by Alden Hatch, N.Y. 1959.  Comments by Richard
Rowley.
 
Spirit and Distant Healing (19) Healing the Emotional or Desire body and avoiding drugs. Another Catholic Healer - Father Ralph Di'Orio.

Here are some spirit teachings which help us understand that cause of much disease lies not in the physical body, and environmental and genetic inheritance, but in the non-physical higher bodies: the astral, mental and spiritual. This continues the discussion from previous articles in this series.

Note: The terms "Self" or "Higher Self" used in this teaching refer to the eternal Soul or Spirit, as opposed to the more temporary or short-lived physical, etheric and astral bodies.

In ancient times "drugs as you know them were known but not applied to the physical body as curative agents, for they were considered a deadly poison that would eventually bring on a worse condition than the ailment suffered. If the ailment was considered a serious one, the patient was placed under a somnolistic hypnotic state and there told to adjust the condition of his body to its normal state. Sometimes this hypnotic treatment went on for days but most often a few yours of it was all that was necessary. The greater the malignancy of the disease, the deeper the trance, until the [Higher] Self was reached and made to tell the why of it. When the Self explained the cause of its irritation, it was then assured that the "outer" misunderstanding would be corrected and it might go about repairing the rupture between itself and its physical machine.
The desire or astral body works automatically and without reason or logic. It thinks only in yes and no terms, with no intermediate considerations, either being highly pleased by a stimulation or greatly depressed by it. In a well-[self]-controlled person, the desire body refers all "outer" stimulation to the High[er] Spirit or Self, and if the [Higher] Self reasons it [the astral or emotional body] to be in keeping with the environment it finds itself in, and in harmony with nature, it becomes more aware of its physical self and thereby keeps better care of it. But if the desire body sends back a stimulation not :natural" to the Self, it [the Higher Self] rejects it; and if the desire body continues to send back a stimulation once rejected by the Self, in order to escape what it knows is not good, the Self will start withdrawing from its physical machine by closing off its sense of awareness of it. This slowly, or rapidly - as the case may be - leaves the body open for the force of death [the natural process of ageing and decay] to take over more and more, until it breaks down the physical body to such a degree that the Self can no longer operate through it, even in what you call the "subconscious" way, and so departs, and the body soon starts to decay.
Now, some schools of the "inner teachings" neglected to tell the people that death of the body does not mean that the Self escapes, leaving the desire body to die with the physical. The Self can never rid itself of the desire body, but it must train it to react only to the kind of stimulation that will be good for the upward growth of itself. And the best place for that training is while still in the physical body for the physical body acts as an insulator against the shocks of stimulation that contact the [Higher] Self. When this insulation is taken away before the person has learned to govern his [or her] desires, upon reaching the astral plane, he will find himself automatically acting out all that was impressed on the desire body, [and so we have these low disruptive spirits coming back to earth to try and get more physical pleasure obsessing and possessing those of us still alive]. This is one of the very good reasons why the really honest teachers of the "Ancient Wisdom" warned their followers to live in a state of detachment in all their acts, so that the desire body would not become too impressed.
Some of the ancient Egyptians and Hindus knew well that the desire body was carried right along into the astral, but they also believed that the desire body would last only as long as the physical body did not fall into dust [an erroneous belief]. And as many of the immensely wealthy and powerful heads of those ancient civilizations indulged greatly in satisfactions of the body and believed that they could go on enjoying such satisfactions also on the astral plane under certain conditions, their ingenious minds set about concocting a drug with which they could embalm the physical body and keep it intact for many thousands of years., That is why, also, all the tombs of the great kings and pharaohs were sealed and a curse put upon those who opened them. [Modern Cryogenics preserves the body for the purpose of its possible future resurrection or resuscitation].
While this was the attitude of the Egyptians and many other ancient races of people, the Hindus held the opposite belief. They learned to destroy the physical body as quickly as possible after the Self separated from it, fearing that if they did not, they would become earthbound and have to suffer just as they had in the physical body from the woes of the flesh. So the Hindus cremated their dead believing it would cause the end also of the desire body on the astral. Then they believed that the Self, or life-spark, having no attachments left in it, would automatically gravitate to a Nirvanic paradise, or become One with the Absolute. [This also was an erroneous belief. Strong desires remain strong desires until they are either fully satisfied or mentally and spiritually detached from].
Fortunately, they taught the art of detachment. I say "fortunately" because neither destroying nor preserving the physical body makes much effect on the desire body. The only hope for mankind is to train the desire body while still in the physical world. [That is one of the reasons for us incarnating. This is the only place we can learn that kind of self-control]. If mankind does not [train the desire body while here on earth], it will find it extremely more difficult to do so on any of the astral planes. And if you want quick and continued returns to the Earth body, just fail to train the desire body!
The earliest of man's civilizations on Earth fell into the dust for the same reason as all the others that followed - and the same will happen to yours of the present. That reason is the forgetting of the Great Spirit and the becoming lost in the bewildering jungle of desire, of self-satisfaction. Believe me, friends, the nations of your world are even now tottering on the brink of disaster - the kind which swept [earlier civilizations away]. Many vast and wonderful civilizations have come and gone. Many of these met with sudden and extremely violent ends. In fact, the entire globe has been racked and churned from end to end, wiping man off the Earth on five separate occasions, and destroying most of the plant and animal life as well. But, while form may be changed, matter out of which from is made cannot be annihilated as long as there is the life-force in existence. I believe, however, that it is an observable fact in your present scientific age that, while an entire species may appear to have been destroyed, it will return again in a new and more superior body for waging war against whatever it was that caused destruction to its original body. This is what is termed ‘conforming to environment.'"

Reviewed from teachings received from the Inner Circle Teachers of Light through clairvoyant, clairaudient and trance medium Mark Probert between 1947 - 1952.
Published as "The Magic Bag" by Mark Probert, San Diego. C.A. 1963. The Inner Circle Kethra E'Da Foundation, Inc.

[explanatory bracketed insertions and underlinings for emphasis added by Richard R.]

Brother André of Montreal did much healing in the States whenever he visited his sister who lived in Rhode Island. Ralph DiOrio was born in Rhode Island in1930 just seven before the brother's death, and he was to become one of the best-known healers of the second half of the Twentieth Century, and he continues his great work today. You may visit his websites: www.fatherdiorio.org and www.rdohealingministry.org . At the age of eight he realized the power of prayer when his mother was rushed into hospital in critical condition. He felt that his prayers helped her make a quick recovery. At fifteen he decided to become a Catholic priest and went off to a Seminary in Chicago to study intensively for twelve years. It was only after 19 years in the priesthood and looking after many different parishes, including one in Northern Canada, that the gift of healing began to emerge. It was around Christmas, 1975 that a mysterious energy seemed to begin surging in his body. In his own words: "my body was constantly aflame. When I touched anything, sparks came out of me. Electricity jumped out of my body. I didn't know what was happening. For a while I couldn't touch anything. At first I thought it was a static electric charge from the carpets, but it wasn't because it happened whether there were carpets or not, and it was stronger than any static charge I had ever felt before. After the electricity started, my knuckles began to hurt, and I thought I was getting arthritis. Then pains began to pass through other parts of my body, and I was frightened because I still didn't know what was happening to me."
In February 1976, Kathryn Kuhlman the charismatic healer died. She had possessed a powerful electric energy that had healed hundreds of thousands. Now Father Ralph DiOrio was to assume her role. The healing began, again with his mother in Providence, Rhode Island when he visited her that May. She was very sick, and asked him to pray for her before he left to return to his parish. He did so, laying his hands on her head. When he got home, he phoned her. She said that after he had left, she had a dizzy spell for an hour, and then she felt something go through her body, and she had been healed of her illness. Ralph then started attending Father McDonough's Charismatic Renewal services in Boston, at the request of his parishioners. After about three months, his own healing gifts emerged. As he relates "some people in the church asked me to pray over them, and I felt myself, my body, filled with a new power, and the power flowed out of me and into them. ‘Could it be?' I asked myself, and I was frightened. I pulled back from it. I didn't even finish the prayer. I pulled away from the people. I shook my head and muttered. ‘This can't be.' I said to my friend, who had driven me to Boston, ‘Let's go home.' But I didn't tell him what had happened.
The next day, back in Fitchburg, I conducted my regular Sunday service which, at that time, was still a more traditional kind of service. When it was over, a few of my parishioners came up and asked if we could go to Father McDonough's again. I said, ‘Oh, let's not go. I don't think we should go today.' I was uncomfortable at what had happened the day before.
But my parishioners were insistent, and they wouldn't take no for an answer. ‘Let's go, Father Ralph! Come on, we've just got to go today! And it's special too, because it's Mother's Day!' I was still apprehensive, but I finally agreed because it seemed so important to them.
We got into various cars and drove the fifty miles to Boston. They were right about it being Mother's Day. And it was also Kathryn Kuhlman's birthday, May 9. What happened to me later made it a day that I shall never forget.
When we arrived at the church, I didn't even go behind the Sacristy to speak to Father McDonough. I went to the very rear of the church, all by myself, hoping that Father McDonough would not even see me. And as I stood there, a small girl of six or seven came around with papers for petitions. She recognized me from previous services when Father McDonough had introduced me and I had preached. ‘Hi, Father Ralph,' she said, ‘here's a piece of paper. Why don't you write a petition to God? Whatever you'd like.'
‘And what should I write? I asked her.
‘Oh,' she smiled, ‘what is in your heart.'
I looked down at her smiling face and saw that a little child was leading me. I smiled back and said all right. I took a piece of paper and wrote a message in to God, a personal petition that would be placed on the altar during the Charismatic service.
I wrote my petition in three languages: Latin, Italian, and Spanish. I hoped that if Father McDonough did read those petitions, he wouldn't understand mine. Though I wrote the petition three different times in three different languages, I had no control over what I wrote. My beseechings just poured right out of me. ‘God, if it be Your Will, give me the fulfilments of my life as a priest. Grant me a new, complete, and worldwide ministry in the Charismatic Renewal, specifically in the Healing Ministry, the thing I have always wanted. Grant me a ministry to heal the bodies and souls of mankind.'
The smiling little girl took my petition and placed it on the altar. As soon as she put it down, it seemed, Father McDonough spotted me in the shadows at the back of the church and immediately called me up to preach. I still hung back, even though I had just written that petition asking God to grant me a new ministry, but I couln't refuse Father McDonough. I walked up to the front of the church, and since it was Mother's Day, I preached a sermon on the Blessed Mother.
The congregation was excited by my sermon, and people began clapping. They seemed to want me to say something more, maybe even do something. But I was still holding back, so I tried to slip off quietly behind the altar and be by myself. Suddenly a woman ran into the small room where I was and shouted, ‘Father, hurry up! Quick! My husband is bleeding inside his stomach.'
‘Bleeding?' I asked. ‘Then you have to get him to a doctor. Let's call an ambulance right away and get him to a hospital.'
‘No, no!' she insisted.. ‘Pray over him!'
‘Pray over him? Come on,' I said, ‘call the doctor.'
But this woman would not back down. In fact, she grew even more insistent. ‘Father!' she demanded. ‘Pray!'
My natural instinct was to wonder if the man was pulling my leg. It didn't make any sense. He is bleeding, I pray over him, and all of a sudden the bleeding stops and he;s okay? I felt certain he was tricking me for some reason of his own. How slow I was to believe what was happening to me.
Then I wondered if the man was crazy. He didn't look crazy, though. He was just an ordinary-looking, well-dressed, middle-aged man, and while I was wondering about him, he got up, brushed himself off, and went back to his seat singing, ‘Hallelujah!'
At that moment a nun came up to me, Father McDonough's sister, and she said, ‘Father, there's a woman going crazy here; she wants to kill her son and daughter. Will you do a deliverance over her?'
Deliverance? I thought, but the nun quickly brought the woman into the hallway where I was. I laid hands on her for about ten minutes. The woman got totally freed! She went back happy! I said to myself, ‘Holy mackerel! Is this real? Is this happening to me?'
My head was still spinning with wonder when a school-teacher came out, a young girl about twenty-five or twenty-six from Cambridge, and she said, ‘Father, I have some problems, serious problems. Will you pray with me?'
‘All right,' I said, ‘let's sit down.' So I sat with the girl in the stairwell, holding her hand. If some old-fashioned priest had walked by, he'd probably have complained to Rome. I held her hand and prayed with her, and she was overpowered. A moment later she told me, ‘I felt the heat go through my body, a healing through my brain.'
When she went back to her seat happy and smiling, I was left alone near the stairs in the hallway. I was in somewhat of a daze. I couldn't understand what was happening to me.
As soon as the service was over, I rushed up the side aisle of the church, trying to flee. But Father McDonough called me back from the pulpit and asked me to pray over a little crippled boy. I could not say no in front of all those people, so I went up to the little boy and placed my hands on him, and he started moving, and people saw this. My fear rose in one last pull, and I drew back from what was happening, but a lady cried out to me, ‘Father, pray over me! Touch me!' And when I did, poom! She went right down. One after the other, they went down. By the time I got to the other end of the church, the whole place was laid out! People on all sides of me had been ‘slain by the spirit.' Then I knew I had broken out. I understood that God had granted me my Healing Ministry.
Later, when I was alone in my room, I had time to think over the miraculous events of the day. I had wanted to be fulfilled as a human being and as a priest, and I had wanted my natural gift of doctoring to emerge for the good of the people. My joy is serving the people. When I wrote my petition, over which I had no control, I wrote to God from my subconscious heart. God, I was saying, I am going to give you what has been in my heart. Would you do this in my priesthood, grant me a Healing Ministry? And He did.
All my life God has been preparing me for the whole healing, the Holistic Healing. He was preparing me for the healing of the wholeness of man and for the healing of the whole world.
He must have been waiting all those years so He could say to me, ‘Now you are ready. You have been broken, and you have been nothing. Now you have turned to Me; you have given Me yourself with what I gave you in your life. Now you are ready for My Ministry, and I am going to lead you higher and higher and higher.'
When I thought about all these things, I suddenly saw them in a new light. God had opened my eyes. And suddenly I could see the pattern of my life. The Lord had been preparing me all along for the moment when He would decide to use me as a clear channel through which He would send His Healing Grace to His people. I felt very humble and very grateful to God. ‘Why me, God?' I asked. ‘I'm not worthy of this.' Yes, I had asked for the gift, the Gift of Himself Alone, but like most people, I really didn't think He was going to give it. It was truly in my heart, but I never expected to receive it. I was overwhelmed. And I still am."

[to be continued]

Reviewed from "The Man Beneath The Gift" by Ralph A. DiOrio and Donald Gropman. William Morris and Company, Inc. 1980.
The Holy Spirit, The Great Spirit and The Tao. Spirit and Distant Healing (20): Ralph DiOrio and Milton Erickson.
The reason why religions continue to contribute to the unrest in the world and the many regional ethnic and world-wide disputes, political crises and wars, is that in their buildings, institutions and teachings they retain all the accrued energies, thoughts and feelings, good and bad, from thousands of years and generations of priests and worshippers practising their rituals. So there are the good healing energies for those worshipping in the various buildings, but also all the negativity, prejudices, hate, exclusion and cruelty against outsiders, heathens, infidels and gentiles, each religion or sect often believing they alone are the chosen people. These negativities can overwhelm the Holy Spirit, or Divine Light of Love, and prevent it shining. The advantage of Spiritualism as a new science, philosophy and religion is that it does not have this past history of hate and oppression against other peoples and religions, although it continues to suffer itself from the same. Like the Bahai'I faith, the Swedenborgians and the Quakers, it has not oppressed those of other beliefs, but rather it has accepted direct contact with spirit in whatever way these other religions manifest it, knowing that its own practices are just one aspect of spiritual manifestation. It does not dispute, but rather, demonstrates the truth.
However, it is not the same situation in reverse. Spiritualism is maligned by scientists and other religions almost every day, for different reasons, material and spiritual. The Roman Catholics in particular criticize Spiritualism, saying that mediums only contact recently deceased loved ones or lost souls and dead doctors or low astral spirits or even demons, while they, in their services and rituals are in direct contact with the Holy Spirit, the third part of the Trinity, and it is THIS that does the healing in their churches and ministries, and is therefore more legitimate and effective than the energy of our spirit doctors.
I would say that the healing energy which is used by all healers, with or without bringing religion into the picture, is one and the same. It comes from the one source - Divine Love, and is conducted through whatever spirit or human agency is available. This is why I include the stories of healers from all faiths and none in this series, without distinction or division. We all belong to one another, whatever race, tribe, nation or creed, and our friends the animals, and even plants, are healed by Divine Love too, and none of them, who have lived on this planet for millions or billions of years before we arrived, none of them have a religion, beyond some domestic animals being faithful to their owners.
I am trying to show that no one religion is superior to another, and whether or not the religion claims to have the most superior and exclusive connection with the Holy Spirit, Divine Energy, Great Spirit, God or the Tao - call it what you will - what is going on in a healing service, distant healing procedure or prayer ritual for healing is the awakening of the spirit within the person or persons being healed, whether this takes place in a small intimate circle or in a mass meeting of many thousand people, or at a distance. The mediums, lay healers or priests are merely intermediaries, some perhaps having a surplus of physical energy to supplement the spiritual downpouring. They all have a closer connection to the world of spirit, whatever they may call it, and whatever level they contact. This enables the rest of us, when we are ready, to awaken our own spirit within. If we are not ready, or the healing is not meant to happen, it will not take place. So we try again, until our lessons are learned, and we achieve a higher level of understanding, compassion and spirituality.
Now, many of the healers we look at have never trained as doctors, nurses, healers or priests, while others have many worldly qualifications. Without rejecting the importance of training, experience and qualifications, we have to agree that the power of Spirit often manifests in the most unusual and unexpected ways. So, how can we clear away the past negativities associated with world religions, the bad energy retained in their buildings and teachings, and tap into and retain the best, the good, the true direct loving energy of Divine Spirit? It will have to an awakening of the love within the consciousness of each and every living human being over many, many future generations, requiring much education to tame the human ego, and its hostility to change and to foreign and rival theocracies.

With that, we will return to the work of Father Ralph DiOrio. Like Sister Briege McKenna he has done much to spread the mission of Divine Healing around the world, healing hundreds of thousands over the years. His many books* contain a great number of case studies showing how spiritual healing works. I recommend all healers to read them, and compare notes with their own experiences. I will conclude this article with a brief review of how Father Ralph experiences the outpouring of the spiritual healing energy. [Comments in brackets are my own opinion. Richard Rowley].

From what he says, it appears that Father DiOrio often goes into a light trance, and becomes clairvoyant, clairaudient or clairsentient until the individual healings take place. In his own words:
"I do not say that I can explain what happens during my services, but there is no doubt that these things happen. Anybody who attends can see for himself. In fact, other people can observe external things that I miss, for during a Charismatic service, I am completely out of character. It is not I. Something is in me. It is not I as a person. There is a Spirit of God functioning though me. Many people have seen this. But believe me, it is not I. Sometimes I do attempt to explain these dynamics to my congregation at the start of the service.
During the past few years, I've noticed that many people, in their desperate need, fall into the error of confusing the channel with the Source, the gift with the Giver. They witness amazing things, and they assume I have performed them, so they reach out to touch me.
Please don't try to touch me; it's not necessary at all. When you touch me, you're not touching anything. You must touch God alone - not me!
I understand that you do see God in me. There is definitely no question about this. I'm trying earnestly to have God touch your lives as He uses me as His clear channel.
At other times, as the need arises, I may attempt to clarify another aspect of the dynamic of Healing.
As I walk among you, some of you will feel electricity going through you right out of my body. Heat. A jolt of lightning, so to speak. I don't know how God does it. Curvatures of the spine will begin straightening out. Bent legs will begin to straighten. We will probably see shortened legs begin to grow. These are the ailments which seem to be healed in every service. Other ailments - cancers (by shrinking and disappearance of tumours), blindness, or paralysis, for example, (and coronary conditions -
by the opening up of arteries around the heart) seem to be healed in clusters.
Another phenomenon which continuously and constantly occurs during our services is the ‘slaying in the spirit,' [where the persons seems to be struck down, faints or falls over].......What is happening when someone falls down or enters a standing ecstasy is a phenomenon of God's presence called the ‘slaying in the spirit,' or the overpowering of the spirit. The resting in the Lord. The Lord usually likes to pass through people; it's a ‘spirit of prayer.' The saints used to experience this type of prayer; it's called ‘ecstatic union.' They were just lost in God. Their bodies, with their external senses, became suspended, and they would just float in the Lord. [This is well known to Spiritualists - levitation is also quite common among Indian mystics and yogis, as well as with the saints of old such as Thomas Aquinas]. You have no control. So if I come up to someone and you see him fall, don't get upset.
I will call some of you, or come to you myself. If you call me to come to you, the Lord might bring me to you, but generally I don't know whom I'm going to go to. The Lord will just tell me to go up to a person, and I just hold up my hand, maybe touch his forehead, and he is healed. So let the Spirit lead me where It will because I myself don't know where He is going to lead me; this is one facet of the phenomenon know as the ‘word of knowledge.'
There is no set pattern for what will happen here today. Under the influence of what is known as ‘the anointing,' there is no prescribed form or ritual required. God's clear channel must be in total surrender to the Will of God - it is God speaking, walking, healing.
It has often been recorded in photographs, and perceived by myself and others, that during our Healing Services, my own soul appears to have surrendered itself to another Spirit, a Spirit functioning through me which causes me to be totally out of my own natural character.... [and perhaps out of his body! It is quite obvious from this statement that Father DiOrio has a spirit doctor, or team of doctors, working with him, though probably his religion would not allow him to admit it!]. You will see this yourselves. It will clearly demonstrate the absolute difference between myself, the man, beneath the gift, and God, the Giver of the gift. Remember, I am not the Healer.
Another thing you're probably going to see is how I receive signals from the Lord. I will receive pictures in my mind or [experience] pains in my body which signify a healing [of that condition] for someone. That's the way the Lord works with me. Each of us is different. I might have the ‘word of knowledge' of Healing. Then I can actually pinpoint exactly what [clothes] you're wearing [to identify you] and the exact sickness.
But please note - this process by which God works through me should not be imitated by other persons. Such an attempt would be futile, for one person cannot simply copy a gift that is distinctive to another person. Also, such superficial copying would probably be harmful to the persons in need of healing and detrimental to [the healing process]. Charisms are powerful forces originating from the Creator of all energy, and they are not to be trifled with.
...... Some people attend our services out of curiosity, tantalizing themselves with the unanswerable questions, ‘How does he do it? What's happening here?' [Father DiOrio goes on to say that even skeptical journalists and doctors are eventually convinced and accept that something supernormal is happening when cures in ‘terminal' cases occur, and now there is much cooperation between all concerned.]
Most of our services are intense, sometimes unbelievably so. The unpredictable manner and timing in which the Word of Knowledge comes to me is another example of the spontaneous nature of the healing services. I never know when the Word will come, but when it does, I immediately announce or "call it" publicly.
Usually the earliest indication of a specific healing comes to me by way of an empathetic pain - where I feel a pain in my own body is the area in which someone is receiving a Healing. During a service, I might sound something like this:
"I'm feeling a pain. A healing is taking place in someone's knees at this moment. Someone who has had much physical pain. In a few moments that person - you know who you are - should jump up and say, ‘Me! It's me! I'm healed!'
"A blocked ear passage is opening, or is about to. And someone who has been deaf as the result of a severe infection, that problem too is beginning to clear up. And someone wearing a neck brace is also being cured at this moment.
.... ‘The proper response to your healing is like picking up something you ordered - you must claim it! Claim your healing. Don't be afraid to identify yourselves. Let God know you are not embarrassed by His Grace."
The ‘spirit' can work ‘intelligently' to heal every type of physical, emotional and mental ailment: brain tumor, arthritis, mental disorders, cancer, leukemia, or broken legs. The ultimate purpose of healing in those who are healed is the spiritual awakening, a profound change in the innermost being."
While I am teaching and worshipping, I am under the anointing of the Holy Spirit and experience various healing insights. Sometimes I will call out a general healing of the eyes or ears and I will ask those in need to stand, and I will lead the congregation in prayer. Afterward, everyone who has been healed is asked to come forward and claim the healing.
At other times during a session I will get a feeling that someone in a particular area has a specific need. I also experience the ‘Word of Knowledge,' and call out a person with a certain name, color of clothing, or disease. I am led by the Holy Spirit to identify exactly the illness, need, person, or a combination of these. Frequently I call these people to me and pray over them. A person does not need to be called out or touched by me to be healed. Often, however, I will walk among the people and anoint them with blessed oil or bless them with holy water. Depending on the size of the crowd and the time at hand, I may bless every person individually or bless the masses by sprinkling, using the holy water as a point of contact."

These excerpts selected and reviewed from books by Ralph A. DiOrio:
"The Man Beneath the Gift" (co-authored with Donald Gropman). William Morrow, N.Y. 1981.
"Called to Heal." Doubleday, N.Y. 1982.
"Miracles to Proclaim." Doubleday, N.Y. 1984.
"Signs and Wonders." Doubleday, N.Y. 1987.
"Healing Love." Doubleday, N.Y. 1988.

Lay healers like William Gray of California (Ruth Montgomery's "Mr. A."), Harry Edwards and Tom Pilgrim had exactly the same type of healing energy as that displayed by the three Catholic healers reviewed here recently, Brother André, Sister Briege McKenna and Father Ralph DiOrio.
Another type of healer uses suggestion or hypnosis to cure illness, such as psychiatrists Brian L. Weiss, and from 6o or 70 years ago, Milton Erickson. Erickson really used a form of reframing which later turned up in Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Nothing is new under the sun! It's all been done before. So don't try to claim to be too original! The healing is effected by merely suggesting to patients that they have the healing energy within themselves all the time. We are all capable of healing ourselves, within reason, if we are willing to accept what we find. Many will not accept past situations and ties and entanglements, sometimes from previous lives, and other fears and hates and phobias within themselves, and so are not ready to heal. Which explains why even the most powerful of healers cannot cure everybody all the time.

Milton Erickson would listen to his patients' complaints, then put them into a light trance and offer stories and suggestions to replace the rut or grove in their thinking and feeling, distracting them away from harping on illness and symptoms and negativity, replacing it all with a new vision, attitude, practice or behaviour. Very often the new outlook and attitude effected remarkable cures. It is also quite obvious that Erickson had a wonderful sense of humour, which he used in a kind way, and not to hurt the patient. Here are a couple of his case histories to illustrate the technique. The text of Erickson's story is given, (which when delivered was spoken with a gentle hypnotic rhythmic roll), followed by comments from Dr. Sidney Rosen, reviewed from his book "My Voice Will Go With You: Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erickson." W.W. Norton and Company Inc., New York. 1982.

Erickson: "I had a nurse come in. I had known her slightly. She was one of those know-it-all nurses. She's been discharged from hospital after hospital because she told the doctors what to do. She told them the diagnosis and the treatment.
And she came in and said that she had globus hystericus, a lump in her throat, and it was very distressing. I had her describe the distress. And she described the pain. I reached my own conclusions and said, "You do not have globus hystericus. You have an ulcer of the stomach, at the duodenal end.:
She said, "Don't be ridiculous."
I said, "I'm not, you are."
She said, ‘I'll prove to you I don't have a stomach ulcer.' She went to three different radiologists, all of whom confirmed my diagnosis. And she came back very angry and said, "You're right. I saw the X-rays myself and they all agreed. What are you going to advise me to do?"
I said, "You're Armenian. You like spicy food You have a sister who calls you up every day and has a long telephone conversation with you. You have a niece who calls you up every day, has a long telephone conversation. Hang up on your sister and your niece. They both give you a pain in your stomach. And enjoy your food."
A month later she got new X-rays from all three radiologists. No trace of an ulcer. And that was all the recommendation, "Enjoy your food, hang up on your sister and your niece."
Her favorite expression was "I can't swallow this. I can't swallow that." That's why she reached the diagnosis of globus hystericus. Her description of the pain indicated it must be a duodenal ulcer. But she knew I was wrong. Three independent radiologists convinced her I was right."

Comments: Oddly enough, this "know-it-all" nurse who was so bossy with doctors could not be assertive with her own sister and niece. Erickson sets an example of assertiveness with his own attitude. In fact, in this story he appears to be approaching arrogance as he assumes the "know-it-all" posture. However, he apparently felt that he had to do this in order to persuade this woman to take direction. It was important for him to know that she would follow his suggestion and actually hang up on her sister and her niece. .
___________________________

Erickson: "A man from Philadelphia, whose headaches I cured, sent his aunt and uncle out to see me. He said, "Those two have quarreled every day of their married life. They've been married over thirty years."
They came out to see me. I said, "Haven't you had enough of quarreling?" Why not start enjoying life?" And they had a very pleasant life. And the man's aunt tried to persuade her sister to come out, because his mother was very unhappy."

Comments: In this story, Erickson, in the indirect manner that is typical of him, is answering critics who ask about follow-up on his patients. He makes it clear that the headache cure was effective by telling us that "the man from Philadelphia" sent his aunt and uncle to see him. It is also obvious that their situation was improved since the aunt felt Erickson could help her sister. Erickson often begins a case report with reference to a previous patient who was treated successfully.
This story might be told by Erickson when someone in the group was arguing inwardly with him or with himself. He marks the phrase "Haven't you had enough of quarreling?"
The story may be difficult to believe. I present it, however, because its simplicity is so appealing.
I asked Erickson to tell us more about the context in which these simple suggestions had been given. How much time had he spent in establishing rapport? Did he hypnotize the couple?
He said, "I just used a waking trance which developed into a light trance. I asked them, ‘But why not enjoy life? You've had over thirty years of quarreling. I think marriage should be enjoyable. And you haven't too many years left to enjoy marriage.' And they were appreciative.
"Too many therapists think that they must direct the change and help the patient to change. Therapy is like starting a snowball rolling at the top of a mountain. As it rolls down, it grows larger and larger and becomes an avalanche that fits the shape of the mountain." [To be continued]

The Holy Spirit, The Great Spirit and The Tao. Spirit and Distant Healing (20): Ralph DiOrio and Milton Erickson.
The reason why religions continue to contribute to the unrest in the world and the many regional ethnic and world-wide disputes, political crises and wars, is that in their buildings, institutions and teachings they retain all the accrued energies, thoughts and feelings, good and bad, from thousands of years and generations of priests and worshippers practising their rituals. So there are the good healing energies for those worshipping in the various buildings, but also all the negativity, prejudices, hate, exclusion and cruelty against outsiders, heathens, infidels and gentiles, each religion or sect often believing they alone are the chosen people. These negativities can overwhelm the Holy Spirit, or Divine Light of Love, and prevent it shining. The advantage of Spiritualism as a new science, philosophy and religion is that it does not have this past history of hate and oppression against other peoples and religions, although it continues to suffer itself from the same. Like the Bahai'I faith, the Swedenborgians and the Quakers, it has not oppressed those of other beliefs, but rather it has accepted direct contact with spirit in whatever way these other religions manifest it, knowing that its own practices are just one aspect of spiritual manifestation. It does not dispute, but rather, demonstrates the truth.
However, it is not the same situation in reverse. Spiritualism is maligned by scientists and other religions almost every day, for different reasons, material and spiritual. The Roman Catholics in particular criticize Spiritualism, saying that mediums only contact recently deceased loved ones or lost souls and dead doctors or low astral spirits or even demons, while they, in their services and rituals are in direct contact with the Holy Spirit, the third part of the Trinity, and it is THIS that does the healing in their churches and ministries, and is therefore more legitimate and effective than the energy of our spirit doctors.
I would say that the healing energy which is used by all healers, with or without bringing religion into the picture, is one and the same. It comes from the one source - Divine Love, and is conducted through whatever spirit or human agency is available. This is why I include the stories of healers from all faiths and none in this series, without distinction or division. We all belong to one another, whatever race, tribe, nation or creed, and our friends the animals, and even plants, are healed by Divine Love too, and none of them, who have lived on this planet for millions or billions of years before we arrived, none of them have a religion, beyond some domestic animals being faithful to their owners.
I am trying to show that no one religion is superior to another, and whether or not the religion claims to have the most superior and exclusive connection with the Holy Spirit, Divine Energy, Great Spirit, God or the Tao - call it what you will - what is going on in a healing service, distant healing procedure or prayer ritual for healing is the awakening of the spirit within the person or persons being healed, whether this takes place in a small intimate circle or in a mass meeting of many thousand people, or at a distance. The mediums, lay healers or priests are merely intermediaries, some perhaps having a surplus of physical energy to supplement the spiritual downpouring. They all have a closer connection to the world of spirit, whatever they may call it, and whatever level they contact. This enables the rest of us, when we are ready, to awaken our own spirit within. If we are not ready, or the healing is not meant to happen, it will not take place. So we try again, until our lessons are learned, and we achieve a higher level of understanding, compassion and spirituality.
Now, many of the healers we look at have never trained as doctors, nurses, healers or priests, while others have many worldly qualifications. Without rejecting the importance of training, experience and qualifications, we have to agree that the power of Spirit often manifests in the most unusual and unexpected ways. So, how can we clear away the past negativities associated with world religions, the bad energy retained in their buildings and teachings, and tap into and retain the best, the good, the true direct loving energy of Divine Spirit? It will have to an awakening of the love within the consciousness of each and every living human being over many, many future generations, requiring much education to tame the human ego, and its hostility to change and to foreign and rival theocracies.

With that, we will return to the work of Father Ralph DiOrio. Like Sister Briege McKenna he has done much to spread the mission of Divine Healing around the world, healing hundreds of thousands over the years. His many books* contain a great number of case studies showing how spiritual healing works. I recommend all healers to read them, and compare notes with their own experiences. I will conclude this article with a brief review of how Father Ralph experiences the outpouring of the spiritual healing energy. [Comments in brackets are my own opinion. Richard Rowley].

From what he says, it appears that Father DiOrio often goes into a light trance, and becomes clairvoyant, clairaudient or clairsentient until the individual healings take place. In his own words:
"I do not say that I can explain what happens during my services, but there is no doubt that these things happen. Anybody who attends can see for himself. In fact, other people can observe external things that I miss, for during a Charismatic service, I am completely out of character. It is not I. Something is in me. It is not I as a person. There is a Spirit of God functioning though me. Many people have seen this. But believe me, it is not I. Sometimes I do attempt to explain these dynamics to my congregation at the start of the service.
During the past few years, I've noticed that many people, in their desperate need, fall into the error of confusing the channel with the Source, the gift with the Giver. They witness amazing things, and they assume I have performed them, so they reach out to touch me.
Please don't try to touch me; it's not necessary at all. When you touch me, you're not touching anything. You must touch God alone - not me!
I understand that you do see God in me. There is definitely no question about this. I'm trying earnestly to have God touch your lives as He uses me as His clear channel.
At other times, as the need arises, I may attempt to clarify another aspect of the dynamic of Healing.
As I walk among you, some of you will feel electricity going through you right out of my body. Heat. A jolt of lightning, so to speak. I don't know how God does it. Curvatures of the spine will begin straightening out. Bent legs will begin to straighten. We will probably see shortened legs begin to grow. These are the ailments which seem to be healed in every service. Other ailments - cancers (by shrinking and disappearance of tumours), blindness, or paralysis, for example, (and coronary conditions -
by the opening up of arteries around the heart) seem to be healed in clusters.
Another phenomenon which continuously and constantly occurs during our services is the ‘slaying in the spirit,' [where the persons seems to be struck down, faints or falls over].......What is happening when someone falls down or enters a standing ecstasy is a phenomenon of God's presence called the ‘slaying in the spirit,' or the overpowering of the spirit. The resting in the Lord. The Lord usually likes to pass through people; it's a ‘spirit of prayer.' The saints used to experience this type of prayer; it's called ‘ecstatic union.' They were just lost in God. Their bodies, with their external senses, became suspended, and they would just float in the Lord. [This is well known to Spiritualists - levitation is also quite common among Indian mystics and yogis, as well as with the saints of old such as Thomas Aquinas]. You have no control. So if I come up to someone and you see him fall, don't get upset.
I will call some of you, or come to you myself. If you call me to come to you, the Lord might bring me to you, but generally I don't know whom I'm going to go to. The Lord will just tell me to go up to a person, and I just hold up my hand, maybe touch his forehead, and he is healed. So let the Spirit lead me where It will because I myself don't know where He is going to lead me; this is one facet of the phenomenon know as the ‘word of knowledge.'
There is no set pattern for what will happen here today. Under the influence of what is known as ‘the anointing,' there is no prescribed form or ritual required. God's clear channel must be in total surrender to the Will of God - it is God speaking, walking, healing.
It has often been recorded in photographs, and perceived by myself and others, that during our Healing Services, my own soul appears to have surrendered itself to another Spirit, a Spirit functioning through me which causes me to be totally out of my own natural character.... [and perhaps out of his body! It is quite obvious from this statement that Father DiOrio has a spirit doctor, or team of doctors, working with him, though probably his religion would not allow him to admit it!]. You will see this yourselves. It will clearly demonstrate the absolute difference between myself, the man, beneath the gift, and God, the Giver of the gift. Remember, I am not the Healer.
Another thing you're probably going to see is how I receive signals from the Lord. I will receive pictures in my mind or [experience] pains in my body which signify a healing [of that condition] for someone. That's the way the Lord works with me. Each of us is different. I might have the ‘word of knowledge' of Healing. Then I can actually pinpoint exactly what [clothes] you're wearing [to identify you] and the exact sickness.
But please note - this process by which God works through me should not be imitated by other persons. Such an attempt would be futile, for one person cannot simply copy a gift that is distinctive to another person. Also, such superficial copying would probably be harmful to the persons in need of healing and detrimental to [the healing process]. Charisms are powerful forces originating from the Creator of all energy, and they are not to be trifled with.
...... Some people attend our services out of curiosity, tantalizing themselves with the unanswerable questions, ‘How does he do it? What's happening here?' [Father DiOrio goes on to say that even skeptical journalists and doctors are eventually convinced and accept that something supernormal is happening when cures in ‘terminal' cases occur, and now there is much cooperation between all concerned.]
Most of our services are intense, sometimes unbelievably so. The unpredictable manner and timing in which the Word of Knowledge comes to me is another example of the spontaneous nature of the healing services. I never know when the Word will come, but when it does, I immediately announce or "call it" publicly.
Usually the earliest indication of a specific healing comes to me by way of an empathetic pain - where I feel a pain in my own body is the area in which someone is receiving a Healing. During a service, I might sound something like this:
"I'm feeling a pain. A healing is taking place in someone's knees at this moment. Someone who has had much physical pain. In a few moments that person - you know who you are - should jump up and say, ‘Me! It's me! I'm healed!'
"A blocked ear passage is opening, or is about to. And someone who has been deaf as the result of a severe infection, that problem too is beginning to clear up. And someone wearing a neck brace is also being cured at this moment.
.... ‘The proper response to your healing is like picking up something you ordered - you must claim it! Claim your healing. Don't be afraid to identify yourselves. Let God know you are not embarrassed by His Grace."
The ‘spirit' can work ‘intelligently' to heal every type of physical, emotional and mental ailment: brain tumor, arthritis, mental disorders, cancer, leukemia, or broken legs. The ultimate purpose of healing in those who are healed is the spiritual awakening, a profound change in the innermost being."
While I am teaching and worshipping, I am under the anointing of the Holy Spirit and experience various healing insights. Sometimes I will call out a general healing of the eyes or ears and I will ask those in need to stand, and I will lead the congregation in prayer. Afterward, everyone who has been healed is asked to come forward and claim the healing.
At other times during a session I will get a feeling that someone in a particular area has a specific need. I also experience the ‘Word of Knowledge,' and call out a person with a certain name, color of clothing, or disease. I am led by the Holy Spirit to identify exactly the illness, need, person, or a combination of these. Frequently I call these people to me and pray over them. A person does not need to be called out or touched by me to be healed. Often, however, I will walk among the people and anoint them with blessed oil or bless them with holy water. Depending on the size of the crowd and the time at hand, I may bless every person individually or bless the masses by sprinkling, using the holy water as a point of contact."

These excerpts selected and reviewed from books by Ralph A. DiOrio:
"The Man Beneath the Gift" (co-authored with Donald Gropman). William Morrow, N.Y. 1981.
"Called to Heal." Doubleday, N.Y. 1982.
"Miracles to Proclaim." Doubleday, N.Y. 1984.
"Signs and Wonders." Doubleday, N.Y. 1987.
"Healing Love." Doubleday, N.Y. 1988.

Lay healers like William Gray of California (Ruth Montgomery's "Mr. A."), Harry Edwards and Tom Pilgrim had exactly the same type of healing energy as that displayed by the three Catholic healers reviewed here recently, Brother André, Sister Briege McKenna and Father Ralph DiOrio.
Another type of healer uses suggestion or hypnosis to cure illness, such as psychiatrists Brian L. Weiss, and from 6o or 70 years ago, Milton Erickson. Erickson really used a form of reframing which later turned up in Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Nothing is new under the sun! It's all been done before. So don't try to claim to be too original! The healing is effected by merely suggesting to patients that they have the healing energy within themselves all the time. We are all capable of healing ourselves, within reason, if we are willing to accept what we find. Many will not accept past situations and ties and entanglements, sometimes from previous lives, and other fears and hates and phobias within themselves, and so are not ready to heal. Which explains why even the most powerful of healers cannot cure everybody all the time.

Milton Erickson would listen to his patients' complaints, then put them into a light trance and offer stories and suggestions to replace the rut or grove in their thinking and feeling, distracting them away from harping on illness and symptoms and negativity, replacing it all with a new vision, attitude, practice or behaviour. Very often the new outlook and attitude effected remarkable cures. It is also quite obvious that Erickson had a wonderful sense of humour, which he used in a kind way, and not to hurt the patient. Here are a couple of his case histories to illustrate the technique. The text of Erickson's story is given, (which when delivered was spoken with a gentle hypnotic rhythmic roll), followed by comments from Dr. Sidney Rosen, reviewed from his book "My Voice Will Go With You: Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erickson." W.W. Norton and Company Inc., New York. 1982.

Erickson: "I had a nurse come in. I had known her slightly. She was one of those know-it-all nurses. She's been discharged from hospital after hospital because she told the doctors what to do. She told them the diagnosis and the treatment.
And she came in and said that she had globus hystericus, a lump in her throat, and it was very distressing. I had her describe the distress. And she described the pain. I reached my own conclusions and said, "You do not have globus hystericus. You have an ulcer of the stomach, at the duodenal end.:
She said, "Don't be ridiculous."
I said, "I'm not, you are."
She said, ‘I'll prove to you I don't have a stomach ulcer.' She went to three different radiologists, all of whom confirmed my diagnosis. And she came back very angry and said, "You're right. I saw the X-rays myself and they all agreed. What are you going to advise me to do?"
I said, "You're Armenian. You like spicy food You have a sister who calls you up every day and has a long telephone conversation with you. You have a niece who calls you up every day, has a long telephone conversation. Hang up on your sister and your niece. They both give you a pain in your stomach. And enjoy your food."
A month later she got new X-rays from all three radiologists. No trace of an ulcer. And that was all the recommendation, "Enjoy your food, hang up on your sister and your niece."
Her favorite expression was "I can't swallow this. I can't swallow that." That's why she reached the diagnosis of globus hystericus. Her description of the pain indicated it must be a duodenal ulcer. But she knew I was wrong. Three independent radiologists convinced her I was right."

Comments: Oddly enough, this "know-it-all" nurse who was so bossy with doctors could not be assertive with her own sister and niece. Erickson sets an example of assertiveness with his own attitude. In fact, in this story he appears to be approaching arrogance as he assumes the "know-it-all" posture. However, he apparently felt that he had to do this in order to persuade this woman to take direction. It was important for him to know that she would follow his suggestion and actually hang up on her sister and her niece. .
___________________________

Erickson: "A man from Philadelphia, whose headaches I cured, sent his aunt and uncle out to see me. He said, "Those two have quarreled every day of their married life. They've been married over thirty years."
They came out to see me. I said, "Haven't you had enough of quarreling?" Why not start enjoying life?" And they had a very pleasant life. And the man's aunt tried to persuade her sister to come out, because his mother was very unhappy."

Comments: In this story, Erickson, in the indirect manner that is typical of him, is answering critics who ask about follow-up on his patients. He makes it clear that the headache cure was effective by telling us that "the man from Philadelphia" sent his aunt and uncle to see him. It is also obvious that their situation was improved since the aunt felt Erickson could help her sister. Erickson often begins a case report with reference to a previous patient who was treated successfully.
This story might be told by Erickson when someone in the group was arguing inwardly with him or with himself. He marks the phrase "Haven't you had enough of quarreling?"
The story may be difficult to believe. I present it, however, because its simplicity is so appealing.
I asked Erickson to tell us more about the context in which these simple suggestions had been given. How much time had he spent in establishing rapport? Did he hypnotize the couple?
He said, "I just used a waking trance which developed into a light trance. I asked them, ‘But why not enjoy life? You've had over thirty years of quarreling. I think marriage should be enjoyable. And you haven't too many years left to enjoy marriage.' And they were appreciative.
"Too many therapists think that they must direct the change and help the patient to change. Therapy is like starting a snowball rolling at the top of a mountain. As it rolls down, it grows larger and larger and becomes an avalanche that fits the shape of the mountain." [To be continued]

Cancer Prevention - Spirit and Distant Healing (22)

In this series we have seen the many ways that we can ask for help from spirit to heal ourselves and those we love and care for, including our pets. At a later date, there will be many more stories to tell, and healers to write about, but for the moment, let's pause, and look at the things we can do to avoid disease in the first place. Here, to begin with, is a letter, source unknown, about a health update from Johns Hopkins University:
 
"Friends
Important News
  Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins
 
  AFTER YEARS OF TELLING PEOPLE CHEMOTHERAPY IS THE ONLY WAY TO TRY AND ELIMINATE CANCER, JOHNS HOPKINS IS FINALLY STARTING TO TELL YOU THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY .
 
1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.
2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime
3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.
4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be > due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle
factors.
5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including
supplements will strengthen the immune system.
6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal
tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.
7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.
8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more
tumor destruction.
9 When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.
10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread
to other sites.
11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.
 
CANCER CELLS FEED ON:
a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal,Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and they are harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in color. Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt.
b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soya milk cancer cells are being starved.
c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.
d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains,seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment.About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building
healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts)and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are
destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).
e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water.
Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.
f. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines become putrified and leads to more
toxic buildup.
g. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.
h. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence,Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body's own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of
damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.
i.Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, unforgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.

j. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen
therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.
 
Other measures to take:

1. No plastic containers in micro.
2. No water bottles in freezer.
3. No plastic wrap in microwave.

Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in its newsletters. This information is being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as well. Dioxin chemicals causes cancer, especially breast cancer. Dioxins are highly poisonous to the
cells of our bodies. Don't freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic.
Recently, Dr. Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at Castle Hospital , was on a TV program to explain this health hazard. He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us. He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers. This especially applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Instead, he
recommends using glass, such as Corning Ware, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food. You get the same results, only without the dioxin. So such
things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else. Paper isn't bad but you don't know
what is in the paper. It's just safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc. He reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons. Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Saran, is just as dangerous when placed over foods to be cooked in the microwave. As the food is nuked, the
high heat causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel instead.
 
This is an article that should be sent to everyone
important in your life."
 
That is the end of the segment from Johns Hopkins.

  Now, continuing my (Richard's) contribution.
Fear and panic are also factors that contribute to accelerate the onset of many diseases, not only cancer. And again, In the turbulence and distress both of modern warfare and acts of terrorism, and also in surgery, many people die of shock rather than from actual physical damage. The fear of what might happen overwhelms them before anything actually happens. This is where hypnosis, or a self-induced trance can be helpful. It is then possible to remain calm and detached, and even go out-of-body while the surgery, or other traumatic events, are going on around us, and so we miraculously survive!
So, while recognizing all the different types of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual healing that can take place, some of which have been mentioned in this series, we need to continue to take practical measures to provide a healthy lifestyle and environment for ourselves and everyone and everything else on this planet. We are not alone. We must play our part to improve conditions so that disease and disharmony of any kind are less likely to occur.
Though this statement is going to take many years before it is understood, we must no longer abuse the animal kingdom as we have been doing, in the food, fisheries and agricultural industries, in commercial research and development of products, in science and medicine, and in sport and entertainment, and even in the way we treat our pets at home. The cruelty inflicted on our "lesser brethren," our fellow creatures, boggles the mind, once we really examine what is happening around us. All this continues to incur a huge spiritual or ‘karmic' debt which will have to be repaid now or by future generations, and also when we have a reckoning when we pass on to the other side. The same can be said of our poisoning and polluting the soil, the water, the air and the vegetation on the planet, destroying the forests and the ozone layer. At the same time that we are advancing so far and so fast in science and technology, and in the beauty of our arts and literature, architecture and landscaping, we destroy it all with our wars and political disputes, religious strife and senseless acts of terrorism.
We need to control our thoughts and feelings and not allow negativities to overwhelm us. A balanced sense of values, moral and ethical, compassionate and cooperative, will return us to a world of peace, joy and happiness.

Once we have started to take practical measure to better our condition, we can ask spirit to help us heal in the four areas of our life, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. All the time we can thank our loved ones in spirit, our guides and guardians, angels, nature elementals and other spirits we are aware of or know about, for their help and guidance in helping to look out for us, heal us and to continue to warn us of danger. We can talk to them and love them just as we do with our friends and loved ones here on earth.

OUR CONTRIBUTION:

On the physical level, we can maintain a healthy lifestyle, proper diet and exercise, avoiding excess, greed, addiction to substances and bad habits. These only attract undesirable low spirits or earthbounds and elementals who will try and gain control of our body. We should also avoid steroids and other unnatural body-building substances, unnecessary surgery, cosmetic nips and tucks, and excessive dieting. Right action at all times, balance and self-control. On passing, the physical body is dropped and left behind for good, no matter whether it is embalmed, drowned, buried, fed to wild beasts or vaporized in an explosion. The soul and spirit survives and continues on elsewhere.

On the emotional level, let us have love, compassion, cooperation, and follow our intuition and true feelings. Let us not be controlled or overpowered emotionally by others. We should keep our own counsel, not lose our temper, avoiding anger, rage and hate, and being careful not to be trapped or influenced by another's anger, depression, accusations, verbal abuse or silent treatments. We need to keep cool, above it all, or go our way, if we are not strong enough to ignore such situations. Our emotional body goes with us when we die. If it is stable and even-tempered, our existence in the land of spirit will be pleasant and joyful. Excessive desires and addictions may cause the soul to remain earthbound.

  On the mental level, we may not be able to be logical all the time, but we can at least be truthful, honest and aware. We can learn to control our thoughts, and remain positive, and reject unkindness, self-pity and other negativities. This is a whole science of its own, and there are vast libraries dealing with the subjects of philosophy, epistemology and psychology, basically summed up in two words in the well-known directive "Know Thyself." This part of us continues on with us when we pass, leaving the body behind. Our mind goes with us. A calm, developed and aware mind will make our journey there enthralling. A disturbed or unbalanced mind may incur turbulence, and may even cause us to remain lost or earthbound for a while.
On the spiritual level, we have the spiritual laws to guide us (for an excellent account of these, see Marilyn Awtry-Smith's "River of Life:" http://www.tedricksigns.com/marilyn-awtry/
They will automatically aid us, if we are attuned to spirit. We have our spirit guides and helpers, and we may already be in touch with our loved ones quite regularly. We can learn to keep in touch, by prayer, meditation, trance and in dreams. Here we should learn how to deter and send away all negative spirits. Here also all effective healing of ourselves and others takes place.

The spiritual part of us, our soul or eternal spirit, will always be with us, and never dies. Rather, it is continually developing, evolving and growing. The more we do, think and feel at this spiritual level, combining all four levels harmoniously while we are still here on earth, the faster we will evolve. This is the really good news. With that thought, let's conclude this episode.

With all good cheer. Richard R.

William Lang : Cases of Spirit and Distant Healing (29) Interview with a spirit doctor

To resume this series, I have found an interview between the journalist and researcher, Joe Fisher, and Dr. William Lang, the spirit surgeon guiding the healing work of George Chapman. Tom Pilgrim, the first healer mentioned in this series, worked in a similar way with a spirit doctor.

This interview took place in September, 1988, at the healer's home in Wales. George Chapman was in trance.

Joe Fisher was unable to be satisfied as to whether a medium's guides were real people. While much of the geographical and historical information supplied by the entities was amazingly accurate, the claimed identities did not stand up to scrutiny, in his view, [even though Silver Birch, for example, spoke in his native dialect to a compatriot attending a séance, a language unknown to his medium, Maurice Barbanell].

In reply, Dr. Lang said: - Well, I think entities can be traced if you can find first of all a medium who is making genuine contact. I know as much about my life as I did when I was on Earth. You don't forget. One has memory.

Fisher: - But it seems that a lot of information given by discarnate entities is plainly wrong.

Lang: - You see, it could be, as I say, that the medium's not so perfect as one would like the medium to be.

Fisher: - Or is it that some entities are closer to the earthbound plane than others?

Lang: - Well, when a person passes over, they are very close to the Earth for a while. Therefore, if they make contact with a medium, they can give all the evidence quite clearly. But they don't remain close to the Earth for very long. They start to move away, as it were.

Fisher: - But you have remained close - for a purpose, presumably.

Lang: - Well, yes. I'm linked with George. Spirits are about you all the time. It's just becoming sensitive enough to make contact with the spirit and, as I say, George and I have a closeness through our lives of being of one [soul] family, if you wish, and having worked through other lives in this way...I still blame a lot on [the quality of] mediumship. You find today that mediumship is not being practised enough and there are not enough trance mediums who, I would say, are so fully developed. People seem to want to put a collar and tie on and become a type of medical doctor, which they're not. I think if you say the healing's coming from spirit, you have to PROVE the healing's coming from spirit.

Fisher: - It's just that I feel the entities I have talked to are manipulative. Does that make sense to you?

Lang: - This makes sense. Yes. This can happen.

Fisher: - Do you see those sort of people from your vantage point?

Lang: - Yes, because in this world you have playboys just the same and people wanting to believe they are important, giving so much evidence. I know I get many incarnate people telling me of the great guides they are they have, and they all seem to want someone very important. They talk of their great guides, but when you ask them: "Did you trace your guide?" they say: "Oh, no, no, but he told me he was some famous surgeon. He's using a different name because you see, he doesn't want his family to become involved." Well, surely, when you've passed into this world, you want your family to know where you are. That's what I wanted right away - my daughter and my grandchildren all came to see me [a fact - as he manifested through George Chapman*(see note below)].

Fisher: - Do you see yourself as George's guide?

Lang: - Well I don't like the word guide. I feel that I am George's close friend and I am here to help him and, if you wish, to guide him. When you come into the world you have a guide but it's not usually a Red Indian. It's usually a member of your family who loves you and wants to help you on the right road. If later on you develop a gift of mediumship, then, no doubt, someone will get connected with you to help you.

*Note:- Dr. Lang's daughter, Marie Lyndon Lang, was naturally sceptical when she heard in 1947 that her father had returned to inhabit, at intervals, the body of George Chapman. But after hearing his voice, observing his mannerisms and asking personal questions concerning events which only she and her father knew about, she made this declaration: "The person who speaks through George Chapman and claims to be William Lang is, without a doubt, my father." For thirty-one years until her death at the age of ninety-four in May, 1977, Marie Lyndon spoke regularly with her deceased father. At her request, however, both her intimate connection to the increasingly popular Dr. Lang and her consultations with him were kept secret until her passing.

Vowing "I am going to put this quack to confusion," Dr. Lang's granddaughter, Mrs. Susan Fairtlough, reacted with angry derision when she heard that a healer was "pretending" to be her grandfather. But after meeting George Chapman and Dr. Lang, Mrs Fairtlough had this to say: "To my great horror, or rather, stupefaction, the man who was in this room was indisputably my grandfather. It was not him physically, but it was his voice, his behaviour. It was unquestionable. He spoke to me and evoked precise events of my childhood. And I was so impressed that all I could say was, 'Yes, grandpapa. No, grandpapa.'"

Testimonials to Dr. Lang's brilliance have been furnished by a host of living doctors, few of whom wished to be named for fear of professional censure. After meeting Dr. Lang for the first time in December, 1969, Dr. Robert Laidlaw of New York told told how he discussed in a professional manner certain ophthalmological conditions and techniques, and added: "I fully believed them, and I believe now, that I was conversing with the surviving spirit of a doctor who had died some thirty years ago."

While by no means underestimating the importance of the healing accomplished by his spiritual partnership, Chapman feels the main intent of the surgeon's return is to convince people of the reality of life after death. And he considers the authenticity of Dr. Lang's claim to having lived before as fundamental to this cause. In his book "Surgeon from Another World," Chapman stresses the importance of verifying sources of channelled communication:

"Too many alleged spirit guides do not stand up to critical examination. I believe it is essential for those who develop trance mediumship to ensure that their spirit controls are examined thoroughly to prove their identities. The spirit communicator should speak as near as possible to the way he spoke on earth, using the same phrases and mannerisms and manifesting other personal characteristics. He should be able to give dates, names and details of his earthly experiences that can be verified, and be able to discuss intimate matters with relatives and colleagues still on earth. All to often, a 'spirit controls' claimed earthly existence is outside the memory of those living, while others deliberately cloak their identities in a shroud of mystery."

Material reviewed from Joe Fisher's book "Hungry Ghosts" published by McClelland & Stewart Inc. Toronto, 1991.

[Some examples of George Chapman's healings in the next episode. To be continued. Richard R.]

Spirit and Distant Healing (33) Isa Northage's Brief Guide to Healing. Part Three :- The Medium.

Isa Northage's Brief Guide to Healing.  Part Three :-   The Medium. 
 
     Upon the medium depends for the most part the success or otherwise of healing treatment, for inspiration is governed by the channel through which it flows.  The same applies to healing.  The medium is the last link in the chain of power from the Godhead to the suffering patient.  Much depends on the mental attitude and mood of the patient, so that failure cannot always be attributed to the medium and never to the guide.  The medium when properly trained and developed will know when the patient is not receptive, in which case this should always be remedied before giving out any power, as it is obviously useless to give healing treatment if it is not going to be properly received.  Guides can heal to a certain extent without a medium, but only when the patient is in the required circumstances and conditions, such as the sleep state, when they can only heal the astral (spirit) body from which the physical draws the extra energy.
 
     The use of a medium is the general method and the most powerful one, because while a person is functioning through the senses of the physical mind, they are only conscious of the power from another physical body.  Provided that a medium can become a channel for receiving and expelling the healing vibration, it is not necessary to be clairvoyant also, though this gift usually automatically develops in time through the continued raising of their vibrations.  People who are very sensitive and emotional, warmhearted and sympathetic, make the finest healing mediums.  Those who are easily irritated and quick-tempered, and lack patience, are unsuitable.  Assuming that the medium possesses the right temperament, he or she should first ascertain what guide is working through them for healing, as this knowledge will help at all times to maintain a strong link, always necessary to ensure co-operation.  This can be done by invoking the aid of those known to possess the clairvoyant vision, and this should be sufficiently evidential when a similar vision comes to more than one. 
 
    Each guide usually gives a name for recognition purposes, but there is often every reason to assume that the name is a pseudonym, though sometimes it will be the name by which they were known on earth.  Everyone has a guide, (their own personal guide), who has been their constant guardian since birth, and remains so throughout their earthly life.  Whatever the medium's outstanding psychic gift, is correspondingly possessed by the gyide.  For example, if the medium's special gift is healing, the personal guide is the healer.  Should they develop other gifts additionally it is possible there may be other guides working in their various capacities, for guides specialize in certain gifts, just as mediums do.
 
     As previously stated, the strength of the power from the guide depends upon the guide's state of progress, as the higher the spiritual sphere [or plane] from which he or she comes, the finer the substance of the spiritual body, the finer the substance, the higher the vibration, for healing power is vibration.  This is known as the "light" of the guide.  The medium naturally offers a certain amount of resistance to the guide's power, as it has to flow through the body in a similar wqy to which a condenser offers resistance to electricity.  It will be understood then that the light or state of progression of the medium will determine how much resistance is offered to the healing power.  If the light is powerful,  the resistance will be very much lessened, and likewise if the light is dim (from low progression) the resistance will be great and the power weak.  To increase their light then is, or should be, the aim and desire of the medium, so as to heal well, powerfully, and successfully.  This is what the Master meant when he said: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
 
[to be continued].   Isa Northage.    Nottingham. 1960
 
A case of healing in 1949.  Reported by R. Smith.  Nottingham.
 
     At the age of 22 I began to suffer from headaches and depressions which were severe in nature.  I was so ill that life was only an existence from day to day.  Even my doctor could not help me, nor could the psychiatrist whom I visited. My cousin, Billy Gillette, came from Sheffield to Nottingham where I lived, to see a football match and saw my plight.  He being a Spiritualist told me of Mrs. Northage, an old friend of his who was a wonderful Spiritual Healer, and she would help me.
 
     Now I would like to say, having met Mrs. Northage, I've never in all my life known anyone so understanding and unselfish.  I came to her as a stranger and told her of my condition, and she explained to me that she would send her spirit guide Dr. Reynolds to me while I was asleep, between the hours of 12 midnight and 2 a.m. On my next visit a week later I was told that Dr. Reynolds would like to speak to me.
 
At a later date I was allowed to sit at a trumpet seance at Pinewoods, Newstead Abbey, where I met Dr. Reynolds, who told me he had diagnosed my trouble.  My nerves were in a very bad state and also he had found inside my nose pieces of broken bone.  He promised to help me in the future and I was to send my thoughts to him whenever I needed him.  He would arrange an operation on my nose, which took place on May 21st, 1949,  in Mrs. Northage's operating theatre.
 
     Casting my mind back into the past I can remember as a small child playing on a slide made out of the snow, when I fell on my face and broke my two front teeth.  Although I didn't know I must have damaged my nose.  I remember it was difficult to breathe down my nose; this must have caused a blockage, thus the headaches.  My father who suffered from duodenal ulcer in the meantime had spoken with Dr. Reynolds and he had arranged to operate and remove the ulcer at the same time.  At the operation there were eight people including Mrs. Northage, Mr. Stocks, Mr. Newman, Mrs. Stenson, my mother and father, Mr. Thompson and myself.  Mr. Stocks opened in prayer and Mrs. Northage asked for the light to be switched off and then was taken in trance.  A hymn was sung and the trumpet which was placed on the floor at the side of the operating table on which my father lay, was raised, and the voice of Ellen Dawes spoke, and said she had been sent to test and examine conditions.
 
     After witnessing the wonderful operation of removing the ulcer from my father's abdomen, Dr. Reynolds had me sit with my back to him, then after plugging my nose with cotton wool he explained that he would dematerialise his hand and pass it through the back of my head and remove the splinters of broken bones in my nose with a piece of lint.  Dr. Reynolds' hand was then seen to approach the back of my head and pass into it.  I should like to say that I felt nothing at all, while this was going on.  When his hand was withdrawn, he stretched out his hand and placed something in a dish along with the ulcer which was taken from my father.  All those people present could clearly see the ulcer and the three small pieces of bone.
 
     To conclude my story, all it remains for me to say is that my spirit brother, Jimmy Smith, spoke through the trumpet to my father and mother and myself.  My spirit sister, Hilda Smith, was allowed to materialise, and all present saw her standing in her beautiful robes.  She bent over my father and kissed him and told him she would help him: turning she spoke to my mother and myself, and then we saw her dematerialise.
 
Well, readers, this concludes this wonderful story of my operation under Dr. Reynolds, and I would like to add that I owe everything to Mrs. Northage, my marriage - which couldn't have been possible - and my son, which completes my happiness.
 
Spirit and Distant Healing (35) Another healing by Isa Northage's spirit doctor.

Isa Northage's Brief Guide to Healing (continued)

Now let us enter the developing circle with prayer as the most important factor in our development, firmly fixed in our minds, so that as we sit, our light may shine forth strongly.

The body should be healthy and functioning normally, and the nerves good and not tired, otherwise the body does not make a clear channel for the high vibration that is shortly to pass through it. Plenty of fresh water should be drunk, as this clears the body of its impurities, besides being a good conductor of power, as it is of electricity. The mind should be free from worry of any kind, as worry poisons the blood stream. Sit always with people you are perfectly in tune with, for there must always be perfect harmony in the developing circle. Relax completely, physically and mentally, and be sure that your seat is quite comfortable. It should be a wooden chair, for a soft seat soaks up power - [Also, those who try levitating tables find that plastic tables are not very responsive, compared with wood. Do any readers have comments either way on the use of plastic chairs? R.R.]

Sit in perfect quietness and occupy your thoughts by thinking of the guide, visualise him or her, so that you can learn to become connected quickly. As you cannot see the guide when he comes to you, you must learn to feel his presence, and to allow this to happen, quieten the vibrations of your own body by concentrating for a few moments on your pulse and heart beats which you can easily feel if you are sitting down quietly. Take a few deep, quiet breaths, then mentally command your heart to slow down, and after a little practrice you will find you are able to control the action of your heart. You will then be very relaxed and very quiet. When you actually start to do healing, you will be able to follow all these instructions and prepare yourself for the guide in perhaps a few seconds.

If you are going to be controlled, when you are quiet enough, you will feel a slight singing noise in your head, and you will feel yourself rising up and up, and everything will seem to go black. Not too pleasant until you get used to it, and then you will go unconscious. After going out of trance you will probably come to, feeling rather sick and a pain in the stomach. This condition will wear off as you become used to it.

Assuming that you are doing normal healing (for very few are entranced), as soon as you are in the right condition you will feel the guide as he or she comes in touch with you in the following way. You will suddenly come over hot (his or her vibrations coming into contact with your aura), and all your senses will become quickened in direct contrast to the relaxed state your were in a moment ago. The heart will probably start racing and you will literally throb, limbs and nerves together, for all your vibrations have been greatly increased by those of the guide. Because all the senses have been quickened, you will become extremely sensitive, and will probably pick up the very thoughts of your patient. Your instincts will be so sharpened that you will feel the very character of the person you are contacting. You will learn to diagnose the health condition through the easiest channel by which the guide is able to impress you. For example, picking up the person's conditions by the vibrations around them, you may actually take on these conditions yourself; or you may see a dull patch on the the part of the body affected; or the guide may be able impress your mind by telling you in thought conversation, so that you know exactly where the trouble is. It is rather difficult to explain why some people attempt to convey the impression that they are being controlled when they are not. It is a very weak thing to do, very ignorant, and definitely weakens the power, because their minds are not free. They are acting falsely and spoiling the quality of the power. Again, it holds the guide back, putting a barrier between him and the medium, thus doing nobody any good. It is also quite unnecessary to puff and blow, and wave your arms about. No guide ever causes you to do that. That is almost as bad as feigning trance, because this also interferes with the power. You are interrupting the functioning of your nervous and respiratory organs so that the guide's vibrations are broken up and flung all over the place. Anyone using these unnecessary and undesirable methods is doing the patient little good, because they actually prevent the power from flowing properly.

[to be concluded]

Article by W. J. Molson, of Grimsby, concerning the healing by Dr. Reynolds of a long-standing brain injury. November, 1948.

When I was fifteen years of age I lost a leg through being knocked down by a drunken motorist. My head was also badly knocked about in the accident, and I lay unconscious in hospital for several days. The effects of this accident were not all shown while I was in hospital, but soon after I was discharged I experienced flushing bouts, which increased in frequency and intensity in later years. During these attacks I would grind my teeth and a multitude of the most ridiculous thoughts would chase through my mind.....These attacks only came on at long intervals during the first ten or twelve years after my accident, but in the early years of the war they became more frequent, sometimes occurring two or three times a day, and when they happened during the night they were frightening, waking me up with my teeth grinding.

In 1942 I consulted a WimpoleStreet doctor who advised me to give up my A.R.P. [air-raid warden's ] work, and he prescribed a small daily dose of pheno-barbitone. This treatment was useless and the following year I consulted one of the world's leading brain specialists. I was X-rayed and subjected to certain electrical tests, the result of which was the discovery of a bruise on my brain, caused by the pressure of a small splinter of bone which had evidently been displaced when I met with the accident.

The daily dose of pheno-barbitone was increased to two and a half grains. The attacks certainly lessened in frequency, but became more severe and left me greatly depressed for several days afterwards. I still experienced three or four attacks every six or seven weeks. My eyesight now began to fail and I had the utmost difficulty in reading print.

I consulted leading eye specialists, and in 1946 I visited one in Harley Street. He examined me thoroughly, and told me that nothing could be done as malgeneration had set in. This consultation made me exceedingly depressed. During the early part of 1948 I had these attacks rather too frequently for my liking, and I feared that they were going to become as frequent as in 1942-43, when I had had to visit the specialists. I happened to mention my trouble one evening to a Spiritualist friend of mine, and she asked me to tell Mrs. Isa Northage, of Nottingham, of my trouble, and ask her if she would ask her spirit doctor, Dr. Reynolds, to come and see me one evening and make a diagnosis. I accordingly rang up Mrs. Northage that same evening and told her of my head trouble, describing the ridiculous thoughts which poured through my mind while the attacks were in progress. I made no mention of the fact that I had once had a serious accident and lost a leg. Mrs. Northage had never met me and did not know of this. She promised that she would ask Dr. Reynolds to visit me one night when I was in bed, between the hours of midnight and 2 a.m., and diagnose. This telephone conversation took place during the second week in March, and on the 20th March, I received a letter from Mrs Northage stating that Dr. Reynolds had found on examination, a slight injury to my skull, which was causing the trouble. This was of twenty years' standing. There was also a slight internal disorder which needed attention, and this would be put right. This report was most interesting, for it confirmed the diagnosis made by the specialist after the X-ray [and it was all the more remarkable for having been made at a distance, without the medium ever having met Mr. Molson. R.R.]

I acknowledged this letter and asked whether I should continue with the nightly doses of two grains of pheno-barbitone. Mrs. Northage replied on the 5th of April, stating that Dr. Reynolds wished to operate when I had been built up, and that I was to try to reduce the dose of pheno-baritone to one grain by the time of the operation. I immediately reduced the dose by half a grain, and after a fortnight on one-and-a-half grains, reduced it by another half-grain, thus taking the one grain dose as desired by Dr. Reynolds. I continued on this dose until the operation on May 26th. There were seven of us [names given] who entered the Sanctuary in the garden of Mrs. Mork's house on the vening of Wednesday, May 26th.

I opened the sitting with a prayer, and we sang two hymns, after which Chedioack, Mrs. Northage's guide, came through and welcomed the party. All except myself had met him before. He said that he did not wish to take up any time at this stage of the proceedings, as Dr. Reynolds wished to come through. There was silence for a few moments, and then we observed that the small red capped torch was moving about on the right-hand side of the Sanctuary, hovering over the table on which we had placed the cotton wool swabs, two small trays, antiseptic, etc., which Dr. Reynolds had ordered for the operation. The doctor appeared to be satisfied with his examination and the torch was lowered again. Within a matter of seconds a plaque arose in the air, and we were soon able to see the materialised figure of Mr. Reynolds. He briefly welcomed the sitters and then came to me, standing on my right. He asked in a friendly tone: "Nervous, Molson?" to which I replied in the negative. He then said that he proposed to examine my head and he took it in his hands. I could feel the presence of his fingers, quite gently, on certain parts of my head, and he made a thorough examination of the outside. He appeared to be satisfied and then said, "Now I am going to lift a bone which has been pressing down for many years. If I hurt you, give a yell, but I do not think I shall. I am also going to clean the bone." He then called for two of the ladies to bring the trays.

He took one of the swabs, dipped it into the antiseptic, and rubbed the right hand side of my upper forehead. I could distinctly feel the cold, wet sensation of the antiseptic on my skin. Then, in a quiet voice, he said, "this is where I do my trick. I am going to put my hand inside your head, clean, and lift the bone." I was able to observe out of the corner of my right eye, his hand come up as he rolled back the sleeve of his robe. I sat perfectly motionless, looking straight in front of me, and the half circle of sitters in front of me saw his hand enter my head from the right hand side.*

I was conscious of no unusual sensation, and it would appear as though the nerves in this part of the head were temporarily shut down during this part of the operation. The doctor withdrew his hand after a short while and dropped a swab into the empty tray. He repeated this operation again, withdrawing and dropping another swab into the tray. In all, this was repeated four times, after which the doctor said, "Now, I have cleaned the bone. I want you to look at the swabs afterwards. I have also lifted it so that there is now no pressure. You are very fortunate in having this done after so many years. I want you to cut down still further on the pheno-barbitone. During the next few nights, you may experience a sense of tightness in the head. We are filling in the small cavity which has been left by the lifting of the bone. Do not worry over this. I shall visit you between the hours of midnight and 2 a.m., so if you see a flash when you are getting into bed, do not worry, it is simply me." With those words, he bade us good-night and dematerialised.

To say that each of the sitters was greatly impressed by what had transpired would be an inadequate expression. It is difficult to find words with which to express our feelings after witnessing that wonderful spectacle; we were filled with awe and wonder, rejoicing together in the privilege which we had enjoyed. But the sitting was by no means over, for more was to follow. Within a minute or two of the completion of the operation, Dr. Savage, the Spirit Healer helping Mrs. A. Mork, presented himself to the company, standing on my right. His features could not be seen clearly in the faint luminous light by the sitters facing me, and he invited Mrs. Mork to step forward so that she might obtain a closer view, which she did. He smiled in welcome to the company, and then dematerialised. He was followed almost immediately by the Chinese guide of Mr. Cox, who although he did not materialise, spoke rapidly through the trumpet. He was followed by Gloria, Mrs. Mork's daughter, who spoke lovingly to her mother and sister, referred to her brother who was away at school, and sent her love to her aunt and father. For me, however, there was still a great joy in store. My mother materialised, standing on my right, smiling at me and the company, and telling me, in the voce which I had come to know so well while she had been in the flesh, "You will be all right now." She had known of my head trouble, and I fear that it had worried her greatly. There was that note of quiet reassurance in her voice which was deeply impressive to me, had I been in need of conviction after what I had already experienced.


Chedioack, Mrs. Northage's African control, then told us that here was someone coming who had never spoken through the trumpet before and he asked us to be patient with him, adding that the communicator wished to speak to me. Within a few seconds the trumpet began to rise, and then a strong voice addressed me. He told me that he was not used to holding these things. I promised him that we would help him, and immediately it was borne in upon me that it was my father who was speaking. He responded at once to the old name of Pop and showed himself thoroughly familiar with all the circumstances which had affected my life since his passing in 1942. He urged me to make a fresh start, to put the past behind me. He told of how he had awaited the coming to spirit life of my mother, who had passed on just over two years after him, and how happy they were rogether, and I told him that I remembered them every night in my prayers. He said that they did not need my prayers, but rather my kind thoughts.

Before leaving the Sanctuary we lifted the usuad swabs which had been placed on the tray by Dr. Reynolds. There was the unmistakable evidence. Each of the swabs bore the sign of blood, but two of them, presumably the first two which the doctor had used, were soaked with thick, black, dirty blood, which had been cleaned from the bone before it was lifted.

These wonderful events took place on May 26th, 1948, but I have allowed six months to elapse before completing this record. I am happy to say that at no time during this period has there been any return of the ill conditions which distressed me for so many years.

For several months now I have not taken any pheno-barbitone, and I now enjoy regular, normal, and peaceful sleep.

It is not easy to express in words the relief and happiness which I feel from this experience, which was the most moving and impressive of any in my life, abut my desire is to show my gratitude and appreciation of the great blessing of healing bestowed upon me, through the power of the spirit, by devoting my life to the service of others.

Such evenings as the one I have described come but rarely in our lives, and I realise that I am grealy blessed in having had such an experience. The great comfort and knowledge that I was not really alone in the world, that there were those on the other side watching over me, helping and inspiring me, was made manifest to me that evening, and will for ever remain a source of continual inspiration and confidence.

[* Dr. Reynolds materialised in his spirit body, and so could penetrate Mr. Molson's physical body without causing damage, and so operate and repair the damage. It would seem that the psychic surgeon, Jose de Freitas, or 'Arigo', with his rusty knife, being entranced by HIS spirit doctor, Dr. Adolphus Fritz, could similarly enter the physical body of his patients without harm, and this has been filmed by researchers such as Dr. Andrija Puharich. It would seem that in these cases, such as also with George Chapman, and Stephen Turoff, the spirit doctor while not materialising himself independently of the medium as in Isa Northage's case, is able to assume and take over the healer medium's spirit body and so work on the patient without causing physical harm. This puzzles the scientists who witness the event. They know something unusual is happening, but can find nothing tangible to explain it! R.R.]

Spirit and distant healing (36) Isa Northage's healing work with Dr. Reynolds.

Brief Guide to Healing by Isa Northage.  [conclusion]
 
     The effect on the medium of contact with the guide will be to increase the respiratory and heart action, and cause the limbs to throb, but the medium can always to some extent control his or her own body.  He  or she is useless as a medium if he or she cannot;  we all have our own will-power.  The effect of the high vibrations on the senses of the medium will often cause him to be dopy, and this is known as mental control, because the mind of the guide is to a great extent using the mind as well as the body of the medium.  If you have confidence in your guide, you will have the same in yourself, for confidence will break down all nervous barriers, leaving you complete master of any job you undertake.  Any healer who is sure of himself will fear nothing, particularly disease or sickness, however contagious because he or she is sure of a wonderful fellowship in the presence of the guide.  This is most important, because to fear a contagious complaint is to encourage it or keep it with you. It can never affect you in the least, if your will-power is sufficiently strong to defy it.   Actually the high vibrations from the guide would make any condition harmless while he is with you, but it is possibe to carry that of the sufferer about with you for some time after having drawn it away. This will however be quite harmless if you have the confidence and faith to treat it with defiance.
 
The feeling of heat caused by the guide's vibrations, previously referred to, depends a great deal on the medium's temperament.  Some mediums have complained that they feel cold under the guide's influence, and not hot.  While this may be possible because of the various ways in which different temperaments can be affected, the fact remains that the guide's influence raises one's vibrations and never lowers them, and raising one's vibrations naturally raises one's temperature.  The real explanation may be that the medium is not sensitive enough to feel the high vibration of the guide, and thus it will not appear to affect physically and the coldness could be caused by what are know as psychic breezes, which are the vibrations of our etheric body affecting only our physical exterior.
 
     To mediums who are not clairvoyant, the only evidence available that spiritual entities are present is the warmth to be felt; if they cannot feel this warmth, they are working entirely blind, in which case their faith alone can give them confidence.  However, any medium who has sufficiently developed for healing work would either see the spirit lights, or feel the warm presence of the guide, as evidence of such guidance.  There is no hard and fast rule as to how the medium passes power over or through the patient's body, as no two mediums work exactly alike, each one having his own characteristics.  Should a medium ever fail to satisfy the guide, the latter can usually find ways and means of rectifying this.  Of course there are one or two general rules to be observed, for instance, power is only given off when the hands are open, and the general rule is to make downward passes with fingers apart on the patient's body, but this does not apply to neck and head.  The passes always vary according to need.
 
     Some mediums at first do not seem quite sure when to stop treating a patient.  This shows that they have not yet acquired complete confidence in themselves, for once they learn to work in perfect harmony with their guide, their mind and the guide's will be one, and they will know when the treatment is over.  However, experience has proved this certain way of knowing when to stop.  Take particular notice when healing a patient if you feel after a certain time you are losing interest in the patient.  If this feeling of lost interest comes over you, it is a certain and definite sign that the guide has finished with that particular patient.  You can never judge by TIME.  To the guide there is no time, only insomuch as it affects the medium personally.  Some patients need longer treatment than others for two reasons: firstly, according to their complaint,  and secondly, according to the way they are receiving the power.
 
     In conclusion, this is but a brief summary of a very wide subject.  More could be written about healing than any other form of mediumship, and any points I have omitted and any further questions I will glaly answer.   Always pray to God to give you power to strengthen someone in need, and your prayer will always be answered by a following assurance.
 
____________________________________________________________
 
This is all that Isa Northage wrote about healing, in 1960, towards the end of her long career as a medium.  Since then many excellent books have been written by, and about, healers, including Harry Edwards, George Chapman, Tom Pilgrim, Stephen Turoff, Olga and Ambrose Worrall, and Roy Stemman among others.
 
 Now, here are a few more of Isa Northage's healing cases.
 
     For ten years I suffered with internal stomach pains and lived chiefly on milk and soft diet.  I had medical treatment for ulcerated stomach, duodenal ulcer, and not getting any better I was told that the lining of my stomach was gone.  Some time previous I had received an invitation to visit Mrs.  Northage, who was a medium used for healing, etc.  As  I was getting worse instead of better I decided to accept the invitation and I visited her home at Bulwell, Nottingham in May, 1940. 
 
I was operated upon by a Dr. Reynolds, who I learned afterwards, had performed operations beyond the skill of earthly doctors.  After my operation the doctor said he had removed a cancer  from the pit of my  stomach.  I believe that he did. But I do know that I can now eat and enjoy many things that I have not eaten for ten years.
 
I have had the pleasure of seeing, talking, shaking hands with this doctor, just as I would with any one of my own friends.
                                                David Dimbleby,   Yew Tree Close, Ashover, U.K.
                                                                           17th July, 1941
______________________________________________________________
 
 
     I had suffered with stomach trouble on and off for several years, but it was not till August, 1946 that I had an X-ray at Derbyshire Royal Infirmary which confirmed that I had a large ulcer on the rear wall of my stomach.
 
I was under treatment of my panel doctor from that time till January 1959, which was the time I started treatment from Dr. Reynolds, the spirit doctor who worked through Mrs. Northage.  Prior to contact with Mrs. Northage I had treatment from a Harley Street specialist in 1947, but the pain and suffering still continued in fact it got worse  amd I was contemplating suicide. I was at home more than at work, and my wife was having to take in boarders to make enough money to live on and I could not see myself being a burden to her.  It was at this time that I kept  receiving messages from the spirit world through mediums who attended Charnwood St. Spiritualist Church, which I had been a member of since 1928. telling me not to lose faith in them as my prayers would be answered, and through this I would witness some most wonderful happenings and have wonderful spiritual experience.
 
     The outcome of this was that a visitor to my home told me of a friend of hers who was a patient of Mrs. Northage and was improving after doctors had given up hope.   I wrote to Mrs Northage asking if anything could be done for me as I had had stomach trouble for several years.  The following week I had a reply stating that Dr. Reynolds had visited me and his diagnosis was Gastric Ulcer which he would treat if I called on Mrs. Northage.   I was just about all in when I arrived at Pinewoods as it was a 2-hour journey from my home.  On meeting.and shaking hands with Mrs. Northage I had a strange sensation within me of comfort and a certainty that here if anywhere I would find that which I had been searching for, for so long, yes, even before my illness. There was that power which seemed to flow to me from her which made me realise the spirit world which had led me to this place.
 
     I had a talk that same day with Dr. Reynolds through the trumpet and what a wonderful experience it was!  He told me he could cure me, and I praised God for the confidence I felt in Dr. Reynolds and Mrs. Northage.  I felt I knew from that moment I would be cured;  I had no doubt about it.   I was uplifted in mind and body.  Dr. Reynolds said he would give Mrs. Northage some powder for me to take night and morning and I had to return the following Wednesday for a report.  I was under the impression that Dr. Reynolds would operate on the ulcer (I have since assisted at three operations of this kind, at which Dr. Reynolds materialised and performed the operation after which we were allowed to inspect that which had been removed:  most wonderful experience this has been to me), but after attending about three weeks during which I had been very much improved, experiencing very little pain, Dr. Reynolds told me in my case he did not think an operation necessary, as he believed he could remove it without.  He stated that he would loosen the ulcer and when ready I would probably vomit and bring up the ulcer, so I had to watch out for this and when I saw the blood which would come with it, I had to take a dose of powder and lay quiet for a while.  After a month of the powder he put me on another medicine which he gave me the prescription of.  This I had made up at the chemists, and took it half an hour before meals.
 
By this time I was feeling much better,  and by the end of about 12 monthsI was a new man; only very infrequently was there any discomfort, till one Saturday I ate some plums.  They were lovely and sweet, and I could not see them doing me any harm as Doctor had not restricted me  on my food in any way.  That night I had a recurrence of the old agony and sent my thoughts to Dr. Reynolds to come and help me.  I decided to write to Mrs.  Northage for some more powder.
 
     By Sunday morning the pain had abated so I  put off writing as I was due to go over to Pinewoods on Wednesday.  The day came and while on the bus the pain began to increase, till by the time I arrived I was on the point of collapse.  Imagine my surprise when before I could tell Mrs.  Northage how ill I had been and was, she told me that Dr. Reynolds had been to her and told her how I had sent for him at the weekend and that I would need some powder on Wednesday when I arrived, a dose of which I took immediately and within two minutes the pain had gone.
 
His message to me was to leave the plums alone, as I had more than enough acid in my body without adding to it.  I had said nothing to Mrs. Northage about the plums, proving Doctor's nearness when called.
 
As the years went by I carried on with the medicine, this was to control the acid so Dr. Reynolds informed me.  I now felt on top of the world, able to do a good day's work and no trouble.  All this time I had been a regular sitter in seance and had wonderful experiences. They proved to be the meeting of my two brothers from spirit, talking to them through the trumpet, and receiving advice on various matters which only we were conversant with.
 
Now we come to July 1955, it was the last Saturday in the month and I had what I thought was a touch of food poisoning; terrible pains in the stomach and a feeling of sickness.  I ass so ill that my wife was compelled to send for my doctor but before he arrived I had a vomiting bout and I noticed the blood which came with it.  Not a lot, but it made me rather worried as I hd forgotten Dr. Reynolds' instructions, as I was under the impression that the ulcer had been removed and had passed through the bowels.  This Dr. Reynolds had told me was a possibility, but he would do all in his power to avoid it.  Within a few minutes my panel doctor arrived, but by this time I was feeling such a lot better.  After several questions on what I had been eating, etc., he said he would send some medicine round immediately he got back to his surgery and then came the thought to me - you have some of Dr. Reynolds' powder, take a good dose as you were told and lie down.  This I did, and from then till now, I have never suffered any discomfort and have not taken any medicine.
 
I have tried in this statement to keep to facts and avoid my feelings towards Dr. Reynolds and Mrs. Northage, and her other helpers, but I cannot finish without giving expression to my innermost thoughts of Mrs. Northage.  I feel from her that sympathetic understanding personality, which is the hallmark of the healer.  Of her I also know from my own observation, that devotion to what she calls her duty to mankind, her unselfishness, even to the extent of neglect of her own physical well-being.  May God be with her and bestow on her His blessing for her services to mankind.
 
                   Signed:   George Spence. 
 
Transcripts selected  from "A Path Prepared"   compiled by Allan Macdonald  from articles in "Two Worlds," various testimonials and reports, and the writings of Isa Northage, and self published in 1960            
                                                                 
 Spirit and Distant Healing (37)
 
I am amalgamating these two series for a while since in some forms of healing the two areas coincide.   This occurs when disease or mental illness is brought into the body of the patient by an obsessing or possessing spirit.  The illness is foreign to the body of the patient, is not a genetic factor nor trauma incurred during the present lifetime, nor is it caused by the patient's own mind and emotions,  but it belongs to the body of the invading spirit who suffered from the disease when alive in his or her original body.   Once the spirit has been released, or exorcised, the patient returns to a normal, disease-free existence - in other words, is cured.   This may account for some of the so-called "miracle" healings which have been recorded in the past.
 
Evidence of this type of healing is given in a recent book by the Polish medium  Wanda Pratnicka.,   "Possessed by Ghosts,"  Centrum Publishers, Poland, 2002, and on her website, www.TheExorcisms.com   and is also presented in some of the more spectacular accounts of exorcisms, as in "The Devil and Karen Kingston" by Robert W. Pelton, Pocket Books, New York, 1977.  I just have one reservation concerning the use of the word "ghost" throughout Wanda Pratnicka's book.   It may just be a matter of translation from the Polish, but I would prefer the use of the word spirit throughout, since the word ghost usually applies to wraiths and hauntings and residue memory traces rather than to living spirit personalities  which are able to influence us and communicate their thoughts.
 
In this foreign invasion of spirits, the symptoms may be treated by orthodox medicine,  psychotherapy or drastic surgery, but without any effective cure, and often the patient dies.  If the true cause of the illness had been known, the possessing spirit could have been ejected, and the patient would have been quickly cured.  Although exorcisms in some form or other have been performed since early times in all cultures, they are looked at with askance in modern times.   But the reality of the matter is gradually being made public again, and both exorcism and spirit release are being examined by the churches, and by  the medical establishment, thanks to the work of the Spirit Release Foundation and its members, the Churches' Fellowship and similar organisations in other parts of the world.
 
There are still a few hurdles yet to negotiate before the race is won, however. The established churches still regard any communication with spirits, whether benign or  obsessive, as a  confrontation with the Devil, and so they are exorcised mercilessly and dramatically in most cases (just read the Karen Kingston account).  These spirits are in fact, I believe, simply deceased human beings with negative emotional issues to resolve.  These can be handled by a spirit rescue and release team without the dramatics of a  full-blown exorcism.  All the physical and psychic phenomena which occur in exorcisms are well known to mediums and psychical researchers - such happenings as levitations, poltergeist activity, glossolalia, xenoglossy, automatic writing, temperature changes, obnoxious smells, and worse.  Low-level spirits can endanger the lives of participants in exorcisms and even ordinary séances if they are not handled with care and firmness, both by the mediums and practitioners and facilitators, and by the spirit guides and controls assisting in the proceedings.   Trained rescue groups, as described  by Michael Evans in "Dead Rescue" for example, know how to face these difficulties.
 
So, those of us in spirit healing groups, and practicing daily distant healing, need to take into account that some of the people we are praying for, with various physical and mental problems, may in fact be ill because of spirit infestation.  Even a serious heart condition may go away once the invading spirit, often a deceased close relative, has been sent into the light. If as healers we have the ability to notice the presence of unwelcome and sick spirits, we will be more efficient in sending out healing, since we will be dealing with the eradication of causes, and not just treating symptoms.
 
Demonstrations of physical mediumship and cases of exorcism show the same features and type of paranormal activity and communication with spirits, with levitations, channelings and so forth as mentioned above.  But in the case of malignant possession and disease, often the client, or host personality, the owner of the physical body  is unaware of the spirit infestation, whereas a medium purposely goes into trance, or invites the psychic abilities and phenomena and spirit contact to occur.  The medium works with the best spiritual energies, which are beneficial, and not harmful.  The orthodox churches do not make any distinction between mediumship and possession.  They classify both as the work of the devil.
 
  Personally, I think there is no need for the religious ritual of exorcism, whether Christian, Buddhist, Shintoist, Taoist, Native American or whatever, unless the possessed person is helped by such ceremonies because they belong to that religion themselves, and perhaps the possessing spirits do  too.
 
Some mediums may belong to one religion or another, and are sometimes priests in that religion, whereas others  just subscribe to a spiritualist or spiritist philosophy  or merely practise as lay persons, using their psychic abilities in spirit contact work, giving evidence of survival, or providing healing and spirit rescue services. In all cases however, there is contact with the spirits of people who have lived here and died, and this includes the guides, controls and helpers who assist in séances and supervise the events, take charge of the order in which the spirits communicate, one by one, so that physical phenomena do not get out of hand. 
 
The authority of neither science nor religion is needed for communication with the living spirits, although their imagery and theories may be helpful in explaining what is happening and comparing and evaluating the quality of the thought and knowledge received, and the outcome for the client. 
 
Emotions such as bitterness, jealously, envy, and anger attract bitter diseases like cancer and arthritis which clients and healers have to deal with, but until reading Wanda Pratnicka's book I didn't realise that these negative emotions can also attract us to be actually possessed by bitter spirits who themselves died of these diseases - so they live again and bring themselves along with their diseases to infest us well and truly.  There are vast implication is this realisation for out healing work.  Often operations, medicines, surgery and hospitalisation are not necessary.  The infesting spirits just have to be released and rescued and sent away, preferably in a humane way into the light, rather than expelled by violent exorcism.  There is a problem here, of course.  A surgeon cannot be negligent and not operate on a life-threatening condition just because the surgery might not be necessary if the spirit were cast out.   In Wanda Praticka's accounts, the medical consultations take place, and patients only come to her as a last resort, and if she sees clairvoyantly that spirits are involved, she releases them, and only then, when the patient is clear, and retested, is medical intervention seen to be unnecessary.
 
 
The other hurdle before the end of the race which is more of a road block than the  hurdles of religion is that of the present materialistic and really unscientific worldview that nothing exists beyond the body and the brain, and so there is no spirit, no afterlife, and therefore possession is purely a product of the imagination and of superstitious belief.  If belief in such "twaddle" they say, helps us adjust and perform and feel good, by all means use it as a tool, like music therapy and acupressure.   This is a dangerous attitude, since it ignores the causes of many diseases and malfunctions, and also it leaves a person at death with nowhere to go.  Such a person will become another lost soul, in need of future rescue! 
  
 [To be continued with more discussion of exorcism and spirit release.]   Richard

Spirit and Distant Healing (38) Positive Thinking and Emile Coue'
New Thought and Spiritual Healing - communications from Emile Coue' and William James
 
 After medium Helen Greaves published her "Testimony of Light" which was reviewed here in the "Rescue" series, she continued to receive communications from Frances Banks, and from other individuals in spirit.  One of these was Emile Coue', well-known in the 1920s for his contribution to the Positive Thinking  New Thought movements by his catch-phrase 'Every day in every way I am getting better and better.'     Although his methods helped many overcome their illnesses and difficulties, Emile came back to revise his instructions.   He came through to Helen Greaves in England in 1977, about the same time that the spirit of psychologist William James was dictating  a book in the USA to medium Jane Roberts.  Since their thought is very similar, I will review what they both had to say in this series.  
 
Firstly, here is what Emile Coue' (acute accent on the 'e') had to say.
 
"In my time on the plane of earth I was considered something of a fool, or at least a mental oddity.  For I had the insouciance (carelessness) to recommend that man's healing was linked with man's thought.  'Every day [in every way] I am getting better and better' was my mantram for the sick.
 
Now, however, as I review this clumsy expression of truth, I marvel that I dared to voice that which in the light of further experience of the spirit, appears trivial and superficial.  From my ignorant and imperfect knowledge, I was instructing my patients to call in a shallow way upon the God within them, to contact that power which is the indwelling spirit, and concerning which I knew little.  Yet, should we be surprised that in cases where the desire was sufficiently strong and the concentrated thought of good was held AS AN ACCOMPLISHED FACT, that a demonstration occurred, so that the well-being of health superseded physical ailments?
 
I was not mad, as some thought me.  Maybe I deserved to be classed as a clown, for from the lower rungs of the ladder of truth, I was expanding the doctrine of desire and fulfilment; the oft-times dire reality of SELFISH desire.   'Ask and ye shall receive' holds good from the lowest, most materialistic hankerings, upwards to the longing of the soul for union with God.  This, as experience has shown, is as much a snare for the worldly, as a crown for the aspirer.  For all - ALL - is spirit.  There is nothing else!  We live and move and have our being in the spirit whether the personality accepts this truth or not.  The very air breathed, the food eaten, the animals, flowers and trees, loved....all, all are spirit.   Money, that lust of mankind, is but metal, [paper or a balance in a bank account] formed through the agency of the spirit; its value is completely man-made and thus ephemeral - as your nations are discovering today! [too true, here in the midst of the financial crunches of 2008 - 2009!] 
 
Alas, for me too, only through my sojourn in this plane of thought, away from the cynicism of material belief and spiritual lethargy, where one is able to shed false concepts,  am I learning to accept wisdom and truth as the powers of the spirit which they truly are.   Not alone among my honoured companions do I now regret the dark shrouds of earth which rendered truth as a whipping post for the knocks of knaves.   THE SOUL KNOWS!
 
One's spiritual eyes are open.....  Progress may still be slow here also as the clutter impeding the true voice of the soul has still to be discarded.  For now we no longer see darkly but  face to face.  Such glimpses of truth, of reality vouchsafed us in rare moments of inspiration on earth are now revealed as nuggets which became too shrouded in the dust of materialism to emit the light of their pure spiritual gold.
 
Yet if nothing else I have learned that even veiled truth has its purpose.  Naked truth is too heady for flesh-buried egos.  Truth, therefore, often makes its appearance, as scientists and intellectuals term it,  in 'odd' concepts.  True, I had an odd concept, yet, though badly digested and materialistically devised, it was a FACET of truth itself.  Truth it was, and is - truth.   Here then lies the great conundrum.
 
I do not completely regret my worldly exposition of truth to my patients, for there was some good even in that cheap application to thought.  Only is there regret for the 'little more and how much it is' that should have become interwoven within me, if I had sought the real beauty of truth itself, and not contented my mind with the glamour of the veils which hid her face.
 
Here then is the kernel of truth: 'As a man thinketh in his HEART, so is he.'  He is either healthy, well, active, joyful and hopeful IN HIS THOUGHT; or he is melancholy, depressed, hopeless, suspicious, cynical, ill and in pain, and lost to the kingdom.
 
In my communications here [in the spirit world] with the soul of Louis Pasteur, it has become clear to us both that as HE laid emphasis on the will, the direction of MY inner self was to wholeness.  I tried to arouse in my fellows the oneness of the mind of man with the harmony which is good, or God's purpose for his creation.   And this I tried to accomplish by MAN'S WORD.  My teachings were not on the spirit which unites, but on the mind which divides.  So I was damned by a half-truth.  The desires aroused were sometimes even carnal.  The search after health flattered the selfish mind.  The Word was denigrated to amass wealth and power.  Because of my failure to realise the aggregate of spirit, and the transience of matter, the experiment lacked life, and after failures, faded into obscurity.  I would have fared better had I possessed the knowledge and courage to teach the spirit in man FIRST, and the Word of Life, so that health, harmony and wholeness would be the result."
 
Some time later, Emile Coue' had more to say about psychology, healing and motivation.
 
"I was criticised for studying hypnotism in my earthly service.  But was that not making some application to the spirit?  For what is hypnotism but a closing down of man's lower earth-limited mind so that the superconscious mind within may be trapped?  And what is the unconscious mind but the stored-up submerged memories and recollections of experiences, past and present?  And does not that impounded knowledge form a part of the soul in its slow progress into light?
 
And what is light  but the realisation of the eternal spirit in man?  And is not that eternal spirit but a human interpretation of the all fulfilling creative force that man has crystallized into the appellation of God?  All...all... evolves from this source;  all is spirit even NOW on your plane where this consciousness is dulled by the evils of materialistic appetite.
 
As the plane of matter termed earth and its inhabitants evolves into a New Age, this truth will become evident and accepted as the unconscious and higher consciousness gradually assume  the rightful influence, and the hard lower mindshell dissolves.
 
There will be no need of hypnotic suggestion for release.  For mind ever aspires towards [the higher] Mind, and [that] Mind expands into unity with the Divine Mind.   The many will be transmuted into the Creative One.   The plan and the purpose for each atom, each cell, each creature, each soul will evolve into conscious knowledge by the fresh application and wider appreciation of truth and will.  Then will man learn the science of the human mind.  "Know Thyself" results in the art of living.  For that which each creature came to do is already part of it, a purpose of the Creative Light.
 
As the soul of man becomes awakened to its purpose and aware of the Divine Plan with which it came into earthly life, so will the true self grow into peace, harmony and beauty of  unity with the PERSONA [the unique individual personality] .  Fewer failures will arrive HERE [in the spirit world after death] saddened by their lives of omission, whilst in the world of matter greater accomplishments will be linked with deeper understanding, tolerance and harmony. 
 
This is the awakening that is the plan and purpose for all created souls.  And those illnesses and troubles which arise from REPRESSION in the personality, those neurotic guilts which sully men's lives will become disentangled and dissolved by ACCEPTANCE.  To ride in beauty along the river path like a Sir Lancelot or a Sir Galhad in your ancient British legends, the track needs to be cleared of weeds, and brambles and trailing undergrowth.  The dichotomy between soul and spirit, and the evolving himan self should grow from that self's acceptance of its repressions, its rebellions.  The modern earth-world, I believe, lays emphasis on so-termed psychiatrists and psycho-analysts to disentangle these psychic knots.  May I, from this possible vantage pint, venture to apprise, (maybe with a chuckle!) that my formula of self-suggestion - (only now with greater application to the indwelling spirit) may not be so amiss in many cases?  'Man, heal thyself", accept yourself and your failures first.  Recovery comes from WITHIN.  Become what you really ARE - the best and highest can be reached by THOUGHT and FAITH and positive prayer.  Even those bogies of fear of ridicule, distruct of change, apprehension of inne timidity can be routed by the right application of mind and MIND."
 
[I think we can usefully apply these thoughts to our continuing healing work.] 
 
William James, who died in 1910, investigated psychic matters in the late 1800s and the early 1900s at the same time as Isaac Funk, Conan Doyle, Frederic Myers, Admiral Usborne Moore and Edward Randall, communicated similar thoughts, also in 1977, but through Jane Roberts in Elmira, New York. He compares  science, psychology and religion, and shows that scientific and religious beliefs alike prevent effective healing in modern times.  How can we be positive and healthy if we believe on the one hand as we tremble in fear and guilt that we are born in sin, or tainted with 'original sin,'   or on the other hand that we are helplessly controlled by our Freudian impulses, and our selfish ego and id, or that we are following a Darwinian evolutionary path on which there is no love, no afterlife or spirit,  but merely survival of the fittest and most adaptable, yet mortal, species?  [or today, are we going to become genetically modified products of modern medicine?] 
 
Here is James on February 16th, 1977:
 
"Freudian psychology and evolutionism were not sciences as such, for that matter, with the possibility of provable results in a series of experiments, but a group of hypotheses that basically could not be proven.  Nor did Freud's psychoananlysis produce a body of case histories in which cures could be definitely shown to result from Freudian techniques.  Neither can man prove the nonexistence of the soul, yet science treated the soul AS IF it had been proven to be nonexistent. 
 
I hoped to prove the opposite, by looking into man's experience for hints of an overriding ability not dependent upon the senses or other physical mechanisms alone; or for  an overperception that operated in spite of the sense's  seeming confinement to the immediate environment.  I was personally convinced that such a hypothesis came closest to the truthy about man's position.  Again, as a scientist, however,  I was careful to distinguish between belief and hypothesis, though many of my colleagues on the opposite side of the fence were not so scrupulous. 
 
Even now, having been a scientist to the best of my ability, I hesitate to offer my own subjective continuing reality after death as any kind of objective proof of survival, in your world's terms.  Indeed, I shall not do so, but will rely instead upon those arguments, persuasions and methods with which you are familiar - only honed to such a degree that their vigor alone, I hope, will express the soul's valor and give evidence of its heroic nature...... .[Joseph Campbell has written and lectured much on the Hero's Journey and on how to "follow your bliss"]     I hope to show the heroic and extradimensional characteristics of human creativity; to demonstrate that evidence of these is available in physical life; and to suffest that it is at least possible to project these as existing apart from the physical organism.  [This alternate hypothesis] is not new and is based on the existence of a nonphysical soul or entity that provides inner direction, that emerges into time and space and exits;  and on the projection of this soul or entity as being with all species to whatever extent, directing the overlife of the planet; and with cooperation rather than competition as the basic dictum.
 
To me it seems now obvious that the newness ever entering the world if proof of an inner source existing beyond all known biological mechanisms or organic organisations, and that the orderliness of organisms' intricate forms makes their accidental creation [according to Evolutionary theory] a logical contradiction.  Yet in life, out of a misguided sense of duty to science, I seriously considered the possibility of a chance creation, thus wasting a good deal of effort on an absurdity.
 
Yet that very absurdity speaks of the creative abilities of the men who conceived it, and it is through those abilities that I believe a kind of evidence can be presented for the survival of man's consciousness beyond death.  Those creative abilities must be exercised, however, and Freudian and evolutionary theories have to some extent blinded men to their own capabilities and limited the extent to which the living consciousness itself can perceive the greater reality in which it exists.  That vaster reality does not simply spring into being at death.   It is the medium in which life happens: living momentarily supersedes it, even while subsisting in its source.  The everyday world is the one in which living mena have their experiences, and of course it is science's province to explore that world, make it more comprehensible and predictable, Yet the thoughts scientists hold about physical reality are themselves nonphysical.  They cannot be piled like stones on a laboratory table."
 
[To be continued, with James' ideas on the mind and medicine, and more about exorcism and spirit release.]  Autism with the help of Clairvoyance. Spirit and Distant Healing (45)

Bruno Bettelheim's "Refrigerator Mother" theory of the cause of autism was popular in the 1960s and 1970s, and it still surfaces as one explanation, along with those of other childhood trauma and family abuse, for mental illness and retardation. But as Spirit Release Therapy gains acceptance, and produces results and cures, Medicine Science and Psychology will be forced to take a broader view of healing, to include reincarnational or past life influences (as Arthur Guirdham and Brian L. Weiss, Roger Woolger and Adam Crabtree among many others have now described to us) as well as spirit obsession and possession. Some psychologists are beginning to devise new techniques. Eugene Gendlin and Gary Prouty in the U.S.A. have used a clairsentient method to enter into and share the world of paranoid and psychotic patients, and bring them back to reality.

Wanda Pratnicka, the Polish medium and healer, has already shown us that releasing spirit influences has helped heal some cases of autism and schizophrenia. It helps if the healer or therapist is clairvoyant and is able to see the spirits, thoughforms symbols and elementals which crowd into the atmosphere around disturbed patients. A North American Native healer has also used this technique, as has the Greek Cypriot healer, Stelios Atteshlis (Daskalos). Tela Starhawk, wife of healer Bobby Lake, (Medicine Gizzlybear), gives us the following account, which we can use as a point of discussion, and comparison with other cultures, and the work of the SRF.

"I don't know what that word autistic means, but I did doctor an eight year-old girl who was supposed to have that kind of sickness. She was a distant relative from Crescent City. The mother of this child came down to visit me with her little girl. The mother said her little girl was retarded, nobody could get her to talk. The mother and the White doctors called the sickness autism. Evidently the child had been like this for two years and was receiving some kind of special treatment at a school where doctors, counsellors, teachers, and other little children all worked together on the mental problems of the children.

This little girl did act like she was retarded. What I mean is the way she behaved: withdrawn and glassy-eyed, as if in a deep trance, no kind of verbal, physical or mental response. She would run over into a corner and try to hide from other people. She wouldn't even dress herself, she frequently messed her pants, and usually she had to be fed. No matter what anyone did, she would not talk or play; she frequently stared off into space. She shook in fear if anyone raised their voice in anger, and she was very afraid of adult men.

I agreed to help this little girl because I felt sorry for her. I could hear her talking [by clairaudience] to herself and to imaginary playmates in her own head. So, that night I did a healing ceremony. I could see the cause of her problem was simple; this little girl was locked in a spiritual dimension under the protective custody of the Little People. Physically she was here, in the physical world, but mentally she was in the unseen world, the spiritual world. She ran into that dimension by soul travel as an escape from the social-cultural world where she had been verbally, mentally, and sexually abused. The mother, who was a three-time divorcee, was part of the original problem. An environment of drinking, drugs, poverty, parental fighting, and neglect had forced that little girl to seek help and protection elsewhere. The Little People, the child's imaginary playmates, were in complete control of the child's mind and soul. The Little People are real spirits. For those of us who can see such things, this so-called fantasy was a reality, but the parent and the doctors could not "see" in a clairvoyant way, hence they could not reach this child mentally. "

Tela, Bobby Lake's wife, explained that this case was complex, for several reasons. First of all, the problem started from a social-cultural situation which forced the child to seek protection and escape in a spiritual and mental way; that is, she had to find a means to get out of her physical predicament. She was too young and afraid to run away from home, so she sought escape through fantasy and imagination. The shaman further related that children at this age are pure, and thus prone to spiritual (psychic) awareness and experiences. The constant abuse from the mother's drinking and verbal assaults also forced the child to turn elsewhere for affection and protection. The child would run outside and cry in agony or hide in a closet and withdraw into herself mentally. The withdrawal and crying process served to expand her latent psychic abilities, which in turn reinforced her perception of the Little People, the spirits who heard the child's crying and come to comfort and protect her.

At first the Little People appeared as what adults would consider imaginary playmates. However, Tela claimed that the Little People were not projections from the child's unconscious mind, but were in fact real psychic entities, who became constant companions of the child, especially during periods of torment, abuse, and neglect.

Tela held a meeting with the Little People during the healing ceremony and convinced them to relinquish their control over the child's mind and soul. She then entered the child's mind psychically, via telepathic communication, and convinced her that certain people could see and hear what she was really doing in ‘that other world.' Tela gently, (verbally, spiritually, and mentally) persuaded the little girl to speak, using the child's allies as part of the persuasion team. In other words, she persuaded the Little People to encourage the child to communicate with herself and with her mother.

The little People told the child it was safe for her to leave them and re-enter the physical world, with the understanding that she could always return to them if the situation ever became fearful. This negotiation between the shaman, the child's soul and the invisible playmates proved to be successful, as the child cried, talked, and then timidly went over to her mother. Both mother and child were encouraged to talk to the Little People, thanking them for their assistance. Tela climaxed her ceremony with mother, child, spirits, and herself singing together happily.

The mother confessed her neglect of the child. She apologized to the child and the spirits for the abuse and promised to seek professional psychotherapy. She also promised to spend more time with her child in cultural and traditional Native activities. On the third night of the healing, mother and child were purified together in a sacred sweat lodge ceremony.

Three years later the child was healthy, more intelligent than her peers in school, and had become very active in the local ceremonies. She claimed she still heard and saw her imaginary playmates, especially during dreams, times of ceremony, and in certain situation when she needed personal advice and guidance to deal with a problem. The mother quit drinking and partying and eventually reincarnated. It appears that the mother, stepfather and child are a close-knit and happy family.

Shamanistic and clairvoyant vision is has always been used by spiritual healers down through the centuries for diagnosis and treatment. It is only modern medicine that has gradually almost excluded it from the surgery and hospital. So Bobby Lake suggests that

"psychic phenomena, psychic symbols, religious convictions, and cultural concepts are no longer part of the Western biomedical approach, whereas the shamanistic approach includes a mixture of the psychological, behavioral, socio-cultural, physical, mythological, and spiritual (psychic or paranormal) phenomena.

The Native healer doctoring a White patient can sometimes be faced with the same problems encountered by the White doctor treating a Native. They have differences in beliefs and cultural heritage; both the White doctor's and the shaman's medical systems are culturally biassed. What then makes Native healers so effective in the treatment of non-Native patients? The key is in the Native healer recognizing the possibility that non-Native patients may have preliterate or traditional beliefs too; this is, the patient may believe that his or her disease is the result of personal transgression (‘I must have done something') or malevolence(‘something or somebody must be doing this to me!') [or again, as Seiyu Kiriyama's cases show, there may be ancestral or reincarnational influences at work]. The shaman attempts to grasp the patient's idea of the cause of the illness so that patient and healer can work closely together. Hence the healer inquires of both the Native and non-Native patient, ‘What kind of signs (omens) have you seen around your house?' or, ‘What kinds of dreams have you had lately? The Western doctor, on the other hand, inquires ‘How do you feel?' The patient responds, ‘I feel as if my stomach is twisted up and full or snakes!' The White doctor authoritatively states, ‘Well, we'll take some x-rays and lab tests and find out what is really making you sick.' The shaman would respond, ‘Well, we'll talk to those snakes and find out why they are tormenting you.'

There may not be snakes in the patient's stomach in a physical sense, but they could be there in a psychic sense. Psychic phenomena normally do not show up on x-ray and lab test results, but they can be seen clairvoyantly. They can also be diagnosed and perhaps identified psychologically through dream interpretation. This is because the unconscious mind or soul communicates to the brain and the body through a complex system of symbols. These symbols are primal, natural, archetypal symbols. The shaman can ‘see' and understand such symbols, but typically White doctors function according to an entirely different set of symbols, which have been converted into a logical and limited left-brain system of language.

The conscious mind of the Western doctor may not be aware of these more primal symbols, but evidently the unconscious mind of the patient, Native or Western, and the psychic oriented mind of the shaman are aware, and hence respond accordingly. In order to heal the patient, the source of stress - the symbol, the physical object, the form of power, and the fear associated with it - must be transformed or eradicated. It does not matter whether the therapist believes in the phenomenon, but he or she must recognize that the patient believes it. Simply changing the patient's belief system or forcing one's own belief system upon the patient will only serve to suppress or compound the problem. [This, we have already seen, was noticed by Dr. Mollica when he was treating past-traumatic stress in his Cambodian patients].

The problem of not recognizing psychic phenomena is due to 1) lack of awareness and special training on the part of the doctor or counsellor, 2) a critical shortage of Western means to identify and handle such phenomena; and 3) inadequate preparation and training of professionals to deal with people who have culturally different beliefs, and to deal with the potential of psychic phenomena.

Assuming modern practitioners are willing to change their assumptions they must find appropriate means or devices to discern phenomena that might be psychic in nature. Since average professionals cannot employ clairvoyance in diagnosing, perhaps they could hire a bonafide psychic or medium as a consultant, one who has clearly demonstrated keen clairvoyant abilities and experience. The Tenrukyo Hospital in Japan and London University in Great Britain are two sites at which efforts are being made to use such means to verify psychic phenomena in psychiatric situations. Perhaps American practitioners could learn from these recent experiments, and make their own assumptions about the potential involvement of psychic phenomena as related to illness."

To be continued, with more about psychic phenomena in Native healing, and Da skalos, dealing with elementals. .

The above excerpts are reviewed from "Native Healer: The Path to an Ancient Healing Art" by Medicine Grizzlybear Lake. Copyright 1991. Harper Paperbacks, New York.

Material presented for educational purposes only.

Spirit and Distant Healing (46) The power of symbols in different cultures and their different meanings. A native view of panic disorder.

In Western Culture a dragon is seen as a terrifying symbol of evil, as in the legend of St. George and the Dragon, while the owl is seen as a source of wisdom In China, in contrast, the dragon is seen as the embodiment of wisdom, while the owl, in most Native American cultures, is a bad omen, since it symbolically represents sickness, evil, and death. So it is important to take into account a patient's culture and belief system when undertaking healing, as Daskalos the Greek Cypriot healer has already pointed out. Spirit Rescue and Release also comes across this situation as the panic attack case cited below would indicate. R.R.

Bobby Lake writes about this at length in his book, "Native Healer" :-

There is a vital need for modern health practitioners to recognise the potential impact of sorcery and psychic phenomena. During my personal research on Native patients and their families being treaded for a variety of conditions at the Mad River, the General and St. Joseph's hospitals in Humboldt County, I noticed that out of twenty case studies involving patient deaths, at least seventeen persons claim to have seen natural symbols (omens) appear immediately prior to a patient's operation. Ten physicians openly admitted the sudden and strange appearance of certain animals, birds, snakes, toads or bugs, either in or near a patient's room prior to surgery. Four of the seven physicians interviewed remember having bad dreams prior to the death of their patients. One local psychiatrist and three psychotherapists who are involved with some of the same Native patients also admit that omens appeared during psychoanalysis. For example, Dr. Tom
MacFarlane relates, ‘ Now that I think about it, this one patient complained about have bad dreams of dead people. While we were discussing it in my office and attempting to analyse the dream, a bunch of blow-flies suddenly flew into the office. I found it strange but simply dismissed it as a coincidence. I do remember, however, that the Indian patient became disturbed about those large flies for some personal reason.'

Generally, White physicians do not believe in phenomena such as this. As a result, in a number of the cases I have observed over several years, the symbols and psychic phenomena associated with sorcery were apparent but ignored. Unfortunately, because those involved failed to recognise or refused to acknowledge the potential and presence of psychic power, a considerable number of patients may have died or suffered further decline in health, hence requiring a longer period of doctoring......
Because the owl symbolically represents sickness, evil, death or sorcery in Native culture... it can become a source of stress. The continued physical appearance of an owl around the Native person's residence can be either the actual cause of sickness (via sorcery) or the psychic basis of sickness.

Symbols are a kind of energy, and energy can change form, it can be positive or negative, tangible or intangible, seen or unseen. Negative symbols and negative energy (whether seen or unseen) can produce stress upon an organism, and too much stress can cause mental, physical, and spiritual (psychic) illness.....furthermore, the patient's belief system about dreams and omens can provide a key to identifying the potential cause(s) of the patient's illness. The doctor's awareness of the psychic symbols in a patient's dreams and of certain psychic phenomena during diagnosis and treatment might provide the clue for resolving the problem and hence curing the illness...... While the Western patient may not have the same belief system as the Native, the same understanding of natural symbols, or a similar set of archetypes, he or she still can and often does respond unconsciously to such negative symbols.

A Native View of Panic Disorder.

Dr. Abby Fryer, a researcher psychiatrist at Columbia University and co-director of the Anxiety Disorders Clinic at the New York State Psychiatric Institute in Manhattan, has been conducting some interesting studies on ..... panic disorder. Panic attack victims typically experience a sudden and inexplicable wave of terror, often accompanied by such symptoms as breathing difficulty, pain or a feeling of tightness in the chest, palpitations, sweating, shaking, dizziness; and perhaps most frightening of all, a sense of non-reality, of losing control, of becoming schizophrenic, and/or dying. Dr. Fryer discovered that some patients, usually in their late forties, experience such attacks after exercise. Other doctors suspect that these individuals produce more than the usual amount of lactic acid. But the actual cause of these attacks is not understood. Most Western researchers believe it is a physiological illness.

The most common treatment used to alleviate the panic syndrome is tricyclic antidepressants such as imipramine, which is supposedly not habit-forming. The problem with this syndrome is the recurrence of attacks, with the frequent eventual result that most victims begin to develop paranoia and abnormal fear of being left alone, of flying, of riding in elevators, and so forth. There is a possibility that it might be linked to stroke or be the catalyst for a stroke.

Charlie Thorn (Red Hawk), a Karuk sweat lodge steam doctor, has had to deal with a number of such cases. He indicates that this illness is a prime example of what he calls the shadow syndrome. Thom says nature if full of good and bad spirits. One of these is a shadow type "force" [which we will later compare with Daskalos' discussion of elementals, and Old English legends such as Beowulf. R.R.] - which lives in various bogs, woods, and swamp areas. It can be seen by the human eye if one catches a side-glimpse of it darting suddenly across the glade or hiding behind trees and brush. The shadow often follows people home and torments them by causing poltergeist types of activity: opening doors, rattling windows, etc. Periodically, it even attacks by jumping full-force onto the victim's chest. It is often seen as a shadowy figure darting across the room, but most people simply dismiss it as a figment of their imagination. Thom further
explains that the shadow comes in two forms: human or a large cat. In an interview I had with him he explained:-

I have had to doctor a number of people for this illness. This is what White people would probably call an example of psychic phenomena. The shadow is alive, it is real, it is a force which lives in Nature and has no other function than to torment and bother human beings. I don't really know why it will attack some people and ignore others, but I think it likes to prey on those who have a weak aura, or people who are emotionally or mentally weak and under some kind of stress. These shadow spirits are very territorial, so sometimes they will just attack humans because we are in their territory. For example, a man in Eureka went to play golf and came under attack. He went to all kinds of White doctors who thought this man was having a heart attack or something. The golf course was built in a bad place and people shouldn't go there, but I guess they don't know any better.

This man eventually went to seek counseling from a psychotherapist because his family doctor thought the sickness was caused by stress. But the psychotherapist could not cure the illness, so the patient came to a spiritual-psychic gathering at the Stewart Mineral Springs, near Mount Shasta. The patient thought he could find an alternative health cure, and that is how I met him.

I took the patient into the sacred sweat lodge ceremony, used spiritual power to fight off the shadow, and sent it back to where it came from. Then I steamed the patient with herbs to purify his mind, body, and soul. I also made up some herbal medicine and mineral water to complete the doctoring, then I told the patient to use this sacred keeswoof root (angelica ssp.), to pray with in the event the shadow should return. Teaching the patient how to use a ritual to deal with his problem gives him better confidence and control over his own life. The power of the herb can be smelled and is used as an incense offering to the good spirits; it wards off evil powers.

It takes power and knowledge to fight unseen or supernatural forces. Sometimes words are just not enough; the patient must have something tangible and special to use and believe in, especially in matters involving intangible causes. I saw this patient a year later, and he said he had only had one more slight occurrence of the problem. He used my medicine and ritual and got completely well.

This is a case some might identify as panic disorder or as a psychiatric case, but it was perceived by the shaman as as caused by psychic phenomena. Could the shamans in this situation be right and the hypothesis of psychiatrists and physicians wrong?

The healer Bobby Lake concluded his book by saying: - I had shared a number of shamanistic practices present-day people can use for spiritual development and growth without violating Native religion.... A survey of world-wide literature also indicates that most societies originally used dream development and therapy, and some Western groups still practice the ancient art of dreaming for spirituality. So the shamanistic information I have tried to share in this book is not just lessons about my Native religious beliefs, customs, and esoteric teachings; it is a reinforcement and elaboration of ancient knowledge with the hope of encouraging all of us toward a more spiritual life. This is in essence what our Native people have always tried to do for our people - and we are all the Great Creator's people and people of the earth. Perhaps now we can begin to share, to learn, to grow, and to evolve spiritually together as our ancient Native American prophecies predicted would occur.

Reviewed from "Native Healer: The Path to an Ancient Healing Art' by Medicine Grizzlybear Lake (Bobby Lake). Harper Paperbacks, 1991. ISBN 0-06-104239-0