Just seen this on TV ...

It's the thing where healers lay hands on (or near) a patient and the healing force is channeled through the healer to the patient (I think that's right).

Is it real ?

Is it all hocus pocus and placebo effect ?

Is it a con to get the guilable to part with money ?

Is it all of the above !!!?

What do you think ...

i voted yes, but im talking about hands on healing, i was healed once at church you see, was suffering greatly with my illness and was healed for bout a month! unbelievable. :)

Its real. I wont go into details but I know for sure it has worked where a member of my family was healed and the doctors had no success at diagnosing the problems yet after two visits to a healer it was sorted out and has never been a problem since.....and nothing charged, but you could make a donation to the healers expenses if you wanted.

mimi ... did your illness come back after you stopped having the healing ?

can you say what the healing felt like ?

i only had it a couple of times, but always found that it was unbelievable how much it helped me.
it wasnt "spiritual healing" as such, different to owdlad maybe, but i felt a really warm feeling, got hotter and hotter. was really powerful and uplifting feeling. hard to explain :)
mimi

Originally posted by mimicraze
i only had it a couple of times, but always found that it was unbelievable how much it helped me.
it wasnt "spiritual healing" as such, different to owdlad maybe, but i felt a really warm feeling, got hotter and hotter. was really powerful and uplifting feeling. hard to explain :)
mimi

That sound like spiritual healing to me mimi :)

yeh just confusing cos people do different things, I was healed by God, theres just so many different "spiritual" sources i guess. not bothered anyway, i answered your question :) that help?

Placebo effect.

Bog all to do with spirits or religion... just faith in being cured! If it works for you temporarily then that's great.

BUT.. and it's a bit but...

Healing makes a great money spinning and congregation building sideshow in churches and town halls across the nation. It stinks.

Each to their own Tony, have you tried it ? it was in this couples house no side show nothing apart from their desire to help people. and no money changed hands. No one had less faith than me until I saw it work ....well have you tried it ?

no. its not bull.

it was in my friends house,5 of us there,wasnt planned. was amazing.

I'll believe it when it can be measured scientifically.

Originally posted by Cyclone
I'll believe it when it can be measured scientifically.

Are you saying that only things that can be scientifically proven are real / true ?

no.
I'm saying that a few anecdotal stories will not convince me of something that patently does not fit with my world view.
I do not believe in any sort of religous or spiritual thingy. Simply because i have seen no evidence to suggest that I should. This doesn't disprove anything of course, you cannot prove a negative. But the dearth of evidence is good enough for me.

If it can be measured, understood and predicted, or if it is simply 'possible' even if we can't figure out how, then i'd be more inclined to give it the benefit of the doubt, but it is not, and so I will not.

Did you have a counter example ready for when I said "yes, only scientifically proven things are real or true"?

I am inclined towards believing in things that I have direct personal experience of.

Did you have a counter example ready for when I said "yes, only scientifically proven things are real or true"?

*smiles*

Well Cyclone ... you obviously detected my (non too subltle) trap !!

My prepared response was (and please forgive the personal-ish nature of this question) ...

"Can you prove that you love your mom !?"

Just really to point out that scientific proof is not the be all and end all ...

Actually ... while I do consider science and scientific method to have limited scope ... I have the utmost respect for science and scientific method ... at what it does.

I do not believe that science and 'things of a spiritual nature' are at all mutually exclusive.

of course I could. Given a good enough understanding of the human brain and neural chemistry, hormonal responses etc... I'm sure it wouldn't be that complicated to measure the brain activity when shown a picture of a number of people.
Firstly you'd have to define love of course, so you'd have to find the 'normal' response for a whole bunch of people when they saw or thought about someone they said they loved.
Then you simply show me a picture of my mum and measure my brain activity.

I thought you were going to go for something much harder, like the origin of the universe.

IMHO
A lot of this is down to positive thinking and the effects that brings. if the healing process gives you hope and you feel more confident about overcoming your illness, then it will help.

Originally posted by Cyclone
of course I could. Given a good enough understanding of the human brain and neural chemistry, hormonal responses etc... I'm sure it wouldn't be that complicated to measure the brain activity when shown a picture of a number of people.
Firstly you'd have to define love of course, so you'd have to find the 'normal' response for a whole bunch of people when they saw or thought about someone they said they loved.
Then you simply show me a picture of my mum and measure my brain activity.

I thought you were going to go for something much harder, like the origin of the universe.

I guess that's assuming that 'love' does actually affect the physiology of a human being !!

HEY ... isn't that what healing is all about !?

They've started doing this at the church which I attend. During communion you can go to the side alter, where the pray for you or something. Not quite sure how it all works because I'm normally sat in the choir and can't see from where I sit.

I don't know if it works, I'm very sceptical about it. I've heard stories from people who say it's worked for them. I think it's psycological personally, so if you believe it will work, somehow it will. It probably wouldn't work for me, because I have doubts about it.

Sidla
This is different, it's more a hands on kind of healing we are talking about, there are usually two or three people who place their hands on you and the main healer has the contact with his spirit guide who is the one that does the actual healing. Don't ask me how it works, but it does. and before seeing it no one was more of a sceptic than me.

I know, but it's a similar sort of thing.

Depending on what form you think the alleged healing "energy" takes, there's an article here (http://www.alternativemedicine.com/AMHome.asp?cn=Catalog&act=SearchProductXML&crt=CategoryKey=53%26StartPage=1%26PageSize=902&Style=/AMXSL/TherapyDetail.xsl) that suggests that weak electrical currents can promote healing in the body.

So maybe a "spirit guide" is able to direct a type of weak electrical current through the healer into the recipient to the site(s) requiring healing?

But I expect it would require an element of belief on behalf of the recipient that this is actually going to work. Someone who pooh-poohs it altogether is unlikely to try it at all?

The first time I had a Reiki treatment I knew nothing about it or how it worked. I had no expectations or prior knowledge of what might happen. I actually went for a massage with a lady who was also a Reiki Master. She offered me the Reiki and I thought I would try it. I went into it with an open mind though that if something happened then great, if not then I've not lost anything. I was absolutely amazed by what happened though, it felt incredible.

I've never tried Spiritual Healing though. I know more about Reiki than I do about Spiritual Healing.

Although I totally agree that there are some unscrupulous people out their who will do anything to make a fast buck I believe that there are some very genuine healers. I also believe that there is no faith required just an open mind. The healer is only the channel and the healing is done by the recipients own mind and body. The power of thought is an amazing thing. We are surrounded by universal energy, which in itself is a very powerful thing, we only have to look around us. This energy is channelled through the 'healer' by 'intention' (the intention being 'that the recipient will accept the healing energy') It doesn't matter in which way this energy is channeled whether it be by the 'power of God', by Reiki through the use of symbols, from spiritual guides or from the laying on of hands, or distant healing it is all the same energy and it comes from the same place. The main thing that makes this energy work is the 'intention to heal or be healed'. Healing is not a guaranteed cure all if it is someones 'time to go' or their 'chosen time to die' then it will not stop this but it will help to make the transition easier and less painfull. Having said that sometimes 'miracles' do happen. I personally, as a healer, have had a lot of amazing results. I usually find that if the healing does not work straight away it is not because the person doesn't believe, it is because there is some deeper underlying problem that needs to be sorted out first either by complementary or conventional medicine.
:thumbsup:

I bellieve in power of the mind, whether this is spiritual I'm not sure but I think it's in all of us , we just have to learn how to tap it.
Read a book called "Healing with Mind Power" and in a way it changed my life.

Hazel

I need this to work. Nothing else has.

I'll believe it when it can be measured scientifically.

This. I reckon it's yet another manifestation of the placebo effect as I have seen no evidence to suggest otherwise.

The placebo effect is however remarkably powerful, and if this is a good way to stimulate it then it has value.

But placebo can't cure serious illnesses. Which spiritual healing has cleared for people.

But placebo can't cure serious illnesses. Which spiritual healing has cleared for people.

Really, can you give me an example of spiritual healing curing someone who's lost their arm for example?

Why does god never heal amputees and only choose to heal people who had a chance of getting better without him?

He can't always perform miracles- not even in the bible!

He can't always perform miracles- not even in the bible!

But you'd think that in the whole of recorded history considering that there have been spiritual healers for centuries now that there would be one documented case of someone 'using the power of god' to cure an amputee? Just once maybe.

I mean if I watched a spiritual healer lay his hands on someone and their legs grew back before my very eyes I'd be convinced. It just seems rather suspect that it only ever works on people who might've got better anyway, that's all.

You mentioned that you need this to work, so I'm guessing you're in a bad place with regards to yours or someone close to you's health, and for your sake if you do try it I hope that it does work, I really do, good luck.

But placebo can't cure serious illnesses. Which spiritual healing has cleared for people.

I have seen no substantial evidence of this.

They say that less than 6% of alternative therapies have any success, but as a trained Reike practitioner I find that the power of postive mental suggestion really does help certain individuals.

I also trained as a spiritual healer, but I realized they were all basically the same thing, so lump spiritual healing / laying on hands / all these forms of prayer based healing into the same category - it's the power of belief that seems to make something work.

But whether it's just positivity or something deeper, I have no idea, and I've been practising for twenty years...

I would NEVER EVER tell anyone EVER to see a healer over a registered doctor. EVER.

It should always be done in addition to seeking medical help.

But from my years of experience, it does seem to work. Whether it gives people hope, or whether it genuinely does heal - my personal jury is still out on that one.

When a healer lays his or her hands on you, it is the most bizarre feeling .. almost like a buzzy electric current that heats up your body from your toes to the top of your head. Very strange, but there was no way I could deny I didn't feel anything.