A Guide to Spirit Healing

1950.

CHAPTER 1

THE HEALING POTENTIAL

MANY people wish to know how they may develop the gift of healing the sick. The purpose of this book is to outline, as simply as possible, the manner in which this may be achieved.

Healing is perhaps the greatest gift that can be desired; it is certainly the most spiritual one. The healings recorded in the New Testament have stirred the imagination of all ages, in all countries, for the past two thousand years. If one asks an average person which aspect of the life of Jesus is best remembered, the reply will most likely tell of the miracles he performed, of which the healings are the most spectacular and impressive.

So it is today, that when one comes into close contact with illness and suffering, one’s inner being yearns to be able to do something to relieve the distress and restore the sick one to health.

This desire to heal is a natural talent. Generally speaking, all who feel for those who suffer and have the desire to help them possess the healing potential. There are a few people who are what is termed natural healers, in the same way that others may be naturally inclined towards music, mathematics, etc.

At this early stage, it is well to review the general implications of what is meant by spirit healing.

That such healings do take place, in great and increasing numbers, is beyond dispute. The accumulative mass of evidence is eloquent of the great service to humanity that spirit healing has given. The Church of England is beginning to treat healing as part of its work and the General Medical Council has recently signified its willingness to co-operate with the Anglican Church for this purpose.

Spirit healing is not the prerogative of any religion or race; it is a common heritage for the whole of the human family. It is extensively practised in the llamasaries of Tibet, and every Mohammedan priest invokes the healing aid for his supplicants. The gift of healing is no more a perquisite of Christianity than of any other religion.

Shri Krishna once said: Howsoever do men approach me, even so do I receive them, For the road men take from every side is mine.

There is not one set of healing laws for the Spiritualist and another for the Methodist or Christian Science practitioner. There are general laws that govern healing, as there are laws that govern every other effect produced in the universe. What is needed is the knowledge of how they may be best invoked and brought into use.

There are two main schools of thought among those who practise spirit healing. The first belongs to those who think that a healing is the direct dispensation of a blessing from the divine source, overriding the laws of the universe, a direct and personal gift from God to take away a disease from Mr. Brown or Mrs. Smith. This theory rests on what is termed healing through faith. There is abundant argument to prove that spirit healing can be far superior to the faith of the patient.

Such healings usually mean that prayers for mercy are made on behalf of the sufferer. Yet there can be no such thing as mercy resulting from the transmission of healing force from any source, No suggestion can be sustained that the forces that guide the universe and the health and destinies of individuals are to be deflected because a man or woman, no matter how worthy, appeals for personal aid to the deity, requesting a relaxation of the inflexible laws of nature on his or her behalf. To admit this would be to destroy the truth that law and order rule the evolutionary processes that govern matter, and all bodies and souls.

The second theory is that, accepting the common basis that all things emanate from God and, therefore, that healing is a divine act, its fulfilment follows the setting in motion of law-governed processes by wiser discarnate minds who are indeed agents within the divine plan.

While many spirit healings seem to be miraculous, there is no such thing as a miracle, implying an effect that occurs without reasoned order. Every change that takes place within the universe (either materially or spiritually), results from the law-governed forces applied to the subject. This is true, whether it applies to the stars in their formation and movements, in the germination and decay of life, the construction of an atom and everything else. Nothing takes place by chance. As, therefore, law-governed forces control the universe and ourselves within it, so must they also apply to spirit healing. The understanding of those laws is now our concern.

Spirit healing is not new—it is age-old. Jesus knew the way to invoke the healing power, and taught his disciples the way to use it. He charged them and the Church to preach the gospel and heal the sick. They did so, but the Church, as such, turned the teachings to its own advantage and allowed the gift of healing to fall into disuse. For centuries the art of healing was lost. Today, the Church is being forced to accept the reality of spirit healing, but it still tries to make it an attribute of the Church in some mystical way—or condemn it in others as the work of the devil.

To be able to aid the sick demands that spirit healing must be seen in its true perspective. The healing forces emanate from spirit; this should be accepted by all except those whose outlook is rabidly materialistic. That they are of spirit origin can be abundantly proved. All things within the universy are law-governed, and as healings take place when all human skill has failed, this implies that wiser intelligences than those of man are responsible, else whence comes the intelligent direction of those forces that have produced the healing?

In our everyday atmosphere there are unseen forces. They carry speech in all tongues, music of all kinds, and need only a wireless receiver to change them into audible sound. Such a statement would have been thought a mad travesty to a savant of a hundred years ago. Today it is reality. The forces that convey radio transmission are directed by man’s intelligence. The healing forces are with us, too, and they also need intelligent direction. As man does not know the way to do this, their control can come only from discarnate sources.

It is possible for man to communicate with these discarnate minds. It is not proposed to argue this here; there exists overwhelming evidence to show that it is true. Thus we have the modus operandi of how we can invoke the aid of the spirit healing agencies through mediumship and the vital part the healer plays.

The first and perhaps the most important lesson the would-be healer must learn is that he does not heal. This is, perhaps, the most common mistake healers make. There is no personal healing technique.

Some people, having discovered that by placing their hands on the body of a sufferer the physical stress has vanished, ask: How can I learn to heal?

It is worth repeating that the operation of healing takes place through the application of spirit forces. The way to operate these is not yet within the scope of human knowledge; therefore, the human instrument is a channel and is not technically responsible for the healing result.

It is an understandable human weakness to desire to be the source of the healing, or to possess the technique or knowledge of how to administer it. This will be dealt with later, but it now cannot be over-emphasised that the healer is not responsible for the healing—he is only the instrument through which it may take place.

There are no set rules that govern healing. What applies to one may not apply to another. Although this book will outline certain suggestions for the healer’s development, it must be remembered that there is no one-way method. The suggestions that follow should not be regarded as rigid and applicable to everyone. It is hoped that the bases on which they rest will be found serviceable to the majority of people.

The reader will already have observed that the author, supremely conscious of the divine source of spirit healing, treats the subject from a practical point of view, for the more we are able to understand what we are doing, and why we are doing it, the greater will be the progress made. Ritual and ceremony may impress the credulous, and with such people may be a benefit in a psychological sense, but they serve no real purpose. Nor are they of the slightest value in the effort to understand the science of healing—as a science it truly is. The wearing of a white coat does not make a healer.

Before one can attempt to heal purposefully, he should know something of the spirit qualities that are contained within the total make-up of man. These are dealt with in special chapters, which may appear at first to be involved. It is suggested that they should be read more than once.

There are, of course, natural healers as there are natural psychics. It is obvious that if these fortunate people endeavoured to use their gift with a greater understanding of the processes involved, they would be able to render a far greater service to humanity.

Generally speaking, the majority of people possess the gift of healing in one form or another. The gift may be latent, but it exists. After witnessing healing demonstrations, some people have felt an urge to heal and have succeeded far beyond their expectations.

It is because we do not yet understand the processes of the healing forces, neither in their application nor operation, that we cannot foretell what a healing result may be. Therefore, it is not within the power of the human instrument to give any undertaking to a patient in advance.

Healers often see complete strangers healed of diseases, while their own relatives and friends have not recovered from seemingly similar disaffections.

Neither must we, at any time, limit in our minds the power of the healing forces. On occasions, patients have come to the healer with such distressing conditions that his first thought is, Surely nothing can be done here. To his surprise and amazement, healings have taken place with seemingly impossible cases. Yet in the same healing session an apparently simple disharmony has not yielded to the healing as might be expected.

Suffice it, for the moment, to say that the healer must have complete confidence in the spirit operators to heal to the extent they can.

Scientific progress, during the past century, has disclosed hitherto undreamt-of forces. The force of healing is real, and each new advance supports the spiritual view of life.

X-rays, radio transmission, radar and television have brought us the knowledge that things can be seen, heard and sensed from afar. No longer do we question them—they are part of our everyday life.

Atomic research is bringing an understanding of metaphysical forces, especially those concerned with spirit healing, within the orbit of human appreciation. The revelation that the atom is not material but ordered energy has shown that the human body, in common with all other earthly things, is a mass of highly organised energy. Man is able, in a limited degree, to control, affect and direct these energies; to change their chemical form and potentials. Thus we are able to perceive, as yet but dimly, that wiser spirit minds can direct superior or correcting forces to bring about a chemical change within our bodies.

It is because we are becoming more scientific that we must become more spiritual. The little we know of the atom and its secrets brings the understanding of the psychic realm into rational view. The ability to restore wasted tissue, to invigorate the nerve centres, to dissipate cancers, to heal broken minds, are all processes of change. They are not far removed from the operation of the known atomic laws. Therefore, so long as we approach the science of spirit healing rationally, questioning everything that we do, learning lessons by experience, and conducting ourselves accordingly, so, one day, spirit healing may become as much an everyday event as is the radio of today.

CHAPTER 2

THE HEALING GIFT

THE first question the reader is entitled to ask is: How can I know if I possess the healing gift?

In general, most people possess latent healing powers. Broadly speaking, there are two main classifications that divide personalities. There are those who are self-centred, selfish and concerned mainly with their own comfort and possessions. The second class is of those who feel for others, who can sympathise with their distress and, above all, have the desire to render service to their fellows. It is from this second class that the healers can come.

If one has the desire to help those who are afflicted, then this is an indication that the healing potential can be developed. This is far more certain when the desire becomes a deep yearning to be able to take away pain and soothe distress.

There are those who possess healing or soothing hands, which can ease headaches and pain generally. This faculty is possessed by