Any doubt surrounding the efficacy of spiritual or “energetic” healing is a comparatively new phenomenon. For millennia, acceptance and belief were the norm, with a depth of understanding surrounding the body’s ability to heal itself. Then “medicine” as we know it today became formalized along with the building of medical schools. Proponents of the new sciences treated claims made for the power of prayer and healing with disdain, however, after several hundred years the tide is turning again — and with Britain and Europe leading the way, the scientific community is listening.
In Britain it is not unusual to see spiritual healers working alongside medical doctors in their offices, hospitals, hospices and cancer care centers. Since September 1991, Britain’s Department of Health has allowed healing to be part of the National Health Service, provided the doctor remains in charge of patient care. The trend took another step forward recently, when two spiritual healers were hired as full time staff by University College Hospital in London, one of the country’s oldest, most highly regarded teaching hospitals.
Dr Jean Galbraith, in general practice in St. Albans, England, has earmarked Friday afternoons for offering spiritual healing services, setting aside her prescription pad in favor of “channeling” healing energy to her patients. Says Galbraith, who is now a board member of Britain’s National Federation of Spiritual Healers (NFSH), “The size of my practice has increased due to this approach and I employ four spiritual healers.” Dr. Galbraith said that her practice grew by some one hundred new patients within months of incorporating spiritual healing into patient care.”
Dr Craig Brown, who practices medicine in Devon, meditates before seeing patients. According to Brown, a proponent of spiritual healing, “By combining modalities, patients benefit and I have seen a decrease in the amount of drugs dispensed — thus reducing costs.”
Dr Richard Lawson, from Congresbury, Somerset, England, had been treating one of his patents, a man with advanced prostate cancer, for some weeks. The man’s prognosis was poor, and he was given only a short time to live. Running out of medical options, Lawson recommended spiritual healing, referring his patient to the NFSH. The cancer soon went into remission, and Lawson maintains, “The shrinkage of the tumor was associated with the patient receiving spiritual healing.”
Time and time again, after the patient has worked with a spiritual healer, both doctors and patients have reported recovery from terminal illness, pain reduction and much-improved quality of life, often defying the statistical odds for recovery. Such evidence has drawn the attention of scientists, many of whom were critical of such interventions — but those same scientists are now beginning to understand the powerful energies brought together with spiritual healing.
Any illness, whether physical, mental, emotional or spiritual — from a dose of the ‘flu’ to a dark night of the soul — will cause the body to become “blocked” at an energetic level. In turn, the innate power to heal ourselves is effectively turned off, and from that comes a risk of greater compromise to good health. Stress, poor nutritional choices and a tainted environment all play a part in blocking healing energy. Aches, pains and fatigue are signals that energetic pathways must be cleared to prevent more serious health consequences. This is where spiritual healing has a powerful part to play in wellness, bringing divine or “universal” energy to the individual, releasing blockages and enabling the body to do its work — that of healing itself. The balancing of the mind-body-spirit connection reinstates a sense of wholeness, and it is with this added “push” that the most serious illnesses have been overcome.
Those who profess no religious affiliation benefit from spiritual healing in exactly the same way as those who follow a given faith — spiritual healing is non-denominational and requires only a mind open to healing. Even the most die-hard atheists have benefited from the unconditional universal love at the heart of spiritual healing.
The respect with which spiritual healing is held by the medical community in Britain is largely due to a larger than life healer named Harry Edwards. Before Deepak Chopra and Andrew Weil, recent proponents of energetic healing, it was over 50 years ago that Edwards — who healed thousands of people — realized the power inherent in a synergetic relationship with the medical community, whose hearts and minds must be won if progress was to be made. Edwards founded the NFSH, and began the work of streamlining the spiritual healing process, developing standards and a code of ethics along with a stringent training process and certification to underline credibility. Soon, even the most hard-nosed physician could see that there was no mystery to spiritual healing, and that the value and worth in a complementary approach would be to the benefit of all concerned — especially their patients.
Such powerful relationships between doctors and healers have eluded the US medical community, and for many years, as more Americans discovered the NFSH, they would either have to travel to the United Kingdom, or receive distant healing from an NFSH certified spiritual healer based in Britain. That changed four years ago when Roger Ford and Kim Vincent, both senior trainers with the NFSH, decided to settle in Ojai, California. In addition to offering spiritual healing from offices in Ventura, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, the duo are facilitating a range of courses around the country, and expect to certify the first US-based NFSH healers in the coming year. Says Ford, “Having worked for twenty-seven years as a spiritual healer throughout Europe and the United Kingdom, I have seen amazing recoveries and healing take place. They defy science or logic, but already doctors here in America are seeing the power of this healing.”
The couple’s outreach work includes a community healing circle, along with liaison with members of the medical community to familiarize them with the powerful work being done overseas — work that could so easily be done here. In Britain, it is not unusual for a spiritual healer to be present in the operating room for the benefit of both patients, nurses and surgeons. Says Ford, “We — the spiritual healer, the surgeon, the support staff — collectively believe in the patient’s full recovery, and on some level the patient’s sub-conscious mind attunes to that message. The work and the response can only be positive.”