Spiritual Doctor Healing Remains Popular

By Elaine Guthrie


When the average person falls ill, he or she turns to legitimate medicine, and a legitimately licensed clinician or doctor. A few rungs on the ladder beneath this one finds the world of alternative medicine. Typically, alternative medicine is a therapy which originates outside of the US and Europe, such as acupuncture. The popularity of spiritual doctor healing is impressive, given that it is far less respected than alternative medicine.

Spiritual healing refers to strategies that depend entirely upon the assistance of invisible agents. It is often the last hope for many desperate people who've tried everything officially sanctioned. Frequently, it is also the refuge of those who are less interested in relief from some ailment than they are in seeing a miracle happen. The illness might be simply an opportunity to see that miracle.

Supernatural assistance is often sought for the relief of pain, which even today is little understood by standard medicine. It can be sought out for acutely personal issues, such as sexual problems. Psychological problems and plain bad luck also drive the afflicted to the spirits.

Not everyone who turns to the supernatural is looking to cure what most would recognize as a health problem. Some seek to block what they perceive as malevolent influences. If that influence is in the home of the client, it can be banished. If it has entered and taken hold of the mind of the client, an exorcism might be felt to be in order.

People seeking cures from the spiritual world need to understand that what they seek has no recognized scientific basis. Both are subject to scorn from those whose passion is to debunk dubious claims. This scorn is broadcast throughout the media, a broadcasting supported by the enormous prestige of the medical establishment, and the even more enormous resources of the pharmaceutical industry. The former is motivated by legitimate interest in health, along with a desire to defend its professional turf against the faith healers. The latter is motivated by maintaining its profits.

Unsurprisingly, the bulk of faith healers draw their clientele from those are either scientifically unaware or perhaps a bit too aware for their own good. There is a persistent minority of the public that is suspicious of what is perceived to be a calcified, corrupt medical establishment. Spiritualists make their professional name based upon based upon both word-of-mouth referrals and dazzling salesmanship.

There are any number of ways to contact the higher powers. Typically, the faith healer transmits the power of the holy spirit through his hands, which are laid upon the afflicted area. All this requires a performer's skill set, and healing is performed before a live, adoring audience.

Witchcraft involves deep knowledge of herbs, stones, and other commonly found objects. It was once covert, with its practitioners often facing death if exposed. Today it is open, one of the fastest growing religions in America, and commonly called upon for all manner of relief. Voodoo has a West African and Haitian basis, and with that the prestige of the exotic. It calls upon a wide variety of deities, saints, and other spiritual entities, and is a favorite source for the control of evil spirits.




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