My first encounter with healing was in 1975. My G.P. had confessed to me that he only had a very limited knowledge of Rheumatoid Arthritis and so I had paid a number of visits to my local library in an attempt to find some article on the subject that might alleviate the pain that my wife was suffering. As I knelt down to seek a book in the medical section, I lost my balance, flung out an arm to save myself, and managed to dislodge two or three books from a shelf higher up.
These turned out to be books about healing. One in particular caught my attention. The author was Gordon Turner and it contained a success story about Rheumatoid Arthritis. I took the book home and we both read it. Doreen said that she would like to try it, so I wrote to the publisher seeking to be put in touch with the author. It transpired that Mr. Turner had died two years previously so that seemed to be the end of that - since neither of us had any previous knowledge of the subject except for the stories about the healing credited to Jesus Christ in the Bible.
We were not left in limbo for long however, as that very week the doorway to healing was re-opened for us. Doreen received a letter from her sister enclosing a cutting about a property in her village which she thought we might be interested in buying. On the back of the cutting was an advertisement from her local Spiritualist church. It was an invitation to try out spiritual healing which took place at the church every Tuesday and Friday. That's how we came to be waiting outside the church at the first possible opportunity.
We were made very welcome and took our seats at the back of the church. In due course it was Doreen's turn to take her place on one of the four healing stools. In spite of Gordon Turner's book, I have to confess that I was very sceptical about the whole business and became even more so as I watched the proceedings unfold. I was soon forced to revise my view when Doreen began to return to her seat alongside me. Every step that she took was accompanied by cracks and creaks emanating from her swollen joints and it was apparent to all present that something had happened whilst she had been receiving healing.
We had much to talk about on our journey home and she said that all her pain had gone. This state of affairs lasted until tea-time next day when her pains began to return. We were disappointed about this but we couldn't wait for our next healing session. Again, she had a similar recession from the pain and this became the pattern of her healing for the next two years.
Then a bombshell hit. Doreen died whilst we were on holiday on the Isle of Wight. I returned to my home in Derbyshire. Lonely and clinically depressed, I became something of a hermit. So far as I was concerned, my involvement in healing was finished.
I was soon to be proved wrong. Amongst the letters of condolence that I received was an invitation to attend the Sunday evening services at the Church. After a period of grieving and loneliness, I decided to go.
On my first visit the clairvoyant "Speaker" told me that I had a healing gift and ought to be using it. This was to become the pattern of my life for the next year. Time after time I was told, not only when I was in the company of Spiritualists, that I should be making use of my healing gift. After almost a year of "messages" about my supposed healing gift and after much procrastination, I eventually was persuaded to actually try it out. To my astonishment, an ear that had been deaf for 60 years was able to hear perfectly that very night. Next day, it reverted to its former deaf state, but it was enough to set me off on my healing journey. I started to heal as an "apprentice" in the Forester St. Church, then privately by appointment.
In 1980 I got married again. Marjorie, my present wife, was a regular at the Church round the corner from where we lived; and I soon came under the influence of Father Osborn who became my great friend, mentor and sponsor. He was the priest in charge at the local Anglican Church, and had been passionately interested in healing for many years without ever acquiring a healing gift himself and he invited me to accompany him on his parochial sick visiting rounds - with some success. He also persuaded me to establish a healing sanctuary in my own home. This went on for about three years and then in 1983 my healing life took the first dramatic change. Up to this time it would be fair to describe my healing gift as pretty orthodox, in the sense that, like the vast majority of my healing colleagues, the person on my healing chair would remain perfectly still, and only through their comments was it possible to judge how effective, if at all, their healing session had been. That is, of course, unless they experienced a rapid, obvious improvement in their condition. Suddenly, all that was to change.
Developing healing gifts
Eunice, who was sitting on a stool in her own home, suffered from excruciating pain in her spine due to an industrial injury sustained when a tea urn "wrestled" her to the ground at the hospital where she worked. She had been off work with her injury for several months and had talked of suicide when she had phoned to seek my help. So I stood next to her and said my healing prayer in the customary way and waited for the coming of the healing power. Sometimes I could recognize the onset of this power through the tingling sensations in my hands, but more usually through the comments of my "healees" who might speak of sensations of heat, cold, tingling etc. On this occasion, though, things were very different from that which I had hitherto come to regard as the "norm."
I had my eyes closed and my hands resting lightly on her shoulders when I became aware of a persistent pressure emanating from Eunice. It was so strong that I was slowly, but relentlessly, compelled to give ground as the pressure grew. I intuitively knelt down on one knee, thrusting the other one out to make a platform for her shoulders to rest on. When I opened my eyes I was astounded to see that she had spontaneously adopted a "prone-lying" posture with her shoulders resting on my outstretched knee, and her legs stretched out in front so that only her buttocks were in contact with the stool.
I then suggested that she should lie on the floor, not knowing what to expect, and after a short time she began to make self-manipulative movements of her body. These movements might best be described as snake-like. All I could do was to stand and watch. She then adopted a kneeling position, sat back on her heels, and bent her spine backwards until her head made contact with the floor behind her. At this point I asked her if she was in pain. She said that she felt great and there was absolutely no pain. Bearing in mind that she was under the care of two specialists, one representing the hospital where she worked, and the other representing her union, (neither of whom could do more than offer tablets containing morphine plus an electrical stimulation machine for pain relief) her movements and freedom from pain were truly remarkable.
I went to help to extricate her from the posture that she had taken up but it wasn't necessary because she was able to accomplish it for herself quite readily. Eunice, Pete (her husband), and I had a cup of tea which she was able to drink by raising the cup to her lips. This was something that she had been unable to do since her accident. I was astounded. Strangely, Pete and Eunice took it all in their stride. It was my first visit, and their first encounter with healing, so they both thought that healing was always like that. Little did they know what an amazing experience it had been for me!
My mind was in turmoil and I went round straight away to see Father Osborn in case he had any knowledge of the unusual healing that had taken place. It was something new to him, also, in spite of his lifelong personal interest in the subject and the perusal of a small library of healing books. However, within less than 24 hours, everything was to be made clear to us.
I went next morning to give healing to Margaret, a nurse who had been compelled to retire early due to illness. Quite apart from her own healing needs, she was also profoundly interested in healing as a subject, so much so that in due course she herself became a healer in her own right and a member of the N.F.S.H. As soon as I told her about my experience on the previous day she said, "I think I know what that is. It's the same as John Cain gets, you know. Would you like to borrow the book? It"s just arrived this morning on the mobile library service."
I was quickly round to see Father Osborn, complete with what turned out to be a sort of text book on the subject. It transpired that John Cain had received a similar healing gift ten years previously and at that time it was described as being unique. The book was entitled "You don't know John Cain?" by Pat Sykes and it described the various forms of healing with which he was credited. It was customary for him to deal with large numbers of "healees" en masse. I experimented to see if I was able to duplicate the sort of healing with which he had been credited, and within the restrictions imposed by my small sanctuary, I found that I could. I found that several of my erstwhile "healees" were beginning to get similar healing to that which I had encountered with Eunice and later on with Joan. Also that I could work with six "healees" at the same time and each one would receive healing to suit their own individual needs. An interesting point was that they could chat away to one another quite happily during the treatments without any cessation in their healing movements.
Spontaneous self-healing movements
Figure 1. Healees may respond with spontaneous movements or lie quietly
At this point, I think I ought to explain something about the nature of the movements that healees make during the healing sessions. The movements are entirely spontaneous and in some measure unpredictable. To begin with, there is never any guarantee that any movements will take place. When they do, it is important to realize that I have absolutely no knowledge about the sort of movements that may be forthcoming. (See figure 1.)
Rotation of various joints, including neck and shoulders, stretching of limbs and spine, rotation of the hips, spontaneous raising of limbs (e.g., frozen shoulders) are all quite commonplace. The vigor may range from the almost imperceptible to the extremely vigorous and equally there are various speeds involved, and in no case am I ever aware what is coming next - it's very much a case of "wait and see." More complex movements like headstands, yogic postures to an apparently high standard are also commonplace and it is sometimes possible for me to pray for something specific and to get it, and sometimes not. I do, quite literally, have to wait with an open mind. The "healees" tell me that it's much the same for them. I usually start a new "healee" off by putting them in a basket type chair. After a while the type of movements may suggest that a different starting posture might be more appropriate and so I will stop briefly, make what seems to be a suitable adjustment, and then ask for a resumption of the healing that has already begun. Sometimes, though, I don't have to as adjustments re made automatically as the healing proceeds. For example, the "healee" might swirl off the chair, and lie on the floor. From that situation they might make a variety of movements or they might simply curl up in a ball and remain perfectly still for a long time. During this experience a lot of possibilities may emerge. They may see colors, images of people, even visions of Jesus. Alternatively they may carry out intricate forms of movement and exercise. This seems to be a fruitful way of manipulating a limb such as a frozen shoulder because the floor takes the deadweight of the limb, thus reducing the pain involved in such a form of treatment. It has proved to be a very effective way of dealing with whiplash.
A puzzling thing is that sometimes the movements seem to have effects way outside the purely physical, with healing extending into the realms of the mind, the spirit and the emotional as well.
In case there should be any doubt, I want to make it clear that the movement is by no means the only aspect of healing that can sometimes take place in my sanctuary. Sometimes a "healee" will burst into tears, or they may start to regress to some traumatic situation that they have encountered at some stage in their lives, or they may remain perfectly still and tell me about sensations of heat, cold, tingling sensations, and more.
I would also like to make it very clear that I am no miracle worker, capable of producing a miraculous outcome on demand. Most people tell me that they have obtained great benefit from their healing sessions, on about eight or ten occasions in my 25 years as a healer miracles have indeed taken place, but I must emphasize that most "healees" get better slowly rather than instantaneously. I have experimented with various aspects of healing over the years especially with "absent healing" and "healing by proxy." In my earlier days, I did not find it easy to arrange realistic trials of these aspects of healing but since I started to be invited to give talks to healing colleagues, it has been much easier to organise experiments.
Group healing
Later on, with the cooperation of my friends and colleagues at the Headquarters of the Leeds healers who were all members of the National Federation of Spiritual Healers, I was able to offer healing to a group of healers and some of their patients, about 50 of them all in one room and doing a variety of different manifestations of healing. A year later I was able to return to Leeds. I decided to attempt a group healing as before, but on this occasion I absented myself from the room, went for a short drive in the car, and said my customary prayer a couple of miles away. On my return, it was quite apparent that a large majority were involved in some form of self-healing therapy, and also that the healing taking place was in accordance with their own individual needs.
I have a yen to try this out on a major media network. I feel confident that large numbers of listener's or viewers would receive healing by this means. Jesus was able to "heal the multitudes," and I believe it would work that way for any healer whose motivation is pure.
Spontaneous regressions
After a year or two of exercising this new form of healing, which had come unbidden into my life, another quite unusual gift came along. I was offering what had become an almost routine healing session to Joan. She was about 50 years old and suffered a lot of pain in her neck and shoulders, so much so that she had been forced to give up her clerical job. After a period of rotation of her head, quite out of the blue she blurted out in a child's voice, "Why did I have to go to Granny Smith's house? Our Mary didn't have to go and she was always naughty. I was never naughty, so why did I have to go when she didn't?" In due course it emerged that Joan had been packed off to "Granny Smith's" because her mother was dying.
It was my very first experience of spontaneous regression during the healing process. I'd never encountered anything like this in my voracious reading of all the books about healing and neither had Father Osborn. It wasn't long before other healees began to regress. It almost always came "out of the blue," as it were, and when I was least expecting it.
Proxy healing
I have experimented with the use of these gifts that have "come upon me." One fruitful experiment helped me to develop "healing by proxy" which allows me to use a third person to act as my "stand in" to offer things like physiotherapy, osteopathy etc., to people who are unable to come to see me personally, but have need of these and other forms of treatment. An outstanding example of this was when I suggested to a mother that she should assume the role of "healer by proxy." I said a prayer asking God to let her be used by proxy to administer to her child the physiotherapy which one of the consultants at the Children's hospital had suggested. It was fabulous to see the mother giving the treatment that the nurses had not been able to administer because the child had screamed with pain whenever they had tried to give the physiotherapy. She made rapid progress in spite of the gloomy prognosis offered by the consultants and is a normal, healthy child today.
Case report
Child stands for first time as healer confounds doctors
Article from Psychic News, London (approx. 1990)*
After "proxy" treatment by Staffordshire healer Ron Staley, a young child unable to stand can now "walk, play and run about.
Only half the normal body weight for her age, the 14-month-old girl "Bella" (her mother wishes a pseudonym to be used) had been admitted to hospital on two occasions for "failure to thrive" and "developmental delay."
Bella was unable to speak and her muscles were so weak it was impossible for her to stand. Desperate after hospital treatment failed to help her daughter, Mrs. Smith took Bella to see the Burton-on-Trent spiritual healer.
"Physiotherapists were of the opinion Bella would be unlikely to walk before she reached the age of five, if at all," said Mr. Staley.
On seeing the child, the healer suggested to Mrs. Smith that she herself should take on the role of "physiotherapist by proxy." By this method, the child's own mother became the vehicle through which the healing was to be channeled. Explaining the procedure he adopted, Mr. Staley said: "First of all I said a prayer. Within a few seconds Bella's mother went into an altered state of consciousness and found herself being inspired as to what to do.
"It was quite remarkable. She started to move her own body while at the same time moving and manipulating her child's limbs."
When PN asked Mrs. Smith how she felt during the process, she replied: "It was very strange. My mind was quite empty, quite blank about ordinary things. It was as though an automatic process took over. Then I began to manipulate Bella's legs, bending them at the knees, using her whole body weight. Although I was twisting her legs," she pointed out, "Bella didn't feel any pain, neither did she cry as she had when they tried to do this at the hospital."
During one healing session, Mrs. Smith said her daughter was "wriggling her legs quite violently. After that, things began to improve. Cushions were placed on the floor and the child was lifted onto them. "It was amazing," her mother commented. "First of all she tried to straighten herself by moving one leg, then the other. Gradually she was able to get up and keep her balance."
Although Mrs. Smith had little recollection on returning to normal consciousness of what actually occurred during her healing sessions, she was able to witness the proceedings on a video filmed by Mr. Staley. "The necessary exercises came to Mrs. Smith intuitively," the healer emphasized. "Movements for self-healing often come to the patients I treat. They spontaneously and gently manipulate their own body. I never suggest the movements to be made. I merely place my hands on the patient's head and say a prayer. Then I take up my seat in the corner and watch the proceedings."
At first, Bella was brought to Mr. Staley for healing every week, then less often, as Mrs. Smith continued the healing treatment at home.
"No other medical treatment was given to Bella," said Mr. Staley. Three months later, consultants at the hospital spoke of "significant improvement" in the child's condition. "The physiotherapist there actually did not believe it was the same child," Mr. Staley commented.
Now, 18 months since here first treatment, Bella is well on the way to recovery. She is able to walk, play and run about.
Ron Staley retired from his job as a newsagent ten years ago to work four days a week as a healer. "I'm now 70," he said, "I find my work very fulfilling. My job is to trigger the process of healing, then I sit and watch as it grows and develops."
His particular method of working evolved after long years of practice as a member of the National Federation of Spiritual Healers.
"Sometimes my patients regress to an early time in their life," he explained. "If this happens, it does so quite spontaneously and is a necessary and important part of the healing process. When such a thing occurs, the patient frequently uses a child's voice and vocabulary to express the emotions he or she is feeling."
At these sessions, Mr. Staley explained, it often emerged the patient had undergone some traumatic experience as a baby or young child, which lay at the root of their present-day illness. "Such a session can be very moving indeed," said the healer.
"Occasionally I may need to counsel, using Christian principles, perhaps advising them to get rid of things like bitterness or hatred.
"But I am just the listening ear, and instrument in the healing."
Editorial note
While living in England in 1991, the IJHC editor contacted a physician who had examined Bella. He reported: **
Bella was born at the end of February, 1990 by emergency caesarian section at 37 weeks due to fetal distress. Her birth weight was 2.44 kilograms. She had transient hypoglycemia requiring tube feeding for her first two days of life, followed by cup and spoon for another day. Although breast fed thereafter until aged 5 months, she has always been a poor eater and never cried for food.
At 13 months of age she was reported to weigh 6 kilograms (1.8 kilos below the 3rd centile). Her length was 55.8 cm (3 cm below the 3rd centile), head circumference 43.8 cm (just under the 3rd centile). Her examination was normal except for hypotonia (lack of muscle strength). Her developmental quotients (motor and cognitive) were at 58-77 percent of normal. She was extremely placid. Feedings could take up to two hours.
When seen at 15 months she did not demand food when hungry. She did not appear to cry when falling and bumping herself.
Her weight has consistently been below the 3rd centile. No gastrointestinal symptoms were noted which might account for her difficulties. She was reported to have had what appears to be a febrile convulsion.
On 27 June 1991 a consultant notes significant improvement, including more social responsiveness, sitting well, scooting along the floor, and babbling. She was still hypotonic and would not bear weight on her legs.
Sharing more about my work
Most of the things to which I have laid claim in this article are supported by a large number of video tapes showing various examples of healing, mostly from the early days when the gifts to which I have referred were new and exciting. They still are, for that matter, but it is some years now since I used my video camera during the healing sessions. I am hoping to find someone who is willing and able to transfer my videos on to disc, then on to computer so that I can make them more widely available and, hopefully understood. I regret that my personal knowledge of computer technology leaves much to be desired, but it does seem a shame that this material should be "gathering dust" on my bookshelves.
I shall be 82 this year and I would like to share what I have gleaned during my 26 years as a healer. One of the lessons that healing colleagues, both experienced and beginners might consider is that for me, at any rate, healing is a treasured gift and is not necessarily to be acquired by attending all the right courses under the banner of various healing organizations - unless, of course the aspiring healer has been blessed with the gift of healing as referred to by St. Paul in Corinthians 1, Chapter12, verses 4-26.
* With the kind permission of Psychic News
** The physician wished to remain anonymous.
Ron. Staley 355, Shobnall Street Burton-on-Trent Staffs. DE14 2HT England Phone 01283/565204. Ron@Staley30.fsnet.co.uk
Formerly the County.Referral Point (Derbyshire) for the National Federation of Spiritual Healers Member of the Shrewsbury Healing Foundation. Founder Member of the Doctor/ Healer network
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