It is a relief and a pleasure to be able to announce that we have found support for the continued publication of the DHN Newsletter.  Our thanks to the anonymous donor for the grant which makes this possible.

  Response to the Newsletter has been very positive, from the UK, Europe and the US.  We hope that many more readers will feel free to share with us their experiences with healing, as a few have done in letters in this issue.  We continue to seek items on healing via humour, which seems a rarity.

  The Newsletter will focus on healings which occur at levels of body, emotions, mind and spirit.

   Western society emphasizes the body level.  This is part of our focus on the material world in general.  We have finely honed our abilities to manipulate matter, priding ourselves on our ever increasing mastery over Nature.  The world is a safer, more predictable place for technologically developed nations as a result of our applications of principles of industrial efficiency to many aspects of our lives.  In health care we have medical and surgical techniques for diagnosis and intervention which can prevent, alleviate and even cure many illnesses. Those wedded to the materialistic approach assume we eventually shall have biochemical and genetic maps and tools which will enable us to deal with all illnesses.

  Spiritual healing demonstrates that disease and dis-ease involve levels beyond the material dimension.  This is not to say that the material is immaterial, but to point out that energy fields and spiritual dimensions also contribute to health and disease.

  This issue features discussions on the psychological levels of healing.  It is my impression that spiritual healing by itself facilitates improvements at these levels, but that with many people counselling and psychotherapy may be helpful or perhaps even necessary in addition to spiritual healing for a complete healing.

  Some healers see the emotional and mental dimensions of healing as the domain of counsellors and psychotherapists.  They leave it to their healing treatments to work whatever benefits they can on these levels, as they do on the physical.  Other healers include counselling and psychotherapy with their healing work.  I am impressed that the combination of the two is more potent than either alone.

  In my practice of psychotherapy with healing I have found that anxiety is particularly responsive to healing.  Healing cuts through the worry about the worries and helps people get to core issues more quickly.  Healing alleviates depression and introduces hope where otherwise a black despair might prevail.  I have heard of instances where mental retardation and psychotic disorders appeared to respond to healing as well, though these are less well documented.

  In many healing centres treatment is given in a way which discourages attachments of a healee to a healer.  Healees are deliberately assigned to different healers at each visit so that it is clear that what is on offer is healing from a source beyond the individual healer, who is viewed as only a channel for the healing process.  For healers and healees who do not wish to work at the psychological level this may be sufficient.  My own view is that this actually limits the potential for change by not introducing or focusing healing specifically at the psychological levels.

  The manners in which healing works are varied and wonderful.  The DHN Newsletter will continue to share explorations of the many ways in which it may be understood and applied.  In this issue we consider how spiritual healing may be a part of Complementary Therapies, even when therapists are not consciously aware of this. This issue includes discussions of acupuncture, homoeopathy, cranial osteopathy, proxy healing and more.

   There is much we have to learn from and with each other.

   Future issues of the Newsletter will feature 'Challenges in Difficult Experiences' and 'Healing Unto Death and Healing in Bereavement'.  Your contributions are welcomed.
 

You may quote from or reproduce these editorial clips if you include the following credits and email contact:
Copyright © Daniel J. Benor, M.D. 1992 Reprinted with permission of the author P.O. Box 76 Bellmawr, NJ 08099
www.WholisticHealingResearch.com   DB@WholisticHealingResearch.com
 

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