Dr Daniel Benor      

A group of medics and healers gathered in London in 1991 to seminar on how healing might best be taught.(1)

A western scientist travelled to a distant, famous Zen master to learn meditation.  He respectfully asked if he might be accepted as his student.

  The master offered the traveller a cup of tea, which was gratefully accepted.  The scientist was horrified to see the master pour the tea till the cup overflowed into the saucer, then onto the table.
 
  When it reached the floor he could contain himself no longer and exclaimed, "Do you not see what you doing?  The cup is overflowing!"

  "Do you not see what you are doing?" responded the master.  "Your cup must be empty before it can hold something more."

  Requisite levels of medical knowledge for ethical and optimal healing efficacy were debated.  It was pointed out that unfamiliarity on the part of healers with medical diagnoses, physiological processes in health and disease, therapeutic measures, and teaching methodologies contributed to difficulties in bridging the gaps between conventional medicine and healing.   Instances were cited of misrepresentation of facts by healers to healees, out of apparent ignorance of medical and healing processes.  For instance, several distressed and puzzled healees reported that their healers had told them they could not have healing while receiving chemo- or x-ray therapy for cancer because this was dangerous to the healers.

  The need was expressed by those experienced in medical education for increasing awareness in the healing movement of modern, established ways of teaching.  If healing is to gain respect as it is introduced in conventional nursing and medical treatment and educational settings, healers will need to become familiar with and utilise modern, scientific educational methods.

  There was disagreement on whether assessments ought or even could be made on the degrees of development or efficacy of healers, and no agreement on who or what might constitute authority to judge a healer.  More of the medics/educators felt that this is important and more of the healers felt that it is impossible to institute.  Because most healers are able to make firm recommendations when asked who is a good healer for a patient with serious illness or prominent position, the problem would appear to reside in a reluctance to sit in public judgement of peers rather than an inability to do so.

  The complexity of the task is evidenced by Figure 1, detailing  items considered important by the participants who discussed the teaching of healing.  This is not a comprehensive list, nor does it address how to implement the recommendations.

  Dissecting healing into its component elements confronts one with two types of problem.  On the one hand it may appear that one is picking apart and examining such small bits of healing that they become meaningless.  On the other hand, from studies of component parts one may grow in understanding of the whole and improve in one's ability to heal and to teach healing.

  Many healers are uninterested in doing this.  They simply trust that a higher power than themselves will understand the problem, know what to do about it, and do whatever is necessary and right.  I know healers of this sort who achieve excellent results and some of these are good teachers.

  Other healers and the vast majority of medics familiar with healing feel that the deeper one's understanding of healing the more one will be able to help.  I believe that even if one is leaving the specifics of healing to a higher awareness, one's limited education may introduce limitations to the healing through one's ignorance of how a person may change and through one's unconscious disbeliefs.

  In Eastern Europe and Russia, healers who are working closely with doctors often study anatomy, physiology and the like so that they can sharpen their diagnostic accuracy and focus their healing better upon disease processes.  In the west, many healers study counselling and psychotherapy.  These studies improve communications with medics and enhance awareness of physiological and psychological pathways for healing.

   The complexities of the processes of healing may deter medics and healers from even attempting to analyse them.  On the one hand, not dissecting the process intellectually allows one to apply pure intuition to sort out the best approaches.  On the other hand, this challenges one to choose carefully how and where to allocate and invest one's resources in doing and teaching healing.

  While I strongly believe that every item in the table has its value and importance in learning healing, I feel that the first four are the most important and closely interlinked with each other.  I believe that most people have a measure of healing ability and that one of the most crucial factors in developing it is their maintaining a clarity of intent to activate and improve it.  Temptations to boost one's own ego through proving how strong a healer one is must be avoided..  One must not push healees to demonstrate improvements but rather help them to listen to what their body, mind and spirit are telling them and to understand the meanings of their illness.

When the teacher is ready, the student arrives to teach her/him.

  Healers can be role models.  They may demonstrate that which they teach by working on healing their own frailties first of all, to model that which they hope to convey to others.  They will continue to grow and to learn through the lessons their healees bring them.  If healers are not afraid to explore their own shadow, their healees will have a much easier time of learning to address this most difficult of all challenges.  Healing becomes an act of shared creation of new understandings and new realities between healer and healee. (2, 3)

SPIRITUAL          
     Model
         conceptual
         intuitional
    Healer embodying/modelling spirituality  
    Permission/taboos
    Guidance/spirits
    Clarity of channel
    Reincarnation 
    Awareness of soul needs
    Group mind
    Religious beliefs
        healer allegiances 
        respect for healee's beliefs
    Surrender vs responsibility
    Good/evil; yin/yang; the space between musical notes
    Gaia (planetary consciousness)

HEALING ENERGIES
    Auric fields (hand palpated and/or visualised)
        sensing
        identifying diagnoses
        energy abnormalities (high/low, blocks, leaks,  unusual sensations, etc)
        medical diagnoses
        correcting
   Chakras
   Meridians
   Craniosacral
   Distant/Absent/Radionics healing

BROADER LEVELS FOR HEALING
    Relational/family
   Political
    Gaia (planetary)

PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY/RELIABILITY
   Legal
    Availability in emergencies
   Assessments/standards (e.g. NCVQs)
   Referring on to other healers/professionals
   Training/supervision for trainers
        Emotional: acknowledging and accepting limitations of the teacher
        Mental: The teaching is not necessarily embodied  in the person of the teacher
         Spiritual: The teacher is the teaching
    Ongoing education
        case conferences
         interfacing with health care professionals
         peer review of healing problems/'failures'
         research

Footnotes:

1. Bonnie Alexander-Hill, Ray Bailey, Guy Batham, Paulina Baume, Dr Daniel Benor, Rita Benor, Peter Brown, Judy Fraser, Ken Frewer, Lorna Giles, Dr Theo Peters, John Phelps, Dr Jean Roberton, Dr Peter Saywood, Jane Tinworth

2. Stephen Levine, Meetings at the Edge: Dialogues with the Grieving and the Dying, the Healing and the Healed., London/New York: Anchor/Doubleday 1984

3. Ram Dass and Paul Gorman, How Can I Help? Emotional support and spiritual inspiration for those who care for others. London: Rider 1985.
 

You may quote from or reproduce these editorial clips if you include the following credits and email contact:
Copyright © Daniel J. Benor, M.D. 1993 Reprinted with permission of the author P.O. Box 76 Bellmawr, NJ 08099 www.WholisticHealingResearch.com   DB@WholisticHealingResearch.com 

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