Abstract
A clinical "hunch" is well known to doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals. It may be as vague as an uneasy feeling, that defies laboratory explanation but leads to perseverance until a diagnosis is uncovered. An urge may arise to visit a particular patient, who turns out to be in urgent need of help. A complex diagnosis may come to mind days before it is confirmed. The frequency of such occurrences is unknown but intuitive impressions are explored only rarely by most medical professionals.
Intuitive impressions are not limited to medical professionals. Occasional intuitive insights are reported by scientists, artists, and politicians. Indeed, intuitive experiences have influenced numerous famous people throughout history.
Many healers claim that intuitive impressions are a regular aspect of their work. If true, this could offer a major contribution to medical care. Considerable research has been published in support of the efficacy of healing. Fewer studies are available to assess the validity of claims for intuitive diagnosis. These are reviewed in this article.
Two qualitative studies of intuitive diagnosis are presented, with discussions of theoretical issues and problems with methodology.
KEYWORDS: Intuitive diagnosis spiritual healing research
Introduction to intuitive assessments
Some people are born with gifts of various psychic abilities, such as telepathy (mind reading), clairsentience (knowing about the outer world without inputs from outer-sensory organs), retrocognition (knowing the past), and precognition (knowing the future). Such gifts may include the ability to make intuitive assessments of physical and psychological problems.
In the following article, written in 1992, I used the term, intuitive diagnosis. I now believe that the use of "diagnosis" for intuitive assessments is incorrect. I believe that intuitive assessment is a more accurate term than intuitive diagnosis for the gifts explored in this article. Most of the impressions given by intuitives are in descriptive and metaphoric terms that do not have the clarity or systematic basis that has been developed by modern medicine for making diagnoses. In the future, perhaps people trained in medical diagnosis may be able to obtain intuitive impressions that approximate medical diagnoses sufficiently to warrant a separate category of medical intuition or even medical diagnosis.
Backgroiund
Many healers claim the ability to enhance health through light touch and the intent to heal. Anecdotal reports by physicians have confirmed impressive effects of some of these healings.(Casdorph; Gardner; Benor, in press)
Over 150 controlled studies of healing have been published with more than half reporting significant results. Extensive reviews of this evidence are available, (Benor, 2001a; b; Solfvin) therefore this research is not reviewed here.
In the UK healing is being integrated successfully with conventional medicine. Healers have professional organizations that accredit new members after they demonstrate intuitive ability, serve an apprenticeship under recognized healers and present testimonials from four healees. A growing number of doctors refer patients to healers. Several general practitioners have healers working in their offices, and several of these are paid under the National Health Service. Healers are working in hospital pain, cancer and cardiac rehabilitation centers. Many physicians and nurses are developing their own healing gifts. The author runs courses for doctors, nurses and other health care providers. These courses are approved for doctors' Postgraduate Education credits in stress management which includes intuitive diagnosis, Therapeutic Touch and other healing methods.
The Doctor-Healer Network, founded by the author, with groups around England, has regular meetings where doctors, nurses, other health care professionals, healers and other complementary therapists meet to discuss clinical cases and theoretical issues around integrating healing with conventional medicine. An international conference was held on October 2-4, 1992 at which doctors, other care givers and healers from fifteen countries, including Western and Eastern Europe, Russia, and the United States (US) met with colleagues from the UK to explore these issues and more (The Doctor-Healer-Network Newsletter).
In the US, nearly as many patients are being seen annually by complementary therapists annually as by physicians. Healers have not organized themselves in professional organizations and have less professional acceptance than in the UK Therapeutic Touch healing, done primarily by an estimated 30,000 nurses, is the most widely visible form of healing. A dozen doctoral and master's dissertations on healing have been published by Therapeutic Touch healers (Benor, 2004; 2005; Solfvin)
Intuitive diagnostic perceptions
Intuitive diagnostic perceptions of surprising accuracy are reported frequently by healers and similar intuitions have also been mentioned by people in other walks of life. Socrates (Inglis) reported an inner voice which guided him: "[T]he prophetic voice to which I have become accustomed has always been my constant companion, opposing me even in quite trivial things if I was going to take the wrong course."
Oliver Wendell Holmes. professor of anatomy at Harvard, stated: "We all of us have a double who is wiser and better than we are, and who puts thoughts into our heads and words into our mouths."
Other prominent persons throughout history have reported similar inner voices of inspiration and guidance, including Andr� Amp�re, Albert Einstein, Michael Faraday, Lord Kelvin, Rudyard Kipling, Carl Jung, the Nobel Laureate geneticist Barbara McClintock, Winston Churchill, and many, many others (Krieger).
Intuitive insights may include several components. They may be unusual awakenings in understanding based upon sensory observations and data analysis which are suddenly perceived in a novel relationship and order. They may include data and insights based upon information which was not obtained through ordinary sensory or cognitive processes-such as telepathy, clairsentient and precognitive information, plus quantum leaps of creativity which appear to transcend ordinary thought and reasoning.
More simply; healers say that intuitive impressions may be obtained through scanning the energy body which surrounds and interpenetrates the physical body, acting as a template for what is manifested in the physical. Healers report intuitive awareness and understanding of healees' physical, emotional, mental and spiritual problems. These may come to them as sensations in their hands during laying-on of hands treatments (heat, cold, stickiness, prickliness and the like); (Krieger) as words appearing in their minds (including in rare cases technical diagnoses which they themselves do not comprehend but which doctors later confirm to be accurate); (Stearn; Sugrue) as body sensations (especially pains) which mirror patients' symptoms; (Sugrue; Schwarz) as smells; (Freed) as visual images of organ dysfunctions (Brennan) or simply as an "inner knowing." Most healers report that they receive impressions in several of these ways, often simultaneously (Benor 1992; Benor in press).
In addition, healers may also intuit awareness of the future course of diseases. States of health and illness are felt to evidence themselves in the energy body months before they manifest in the physical body (Gardner; Brennan).
. . . The medical doctor never really diagnoses the living event of the patient's actual state of being and usually can arrive at a diagnosis for a condition only after it has taken months, years or even decades to develop. Mark Seem
Some healers report that they can make intuitive diagnoses at any distance from their subjects (Safonov; Shine). Though this may seem difficult to believe, controlled clinical studies such as that of Byrd demonstrate statistically significant effects of healing from a distance. This supports the possibility that diagnosis at a distance is also possible.
Intuitive diagnosis has received less attention than healing. This neglected modality has much to offer modern medicine. It is a non-invasive, safe, inexpensive diagnostic method which deserves investigation. Study of intuitive perceptions also may provide a window to clarifying aspects of energy medicine, as most complementary therapies include elements of intuitive diagnosis. It may help us to understand how healers target symptoms/diseases during healing treatments. Intuitive perceptions could help eventually to discover new etiologies of diseases that are as yet not understood within conventional medicine.
Theoretical considerations
The contributions of healers in intuitive diagnosis and treatment have not been accepted widely by medical practitioners because there is no conventional theory to explain them. Energy medicine concepts are rejected because they appear to contradict conventional logic. Just as the theories of modern physics had difficulty gaining acceptance in a world accustomed to the logic of Newtonian physics. Cultural biases then reinforce the rejection of healing, as illustrated by the hesitancy of medical and scientific journals to publish articles on energy medicine.
Henry Dreher, discussing the slow acceptance of concepts of mind-body interactions within conventional medicine, observed,
[T]he somewhat defensive posture of some. . . are predicated upon a strange disavowal of the findings of a significant number of scientifically rigorous, if not statistically foolproof, studies that have already established strong associations between psychosocial factors and health. An odd sort of socially accepted denial within the medical community has enabled conservatives to ignore such findings as if they didn't exist, and I'm afraid that many within the behavioral medicine community have donned the same blinders. They appear to do so in the conscious or unconscious belief that by taking a more tentative position than the evidence necessitates, they will inoculate themselves from criticism by certain biomedical traditionalists, the ministers of an autocratic system. . . [who], dictate the areas of research that will be allowed to flourish.
The same criticisms apply with the general non-acceptance of energy medicine concepts and practices.
Our common use of words also reinforces this bias. Intuitive impressions, which do not come from the world of outer senses, are dismissed as nonsense. Intuitive inspirations, not derived front linear reasoning, are deemed illogical -- as though that were a pejorative condemnation -- and therefore dismissed without the consideration they deserve. The inner impressions we have from dreams, fantasies, creative imagery, and intuitions have a language of their own that is not built on linear logic. It is metaphoric, poetic, and requires analysis and interpretation to understand it in linear terminology-should we desire to translate it as such.
The many names for healing also illustrate our difficulties in discussing energy medicine in linear terminology. It has been called spiritual healing (the most common term used in the UK), Therapeutic Touch, faith healing, mental healing (the term used by Index Medicus), pranic healing, transpersonal healing, paranormal healing (Netherlands and other European countries) and more. It has been confused with ritual, religious and magical practices, as it is often given within these contexts. The impressive body of research that demonstrates significant effects on enzymes, tissue cell cultures, bacteria, yeasts, plants and animals shows that healing is a natural process which need not be dependent upon faith or religious belief for its effects (Benor; Benor, in press; Solfvin).
Though it may appear strange to hear that healings and intuitive insights have been reported frequently by many people and are confirmed in research studies, there may be explanations for these from modern physics. Albert Einstein and other physicists proposed that matter may he described in terms of particles or of energy. At first. Newtonian physicists scoffed but over the past century quantum physics has amply confirmed this theory.
Quantum physics tells us that the observer can not he separated from that which is observed, and that interaction between particles at any distance is possible (Capra). These and other theories of quantum physics suggest that the reports of healers may be theoretically supportable if the principles of quantum physics are applicable to the matter and consciousness of living organisms.
Modern western medicine has been slow to assimilate subtle energy concepts into conventional, medical theory and care, though complementary therapy practices which include energy medicine have been gradually gaining. acceptance. Crariosacral therapy (Upledger) appears to employ energy medicine perceptions both for diagnosis and assessment of treatment (Benor, 1993). Homeopathv demonstrates that serial dilutions which cannot contain a single molecule of the therapeutic substance are still effective, and postulates that a patterning in the water, presumably of an energetic nature. may he an explanatory mechanism for its efficacy (Gardner; Kleijnen;.Taylor-Reilly; Tiller). In the UK homeopathy has gained wide acceptance and there are even homeopathic hospitals (as there once were in the US).
Energy medicine concepts are included in the medical systems of most of the other cultures around the world, as in Chinese acupuncture (Kaptchuk) and QiGong, (Eisenherg) Indian Yoga, (Cooper) and shamanic healings (Gardner; Eliade; Harner; Krippner). In summary, we can say that energy medicine offers approaches to treating illness that extend the limits of conventional, Newtonian medicine. We are finding extensive confirmations for the therapeutic claims of energy medicine practitioners in recent research. The claims for intuitive diagnostic abilities deserve exploration as well.
Research literature review
In anecdotal reports. diagnoses appear to be provided by the colors of an energy field, or "aura," perceived by some healers visually around the body and at particular points of focus called "chakras." This literature is confusing (Seem; Hunt; Karaglla; Leadbeater). Various sensitives report different observations and distinctions in the energy field. For instance, some practitioners divide the aura into three, others into four, seven or more layers.
Edgar Cayce was probably the best known American intuitive diagnostician (Sugrue; Schwartz). Under hypnosis he was able to provide accurate diagnoses, given only the name and address of subjects who could be many miles away. Systematic assessment of his diagnostic accuracy was only made posthumously with 43% of a randomly selected 150 cases demonstrating documented confirmation of accurate diagnosis and/or treatment recommendations (Cayce). Numerous testimonials from patients and doctors are preserved in the files of the Association for Research and Enlightenment in Virginia Beach. They and others are continuing to research the unusual but successful remedies that Cayce recommended intuitively for various types of problems (McGarey).
A few studies have compared healers' and doctors' physical diagnoses. However, western healers are rarely medically trained and few western scientists have worked with healers to ascertain their diagnostic accuracy. When healers do not have such training, it is often difficult to translate intuitive impressions of energy medicine perceptions into descriptions that correlate with conventional medical diagnoses.
In Eastern Europe and Russia, healers are increasingly working closely with doctors. The healers are encouraged to study anatomy and physiology so that they can communicate better with physicians. They are expected to demonstrate intuitive diagnostic skills as a part of the measure of their abilities to heal.
Karel Mison (Mison) of Prague presents a brief summary of 2,005 diagnoses. In each case, a physician and a biodiagnostician examined the same patient. Congruence of diagnoses where healers directly examined patients ranged from 45 to 85%. Overall congruence for diagnoses from a distance was 29%. No statistical analyses are reported and raw data are not presented. This is the only systematic summary of intuitive diagnosis I could find from Eastern Europe.
In the West, the Silva Mind Control program claims to enable graduates of its brief courses to make intuitive diagnoses from a distance.
Robert Brier, Barry Savits and Gertrude Schmeidler (Brier) had a surgeon select 25 cases, identifying each by first name and initial of last name, age and sex. They divided them into five groups with minimal symptom overlap among the members of any group. Five graduates of the Silva Mind Control Program received a group of cases and made their intuitive diagnoses. No significant results were produced in the first study. A second study, performed on the day after graduation, again showed non-significant overall results. Two subjects were children and gave minimal information that was not useful for diagnosis. One subject's results were significant (p < .05), and "If the scores of the three older subjects had been examined separately, they would have been significant." A separate evaluation of another Silva graduate also produced significant results (p < .05).
Alan Vaughan (Vaughan) studied 21 graduates of the Silva program. He sent them the following data on five patients whose diagnoses were known to the referring physician (but not to Vaughan): first name, last initial, sex, age, and city of residence. Vaughan paired the 21 readings of two patients matched for age and sex, sending 42 randomized readings to the physician. The physician judging matched only 16 correctly. Twenty one matchings would be expected by random chance. He then reviewed the entire series, finding only one correct diagnostic impression.
C. Norman Shealy; (Shealy, 1975) an American neurosurgeon who specializes in pain and stress management, found an intuitive diagnostician who appears incredibly accurate. Caroline Myss was able to achieve 93% diagnostic accuracy when given only the patient's name and birth date.
Earlier, Shealy (1988) reported that he had selected an unspecified number of patients whose illness appeared to be physical (i.e. excluding patients with presumed psychosomatic problems). Several unconventional diagnosticians participated: a palmist, a graphologist, and three clairvoyants. A psychologist making no claim to psychic abilities also participated. The clairvoyants gave the most accurate diagnoses; the graphologist and psychologist least. Shealy found that a consensus diagnosis by several psychics was more accurate. "[I]n a semi-formal pilot study of seventeen or so patients whenever there was a consensus of opinion among them they were ninety-eight percent accurate on personality disorders. As to physical abnormalities. . . the psychics proved eight per cent correct in their diagnoses when in agreement." Shealy presents no data or statistical analyses for this study.
The author of this article found no study of simultaneous, multiple observations of intuitive diagnosticians which would assess whether different intuitive diagnosticians have similar or different perceptions of the same subject. This could help to clarify whether the confusion in the literature might be due to differences between particular patients observed, or perhaps to geomagnetic activity (Spottiswoode) or other extraneous influences that have been noted to affect subtle energy phenomena (Benor 1993).
Data
The first study of multiple intuitive diagnosticians by the author (Benor, 1991) explored the abilities of eight healers to provide intuitive diagnoses. Four patients with known medical diagnoses sat in front of the panel of intuitive diagnosticians for 30 to 45 minutes each. All but one of the diagnosticians, a nurse, had no medical training. None had any prior knowledge of the experimental subjects. All made their observations from across the room, relying on visual perceptions of the energy fields around each patient. At the end of the observation session the intuitive impressions of each healer were shared with each patient.
All participants were surprised at the diversity of impressions produced by the various healers. The differences by far exceeded the overlaps. One healer appeared to be projecting her own feelings or impressions upon patients and had difficulty accepting their rejections of her readings. The patients reported that even though the impressions of the various other healers differed from each other substantially, each (with the single noted exception) was relevant and helpful. The most surprised appeared to be the healers. Each had had the impression that he or she was perceiving THE true picture of each patient's condition, rather than one out of many possible pictures of this reality.
Inadequacies in the first pilot study included:
1.Healers making intuitive diagnoses were not isolated from sight and hearing of each other. Their visual and verbal impressions might therefore have been influenced by each others' drawings and reports, that were given consecutively in each others' presence.
2. Patients were not in need of clarification of their diagnosis. Thus the exercise for the healers was not motivated in a manner consistent with their clinical practices.
3. The healers were not included in the designing of the experiment, nor were they prepared beforehand as to what to expect in the clinic setting where the pilot study was conducted. This placed them under stresses that might have detracted from their abilities to perform up to their maximal capacities.
4. The healers chosen to provide intuitive diagnoses in the pilot study were of only middling to average ability in their skills/gifts.
Objectives of the second study:
1. To develop a reliable qualitative and quantitative methodology for the study of intuitive diagnosis.
2. To investigate inter-healer reliability of intuitive diagnosis.
3. To investigate the degree of congruence between conventional medical diagnosis and intuitive diagnosis with healers who have highly developed diagnostic abilities.
4. To explore how intuitive diagnosis might he a clinically useful adjunct to conventional medical diagnosis.
The intuitive diagnosticians, all healers, were chosen through peer recommendations and personal acquaintance with the author over a period of several years. They appear to have more than the average gift for intuitive discernment and healing abilities. In loose clinical assessments with the author they demonstrated fairly good intuitive diagnostic abilities. The author feels fairly confident in making this admittedly subjective judgement, after having spent a dozen years in researching healers and healing in the US and UK
The four healers rely only to a modest degree upon information observed visually in the aura. They obtain far more information through quietly asking for it mentally. In normal practice. their intuitive impressions are added to sensory, clinical data presented by their clients and elicited through their own questions to the clients. They are able, however, to obtain impressions when given only the names of people, regardless of where in the world they may he. The healers' statements about themselves may he found in Appendix A.
Methods
Two patients with known diagnoses were invited to sit, consecutively, in front of the group of four healers. The patients had multiple problems, most of them clearly diagnosed. Neither had urgent medical or diagnostic needs. None of the healers had any prior knowledge of the patients they observed.
The healers were invited at the start of the day to familiarize themselves with the research setting and to modify the protocol in ways that made it more satisfactory to them, while maintaining acceptable standards of scientific methodology. Only minor modifications were introduced, such as giving them permission to request that patients turn sideways at some point during the observation period. The healers accepted the need for complete silence during the observations in order to eliminate informational inputs other than visual and intuitive ones as sources for diagnostic impressions.
The healers were seated in chairs between which large, solid screens had been placed in such a manner as to preclude visual observation of each other. Healers used colored pencils, felt-tipped markers or wax crayons to draw what they observed. They wrote down their impressions and interpretations of what they perceived.
After the drawing and writing were completed the verbal report of each healer on each patient was audiotaped. This was done on an individual basis, with the remaining healers isolated from the room in which the recording was made. Healers not giving feedback were forbidden to speak with each other about their impressions until after the entire group had recorded their impressions.
Patient 1 unfortunately returned to the study room while the first of the healers recording her impressions and spoke casually with the other three healers about inconsequential matters. This afforded these three healers an opportunity to build impressions based on other sensory cues, especially relating to his psychological makeup.
For quantitative assessment, healers were asked to mark on a standard drawing of a human figure the parts of the body which are diseased or foci for problems. It was hoped that a standard scoring system could be developed for intuitive impressions of illness, based on the healers' drawings.
A transcript was made of the recordings and these were summarized in tables to facilitate a comparison of the intuitive diagnostic impressions with those of the general practitioner (GP). (See Tables 1 and 2.)
It was hypothesized that these intuitive diagnosticians would arrive at significant congruence of their diagnoses with those of the GP. Similarly, it was hypothesized that there would be concurrence amongst the healers themselves.
Results
Conventional medical diagnoses and the healers' diagnoses are presented in Tables I and II. The general, overall impression is that the intuitive diagnosis of physical problems are almost as likely to differ from those of the GP as to agree with them.
A scoring system that would allow for quantitative analysis of the diagnostic impressions could not be developed as the nature of the healers' reports made this unfeasible. Their observations related primarily to energy fields rather than to physical structures or organs. Within their understandings of energy fields, a disturbance in a particular physical organ may he related to an energy field.
On psychological levels the healers appear more accurate. Experienced healers (such as those in this study) report that the underlying roots of many illnesses lie in psychological and spiritual levels of problems (Harrison; Hay; Dethlefsen). There is a congruence in reporting early childhood trauma. The translation of "grief and pain, a misunderstanding of procreation" as relating to Patient 1 having been orphaned may require poetic license. This, however, is the nature of intuitive impressions.
With Patient 1, some of the interpretations must be due to sensory cues obtained in casual conversation. Yet the specificity of some of the observations seems to go beyond what might be noted in brief, casual observations. For instance, "Extremely difficult situation in life, couldn't do much about situations he was in" seems accurate for his severe wartime traumas. Other statements appear general enough that they could fit most people.
Discussion
It appears that many of the intuitive diagnostic impressions relate to perceptions of apparent energies in and around the body and that these may be difficult to translate into physical diagnoses. A physician familiar with energy medicine would possibly relate energy dysfunctions to relevant organs, making intuitive diagnoses more useful. A doctor who is unfamiliar with energy medicine is likely to find intuitive impressions too vague to be useful.
In the current study, three factors may have contributed to the limited results with physical diagnoses. First, the lack of serious need for diagnostic clarification in the patients may have diminished the unconscious motivation of the healers to apply their diagnostic intuition to the patients' physical problems. This might explain the greater congruence between healers and with the doctor on the dimensions of psychological problems, where there was considerable room for therapeutic intervention in these patients-should they have been open to this.
Second, the healers were not trained in medical terminology, anatomy or physiology, and therefore may have had difficulties providing impressions specific to anatomical structures and quantifiable in conventional terminology and methodology.
Third, the research protocol may have limited the focus of the healers. Ordinarily, healers hear the patients' complaints and have the opportunity of clarifying with patients whether their intuitive impressions are relevant to the patients' symptoms. Such interactions allow healers to focus their intuitive powers more precisely. Though these healers participated in designing the protocol and agreed to the limitations in interactions imposed by the research design, they complained that they felt as though their hands had been tied behind their backs when they could not check out their impressions with the patients verbally.
If one looks at the reports of Mison and Shealy, where congruence of healer and doctor diagnoses reached as high as 85 to 93%, it would appear that healers might benefit from working more closely with doctors to sharpen their diagnostic accuracy. An alternative explanation for the unusually high accuracy in the Shealy/ Mvss study is that Myss obtained some of her impressions either telepathically or precognitively rather than clairsentiently. This high degree of concurrence actually exceeds the concurrence of about 80 percent generally anticipated between different doctors who examine the same patients with obscure and difficult diagnostic problems.
Intuitive diagnosticians appear to obtain impressions through a particular window of observation. This might be due to particular resonations of healer and patient of a positive nature which sensitize the healer to be aware of specific problems, or to negative resonations which could lead the healer to overlook tensions that would be uncomfortable to the healer. There may be other, energy medicine explanations for this selectivity in perceptions.
This study would suggest that healing treatments might be better given by a group of healers rather than by individuals, as there may be diagnostic and therapeutic "blind spots" in individual healers. Indeed, anecdotal reports abound of "specializations" of particular healers in particular problems.
Cross-cultural studies, to include especially the East Europeans and Russians might provide further insights on ways in which to enhance the usefulness of intuitive diagnosis.
Cross-cultural studies might also shed light on culture-specific differences in energy medicine and physical processes of health and disease. For instance, the German language has no word for "mind." Chinese and Japanese cultures minimize discussions of feelings. Some healers perceive particular layers of the aura relating to mind and emotions. It would be interesting to see whether aura perceptions correlate with cultural conditioning and whether these might influence patterns of health and illness.
Conclusions
There is an increasing trend for the public to turn to Complementary Therapists, many of whom utilize energy medicine methods. It behooves the medical profession to examine benefits and limitations of the methods. Intuitive diagnosis may offer hope for a rapid, non-invasive method to diagnose and explore illnesses. Medical training for healers who wish to work with doctors would seem advisable. Future studies might focus on nurses and doctors who are healers. In view of the selectivity in intuitive diagnostic impressions, a panel of healers seems advisable rather than relying on a single healer.
Acknowledgements
:My deep gratitude to Dr. Jean Roberton (now Dr. Jean Galbraith) for organizing and hosting this study and to the healers and patients who made the study possible. My thanks to the John Bj�rkhem Memorial Fund for funding this study.
Appendix A. Healers in the Intuitive Diagnosis Study
Judy Fraser founded a charity called The Self Awareness Center as a result of her eldest daughter's inability to communicate her needs adequately following two years' serious illness. Active in the field of healing for twenty years, it was intuition that led Judy, an ex-journalist, to research many avenues. She trained at The College of Psychotherapeutics where she was later deputy vice principal with Peter Goldman. She was subsequently a senior lecturer for the National Federation of Spiritual Healers and studied theology to enable her to be able to work in North America.
As a result of personal experiences of intense change in her life as an individual, a wife, mother, counselor, course facilitator, and professional communicator, Judy started a limited company called Second Aid in 1989. Second Aid allows people to take "time out" of their stressed lives to look where they were, what they really want from their surroundings and what personal skills they have to offer into life. This healing space is reinforced in a variety of ways, with books, tapes, essential oils, herbs, and many other skills that autonomous individuals within the group collective have felt prompted to offer other members of the Second Aid family.
Peter Goldman has always been interested in inner life meanings. The death of his mother when he was thirteen left him very aware of the continuity of consciousness. He was attracted to holistic therapies, completing training in osteopathy and naturopathy in 1963. Two years later he began studies with a spiritual teacher, Ronald Beesley, focusing on "spiritual psychotherapy." He is now teaching and administrating a center for the training and practice of spiritual psychotherapy, The Center for New Directions, at the White Eagle Lodge, in Kent.
Hertha Larive has worked since 1969 as a therapist using healing techniques for contact and distant healing. At the same time she started her training in esoteric psychology, followed by training in transpersonal and humanistic psychology. When she moved to Oxford in 1975 she started a practice of psychotherapy, healing, nutrition, counseling and stress management.
Most of her life she has been psychic, telepathic and had many mystical experiences. When she was eight years old she became aware for the first time that she could shiftg into altered states of consciousness, which allowed her to perceive other realities than the physical world experienced through the five senses. In these altered states of consciousness she has precognitive abilities and can access knowledge that she has not been exposed to in the physical world. She understands the nature of man in his metaphysical body in relation to his physical life -- that we are eternal within the metaphysical realm and that only the body dies. We life in a continuum of consciousness on the metaphysical planes. These planes are perceived as levels of consciousness and energy.
From the age of eight she has had a profound sense of God as a living, loving intelligence inherent in all life and matter. All life is directed and governed by great cosmic or Divine principles which the soul of man seeks to know, understand and embody in order to manifest his spirituality, his Divine Nature. This he seeks to do not only through religions but through his creativity, art, science and service. This knowledge and awareness directed the values she has lived by and the purpose of her life in relation to others and gave meaning to all life in a way that has always been both profound and offered great joy as well.
Irene Lowe was born in Devon to a spiritualist family of four generations on her mother's side. They were actively involved in herbalism, mediumship, psychism and healing.
As far back as her conscious memory reaches she has always had the ability to perceive and see many dimensions, including energies and their interrelationship within man and his surroundings. As a child she was allowed to grow and develop in a free and natural way by her family, without insistence on particular pathways, although telepathy was regularly practiced between herself and her father. She was healing in the animal kingdom for as long as she can remember. Wild animals walked with her as a young child and did not run away.
Around the age of 18 she was taken under the wings of two members of the Spiritualist Church who dedicated their lives in healing and to the service of mankind.
Since 1968 she has been involved in healing, church services, public lectures on healing and spiritual philosophy. Her interests are varied and include: touch and absent healing, color healing, visualizations, reflexology, nutritional counseling, work with cancer patients and bone disease, linguistics and healing, natural energies and vibrations and their relationships with health and illness, and more.
Her aim, through communications and research, is to see individual islands drawing together as one: doctors, scientists and healers, indeed all of mankind, working together for the good of all.
You may quote part or all of this article if you include the following credits and email contacts
Reprinted with permission of the author and publisher. Original publication: Subtle Energies 1992, 3(2), 41-64. The International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine (ISSSEEM). 1105 Ralston Rd., Ste. 100D, Arvada, CO 80004, (303) 425-4625 Fax (303) 425-4685 Chief Executive Officer: C. Penny Hiernu www.issseem.org ISSSEEM@compuserve.com
Daniel J. Benor, M.D. P.O. Box 502 Medford, NJ 08055 www.WholisticHealingResearch.com DB@WholisticHealingResearch.com
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Reprinted with permission of the author and publisher. Original publication: Subtle Energies 1992, 3(2), 41-64. The International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine (ISSSEEM). 1105 Ralston Rd., Ste. 100D, Arvada, CO 80004, (303) 425-4625 Fax (303) 425-4685 Chief Executive Officer: C. Penny Hiernu www.issseem.org ISSSEEM@compuserve.com
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