Dr. Daniel J. Benor               

What is spirituality?  Is it allegiance to a religious group?  Attendance at a house of worship?  Adherence to the word of God as taught by a particular luminary and interpreted by traditional interpretations which have evolved through the ages?  Spirituality can partake of and be enriched by any and all of these, but I maintain that it is more.  For me it is a very personal thing, an inner knowing that what I say and do is for the common good and will hurt no one intentionally.  It is an awareness which educates, enlightens and enriches.  It is that connectedness with each breath and interaction which reminds me that I am part of the All.  When this is present even in the little matters of my daily life then I am truly alive and in the4 stream of collective consciousness and actions which further the mysterious purposes that brought me into this marvellous world.

   Even a rock may impart spirituality and healing.  I learned this from Edgar Chase, an octogenarian healer from Derby who specializes in treatment of sports injuries.  Edgar holds pebbles in his hands for a few minutes and then gives them to healees to take home.  He prefers stones from Iona, which he feels have a positive vibration to begin with, but will use stones from elsewhere as well.  His healees hold these pebbles in their pockets and they appear to enhance their recuperation from illness.

   I would have been sceptical of Edgar's assertions, had it not been for an study of healing with cotton wool treated by Oscar Estebany, a Canadian healer.  Bernard Grad, a Biologist at McGill University, demonstrated that treated cotton wool could significantly prevent the development of goitres in mice which were fed an iodine deficient diet. 1

   A personal experience with Estebany was also helpful in overcoming my scepticism.  In setting up a healing research study in the U.S. in 1980 I contacted various healers to explore how they might participate in absent healing.  Estebany had been studied in several prominent research projects already and was high on my list of prospects.  In discussions over the phone, he clarified that he preferred contact healing but that he gave people bits of paper which he had held in his hands in order to facilitate distant healing.  Those in need of healing would hold the papers in their pockets or under their pillows, reporting they felt a warmth emanating from them.

   When I expressed doubt that this could be more than the effects of suggestion, Estebany countered with the observation that infants and people in coma had responded dramatically through contact with these papers, and therefore it could not be merely a placebo effect.  Even letters he wrote were used by people in this way.

   While I decided not to include this unusual method of healing in the research project, I was pleased to have him send me some papers he had prepared.  They were of heavy grey writing paper quality, and I could not sense anything unusual in handling them.  I placed these in the back of a desk drawer, and promptly forgot them in the busy bustle of ordinary routines of a practice of psychotherapy.

   Several months later, after taking courses in Therapeutic Touch, LeShan and Reiki healing methods, and at a time when I had an upper respiratory infection, I was surprised upon reaching into my drawer to feel that it was unusually warm.  As it was a warm early summer in Philadelphia, I thought to myself that it was odd that the heater behind the desk should be on.  Yet when I checked it, the radiator was cold.  Exploring further, I discovered Estebany's forgotten papers.

   It seems that when I had the need, healing was available through these papers.  The heat I felt was similar to that I had felt from healers' hands and in my own hands when doing healing.
   Other healers use handkerchiefs, photographs of themselves, water, oil and other materials.

   How can one explain healing through rocks, papers and other materials?  Two main theories are suggested by the many healers with whom I have discussed this.  The first is that healing energy is stored within these objects.  The second is that in holding them, a healer connects with them psychometrically, so that healees may draw healing from the healer when they need it.

   This does not fit within conventional scientific paradigms, but is entirely consistent with research in healing and parapsychology.

   Various researchers in the US have found that water which is treated by healers is altered sufficiently that a measurable effect is demonstrated on an infrared spectrophotometer.

   These observations have vast potentials for practical applications.  Anxieties have been expressed that demand for healing might outstrip capacities of healers to help.  By using cotton wool, water and other 'vehicles' for healing we might extend the availability of healing.  (A caution in this regard is sounded by Paulina Baume in the next article.)  Water treated with healing, along with radionics2 treatmentsmight reduce the need for fertilizers and pesticides or might enhance the activities of these agents.

   I have heard complaints that research and spiritual healing are incompatible.  I contend that spirituality is a matter of the heart of the participant, and that no endeavor is outside the realm of spirituality if we open ourselves to it.

References

1. Riewed in 'Caduceus Magazine' Autumn, 1988.  From: Grad, B. Some biological effects of laying-on of hands:

 a review of experiments with animals and plants,  J. Amer. Soc. Psychical Res.  1965, 59, 95-127.  Also in

 Schmeidler, G. (Ed) Parapsychology: Its Relation to Physics, Biology, Psychology and Psychiatry, Metuchen,

 NY: Scarecrow Press 1976, p.76-89.

2. Radionics is a form of distant healing, involving the use of various mechanical devices.

QUERIES:

Have other healers had interesting experiences with vehicles used for healing?

Have healers had experiences of healing enhancing or otherwise altering the effects of medications, especially cancer chemotherapy?  Of pesticides and/or fertilisers?
 

You may quote from or reproduce these editorial clips if you include the following credits and email contact:
Copyright © Daniel J. Benor, M.D. 1991 Reprinted with permission of the author P.O. Box 76 Bellmawr, NJ 08099
www.WholisticHealingResearch.com   DB@WholisticHealingResearch.com 
 

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