Jump to content

From Spiritfold, Australian Spiritual Alliance: https://spiritfold.com/Spiritual_healing

Spiritual healing

From Spiritfold

Spiritual healing, in the Spiritualist tradition, is healing that Spiritualists believe comes from the spirit world and passes through a person known as a healing medium to the person receiving it.[1] The Spiritualists' National Union in the United Kingdom describes it as a form of mediumship given by touch, thought or prayer, whether or not the person is present.[2] Writing in Encyclopaedia Britannica, J. Gordon Melton describes "spirit healing" as basic to Spiritualist practice.[3]

Description

The Canberra Spiritualist Association calls spiritual healing one of the foundations of Spiritualism. Its healers attune to the spirit world and give healing through the laying on of hands, and the Association says the healing may work at physical, emotional and mental levels.[1] At a Canberra service in 2017, a medium explained that healing energy comes from Spirit, through the healer's spirit, to the spirit of the person receiving it, and that it can be used to help healing, bring comfort, ease pain, or help at the time of death.[4]

Attunement

Spiritualists describe the healer's part as "attunement". The SNU says the healing medium attunes to Spirit and lets helpful energies pass to the person receiving them,[5] and the National Spiritualist Association of Churches (NSAC) in the United States describes the healer as linking with the healing energy through attunement and acting as a channel for it.[6] The British Spiritualist healer Harry Edwards pictured healing as a chain of attunement running from God, through spirit healing guides and the healer, to the patient.[7] This is why, as the Psi Encyclopedia puts it, Spiritualists regard healing as a form of mediumship.[7]

Three methods

The Spiritualists' National Union (SNU) names three methods:[2]

  • Absent healing: healing thoughts are sent to a person who is not there.[2]
  • Distant healing: healing is sent by thought to a person who is in the room but is not being touched.[2]
  • Contact healing: the healing medium asks the person's permission before placing hands on them.[2]

The SNU says spiritual healing does not depend on the faith or beliefs of the person receiving it.[2] Spiritualists have long drawn the same line between their practice and "faith healing": in their view, spiritual healing comes from the powers the medium exercises, whereas faith healing results from the patient's own attitude.[8]

In the Spiritualist service

In the Canberra Spiritualist Association's services, audience members are asked near the start of the service to focus their spiritual energy on sending healing to the world.[4] The Association keeps a healing book at each service, where people can write the names of those who can't attend so that absent healing can be sent to them.[1]

Methods described in research

In a study of a Sydney Spiritualist church, based on fieldwork in the second half of the 1970s, Paul Gillen recorded that healing mediums used touching, stroking, manipulation and "passes", meaning hand movements close to the parts of the body said to be affected. The healer often prayed, usually silently. Some healers said they felt the patient's symptoms in their own bodies; others said they read the patient's aura or perceived the person's condition clairvoyantly.[8] Healing mediums often believed they were guided by spirits who had been doctors in life.[8]

How healers are trained

Harry Edwards's healing work grew out of a development circle: he began attending one at a London Spiritualist church in the mid-1930s, where, it is said, a medium told him he was "born to heal".[7] Today the SNU trains its healing mediums for at least a year, in theory and practice, and its leaflet lists the subjects covered: greeting the person, understanding where the healing energy comes from, how to give it, and the law as it relates to healing.[2][5] The Spiritualists National Union of WA lists its trainee healing mediums alongside its accredited ones.[9]

Healing circles

A healing circle is a gathering at which one or more mediums give spiritual healing to the others present. Gillen distinguished healing circles from other Spiritualist circles: rather than investigating the spirit world, they call on spiritual power in order to heal. In the circles he observed in Sydney, each meeting began and ended with a prayer, and what happened in between depended on the ailments of the people present and the treatment the medium gave. The healing was mixed with discussion and gossip, and now and then a reading or a trance lecture.[8]

The weekly healing circle Gillen studied drew about fifteen people, mostly women over thirty. Few of them also attended the church's flower services, although Gillen noted that some other churches had begun holding healing sessions before their flower services.[8] See also Development circles and Flower readings.

Scope

What it includes

  • Contact healing by the laying on of hands, with the person's permission[1][2]
  • Absent and distant healing given by thought or prayer[2]
  • Healing given as part of Spiritualist services, healing circles and development circles[8][10]

What it is not

  • It is not presented as a replacement for medical care. The SNU describes spiritual healing as a complementary therapy given alongside medical treatment,[2] and Gillen found that Sydney Spiritualists did not see it as conflicting with other treatment, including conventional medicine.[8]
  • Its effects have not been shown scientifically. A 2000 systematic review of 23 randomised trials of "distant healing" (a term the reviewers used for prayer, mental healing, non-contact Therapeutic Touch and spiritual healing) found mixed results and said the weaknesses of several studies made firm conclusions difficult.[11] An update in 2003 found that most of the rigorous newer trials did not support a specific healing effect, and concluded that the evidence had shifted against the idea that distant healing is more than a placebo.[12]

Traditions and lineage

Melton traces spirit healing in Spiritualism to the Magnetist movement, which grew from Franz Anton Mesmer's theories of magnetic healing. Spiritualism took over many of the Magnetists' ideas, but held that healing came from the influence of spirits rather than from magnetic power.[3] Gillen notes that a French government commission set up in 1784 to investigate Mesmer rejected his idea of a magnetic fluid, while accepting that patients might benefit through imagination, and that the medical profession has taken a similar view of any benefit spiritual healing may have.[8]

Context

Within Spiritualism

Spiritual healing is a core Spiritualist practice, which the main Spiritualist bodies treat as a form of mediumship. The National Spiritualist Association of Churches (NSAC) in the United States includes healing, with prophecy, in the ninth article of its Declaration of Principles, as a divine attribute "proven through Mediumship".[13] Its definition of a Spiritualist healer (1930, revised 1993) is a person who passes on healing energy either through their own inborn power or through mediumship, and it says its healers work in cooperation with the medical community.[14] The Spiritualists' National Union in Britain says healing has always been a vital part of the Spiritualist religion, and that services often set aside time for absent healing or a demonstration by a healing medium.[15]

In Australian Spiritualism

Besides the churches named in Spiritual healing in Australia above, Spiritualist healing is documented in other states and periods. In the 1930s Perth's suburban Spiritualist churches held a weekly "Open Circle" for the sick, according to the Museum of Perth;[16] St John's Spiritual Church in Adelaide added a healing service to its Lyceum around 1933;[17] the Hobart Spiritualist Church advertised a Wednesday healing service in 1954;[18] and the Brisbane Spiritual Church added a healing room in its 1990–93 upgrade.[19]

Today the Spiritualists National Union of WA describes contact, distant and absent healing and says its healers train for at least a year under the SNU Healing Code of Conduct,[9] and the Centre Christian Spiritualist Church in Subiaco includes spiritual and absent healing in its divine service.[20]

A Spiritualist perspective

Spiritualists understand healing as a form of mediumship. The healer does not claim any power of their own to cure; they attune to the spirit world and try to be a clear channel for whatever healing is given. That calls for humility and a sincere wish to help, not a wish to be seen as gifted.

A Spiritualist teacher would stress that spiritual healing works alongside medical care and never in place of it. A healer does not diagnose, promise results, or suggest that anyone stop treatment or medication. If someone seems unwell and has not seen a doctor, the caring response is to encourage them to do so. Contact healing is given only with the person's permission, and the healer explains what they will do before they begin. With children, a parent or guardian should consent and be present. Many who ask for healing are frightened or grieving, so kindness matters as much as technique. Absent healing, offered in prayer or thought for people who cannot attend, is one of the gentlest expressions of Spiritualist care.

Spiritual healing in Australia

Healing has been part of Australian Spiritualism from its early years. William Henry Terry, founder of the Victorian Association of Progressive Spiritualists, which began in Melbourne in 1870,[21] set up in Russell Street, Melbourne, that year as a medium, Spiritualist bookseller, clairvoyant herbalist and "trance and magnetic healer", according to the Australian Dictionary of Biography.[22] The Victorian Spiritualists' Union describes him as a healer well regarded by his clients and by many doctors who sought his help.[21]

Gillen's 1981 thesis, which calls the Sydney church he studied "Mortfield", found that spiritual healing was the only form of physical mediumship then practised regularly in Australia. A husband-and-wife team of mediums ran a weekly healing circle, and at Sunday services a medium read out an "absent healing list" of people known to be unwell, as a kind of blessing. Gillen also observed that healing seemed less central to Sydney Spiritualists than it was in some other places.[8] In South Australia, the historians Helen Bartley and Jill Roe wrote that for the state's small number of Spiritualists, healing is "the main hope".[23]

Australian Spiritualist churches that list healing among their regular activities include:

  • the Victorian Spiritualists' Union in Melbourne, which offers healings before its Sunday service[24] and holds healings at North Melbourne and Ringwood East[25]
  • the Canberra Spiritualist Association, whose healing mediums trained with a former Vice President of the Association[1]
  • St John Spiritual Church, Port Adelaide, which holds hands-on healing on Wednesdays and includes healing in its development circle[10]
  • Elizabeth Spiritualist Church in South Australia, which includes healing in a weekly Wednesday evening meeting[26]

Safety and good practice

  • The SNU says its healing mediums train for at least a year, including on healing techniques and the legal side of healing, and follow a written Healing Code of Conduct. It advises people seeking healing to use a certified healer, who carries an identity card with a registration number and photograph.[2] These are SNU arrangements in the United Kingdom; they don't apply to Australian churches unless a church adopts them.
  • In the SNU's contact healing, the healer seeks permission before placing hands on the person.[2]
  • The SNU asks people receiving healing to keep up any medical treatment their doctor has prescribed, and says its healing mediums aim to help anyone in need, whatever their race, colour or creed.[5]
  • The NSAC's guidance says healing is complementary and not an alternative to medicine, and tells recipients never to give up medication or ignore their health professional's advice. It says healers should not make a medical diagnosis or give psychological counselling unless licensed to do so, should not recommend drugs or particular treatments, should not manipulate the person's body, and should not use or sell products such as herbs or crystals when giving healing.[6]
  • The 2003 review of distant healing found two studies suggesting that it may be associated with adverse effects.[12]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Canberra Spiritualist Association. "Join the healing team" (no date shown; accessed 11 October 2026).
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 Spiritualists' National Union. "Healing" (no date shown; accessed 11 October 2026).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Melton, J. Gordon. "Spiritualism: Spiritualist belief and practice". Encyclopaedia Britannica (no date shown; accessed 11 October 2026).
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Tomlinson, Matt. Speaking with the Dead: An Ethnography of Extrahuman Experience. Earth: punctum books, 2024. Open access under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (accessed 11 October 2026).
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Spiritualists' National Union. A Guide to Spiritualist Healing (leaflet, 2024; accessed 12 October 2026).
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 National Spiritualist Association of Churches. What is Spiritual Healing? (brochure, 2024; accessed 12 October 2026).
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Hume, S. "Harry Edwards". Psi Encyclopedia. London: Society for Psychical Research, created 15 September 2020; last updated 7 September 2026 (accessed 12 October 2026).
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 Gillen, Paul. The Spiritualists: Gnosis and Ideology. PhD thesis, School of Behavioural Sciences, Macquarie University, November 1981 (accessed 11 October 2026).
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Spiritualists National Union of WA. "Healing" (no date shown; accessed 12 October 2026).
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 SAcommunity. "St John Spiritual Church". Record last updated 19 September 2025 (accessed 11 October 2026).
  11. ↑ Astin, J. A., E. Harkness and E. Ernst. "The efficacy of 'distant healing': a systematic review of randomized trials". Annals of Internal Medicine 132, no. 11 (2000): 903–910. doi:10.7326/0003-4819-132-11-200006060-00009. Abstract read via Europe PMC (accessed 11 October 2026).
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Ernst, E. "Distant healing – an 'update' of a systematic review". Wiener klinische Wochenschrift 115, no. 7–8 (2003): 241–245. doi:10.1007/bf03040322. Abstract read via Europe PMC (accessed 11 October 2026).
  13. ↑ National Spiritualist Association of Churches. "Religion: Principles and Objects". NSAC, © 2026 (accessed 12 October 2026).
  14. ↑ National Spiritualist Association of Churches. "Spiritualism Explained". NSAC, © 2026 (accessed 12 October 2026).
  15. ↑ Spiritualists' National Union. "About Spiritualism" (no date shown; accessed 12 October 2026).
  16. ↑ Museum of Perth. "Isabella Jane Bell (1863–1950)". Perth People (no date shown; accessed 12 October 2026).
  17. ↑ Clinch-Jones, Kate. If the Walls Could Talk: A Brief History of the Founders of St Johns Spiritual Church. Adelaide: St John's Spiritual Church Inc, May 2024, p. 10 (accessed 12 October 2026).
  18. ↑ Advertising. The Mercury (Hobart), 26 June 1954, p. 27. Trove, National Library of Australia (accessed 12 October 2026).
  19. ↑ Brisbane City Council. "Brisbane Spiritual Church". Heritage Places (citation May 2010; page revised April 2024; accessed 12 October 2026).
  20. ↑ Centre Christian Spiritualist Church, Subiaco. "Services" (no date shown; accessed 12 October 2026).
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Victorian Spiritualists' Union. "About" (no date shown; accessed 11 October 2026).
  22. ↑ Smith, F. B. "Terry, William Henry (1836–1913)". Australian Dictionary of Biography, volume 6. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 1976 (accessed 11 October 2026).
  23. ↑ Bartley, Helen and Jill Roe. "Spiritualism". SA History Hub, History Trust of South Australia. First published in The Wakefield Companion to South Australian History (Wakefield Press, 2001); uploaded 15 May 2015 (accessed 11 October 2026).
  24. ↑ Victorian Spiritualists' Union. "Sunday Service" (no date shown; accessed 11 October 2026).
  25. ↑ Victorian Spiritualists' Union. "Other Services & Resources" (no date shown; accessed 11 October 2026).
  26. ↑ SAcommunity. "Elizabeth Spiritualist Church". Record last updated 15 July 2026 (accessed 11 October 2026).

Further reading

Retrieved from "https://spiritfold.com/index.php?title=Spiritual_healing&oldid=406"

Last updated