The History of Spiritual Healing

From ancient cultures to modern times, healing has been a part of our culture. Spiritual healing has its roots in ancient history, in India, China, Egypt and Greece.

From the first priest-physicians of Egypt and ancient Greece – such as Aesculapius, Imhotep and Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine - Spirituality and healing have been intertwined. In ancient times there was no division between body, mind and spirit, so that energy was understood as a life force which permeated this trinity.

In India Yogis have practiced a psychosomatic therapy based on scientific knowledge since the dawn of time. In India and Egypt the priest and the doctor were one – as were science and religion. Some ancient cultures regarded illness and disease as something of a spiritual nature. Since it was considered supernatural, it was feared. In ancient Egypt, the early medical practitioners were priest-physicians that received their training in the temples and learned from temple scholars. The medical temple schools of Egypt were famous all through antiquity. The three salvations against illness, disease and death were religion, medicine and magic meant “hidden wisdom”.

The American Indian Medicine Men appeared at least two thousand years before the white man landed in America. The word “medicine” in Indian culture refers to any powers beyond the normal and natural.

Pythagoras the Greek philosopher and doctor was born in 570 BC. He was one of the great psychics and healers of both mind and body.

In Ancient Greece, around 400 B.C., Hippocrates introduced standards into medical practice that are still in use today. He had a holistic approach – treating the whole patient, not just a specific ailment. Hippocrates stated that the true approach to diagnosis and treatment includes a careful observation of nature, life and the natural healing process. He also brought honor and ethics into the practice of medicine.

Aesculapius was famed for his powers of healing and was deified as the Greek God of medicine. The solar cult of Asklepios spread trough the ancient world and was the state of Cos a hundred years after the death of Hippocrates in the middle of 4th century BC. His emblem, the serpent staff has been used throughout history and now is the emblem of the medical profession today. All ancient medicine shared the one conviction that healing cannot be tackled on the physical level alone and that it was not possible to separate the mind and spirit from the physical body. Most of these ancients also understood how to use the natural Earth Energies (today we more less know as reiki of some sort) in order to restore the body’s natural healing forces.

In Christian era healing was considered an integral part of Church’s work. Jesus looked upon His healing ministry as an integral part of His whole work. The recognition was clear trough the remarkable and extraordinary results He achieved. Many references to healing can be found in The Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments, especially the laying on of hands. In the New Testament, Jesus is considered one of the greatest spiritual healers in recorded history. In his ministry, he cured both physical and spiritual illnesses - blindness, lameness, deafness, insanity. Healing is a gift of the spirit and if layman was found to have the gift of healing it was considered to be an indication of the choice of that person by the Holy Spirit for ordination.

With the Romans came a separation between spiritual healing and secular medicine as medicine became a business and spiritual values were often left behind. However, during Roman times around A.D. 160, many Greek doctors flocked to Rome, including Galen - a believer in the Hippocratic method. Galen virtually founded experimental physiology, stressing the importance of anatomy.

By the eight century there was no expectation of healing from it. As the healing disappeared from the Church, unction became spiritualised until as we see from the Council of Trent (1549-52) all emphasis was upon absolution.

Medical science developed on a physical and material plane. All sicknesses and its cure were achieved by pill potions and surgery. People placed their faith on medication and the curing of symptoms rather than healing the core of the issue and enjoy watching the symptoms evaporating.

The French Revolution in 1789 brought the “Age of Reason” and with it the hate of all religions and healing of any sort.

In the late middle ages, Paracelsus, a Swiss physician, became prominently known. He believed in learning from one's own experiences. Through his efforts to find better ways to relieve pain, he rediscovered ether and is considered to have made a revolutionary contribution to the rebirth of medical science. He studied nature and applied his observations and experience to specific diseases, preferring experimentation, observation and creative thinking over erroneous old theories.

The 18th century brought about the fame of Friedrich Anton Mesmer. He put forth the theory of animal magnetism – which earned him mass public interest but also controversy and ridicule. An investigating committee ultimately found no evidence to support his claim of animal magnetism and public interest waned. However in 1823, Alexandre Bertrand, a young French physician, revived interest in one aspect of animal magnetism. Bertrand believed the true cause of Mesmer’s cures was connected with sleepwalking. A commission in 1836 found that this trance state was real and made for effective therapy.

In 1875 the theosophist Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was to become world known because of the doctrines she taught to use mind in curing the body.

Psychology developed into science. Psychiatry, psychoanalysis, hypnotism and occupational therapy all played their part in the new king of healing. This was a great advance but did not go far enough. Humans are not a Bi-Unity (Mind-Body) but a Unity (Mind-Body-Spirit).

The amazing growth of spiritual healing in the last hundred years has been due to the rise of two organisations; Christian Science and the Spiritualist movement which lay special emphasis both in their belief practice upon spiritual healing. Up till 1951, any healer could have been arrested and paid with death penalty - according to The Witchcraft Act.

Above all the Legacy of these historical events has been that medicine and healthcare have evolved without a spiritual base. However during the last 20 years people have become less satisfied with the scientific explanations of their existence and begun their own spiritual quest.

Everyone can heal, the gift of healing is not new, it is being re-discovered. The results of healing are showing it is longer to be seen as a last resort. The Spiritual Healing Associations are negotiating for medical recognition for healing as what it is, and always has been, a powerful complimentary therapy.

In modern times, there have been many individual healers have done much to enhance the promotion of spiritual healing. There are but a few pioneers:

- Andrew Jackson Davis
- Edgar Cayce
- Mother Teresa
- Harry Edwards
- Francis Schlatter
- Billy Parish
- Frederick Joseph Jones
- Bruno Gröning
- Mary Baker Eddy
- Ursula Roberts
- Matthew Manning
- Phineas Quimby
- José Arigo