SPIRITUAL HEALING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18348, 14 March 1923, Page 12

SPIRITUAL HEALING.

Sir, — May I avail myself of the privilege of age and of a detached standpoint to olfer a word of counsel upon the proposal that medical men and clergymen should join hands in investigating the phenomena of what i 3 called "spiritual healing"? I sincerely hope that something will come of the suggestion, because I believe there is a truth in this movement, and the best way to prevent the charlatanry that always besets the trail of troth is to secure a thorough examination of the facts by the co-operation of the most capable and unprejudiced minds that can be selected from the two professions concerned, each with one aspect of the twofold phenomena in question. There are throe converging lines of practice that seem to support and reinforce this movement of healing without the aid of the "materia medica." The first is the timehonoured method of praver to God. The second is that of suggestion, whether auto or allo-3uggestior, and this kind seems to me clearly to include "Christian Science,'" notwithstanding that this is, I think, repudiated by the votaries of that cult. The third is "psychoanalysis," which cures by revealing to the intelligence of the patient the true nature of the obscure forces which, originating in thoughts and feelings forcibly repressed, have revenged them stives by making havoc in his nervous system, but lose their power as soon as they are understood—a method which seems destined for brilliant pioneering work in the evolution of psychological science. The committee to be set up will doubtless have all these methods in mind for reference, and the farts that come before them for examination will indicate how far any wider 01 deeper hypothesis is necessary to account for them. Here I venture to suggest that doctors would do well to accept as a probable statement only and not as an axiom, that mental influence can control only functional and not structural disease of tissues. Is it possible that a true line of demarcation can be drawn between these two? Do "neuroses" never lead by continual disturbance of function to impairment of nerve tissue? Let us not limit possibilities if facts appear to expand them. It 'iv seem superfluous or even presumptuous for me to suggest to the clergymen who may take part in this inqnirv, that the best and truest healing influence is the divine spark that glows within us, the "God," the ''Christ," ever striving to take entire control of us, but ever hindered and stifled by our lower propensities. Does not this thought confirm the impressiveness of Bishop Averill's admirable reminder that purification from the lower elements that well-nigh quench the spiritual spark should accompany or precede the physical cure. This accomplished, the flame would grow, and with its steady influence restore harmony to mind and body. This spiritual healing may be only sporadic to-day, but to-morrow or the day after it may become common, and may even supplant the grim idol called "bacteriology," which is ruling now, and is always demanding to bo fed with the sacrificial fumes arising from the slaughter with protracted torture of innocent and helpless animals. J. Giles. Mount Eden, March 10, 1923.