Theos-Talk Archives (March 2002 Message tt00074)

On Sun, 03 Mar 2002 11:12:49 -0000 "bri_mue" <bri_mue@yahoo.com> writes:
> Spiritual healing and placebo part 1.To Larry, Leon, and all.

Brigitte: For example Filipino mananambals used sleight of hand in a
> therapeutic context for centuries. lnitiaily, lt was employed as a 
> means of
> exorcism. 
> During an exorcism, the mananambal would call out the possessing 
> entity and finally the mananambal would grab the head of the 
> possessed person and dramatically extract a live cockroach' from the 
> 
> person's ear, and immediately kill the cockroach. The stunned 
> patient 
> would show signs of recovey and his relatives wou breathe a sigh of 
> 
> relief. The spell was broken.
> 
> Only the mananambal knew that the live cockroach had been in his 
> hand 
> all along, and illat nothing ,supematural' had occurred except the 
> restoration of heath or/and sanity of the patient.
> 
> I saw a documentarie two years or so ago where they explained how in 
> 
> some hospitals in Alaska (USA) when the Dr.'s dont feel they are 
> succesfull expecially if they are older patients, they will call in
> the hospital Shaman. He arrives in jeans, dresses up in his 
> traditional
> garm that he carries with him in his bag, does his dance, and leaves
> again, mostly leaving satisfied patients. Who also if they didn't 
> cure
> completely of watever ailment at least feel better becouse of the 
> extra
> attention they received, that is also verry important.
>

Yes, there are certainly charlatans out there. One prime example here in
the U.S. was Jim Jones of the People's Temple and Guyana Massacre infamy.
He would call someone from the congregation and tell them they had lung
cancer. He would reach in the person's mouth and say some words, the
person would gag, and lo and behold, out would come a cancer growth.
Unbeknown to them, Jones had shoved a small piece of calves liver down
their throat when he put his hand in their mouth. 

But not all healers are charlatans as we have said. I want to share
something very personal that I have shared with very few persons over the
years What I want is two answers. I would like someone from an
unbelieving point of view to explain what was going on and also for
believing theosophists to explain what happened. This took place in 1972,
yet the event is etched into my mind as if it were yesterday instead of
thirty years ago.

Two of us were called to the home of a woman who believed she was
possessed by a demon. (Mormons would call them "evil spirits") We sat her
in a hard straight back chair, stood behind her, placed our hands on the
crown of her head and commanded the spirit to come out. She trembled
violently and then BEGAN TO LEVATATE OFF THE CHAIR.
We had all be could do with our hands still on her head to press down nad
keep her from going clear up to the ceiling. No part of her body was
touching either the chair or the floor, she was a full two feet off the
chair. Then whatever possessed her came out and she collapsed in a heap.
The entity was still in the room and attacked me. It felt like icy
coldness passed through me. We commanded the spirit out of the house and
it left. Now if I heard someone else relate this, I might scoff at it,
but I know what I experienced, and it was real.

How do we explain this?

Larry 
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