In the last post, I promised to relate my
encounters with a faith healer and a man who received a health reading from
Edgar Cayce. I describe them in the order in which they occurred.
In my mid-twenties I was investigating various
aspects of religion. When I learned that a famous faith healer was conducting a
crusade and healing service close to where I lived, I decided to attend. I was
curious about what occurred, but I was not a believer in faith healing (no
longer the case). Also, I had not yet become acquainted with the readings of
Edgar Cayce.
The faith healer was Kathryn Kuhlman, who was an
American evangelist known for miraculous healings at her services, and her
event was held in Columbus Ohio. The auditorium hosting the event was packed with
people when I arrived, and I had to remain in an adjacent room off the main
hall. I was stunned by the sea of cots with bedridden people with their crutches
and canes scattered about. Many people were in wheelchairs, some were
grievously ill, and most likely all hoped that they would receive a healing.
Ms. Kuhlman began speaking, and I pressed into a
group that was able to get a peek at the stage through an open door. I don’t
recall how long she spoke, but I do remember the point when she asked people to
come to the stage to receive the Holy Spirit. By now I had stepped into the
main hall to get a better look. Suddenly, heeding her request, people began to
rush to the stage. I was caught up in the surge and literally swept onto the
stage. I had not intended to go onto the stage with thousands of people
watching. I was there as an observer, not a participant.
She began her signature act of saying a brief
prayer as she touched a person on the head. The person would then collapse into
the arms of men who stood behind the person as catchers. The catchers then
gently laid the person onto the stage. Kathryn Kuhlman repeated the
gift-of-the-Holy-Spirit process with three or four people ahead of me in line,
and soon it was my turn. I was skeptical of the whole business. It was hot and
I just wanted to get off the stage. She said her prayer, touched me on the
head, and I was soon lying on the stage like the others before me.
I describe what happened in the following way. I
felt as if every concern I ever had was lifted from me as a curtain of light
moved horizontally across my field of view. I felt wonderful and did not care
that thousands of people were watching me. I don’t know the length of time I
spent on the stage, but I was soon back off the stage watching as she concluded
her service by describing various illnesses such as cancer that she saw among
people in the audience. She would point out the person, name the disease, and
declare the person healed.
Now, I had no way to know if the people experienced
a healing. Over the years that she was active, thousands claimed healings. According
to Wikipedia, Jamie Buckingham, author of her biography Daughter of
Destiny, claimed that the most rigorous medical standards were applied
before declaring that a healing occurred. For some basic information see the disputed
article: Kathryn Kuhlman. (2021, July 29). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_Kuhlman
According to the Wikipedia article, others
found no evidence of cures. A doctor followed up on the reported healings from a
fellowship in Philadelphia and did not find evidence of cures. The article
doesn’t describe the criteria he used or how he judged success. He was
criticized for only attending one healing service and not following up with
reported healings. Nevertheless, she had her detractors.
I did not attend her event for a healing, but I
certainly experienced something I never experienced before. I cannot say if
anyone was healed of a physical ailment after receiving her gift of the Holy Spirit,
but her fame had spread because of the reports that people were healed.
I will elaborate on faith healing more in a future
post. In this post, I suggest that for a healing to occur, a degree of faith is
needed on the part of the person seeking the healing. Someone may experience
the Holy Spirit but lack the faith for a healing to occur.
The second encounter I describe is with a man who
received a reading from Edgar Cayce. This encounter occurred in Dayton, Ohio,
and at the time the man was retired. He said that as a young man he became
extremely sick and went to various doctors for help. However, he did not get
better and said his weight dropped to 85 pounds. He began to have frequent
blackouts and became desperate for an answer. He heard about Cayce from an
article in a national publication and sent in a letter requesting a reading. He
said he did not really think he would get a response, but sometime later (don’t
recall the exact time) he got a letter with his reading. The reading described
his condition in detail and said the blackouts were caused by a medication
recently prescribed by his doctor.
He did not share the details of the reading with
me. But he said it had dietary recommendations, exercises, a recommendation to
meditate, and other changes he did not care to discuss. He said that he felt he
had nothing to lose and began diligently following the advice. He did not get
better at once, but he said that gradually his health improved. After about 6
months, his health was fully restored.
These two stories may appear to illustrate two
different approaches to healing, but there is a common denominator. In addition
to physical changes such as diet and exercise, Cayce recommended regular
meditation. He said that setting up a spiritual purpose was important for a
lasting healing to occur. For both types of healing to be meaningful, a faith
in a Higher Power (Cayce’s philosophy is Christ centered) is necessary. People
wanting a healing must believe in a Higher Power and that the Higher Power can and
will heal them.
In the next post, I will elaborate more on these
approaches to healing. This will include answering the following questions and
criticisms. Why are many people who profess faith and ask for a healing not
healed? Did people really get better by following the Cayce readings? Does
alternative medicine work or is it just a charade to take advantage of the
gullible? If faith healing works, where does traditional medicine fit?
If you are in poor health, life can quickly become
a burden. In my own family experience, my son has struggled for fifteen years
with health problems, some caused by a genetic deficiency. I have watched him
go to specialist after specialist trying to just get an accurate diagnosis. It
took over ten years of tests and doctor visits to even understand the nature of
his illness. They now say he has an autoimmune disease, but the cause is
unknown. So, I am aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the traditional
approach to healing through the medical profession. Despite great strides in
technology, there is much they do not understand.
Three years ago, my son had part of his thyroid
removed because of a large tumor. The doctors who had examined him previously
were not aware of the tumor, but his subconscious was. A series of dreams led
him to insist on his physician ordering a scan of his thyroid, which revealed
the tumor.
The medical profession still does not understand
the value of those messages we receive every night for maintenance of our
physical health. Some doctors and scientists are beginning to understand that
disease is first reflected in our dreams before manifesting physically, but
little real progress has been made to use dreams as a diagnostic tool.
After my son’s experiences, I decided to author a
book that is a review of current medical practices along with a description of
what I believe is missing. I show how dreams can be an important and effective
diagnostic tool through examples from my own life and that of my son’s. My book
is thoroughly researched and contains numerous references covering all aspects
of health care. A separate chapter is devoted to alternative medicine.
Unfortunately, none of the literary agents I contacted
expressed an interest. I am not a MD and do not have a PhD in a field such as
neuroscience, so it is difficult to find interest. For non-fiction books,
agents take a hard look at the credentials of the author. I believe that if I
had medical credentials my book would already be published. I am contemplating
serializing it and proving it in chunks on my blog. Amazon has a new service
called Vella for serializing books and publishing them in installments, which
may also be a possibility.
I hope the readers of this post are following the
latest revelations and reports concerning climate change. They are all saying
that climate change is happening now, will get much worse, and we are out of
time to avoid total disaster. The timeline for gigantic upheavals in the form
of higher temperatures, worse floods, endless droughts, and violent storms is
this decade, which is what my dream showed in 2015 (see the post that is dated
8/18/2015 titled A Dream About Edgar Cayce and Climate Change).
If we do not make major changes now, we will
experience the worst. We can no longer avoid some of the changes that will
occur this decade. The scientists have said that some of the changes are
already irreversible (see Intergovernmental Report on Climate Change released
on August 8, 2021). I believe that as my dream showed, the major changes will conclude
by 2030. But what will be left of the world as we know it? It is up to us to
decide.
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