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What
About
MIRACLE REVIVALS
and
PSYCHIC HEALINGS?
by
Clayton Steep
Do miraculous healings really take place during religious
reviva! meetings? What about so-called psychic healing? Does it
actually work? What is behind the new surge of
interest-even by medica! researchers-in what many
claim to be " faith healings"?
~~THE
BLIND
see, the
deafhear,
the lame walk!"
a nn o un ced the
hand-painted
sign.
lnside the "revi–
va!" tent, the voice
of an itinerant
"evangelist"
blared through an
over-powered loud
speaker system.
"You are healed!"
he said to an elderly
woman with a cane.
"Amen!" echoed severa) be–
lievers.
Many in the audience were
involved in the hand clapping,
singing and shouting. Sorne were
cu ri ous spectators from the
street, att racted by all this activ–
ity on the usually vacant lot.
Thc smell of stirred-up sawdust
filled the air, creating a slight
haze in the tent. As a couple of
ushers escorted the elderly
woman off the stage, the preach–
er turned his attention to the
May 1981
next person in an irregular line
of affiicted and ailing individu–
als.
"Come, Witness Miracles! "
proclaimed the tract handed out
at the entrance. But when the
meeting was over, and the money
was all counted, and the sawdust
in the now silent tent had a
chance to settle back to the
ground, how many had
real/y
been healed that night?
On the other side of the world,
an "operation" has just been com-
pleted. There were
no surgical tools, no
anesthetics. The pa–
tient
r emained
awake throughout
the procedure. The
surgeon used only
his bare hands to
"remove" a tumor
and then to magical–
ly " heal" the inci-
~
sion. The patient
!
says he feels better
~
now.
¡
Has he really
~
been cured?
~
Sorne scientists
~
a nd medica) re-
searchers
are
studying incidents such as these.
Their efforts are part of a grow–
ing interest by many in what is
claimed to be "faith healing" or
"healing without medicine."
Driven by the knowledge that
conventional medica! science is
limited in its abi lity to relieve
human suffering, researchers are
taking a new look at the claims
made. What about such increas–
ingly popular pbenomena as
"spiritual healers," so-called faith
heaJers, purported miracles asso-
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