Distance Healing Article

'A 6-month study of 40 advanced AIDS patients exposed to 10 weeks of "distant healing" reported fewer new illnesses, physician visits, and hospitalizations in the "distant healing" group [12].'

Distant Healing has here been put by the author into the 'Intercessory Prayer' group.

However Distant Healing and Intercessory prayer are not necessarily the same thing.

My definitions, which I hope are correct, are as following:

Intercessory Prayer:

I am asking a divine being to heal somebody. This could be an angel, God, saint, whatever.

This could be further broken down as follows:

Physical Complaints

1a) I ask the being to completely cure someone of everything that is wrong.

1b) I ask the being to completely cure someone of a specific ailment.

1c) I ask the being to send healing where it is needed.

(I might do this if I didn't know if the person was ill or not, but wanted to send positive vibes just in case. I might also do it if someone was really obviously on death's door and I'd feel arrogant asking a being to save someone's life in case it was their time etc. if that makes sense).

1e) I could wish for instantanteous recovery or I could wish for gradual recovery.

1f)I could wish for complete cure or I could wish for an improvement of symptoms.

Emotional/Mental Complaints

The same as above:

2a) I ask the being to heal everything that is wrong or causing difficulty

2b) I ask the being to heal a specific issue.

2c) I ask the being to send healing where it's needed.

2d) I often ask a being to send a loving message or a hug to someone that they will receive in a way that's comfortable for them and in line with their beliefs.

2e) I could wish for instantanteous recovery or I could wish for gradual recovery.

2f)I could wish for complete cure or I could wish for an improvement of symptoms.

Distant Healing

Distant healing to me is the same as above only I'm doing it, rather than the divine or ethereal being. Spiritual healing to me is learning to be a human healing force with similar powers to the divine or ethereal beings.

So it would be the same as above:

3a) I send healing energy with the intention of curing all illness currently present in a person.

3b) I send healing energy with the intention of curing a specific ailment.

3c) I ask the energy to go where it's needed - ask it to show me the way. I don't believe energy is conscious on its own although some do, and maybe it has magnetism ie. it could be drawn to the ill part of someone. But I believe I'm kinda working with ethereal beings when I put out this request.

3d) I imagine myself travelling to someone and giving them a loving message or a hug.

3e) I could wish for instantanteous recovery or I could wish for gradual recovery.

3f)I could wish for complete cure or I could wish for an improvement of symptoms.

And as above it's the same for mental and emotional.

Negative Vibes

'Also, if praying for people worked, would strangers praying against them cause them to become sicker? Or, as one of my religious friends put it, "Is God is so stupid that he or she would respond to 
popularity contests?"'

I believe we can be stopped from sending negative vibes. I mean if I was God, I would see that as part of my job somehow although it would be time consuming. 

I have heard just two stories of people who wished for death or destruction and it happened. Eg. one guy wished for a helicopter to come down and the next day it did. However this guy committed suicide and they weren't mentally healthy (obviously) at the time and I wasn't there so I can't corroborate that.

However I got really paranoid around this area - when I was first told that negative thoughts travel, I couldn't handle that knowledge and responsibility and went mad.

5 years on, after having been a medium for 5 years and having liver with the knowledge that other beings are only a thought away (basically living in a mental environment where every thought I have can potentially provoke a response from other beings out there) I have learned to deal with this more healthily. I've experimented with and set ground rules, current ones being requesting mental privacy in certain circumstances, only asking for advice from ethereal beings when I need it etc. 

Through trusting my natural, human ability to be nice (I believe all humans are nice deep down), I trust my thoughts to be innately nice. Through working through trauma regularly as and when it occurs and through reminding myself of basic niceties, I avoid any 'nasty' moments.


Does It Work?

I don't honestly know. I don't make a log of successes etc. And how can you ever really know on another person if you're not there to witness what else is going on in their life?

On myself I can definitely definitely say that when I've engaged in self healing, whether it be channeling healing energies to an ill part of my body, massaging said part, getting some rest and shut eye, working on the illness on a psychological or emotional level, or whether it be letting or asking the angels to heal it for me, it has mostly worked.


'Intercessory prayer studies accomplish nothing.'

This is a statement that can easily be academically refuted. 

Something is always accomplished no matter what we do in life. Even if we accomplish death and destruction.

"Believers" won't change their view if further studies are negative, and nonbelievers won't change theirs if additional studies appear positive.'

Once more, this is a statement that can be called into question.

In fact, people do change their beliefs over the course of a lifetime.

Most, if not all of us, will be on a sliding, changeable spectrum between believer and non-believer.

'Prayer may help some people feel reassured when they are worried, but to me it makes more sense to spend one's time and energy on more constructive health-promoting activities.'

Obviously a personal choice here. 

I personally feel that, if prayer and distant healing don't 'work' (the definition of 'work' meaning complete or partial cure of a physical, mental or emotional disease, I assume?) they will confer some benefit to individuals including:


Benefits to the Person doing the Praying / Sending the Healing

-Improved hope, faith, positive thoughts

-Improved feelings of love, creativity, connection

-Increased thoughts about someone, and increased understanding of and feelings of connection to that person:

Praying for someone is a bit like buying them a gift or card, drawing them a picture, sending them a message, liking a status etc - it involves a similar process which is taking the time to think about somebody. 

You can do it briefly, or you can go really in depth, depending on how much time and thought you choose to put in.

-Improved health, as love is a healing hormone (oxytocin), taking the time out to pray can be calming and a relief from a busy day, we can obviously pray for ourself and for what we want in life etc.

Benefits to the Person being Prayed for/Healed

-If someone knows they're being prayed for, that can produce, I believe, the most benefit. (Unless they absolutely hate and have a fear of prayer lol!)

Eg. from:
-Placebo effect
-Improved faith and hope
-Feeling loved and cared for
-Feeling relaxed, like some pressure's been taken off

In some ways, this may be a flaw of some studies - if someone doesn't know they're being prayed for, a lot of placebo-related healing may be being taken away. 

If placebo works, what's wrong with it? Prayer is quick, often free, carbon neutral etc.

If the person doesn't know they're being prayed for:

Well all that's left here is evidence of recovery! But not just that - see below for knock-on effects:

-Full recovery with no remission
-Full recovery with later remission
-Partial recovery
-Recovery of one illness
-Recovery of all illnesses, etc.
-Improved mental/emotional wellbeing which is less easy to quantify

Knock-On Effects

If someone prays for / sends healing to someone they know, without them knowing, it still may have an actual knock on effect because when the person prays for someone they are actively thinking about them. And when we actively think about someone we are more likely to do something real and tangible for them after the prayer.

Eg. imagine I send healing to Tom and he doesn't know it. I imagine a beautiful visualisation where I send loving energy or a hug or something.

This has an effect on my psyche and subconscious etc. making me more likely to hug Tom in real life. Or to send loving energy in real life, eg. in any form - messages, conversation, gifts, a phone call or visit, etc.

In the case of illness, if I imagine a healing scenario, I might see images of possible assistances for recovery eg. an image of Tom doing more exercise, visiting a doctor, eating more fruit and veg etc. And in real life, after I've finished praying, I might end up relating this info to Tom.

And thus, Tom will receive tangible 'healing' eventually through my resultant actions.

Does this make sense?

---Intercessory Prayer is beginners' prayer in some ways (not all). I see myself as moving through my spiritual healing training, from intercessory prayer, (which most of us have been taught in some way), towards distant healing.

Through learning spiritual healing for 7-9 years, via self study and via observing the angels as they work to heal me and others, I see myself as learning to take the pressure off the angels' / ethereal beings' / whatever you like to call them busy schedules and learn their skills, to become one of them kind of, with similar, shared responsibility, on earth. To also work with them and heal in teams if needed. Which is nice and pleasant to do.

Natalie Windsor