Does Spiritual Healing Really Work?

Despite the growing and incalculable market that makes up the modern medical field, there is a slightly smaller yet prominent faction of individuals who have taken a different path when it comes to their health. Spiritual healing is a branch of alternative medicine maintaining the belief that a healer can channel healing energy into a patient without the use of modern medical devices or remedies. Spiritual healing often proposes that imbalances within the body interfere with the body’s “energy” and result in illness. Thus, through a spiritual process that re-balances the body’s energy-field, health can be restored.

To those that view this form of medicine as legitimate, there is a thought process behind the belief. The idea proposes that humans are spiritual beings, not physical bodies. Our bodies are vessels through which we experience the physical world and nothing more. Not only are our bodies just tools used to interact with the physical world, but the entire concept of the physical world and our physical bodies is an illusion. The material world is a façade; only our spiritual self is real. As a result, aging, sickness and even death are rendered illusionary. Pain is only a figment that our physical bodies perpetuate—our spiritual selves only experience pain because our physical selves believe it is real.

For many, the concept of spiritual awareness and physical illusion is preposterous. It seems hard to believe—pain appears to be real (it certainly feels real). We humans immediately treat any physical ailment that we experience with medical responses: from ear aches to cancer, we most often willMeditation seek a doctor’s advice and almost always receive pharmaceuticals or surgical services as a result.

For the spiritual healers of the world, even when these medical treatments appear to work, this too is an illusion. Modern medicine only alleviates symptoms or produces cures because we humans believe them to be doing so. Therefore, these treatments are just illusions of a cure, rather than an actual cure. Sure it appears real, but these treatments are actually ignoring the true, underlying cause of disease or the perceived physical pain. What causes ailments if it doesn’t come from the physical world? Fear, guilt, stress, anger, resentment and other negative emotions are the reason our physical bodies experience pain. Negative emotions held inside our spiritual minds respond with what we perceive as physical malady. These emotions send biochemicals through the body, leading to physical ailments ranging from the common cold to cancer.

Despite the disputation of spiritual healing, many individuals around the world have taken great comfort and found true success in the world of spiritual and energetic healing. If our bodies are spiritual vessels, then our pain is a result of spiritual malfunction—thus, treatable and curable with spiritual guidance, awakening, strengthening, etc. Rather than perpetuate the illusion that our physical state is real thus our physical pain is real, why not try a holistic approach such as meditation, prayer, and a positive emotional outlook to cleanse the body and heal the soul?