Healing is a gift of God. Just as the repair process of the body proceeds with unhurried speed on its own - assisted by medical and alternative means as the occasion arises - so the flow of healing power that infuses the minister comes as pure grace, an unmerited gift, to and through him to his neighbour in need. God's nature is unceasing self-giving, seen in Christian terms in the sacrifice of Jesus for the restoration of the fallen world, for its reconciliation to God, who lowers himself to take on an earthly form so as to enter into the full extent of pain and suffering that is the lot of the mortal creature.
To whom the gift of healing flows, the power of Christ descends. The minister is God's servant, and at once he assumes the Master's mantle as did Elisha that of Elijah. The mantle establishes his authority, but it also encloses a share of prophetic responsibility: to whom much is given, much is expected. A gift not generously distributed to the world rapidly turns sour in the one who is its steward, corrupting his personality with vain imaginings of supremacy with its attendant grandeur. This is the price of the gift: the burden of its use in an indifferent world that treads its pearls into the mud of garish sensationalism and thoughtless ingratitude. The people do not know what they are doing to the minister, but his gift must continue to be circulated.
There is a price to be paid by both the minister and the one he treats. The price demanded of the minister is an immaculate life-style: decency in his behaviour and chastity in his private living. It could be objected at once that many successful healers lead lives of gross indiscipline - among their members there are those who eat, drink and smoke too much and also some whose sexual habits are far from exemplary. But their peculiar gift is a surface, contact one and indeed many of their number typify the ministry Jesus himself might have enjoyed had he submitted to the satanic temptations of performing miracles in the wilderness. His psychic powers could indeed have turned stones into bread and demonstrated remarkable ascendancy over the natural order so as to assert his mastery in the world. In the end he would have been shown as a psychic virtuoso of the type we have already considered; his master would have been the devil, the prince of lies capable of seducing the very elect when they discard prayer and cultivate self-assertive mental powers. This rather round condemnation does not imply that contact healing is itself a bad thing, but simply that it is morally neutral. Like the various physical and intellectual gifts that illuminate individual personality, it can be used selfishly or wisely: for the practitioner's own ends or for the good of the greater community. If it is indeed spiritually based, dedicated to God and to one's fellow-creatures without price or reservation, it is its own blessing both to the giver and to those who receive.
In no field is the wariness of the serpent and the innocence of the dove (to quote Matthew 10:16) as necessary as in healing work, because irrespective of the minister's spiritual allegiance, there is a strong involvement of psychic forces in the operations. It seems that the Holy Spirit works through the vast angelic hosts as well as the Communion of Saints; according to the person's character, he is likely to draw to himself the corresponding intermediary agents: a selfish disposition brings him close to the forces of evil, whereas a selfless one will draw to him the powers of light that illuminate his path and direct him in the way of resurrection. We do not need to command the forces in the intermediate psychic zone; all that is required of us is a purity of intent that allows the forces of light to enter and transfigure us as a preliminary to our healing work with others on the way. The minister of healing gives allegiance to God alone, not to any earthly power nor to any intermediary entity in the psychic dimension. Both the spiritualist and the esotericist tend to be too closely involved in this area with their guides and masters to whose existence we have already alluded, so that they block the presence of the Deity. It may well be that both guide and master have an objective reality, but if they are sincerely on the side of light, they will point away from themselves to the One who is the source of all that exists. The minister of Renewal is, however, equally flawed even if he has no doubt that the power infusing him is the very Spirit of God. As we read in 1 John 4:1-3, we should not trust any and every spirit, but should rather test them to see whether they are of God or the evil one, for among those who have gone out into the world there are many falsely inspired prophets.
The true spirit acknowledges the incarnation of Christ, whereas the false one makes no such profession of faith. The true spirit, in fact, does not simply make a theological affirmation; his gentle, loving nature leads the person in the way of Christ, so that he becomes a true exemplar of the Lord in his life of love, joy and peace that flows out to the whole created universe. As St Teresa of Avila admonished herself and her community, "Remember, Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours; yours are the eyes through which is to look out Christ's compassion to the world; yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good, and yours are the hands with which he is to bless us now". This is the authentic spirit of healing. If the minister brings the light of God into the lives of those whom he tends, he is indeed inspired by the Holy Spirit. Such a person is himself holy: in him God works and shows himself, so that through the minister the congregation is made holy also.
This picture of the holy one can seem almost outside the range of ordinary humanity in its spiritual demands and aspiration, but its form should gradually embrace and transfigure the personalities of all who are doing God's work in a materialistic universe. If a person with a healing gift works on his own without reference to a guiding community of some soundly based religious denomination, he may for a time flourish, but in due course he tends to become very isolated, not only in his style of living but also from the trends of contemporary society as well as universal spirituality. This tendency was very obvious in one of my mentors, Ronald Beesley, whom I mentioned earlier on. Unlike many individualistic healers, he maintained a strictly chaste way of life - indeed, as is so common in this type of situation, he had continually to evade the fulsome embraces of admirers, mostly women, that would have effectively strangled his work. He was supported unceasingly by a small team of devoted helpers, for his exquisite psychic sensitivity drove him away from the masses. Nevertheless, his teaching, excellent as it was (coming from purely inspirational sources), could have been broadened with profit had he been more involved in the spiritual scene around him. To be sure, he knew enough about the obduracy of the Church from his experiences as a youth, and in addition there was no conspicuously spiritual congregation near him, but he could nevertheless have been strengthened and enlightened by more participation in worship with a rank-and-file body of believers. I have no doubt that Jesus himself learned much from the folk around him, including the sinners at the festivities he attended, in his daily ministry. A good teacher not only gives forth the doctrine but is also prepared to receive the impact it makes on his audience - and a bad impact is often more enlightening than fulsome flattery by unthinking devotees who hang precariously on each word proceeding from the mouth of the master.
The price exacted from the healing minister is ceaseless humility, and there are few in the field who can truly understand this. The medical practitioner, as a rule, is naiävely assured of his mastery, and he seldom manages to communicate with his patient on any level other than sharp authority, tinged on occasion with kindly condescension. Personal experience of illness, often in his own family, together with increasing age tends to soften this imperious attitude. Those involved in alternative therapies start by being less dogmatic - quite often they are led into this area of practice through personal misfortune that has opened their eyes to the inadequacy of the orthodox medical approach. Whatever may be the effectiveness of their particular therapy, they too may become intolerant of criticism, since their particular approach can easily become an idol. But it is in the realm of "spiritual healing" that dogmatism frequently attains its peak, as it did to a considerable extent in the instance of Ronald Beesley. The metaphysical stance of the practitioner becomes his means of identification and sometimes his very god. This is especially the case of those healing ministers who have a strongly religious base. God becomes their servant, and they often judge others according to the narrow tenets of their faith. It is only when their credal god apparently fails them - as when a client dies despite all their ministrations and prayers - that the true God reveals himself to them as he did to the Prodigal Son in his moment of destitution. Only when they know that all they believed is vain, can that belief blossom into an understanding that illuminates the portals of their mind so that they can at last see the Living God. The Job experience is a necessary part of the growth of all authentic healing ministers. This theme can be stated in another way: the ego of the healing minister must be absolutely thrown into silence before the light of God can truly illuminate his personality and transfigure his gift to universal service.
It comes about that the individualistic type of healer has to be reconciled more and more with the sources of religious orthodoxy around him in order to broaden his sympathies, while the religiously connected minister of healing has to shed much of his unthinking conventionality and enter the wilderness of contemplative solitude. Truth is not to be found exclusively either in the halls of religion or the teachings of a particular group of practitioners. God alone is truth, as he is also love and beauty. Religious observances and esoteric doctrines may both show the way to the ultimate being of God, as may also orthodox medical practice in a more earthly way; indeed, they form a trinity of approach to the divine presence, and any one is not to be exalted above the other two. But God is above all forms and ideologies. He nearly always shows himself when the mind is completely open to the present moment, knowing only that it knows nothing. All human practices have to be eclipsed by the cloud of dark divinity (similar to the cloud that filled the temple of Jerusalem when Isaiah received his call to ministry, or the cloud into which Christ was taken up at the moment of his ascension to the Father) before their intentions are healed of sectarian animosity. It is at this point that full healing occurs, primarily of the individual but ultimately of the wider community also.
Therefore it comes about that the healing ministry demands an aspiring integrity on the part of those practising it, so that their innocence may be the way of the knowledge of God for all who encounter them. There is no price, no charge, for who could demand payment for a divine gift! It could be in order for an uncommitted contact healer and also one involved in esoteric pursuits to claim recompense, for they are using an essentially natural gift for the benefit of those who require their help. But a truly spiritual healer has had his gift consecrated in the presence of God so that it attains a stamp of divine authority. The natural psychic talent has become fully spiritualized, even divinized, and so its true master is God alone. "Have no fear, little flock; for your Father has chosen to give you the Kingdom" (Luke 12:32). The passage continues with the admonition to sell our possessions and give to charity, providing ourselves with purses that do not wear out and never-failing treasure in heaven, beyond the reach of intruding thief or destructive moth. Where our treasure is, there also will be our heart. The virtuous Rich Young Man could not make this gesture of faith, whereas the venal tax-gatherer Zacchaeus could do it without request once he had received healing forgiveness from Christ.
In any situation of spiritual fellowship the experience of mutual sharing on the deepest level is its own reward. It is for this reason that the spiritual aspirant looks neither for personal reward nor for positive results of his actions. He has been afforded the privilege of conveying the Holy Spirit to those around him, and in turn the same Spirit flows with redoubled strength to him and through him. Of course, it may be insisted that we all, no matter how spiritual may be our aspirations, have to keep body and soul together. Jesus tells us to set our minds on God's Kingdom and his justice before everything else, and all the rest that we need for everyday existence such as food, drink and clothing, will come to us as well. In practical terms this promises that we will be able to ply our particular trade or occupation with so improved a standard of performance and with such excellent results that our material problems will be solved by our own efforts, fully infused as we are by the Holy Spirit who is God's special gift to us. In other words, our daily work will provide our financial support: some of us may be professional ministers of religion and others industrious laymen with our own particular sources of income. I have no doubt that it is inadvisable to depend on a healing gift for one's subsistence, unless the practice is embraced in a professional counselling or psychotherapeutic ambience. A healing practice is bound to demand results if money is exchanged, and the strain on the conscientious minister can be intolerable. Less scrupulous healers have little compunction in battening on incurably ill people, like the medium who rejected doctors in the case of motor neurone disease afflicting a friend that I have already described. I have known similar situations in frightened people with retinitis pigmentosa, an hereditary eye disease that leads inexorably to progressive visual loss in youth. Money has been paid, but as might have been expected, there was no improvement in sight. When I am involved in such a situation, I do all I can to heal in the name of God, but the real healing comes from the relationship struck with the disquieted person, so that whatever may transpire in the future, he at least knows he has a friend at hand who will not let him down. Needless to say, there is no charge for this service. To be fair to many healers, it is ignorance as much as greed that directs their efforts to the incurably ill whom they are not helping. Hope springs eternal in the hearts of healer and client alike. But at least one should know what one is doing under such circumstances.
The vagaries of the healing ministry are immense. Jesus healed many people, but he was not able to heal himself when he hung crucified between two criminals. St Paul, the great proponent of the doctrine of justification by faith, must have been God's instrument for the healing of many people around him. And yet his own "thorn in the flesh" (identified by some as a sharp physical pain or some other equally incapacitating malady) stayed with him. He prayed for release on three occasions, but to no avail. Nevertheless, the message he received was worth more than any physical relief "My grace is all you need; power comes to its full strength in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). He goes on to affirm his joy in the things that are his weakness, for when he is weak, then is he strong. Personally I am relieved that the great Apostle to the Gentiles did not receive a healing, for now he is a witness to the many sick people who also have to proceed as best they can, unrelieved by any of the available healing agencies. The humiliation of his malady cut Paul down to size when he had had a not infrequent mystical insight into the nature of reality, or when he had scathingly rebuked his obtuse disciples a little too ferociously. Then he remembered that he too had been a persecutor of the Christian community at an earlier period.
In healing work it is not uncommon for some distinctly peripheral person to get relief while the pillars of the community remain untouched. Why did I, a mere visitor to Constance Peters' group, receive a dramatic healing while her long-standing supporters did not have any spectacular manifestation? Perhaps it was because my own participation in the ministry of healing was imminent, and I required both the experience of a personal healing and a demonstration of the way I was to proceed in the future. Certainly people who have been the recipients of remarkable healings, whether at church services or in the personal ministry of a practitioner, not infrequently are converted to God in Christ, and have played their part subsequently in furthering the ministry. But sometimes "Christ" is a universal power behind all creation (the cosmic Christ) rather than the personal presence beloved by the committed Christian. In life both aspects of the Logos have to be integrated: incarnation is to be universalized, for no one knows the full measure of God. Whatever we say speaks more about ourselves than about the Deity, who shows himself in the world of created forms as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but whose essence is concealed in the cloud of unknowing. On the other hand, the Godhead can remain an intriguing philosophical category until it is incarnated in the lives of ordinary people; God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself (2 Corinthians 5:19). It is certain that the true minister of healing has to "put on Christ", as St Paul would say (Galatians 3:27).
The recipient of healing also has a price to pay: a new life dedicated to the Highest. Even if he cannot accept the concept of a personal God, his life should be guided by the highest values which are summed up in personal integrity. The last five of the Ten Commandments are a useful series of guidelines: inflicting no hurt on our fellow-creatures by killing (including character assassination and cruelly destructive criticism), committing adultery, stealing (including the appropriation of other people's ideas without due acknowledgement), lying with hurtful intent, and grasping after other people's possessions. As St Paul reminds us, it is only by love that these requirements of the good life can be met, since a person of love could not possibly hurt anyone else for selfish reasons. Love, too, has its severe side, for it must unmask all that is inadequate for the sake of the beloved. "My son, do not spurn the Lord's correction or take offence at his reproof; for those whom he loves the Lord reproves, and he punishes a favourite son" (Proverbs 3:11-12). In other words, love is not soft and sentimental, let alone biased and untruthful.
It is probable that much misfortune is the result of personal inadequacy in the past - a less severe term than sin, which all too often has overtones of pious judgement by those who are no better inwardly than the victim of the affliction. But the experience of the pain and the joy of its relief can be the way forward to the new life of personal integrity which is the measure of a true healing experience. Other examples of misfortune cannot in honesty be ascribed to personal failings on the part of the afflicted ones, but are simply part of the collective, communal life we are bound to know and the responsibility that accrues from that participation. Here the innocent person (if indeed there are any completely innocent ones in the life of eternity) discovers the privilege of bearing the pain of the collective multitude for the sake of its spiritual evolution. All this gradually dawns on the sufferer as he transcends the phase of rebellion and enters into a greater relationship with all that lies around him. At last the scales can drop off his eyes, and he may see fully for the first time in his life. The lesson may be hard but the prize is beyond price, as Job learned at the end of his strange saga. The minister of healing plays his greatest role in being with the afflicted one in his travail. The healing art is, paradoxically, often at its noblest when no manifest change is wrought on a bodily level and the minister enters into creative suffering with the one he tends. This is the supreme privilege of the ministry - and also of the affliction, though, of course, the sufferer would be unable to see it in this light at the dark time of his agony. The gift is recognized later, usually in the life that stretches before us all after death.
The way of personal integrity starts with awareness born of gratitude for the gift that has been received. In a famous healing episode recorded in the Gospel, Jesus cured ten men of a repulsive skin disease, but only one, an outcast Samaritan, had the awareness to thank God for what he had received; the other nine went on their way completely absorbed in themselves, almost as if nothing unusual had happened. In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the priest and the Levite pass on the other side of the road where a man lies beaten up by robbers. His presence impinged marginally on their awareness, and in any case they were too busy with their own thoughts to pay much attention to his plight. It was once again an outcast Samaritan who took pity on the man, because he saw him with awareness and could easily identify himself with him.
Cleansed awareness is the way forward to a dedication of one's life to God and one's fellow-creatures. In the end the one who has been healed should become a minister of healing in his own right. This does not mean so much entering into a healing practice as being a focus of healing for all those around one. I know too many self-styled healers who deplete everyone in their vicinity by their very presence. It is ironical that some of these depleters have considerable theoretical spiritual knowledge, often priding themselves on it and tending to judge others from a self-appointed seat of authority. Anyone who is ill, however, learns to dread their entry into the sickroom. By contrast, the true agent of healing gives profligately of himself by his very presence; Jesus being drained by the touch of the woman with a bleeding condition of the womb is a classical example of such constantly available healing power. As the recipient enters a new dimension of health, so he ought to be able to give something of what he has received in the course of his daily work when his thoughts are directed to the matters immediately confronting him. He is centred less on his ego and more on his soul, which is in psychic contact with the souls of all other people. We are indeed in a state of psychic osmosis with the created whole, so that anything that affects even a single person cannot fail to have repercussions on the wider body of humanity and indeed of all creation.
The life-style of the one who has received a healing grace should be simpler than before. Simplicity is a lovely virtue. It is unencumbered and entire of itself, needing no accretion to complete it, pure and undefiled. His diet should be wholesome but plain, appetizing but not stimulating the senses or dulling the mind. Many spiritual aspirants favour a vegetarian type of diet, as much as a protest against animal slaughter as for a cleansing and heightening of psychical acuity and function. Others, no less dedicated, do not reject meat, though, on the whole, they find it best to restrict their intake to white meat and fish in addition to dairy produce, vegetables and fruit. In some cancer support groups a taxing diet is (or has been) prescribed - taxing both to prepare and to eat. It needs to be said, however, that currently there is no scientific evidence of any special diet benefiting the various diseases at present beyond the help of orthodox medical treatment. Apart from the simplicity already commended, it is best for an ailing person to eat what he prefers, but always in moderation. The Edwardian music-hall artiste Marie Lloyd had it right in the title of one of her songs: a little of what you fancy does you good. A friend of mine, of profound spirituality, suffered such severe stomach injuries during the Second World War that she is unable to digest vegetarian fare, but has survived precariously on a diet consisting largely of red meat, especially steak. As long as we can control the various commodities entering our field of consciousness, whether food and drink, conversation, entertainment or art, we shall not go far astray; hedonistic gluttony on the one hand, and bizarre, cranky diets on the other take their toll of a person's health. The body has its own inbuilt wisdom which far too often is violated in adult life by the habits of smoking, alcohol abuse, gluttony, and also a neglect of eating in the face of the various tensions of living that we all experience in one form or another.
If one lives simply, one has a greater reserve of strength for the really important issues of life and death. Less time and energy are expended in emotional turmoil as well as bodily ill-health. Attached to God, as Jesus says, we need not strive for other things to fulfil us, whether they be possessions, reputation or even human relationships. They pour down upon us as a blessing the less we covet them. I take great comfort from the oracle of Malachi 3:10: "Put me to the proof, says the Lord of Hosts, and see if I do not open windows in the sky and pour a blessing on you as long as there is need." The relationship is the blessing, and its fruits are abundant in the new life of sober awareness and grateful dedication to God and to one's neighbour.