There are certain stories that never fail to set the cat amongst the pigeons when they get a public airing. And this afternoon on Liveline, some very ferocious cats were released on some unsuspecting pigeons.
Their ferocity, in this case, was aimed at faith healers.
“He convinced my mother that, within 6 to 12 weeks, she would be cured of any ailment she had. That was in September. Unfortunately, my mother died in February.”
That was the experience of Michael McCauley, whose mother suffered from motor neurone disease and, towards the end of life, was prepared to try anything, however unproven. But their experience with a so-called “faith healer” made Michael's blood boil.
Michael described one of several visits to a particular faith healer who, for the moment, will remain nameless. In the waiting room, they got talking to a woman who said it was her fourth time to visit the healer, and she had been cured of cancer. Later, when he was taking his mother home, Michael noticed this mysterious “patient” outside the practice of the faith healer, embracing him, getting into his car, and driving away with him. A definite “plant”, Michael reckons, very much part of the faith healing business model, for this particular healer at least.
“The stronger the payment, the stronger the cure.”
That was the additional disturbing aspect of Michael’s experience, the claim by the healer that the greater the “donation”, the more likely a cure.
“Before we started, he asked for a “donation”. I give him €50. He told my mother that the Late Late Show were advocating to get him on, but he was too busy. He said that my mother was a fit, healthy woman, that all that was wrong was a bad formation of bones. That he could cure her after a few weeks.”
Unfortunately, that was not to be the case. It was a year ago when these meetings occurred. September, 2015. By February of this year, Michael’s mother had passed away.
On the flipside, Joe Duffy also took a call from another Joe, in this case, a self-described “traditional healer” by the name of Joe Mullally.
“A traditional healer”, asked Joe Duffy. “Does that mean the faith healer?”
“These terms are interchangeable”, came the reply. “Some would call it “spiritual healing.””
“What you are talking about with these spiritual healings, from an orthodox point of view, is based on placebo.”
In the orthodox field, according to Joe Mullally, a lot more research is now going into this particular field, analysing what the placebo effect actually is, how it works and how, on occasion, it can actually cure people. And there is absolutely no doubt, according to Mr Mullally, that it can achieve this very effect.
“What underlies the feeling is that positive belief. It’s like when people have a cure from a saint, and there are saints in orthodox tradition. It is that motivation from positivity.”
Of course, healers don’t heal everybody, according to Joe Mullaly. And most “healers” are far more concerned with providing a service to people, even a comforting service, rather than making any serious money. He was also adamant that therapies labelled “natural healing” or “complementary” or “alternative”, should act as a support to orthodox medicine, not as a replacement.
On that, we certainly concur.
But, just as in other areas of life, there are some unscrupulous people. And given how vulnerable people are when facing life-threatening illnesses, there is a desperation that can be easy to prey on.
“No natural healer I know would work in that way. Any type of natural healing as therapy, is meant to be a support to orthodox medicine.”
Unsurprisingly, Michael McCauley disagreed. His experience of a faith healer involved a very blunt, unsophisticated request for money, with the level of payment directly linked to the chances of a cure.
“My mother had motor neurone disease, and there is no cure for it. That man should never have told us that he could cure my mother.”
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