Terror Tuesday: Psychic Healing or Psychic Caca?

It’s another Terror Tuesday—Man, you’d think the neighbors would be used to a guy with an ax peeking in their windows by now…jeez, nothin’ to freak out over, is it? Is it the hockey mask? I mean, whot?

Anyhoo, read this week: The Vampire Diaries #1 by LJ Smith. I probably should not have watched the show before reading the book, because there’s that inevitable clash of imagery and plot sequence in my head going on the entire way. Wasn’t bad, read fairly fast and nobody sparkled. The main problem I had, however, was with the book’s version of Elena, who is somewhat unlikable and reminded me of far too many of the snooty little t**ts I went to high school with. And while you recover from the fact I almost said the word t**t—whoops, there I go again—I would also say I prefer the show over the book, though even there I am a bit lukewarm (it has improved on the initial episode.) And again with the animal killing…ugh, I am totally tired of horror writers thinking that cliché is a good plot device. However, it is a fun read otherwise and I would recommend it. The author does a nice job with some of the tense scenes.

Screened: The Fourth Kind…oh, boy…I really should know better. But I keep falling for it anyway. Movie about a psychologist studying alien abductions who becomes a victim or “something”, either of alien visitations or her own psychosis. Typical visitation sequences interspersed with documentary type footage from the supposedly “true” incidents that occurred in Nome, Alaska. This movie is one long borefest. At least what I didn’t sleep through was. Can’t recommend it for anything.

I’ve never given much credence to psychic healing. I had a relative who was a practitioner, sat in on a few of the sessions and even submitted to it for a back injury. It didn’t work, though the excuse was, “Well, it won’t if you don’t believe it will work.” My answer to that is a question: Why not, if it is a genuine physical manifestation of psychic power from a separate source, in this case the healer? Why should the patient need belief or any thought in or of the “phenomenon” if it exists as its own entity?

Truth is, in my opinion, one does not need belief because it either does not exist or the majority of healers claiming to have the power are deluded, liars or charlatans preying on the desperation of those suffering. If there are genuine healers who have, indeed, cured folks of dread diseases, they have not be verified as of yet, and perhaps do not want to be (given the deluge of ill folks who’d descend upon them). And if belief is necessary for the healing…then, sorry, no power comes from the healer; it comes from the within the individual, who somehow taps into the mind or body’s natural healing ability.

Classic psychic healing involves a wide rage of techniques: prayer, invoking the help of God, deities, spirits, even deceased relatives; the administration of blessed medicines, projection of will and laying of hands. The particular seasons I witnessed/participated in involved sitting in a chair, while the healer placed a hand on the back of my neck. I was supposed to feel rushes of heat (often the healer will tell their victims, er, I mean, patients what they will feel so the person thus expecting actually experiences the sensation. Power of suggestion, anyone?) I felt sweaty palms…and an evil degree of frustration from the healer.

Psychic healing has a fairly long and complex history I could write multiple articles about, but for me it comes down to one thing: while I think anything that increases a person’s belief in healing, thus mobilizing the body’s own defenses against disease—as long as it is not at the expense of necessary medicine or conventional treatment, however dicey that might be—is a good thing, I have zero tolerance for those who take advantage of the desperation of the ill, especially children. Perhaps there are some genuine practitioners…if so, I’d like to meet one because the rest give me a pain right in the bumper…

The Chloe Files: Kicking Evil’s ass one demon at a time…
In the tradition of Sookie Stackhouse and Buffy, The Vampire Slayer…
In paperback from http://www.bn.com/