The Uncommon Touch: Investigation of Spiritual Healing - Softcover

Harpur, Tom

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0771039468 ISBN 13: 9780771039461

Publisher: McClelland & Stewart Inc., 1995

Synopsis

Long ago – before there were doctors, pharmacists, and hospitals – religion and medicine were one, and physical and spiritual ailments were treated alike. Most world religions practised healing, including the early Christian Church, which followed Jesus Christ’s examples of miraculous healings of the lame and the blind. But, to its cost, the modern Church has largely forgotten its healing role, says Tom Harpur in The Uncommon Touch, a powerful and persuasive investigation of spiritual healing.

Today in the West, medical science and bogus faith-healings have made the idea of spiritual healing almost laughable. Yet the ancient practice of the laying-on of hands is not only still performed, it is now gaining credibility, even among physicians and other sceptics, most notably in Britain.

In The Uncommon Touch, Harpur investigates the religious roots of spiritual healing and looks at the remarkable work and ideas of modern healers. He also describes the many scientific studies that demonstrate clearly the healing and nurturing power of this astonishing phenomenon and verify that something more than the power of suggestion is at work. These include experiments showing increased growth in yeasts that have received the laying-on of hands and documentation of the effectiveness of Therapeutic Touch, a technique used by more than 30,000 nurses in North America.

Using the spirit to help heal the body’s ills is an old idea – one whose time has come again.
From the Hardcover edition.

About this title

Synopsis

Challenging both Western status quo religion and medicine, this book uncovers strong scientific evidence confirming the phenomenon of spiritual healing - a study for both the sceptic and the believer. The book looks at healing by examining the limits of medical science, taking examples of spiritual healing that cannot be medically explained. Challenging doctors and other health-care professionals to look beyond conventional approaches, it confronts the medical frauds, such as TV faith healers and others like them. From his research, the author discovers that spiritual healing is gaining new respect within the Christian Church and among medical practitioners and patients, most notably in Britain. His discoveries lead him to conclude that all healing is ultimately self-healing, noting that "the forces of traditional healing and conventional medicine are getting closer all the time." Harpur introduces the reader to the modern healers responsible for spiritual healing's new-found regard. From the work of Geoffrey Mowatt, who was commissioned in 1942 by the Archbishop of Canterbury to serve as his official healer, to the findings of McGill University professor Bernard Grad and the healer Oskar Estebany, who experimented with the laying-on of hands on wounded mice, Harpur illustrates that something far beyond the power of suggestion is at work. The book also examines the Therapeutic Touch movement proven to boost the body's immune system, and the "laughter" therapy used in various North American hospitals. The investigations conclude by issuing three challenges: to the medical profession to remember that medicine is as much an art as a science, and to stop dismissing non-medical therapies as quackery; to the Christian Churches to remember that Christ's message to his followers was to go preach, teach and heal; and thirdly, to the reader to take back responsibility for bodily and spiritual health and to develop the potential to heal others. Tom Harpur is the author of "Life After Death", "For Christ's Sake" and "God Help Us".

About the Author

A former Rhodes scholar and professor of New Testament studies at Wycliffe College, Toronto, Tom Harpur is also an Anglican priest. He resigned from parish work in 1979 to write full-time in the mass media, in the process extending his “parish” to the whole of Canada. His work in newspapers, television, and his books, notably For Christ’s Sake and Life After Death, have consolidated his reputation as one of Canada’s pre-eminent religious voices and as a sound spiritual guide for modern times.

About this edition

• Publisher: McClelland & Stewart Inc.
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0771039468
• ISBN 13: 9780771039461
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 275