|
Unusual Cures
GLASS EATERS
- The belief that particular people, places and things can heal because of a connection to higher powers is called 'faith healing.' This could derive from belief in a supreme being, prayers, or visits to religious places.
- Hinirang Ng Diyos believe that if they sin they will become ill or experience bad luck. They cannot drink or smoke, nor can they eat pork because they think it lessens their aura.
- Various books discuss faith healing, such as Dr Andrew Weil?s Health and Healing: The Philosophy of Integrative Medicine: "Psychotherapists have written at length about faith healing and even looked for correspondences between it and their own methods. They admit the reality of cures of functional illnesses by faith healers, pointing out that belief is the key factor and emotional excitement the chief technique responsible for any successes, but they cannot see how faith alone can cure an organic disease."
- Authors of The Psychic Healing Book, Amy Wallace and Bill Henkin, say the following about faith healing: "It is a curious thing for us to say, but the less a healer cares about the results of his healing, the more potent a healer he can be. This is because the most powerful healings are affected from a state of true love — fourth chakra affinity — in which the heart is loving for love?s sake alone."
- One type of spiritual healing that is from the Philippines is called psychic surgery. The surgeon takes out diseased tissue from the patient with his or her hands. Some believe chicken parts simulate the removal, which does not leave behind a scar.
EXORCISM
- In Niu.edu's article 'If Your Were Mentally Ill', it states: "If you suffered from a psychological disorder (particularly the more severe forms, such as schizophrenia) during the early periods of the Middle Ages and were treated by a physician or priest you would likely be treated according to the variety of mystical beliefs or to theories related to an excess of certain bodily fluids. Most likely, if you sought treatment or were forced into treatment, you would see a priest and be given an exorcism. Exorcism during the Middle Ages may not correspond to the current perceptions of exorcism we have today. Exorcism would be viewed more like torture today and basically consisted of beatings, starvings, forced eating of substances (foul-tasting, blood, sheep dung) agitating the spirit and causing it to flee the body."
- There are those who interpret the Bible as saying that solely Christians can perform an exorcism, that one person may host several demons, and that animals can also be possessed.
- 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose' is a film based on Anneliese Michel's case. In the early 70's, this young German woman died after several exorcisms. She was said to have grand mal epilepsy. She quit eating and her knees ruptured because of the hundreds of genuflections she obsessively dealt herself. Starvation ended up killing her. Her parents and the priests who performed her exorcisms were convicted of negligent homicide.
- In Hindu there is only one supreme being, which is God, and no counterpart that serves as the evil foil to him or her.
- In film and television the devil has been depicted in many different forms. Among those are South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999), Jack Nicholson in The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Peter Cook in Bedazzled (1967) and Al Pacino in The Devil?s Advocate (1997).
- The Vatican ordered the end of exorcisms and healings in Mass in 2001. It is said this was done to infringe on the spread of 'neo-pentecostal' and 'charismatic' movements.
MARIA LIONZA
- Maria Lionza pilgrims gather around Sorte Mountain, which in 1960 was made a national park. Important spirits are said to exist there.
- While followers of Maria Lionza travel to Sorte all year long, the date of October 12th remains the most important. It celebrates the holiday of Columbus' arrival in Venezuela in 1493.
- Many of Venezuela's key historical figures are considered spirits in Maria Lionza. This religion includes independence leader Simon Bolivar and physician Dr. Jose Gregorio Hernandez as being among those spirits.
- In 1953 a 23-foot statue was erected of Maria Lionza by Dicatator Marcos Perez Jimenez. In 2004 on June 6th, her waist split and she fell backwards to looking up at the sky. This happened only shortly after political opponents in parliament challenged Chavez successfully. There were many who felt it was a warning sign from the goddess of the dangers that come with a divided nation.
|
