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I told my longtime friend Henry MacLeod, who was the managing editor of The Seattle Times, about my plans to observe the healers. He said that the healers were of great interest to many Times readers, and that he would like to print my reports and comments about the trip. So, in my role as cub reporter, I wanted to report accurately what I observed. |
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In retrospect, I didn't consider the healers as contenders to help me with my headache, because I doubted their ability to do anything helpful. I believed it was "faith healing," and I didn't have the faith. After all, I was a straight-A student in high school, and my family was known for its brains. My father and brothers were distinguished in their science-oriented fields. We didn't do religion. . . . |
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The Philippine healers were Catholic Spiritualists. At that time in my life, I was entirely ignorant about the power of faith. For me, the fact that someone actually believed in something like an active, intelligent, organizing Principle in the universe outside their own ego made them suspect. And the idea that prayer might be efficacious beyond the placebo factor was one I could not understand. I had never heard an adult discuss why Catholicism was meaningful to her. I certainly had never known a Spiritualist before. Years later I learned that some of the world's most gifted healers were and are highly intelligent, ethical Spiritualists, who believe that they are used as channels by God for healing. |
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I thought my headache would go away by itself eventually, just like they always had before. The most important reason why I never considered going to the healers for help, even out of skeptical curiosity, was that I knew from what I'd already seen that long lines of people would be patiently waiting their turn to have a private session with one of them. As they congregated in the lobbies and elevators of the hotels in which the Manila healers operated, I had overheard hopeful pilgrims discussing their catastrophic ailments. Most suffered from debilitating, life-threatening, or highly painful illnesses. They had anxiously anticipated their trip to see the healers for many months. I was not about to mention my headache to anyone. I was grateful for my healthful mobility, until that night when the pain got so bad that I lost all desire to live. |
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