When most people get sick, they turn to the official practice of medicine, in the form of a licensed doctor or nurse. One step beneath them in prestige is alternative medicine, which usually comes in the form of practices accepted by those outside the Western world, but which has official acceptance somewhere else, or during some other era. With these options open, it is worth exploring why people choose spiritual doctor healing, which has less respect than either of them.
Spiritual healing refers to strategies that depend entirely upon the assistance of invisible agents. It is often the last hope for many desperate people who've tried everything officially sanctioned. Frequently, it is also the refuge of those who are less interested in relief from some ailment than they are in seeing a miracle happen. The illness might be simply an opportunity to see that miracle.
Assistance from supernatural agents is often requested by people who suffer from pain. People often seek it out to solve profoundly personal afflictions involving sexuality and other sensitive areas of life. Mental health issues and ordinary, daily misfortune also inspire many who suffer them to seek spiritual solutions to their afflictions.
Some people who look to help from the spiritual plane are not seeking cures for health concerns, at least not in any sense most would recognize. They seek shielding from what they understand to be malevolent spirits. If the spirit has gained control of the patient's mind, it could be decided that an exorcism is the only solution.
Those who seek entirely supernatural sources of relief should understand clearly that their chosen method lacks official scientific explanation or sanction. It and they themselves often face public mockery, including dedicated debunkers. This mockery is often funded by mainstream medicine, which is motivated both by concern over public health and by a desire to monopolize the money prospective patients are willing to spend on their health.
Unsurprisingly, the bulk of faith healers draw their clientele from those are either scientifically unaware or perhaps a bit too aware for their own good. There is a persistent minority of the public that is suspicious of what is perceived to be a calcified, corrupt medical establishment. Spiritualists make their professional name based upon based upon both word-of-mouth referrals and dazzling salesmanship.
There are many techniques resorting to the supernatural. Faith healing is a staple of many charismatic church services. Usually this is accomplished by the minister's laying on of hands and appealing to the holy spirit. This is a highly public act, and is at least as much performance as therapy.
Witchcraft involves deep knowledge of herbs, stones, and other commonly found objects. It was once covert, with its practitioners often facing death if exposed. Today it is open, one of the fastest growing religions in America, and commonly called upon for all manner of relief. Voodoo has a West African and Haitian basis, and with that the prestige of the exotic. It calls upon a wide variety of deities, saints, and other spiritual entities, and is a favorite source for the control of evil spirits.
Spiritual healing refers to strategies that depend entirely upon the assistance of invisible agents. It is often the last hope for many desperate people who've tried everything officially sanctioned. Frequently, it is also the refuge of those who are less interested in relief from some ailment than they are in seeing a miracle happen. The illness might be simply an opportunity to see that miracle.
Assistance from supernatural agents is often requested by people who suffer from pain. People often seek it out to solve profoundly personal afflictions involving sexuality and other sensitive areas of life. Mental health issues and ordinary, daily misfortune also inspire many who suffer them to seek spiritual solutions to their afflictions.
Some people who look to help from the spiritual plane are not seeking cures for health concerns, at least not in any sense most would recognize. They seek shielding from what they understand to be malevolent spirits. If the spirit has gained control of the patient's mind, it could be decided that an exorcism is the only solution.
Those who seek entirely supernatural sources of relief should understand clearly that their chosen method lacks official scientific explanation or sanction. It and they themselves often face public mockery, including dedicated debunkers. This mockery is often funded by mainstream medicine, which is motivated both by concern over public health and by a desire to monopolize the money prospective patients are willing to spend on their health.
Unsurprisingly, the bulk of faith healers draw their clientele from those are either scientifically unaware or perhaps a bit too aware for their own good. There is a persistent minority of the public that is suspicious of what is perceived to be a calcified, corrupt medical establishment. Spiritualists make their professional name based upon based upon both word-of-mouth referrals and dazzling salesmanship.
There are many techniques resorting to the supernatural. Faith healing is a staple of many charismatic church services. Usually this is accomplished by the minister's laying on of hands and appealing to the holy spirit. This is a highly public act, and is at least as much performance as therapy.
Witchcraft involves deep knowledge of herbs, stones, and other commonly found objects. It was once covert, with its practitioners often facing death if exposed. Today it is open, one of the fastest growing religions in America, and commonly called upon for all manner of relief. Voodoo has a West African and Haitian basis, and with that the prestige of the exotic. It calls upon a wide variety of deities, saints, and other spiritual entities, and is a favorite source for the control of evil spirits.