Faith Healing

[Rev. Joshua Snider]

One Love Brothers and Sisters!

The subject of faith healing is one that is very near and dear to my heart. My half Sister that I grew up with is half Missanabi Cree ( Cree is a Canadian Algonquian Native American Stock ) we both grew up here in Oddawa (close relatives of the Ojibway [Chippewa]) country surrounded by a very rich Native American Healing tradition. They call their religion Midewewin, which means healing, or perhaps more accurately medicine.

My family is Mennonite, the faith I was raised. The Mennonite and the Amish, which grew out of the Mennonite Church, have both preserved an ancient form of Indo-European faith healing. In our Native Pennsylvania German it is called ,,Braucherei”, which is a noun that means use or using. In English it is sometimes called Powwowing. It employs verbal spells and is used to treat all sorts of serious mallodies in humans and cattle. These Spells are practically identical in construction rhythm and meter to the Merseberg spells or charms of Old High German and Sanscrit spells recorded in the Rig Veda.

On first impression this may sound like very superstitious hogwash. But Dr. James W. Herrick has written two wonderful pieces on the subject of faith healing and illustrates some of the reasons how and why it works. One of these works is his doctorial dissertation “Iriquois Medical Botany” Presented to the State University of New York at Albany 1977 , available from UMI Dissertation Services Ann Arbor Michigan www.umi.com and also Syracuse University Press ISBN 0-8156-0464-5 ( although this reprint from Syracuse does not include the word study on the Iriquois language roots). And the much shorter piece “Placebos, Psychosomatic and Psychogenic Illness and Psychotherapy: Their Theorized Cross-cultural Development. The Psychological Record 26: 327-342” 1976. This last piece, which is probably better for the purposes of this topic, can probably easily be requested from any Library someone has a Card or account at for no cost ( a photocopy that they would be able to keep ).

The just of these studies is that someone who would seek a medicine man type of health actor would already be seriously ill. If the body’s natural defenses and immune system had not been able to get a handle on the ailment after sometime the whole psychosomatic complex of the individual would go into a type of shock. A medicine man type of health actor seeks to first reduce stress and to bring the individual's being out of shock so that the individuals natural defenses can function properly again. After this has been done the health actor can then treat the ailment directly. Much of modern medicine focuses only on treating ailments directly even though, if someone has sought a professional health actor, it is quite likely that they have suffered long enough for their system to go into this type of shock. He suggests that stress reducing therapeutic treatments could likely improve the results of modern medicine practices.

One love,
Joshua
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[malloryjade]

Thank you, I believe in it myself. I happen to be 1/8th Chippewa. My husband has Cherokee in him I'm big on non traditional medicines. When I found out she may be ill my first thoughts were about faith healing. Your a very kind man Rev. Joshua
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Happy to be here.

[Ferre]

Thanks for writing this down for us Brother Joshua, It is indeed great information and very useful. one of the most powerful means for us to heal is our own willpower, something which is very under-estimated in our modern medicine culture and with actually can't be over-estimated. our ancestors knew this very well, something modern medical science seem to have forgotten.
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[Ferre]

Thanks for writing this down for us Brother Joshua, It is indeed great information and very useful. one of the most powerful means for us to heal is our own willpower, something which is very under-estimated in our modern medicine culture and with actually can't be over-estimated. our ancestors knew this very well, something modern medical science seem to have forgotten.
_________________
█ Please read the Board Rules and Posting, and you
█ Radio Free Amsterdam
People who know truth, speak truth.
Those who don't, quote scriptures.