Healing by Charms
The Application of Healing Power
There is a great power hidden in the mystery of the repetition of a sacred word, but there is a still greater power in writing a sacred word; because the time taken to write a sacred word carefully is perhaps five times or ten times as long as the time taken to repeat a sacred word. Besides, action completes the thought-power better than speech. In writing a sacred name, it is the completing of a thought that is even more powerful than uttering the word. However, when a person thinks, feels, speaks, and writes, he has developed the thought through four stages and made it powerful. Sufis, therefore, give a charm to the faithful who they think believe in the healing power of the charm.They call it Taviz. The patient keeps it with him night and day, links his thought with the thought of the healer, and feels at every moment that he is being healed.
In India, they put a charm in a silver or gold plate, or keep a charm engraved upon stone or metal.The very fact of realizing that he possesses something in the form of a charm that has a healing influence upon him becomes such a help to the believer that he feels that every moment of the day and night he has the healer with him, and that he is being healed.
As a gift is nothing without the giver, so a charm is nothing without a personality that gives confidence to the patient. Therefore, a charm written by an ordinary person has no effect. The personality of the person who writes the charm should be impressive, his piety, his spirituality, his love, his kindness, should all help to make the charm that he gives valuable and effective.
Magnetized Water
Water is the most responsive substance. It partakes of the color and effect of everything. The magnetism that runs through the fingertips enters into everything that a healer holds in his hands, and thus water can be charged with that electricity more than any other substance. Again, the breath that heals is powerful enough to produce an added life in all life-giving substances. Water especially, which is a most invigorating substance, partakes of life from the breath.
Among the ancient Hindus, there was a custom of giving water as a benediction to guests, which is observed even now. A Brahmin will, as a rule, first offer water to his guest; this is not only to quench the thirst, but is like giving life to the guest. The Persians have called the water of life Ab-e Hayat, and in many verses, one finds this word. Among Sufis everywhere in the East, there is a custom that the Sheikh gives a loaf of bread or a glass of water, milk, syrup, or buttermilk, or a fruit or some sweet, which is accepted as something that heals both mind and body. No doubt, it is not only the effect of the breath or touch; it has also the power of mind with it, which is hidden as a soul in the substance that is its body.
Healing by Breathing
A healer must know in the first place that breath is the very life, that breath is the giver of life, and that breath is the bringer of life. One can live without food for some time, but one cannot live without breath even for a few minutes. This shows that the sustenance that breath brings to man’s life is much greater and much more important than any nourishment upon earth. Every atom of man’s body is radiant; but if the body is the flame, the breath is the fire, and as the flame belongs to thefire, so the body belongs to the breath. As long as breath dwells in it, it lives. When breath leaves it, it is dead, for all its beauty, strength, and complicated mechanism. That is why the effect of the breath of a holy person can magnetize water, bread, milk, or wine, fruit or flower.
The breath that is developed spiritually will have a healing effect upon any painful part that it fails upon. If one knows how to direct the breath there is no better process than healing with breath. In all the different methods of healing breath is the main thing, since in breath is hidden the current of life.
Healing by Magnetic Passes
All scriptures have explained in some way or other that life is like light. In the Qur’ân, the word Nuris used; in the Vedanta it is called Chaitanya. The nature of this light is to express itself in a particular direction, and that accounts for the face and back in our forms. At the same time, the tendency of the light is to spread. This can be seen in the tendency of fire or of water to spread; air shows the same tendency, and also earth and all things on earth. A deep study of every form will show that the nature of life is to spread in four directions, for instance north, south, east, and west, or head, foot, right, and left.
Life and light have their center in the center of every form, but express themselves through the directions in which they spread. Therefore, the power of the hand has been shown in ancient symbology. Hindus have pictured the divine incarnations with four hands; this means two hands of the mind and two hands of the body, and that when four hands work together the work is fully accomplished. This shows that in healing the hands are most important. The physical hands are needed to help the hands of the mind. When thought is directed from the mind through the hand its power becomes double and its expression fuller.
Every atom of man’s being, mental or physical, is radiant and throws its rays outward. These are life itself and give life. All illness is lack of life. It needs life to be cured. The power of electricity has been discovered by the scientist. He believes that it cures diseases when it is used for that purpose, but the mystic has discovered ages ago the power of this hidden electricity, the life of the mind and the life of the body. He believes and knows that its application in healing is most beneficial. There are sores, wounds, and painful parts that are too tender to touch. In such cases, healing by magnetic passes, in other words by waving the hands over the affected part and so allowing thought to heal, brings about a successful cure.
Healing by Touch
Every atom in man’s body is in reality radiant, living and powerful compared with other objects, herbs, or drugs. By the very fact of being a living body, besides being the finest and perfect compared
with other living bodies, it has a great power. Therefore, shaking hands, speaking to a person and touching him have a certain effect. In India when a wrestler goes to a wrestling match and when he comes back his teacher pats him on the back, saying, ‘Shabaz, Bravo!”
This actually gives him added strength, courage, and power that otherwise he would not have had. People speaking in friendship, and even disputing and arguing, hold each other’s hands, which brings about a better understanding. A mother takes away the discomfort and restlessness of the child in one moment by patting it. Therefore, massage is helpful when there is pain, and yet it is a poor treatment when compared with the healing treatment; for the healer operates the power of the mind through his fingers, as a musician produces his feelings on the violin. Is it everybody that can produce on the violin the same tone that an expert could It is not the placing of the finger on a certain place on the instrument. It is the feeling of the musician’s heart manifesting through hisfingertips that produces a living tone. So it is with the touch of a spiritual healer.
Healing by Glance
The eye is the most wonderful and powerful factor in the body, which conveys to another pleasure or displeasure, joy or sorrow, love or hatred, without a word being spoken. This shows that the eye is the most responsive instrument for the mind to express thought and feeling. Sometimes in an assembly, two people just look at each other and there is agreement between them, and two people may stare at each other and it may have a worse effect than shooting; this again proves that both fire and water can manifest either to destroy or to inspire.
To a healer, therefore, there is no better means than the eyes to send his thought of healing. There is no better means of receiving this thought in the patient than his eyes. The heater can send the healing power through his glance to the painful part of the body, but it is more helpful still when he sends his power direct to the eyes of the patient. As there is a link between the mind and the eyes of the healer who sends the power, so there is a link between the eyes and the mind of the patient who receives it. Medicine can touch the physical body, but thought can touch the mind, where the root of every disease often is. A suggestion that a powerful healer gives to his patient reaches his heart and destroys the germ of disease.
The eyes of every person are not capable of healing. It is the penetrating glance and stillness of the eyes, then the power of the glance and ability to aim, that are necessary. These are developed by certain exercises, though some eyes have a natural ability for this purpose. In addition, concentration of mind that gives power is necessary in healing, for power of mind directed by the glance brings about a successful result.
Healing by Suggestion
There are five elements that constitute man’s being: earth, water, fire, air, and ether. Air represents the voice, and it reaches the ether, which means that the voice reaches farther than anything else in the world. It touches the depths of man’s heart. Therefore, music is a living miracle. There is nothing that can thrill man’s being so deeply as sound. This explains why suggestion is much greater and more beneficial in healing than any other remedy.
In India, where the daily life of the people is based upon psychical laws, they take great care in speaking to another person that it may not produce a bad-effect upon his physical, mental, or spiritual self. A healer, who by the power of Fikr develops the healing power of his voice, impresses his word with the power of his heart on the heart of the patient.
The healer must be sincere in his suggestions, because all the power lies in his sincerity. He must also be self-confident. He must have psychic power developed in him; but beyond and above all, he must be a good man, so that at the time no thought of humiliation or of any sort of uneasiness should come to him. His thoughts, feelings, and actions should be satisfactory to his conscience. If not, any discomfort, dissatisfaction, fear, or repentance weakens his power. Then he is no longer capable of healing, however learned and powerful he may be. When the healer thinks he is healing, his power is as small as a drop; when he thinks God is healing. When owing to this thought, his own self is forgotten and he is only conscious of the self of God, then his power becomes as large as the ocean.
Healing by Presence
There is warmth in fire, and there is greater warmth in feeling. The presence of a person with warm feelings can create an atmosphere of warmth, and the presence of the cold-hearted can freeze one. No doubt, warmth of heart is not the only quality the healer needs, he must have the power to heal, besides concentration and a desire to heal; but at the same time, it is the name of Christ that is known as that of the Messiah. Messiah in the East means healer, and for a Messiah the power of love is the first quality, love in the form of sympathy. One sympathizes with another, thinking perhaps, “He is my relation, friend, or acquaintance,” but when sympathy develops to its fullest extent one begins to see in everybody “I,” “myself,” and the pain of everybody one begins to feel as one’s own pain.
This is a sign of a true Messiah. How can he heal the wounds of the hearts of the children of the earth and relieve them from pains and sufferings, since life is full of them, when his sympathy is not awakened to such a degree that he feels the pain of another even before feeling his own pain Every healer who has a spiritual aspiration must develop a spark of the fire of the heart of the Messiah.Then even before trying to heal a person his very presence will heal. When a child is ill, the mother approaches it with the wish that it may be well, with a pain in her heart for the suffering of her child. From that moment she becomes a healer, her touch, her word, and her glance do more than medicine or any other remedy. When this mother quality is developed in the heart of the healer, then, when he heals not for any return except the happiness of seeing a soul released from pain, he becomes a heater who can heal merely by his presence.
Healing by Prayer
Prayer is a wonderful means of healing oneself and another, for concentration alone, without the thought of God, is powerless. It is the divine ideal that strengthens the healing power, which gives it a living spirit. Therefore, a spiritual heater has more hope of success than a material heater. For the material healer directs his own thought. However powerful it may be it is limited by his own personality; but the spiritual healer who in the thought of God and His divine power forgets himself,
has much greater success than the former. It does not matter what form of prayer one uses, sincere prayer in every form will bring a fruitful result.
Prayer is, in reality, the contemplation of God’s presence, which is the power and origin of the whole creation. It is considering oneself as nothing before Him, and placing the wish that stands before one’s personality before the Almighty. Therefore, naturally the result must be incomparably greater, though it depends upon the contemplation of every individual.
In the first place, he who prays for the cure of another must surely be blessed, because goodwill and love, from which his prayer rises, of necessity bring a blessing to him. In addition, prayer for one’s own cure is not selfish; it is making oneself a fitting instrument to be more useful in the scheme of life. On the other hand, neglect of one’s own health very often is a crime. Praying to God in thought is perhaps better than in speech, but it must be remembered that speech makes it concrete.Therefore, thought with speech makes prayer more effective than thought alone. Words without thought are vain repetitions.
Absent Healing
When a healer has practiced healing for a certain time successfully, then the next step in the line of healing is to heal a patient from a distance. The method of absent healing is very different from healing in the presence. In absent healing the power of thought alone is necessary, and those who are accustomed to use the magnetism through the tips of the fingers, through the eyes, through touch,find it difficult to direct their thought-power without an external channel. In addition, when the patient is not present, in the first place the beginner wonders whether his thought-power will reach the patient. It is also difficult to hold in one’s thought a patient who is not present.
The mastery of Fikr helps a healer to hold the thought of the patient before his mind. Fikr helps to heal a patient from a distance. Breath, so to speak, is an electric current that can be attached anywhere; distance makes no difference. A current of breath so established puts the ethereal waves in space into motion, and according to the healer’s magnetic power the space between the healer and the patient becomes rifled with a running current of healing power. There is no doubt that spiritual evolution is the first thing necessary; without this the mind power of a healer, however strong, is too feeble for the purpose.
By spiritual development is meant God-consciousness. A believer in God may be called pious, but it is the God-conscious who become spiritual. It is the belief and realization that, “I do not exist, but God,” which gives power to the healer to heal from a distance; also it is this realization that gives him the belief that his thought can reach to any distance, because the knowledge of the all-pervading God gives him the realization that the Absolute is life in itself, and that even space, which means nothing to the average person, is everything; in fact, it is the very life of all things
From- ‘VOLUME IV: Health, Mental Purification, The Mind World’; Chapter IV- ‘Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan’