Healing in a Hospital

This book is a fascinating story of how a research project proved that spiritual healing helped people improve their wellbeing. Some ten years of effort was put in by Sandy Edwards, who trained as a spiritual healer with the Healing Trust (erstwhile National Federation of Spiritual Healers, a non-religious charity) after being healed of psoriasis herself. She set up a voluntary healing centre which provided ample examples of improvements in wellbeing, some of which she describes.

Then she had an opportunity to offer healing, free of charge, to patients of consultant gastroenterologist Dr Singh at the Good Hope Hospital in Birmingham. He welcomed her to his Wednesday morning outpatient clinic and introduced the offer to patients he felt he could not help sufficiently with conventional medicine, and many accepted a 20-minute treatment straight away in an adjoining room. All had been passed on by their G.P., many with a long history of suffering. Presently she sought the doctor's permission to conduct an audit of results, and these showed considerable improvements in 267 patients. Much encouraged, Sandy and Dr Singh investigated conducting a full scale research.

They applied for a Lottery grant, a mammoth task in itself, requiring investigation of other relevant research results and the design of a complex research protocol, all of which she describes meticulously. The subject under scrutiny was whether healing therapy, as an adjunct to conventional medicine, was beneficial to patients with irritable bowel syndrome or inflammatory bowel disease. A Steering Group was set up, including members from the University of Birmingham and others. Eventually the questionnaires were set and the programme was under way, involving 200 patients. The book describes how it was conducted, and the results are set out in considerable detail. Statistical details are not my scene, but they come across convincingly positive and they impressed assessors. No adverse effects were reported.

Sandy recommends that spiritual healing becomes available within the N.H.S., for the benefit of staff as well as patients. She remarks that it must be the cheapest of all the complementary therapies as it requires no specialist equipment and no designated space!

The script is thorough and precise, with factual resources and references throughout, including some dispelling the myth that healing is only placebo. It includes masses of patient comments, including from doctors and nurses who have received healing themselves. Enjoy !