Tuesday night was interesting this week. Tuesday night is the night I join my two friends for dinner after teaching English at their centre. Afterward they wanted to take their autistic son for a healing session at a friends church. Apparently, an evangelist minister was visiting from India and he is famous in these parts for his 'miracles'.
I wasn't keen to go but thought I'd go anyway just to satisfy my curiosity. I've never seen one of these people live and up close so I thought I'd tag along just to see if I thought it was real. Now my friend's son is quite severely autisitic. He doesn't really speak, he stims, he flaps and acts in bizarre ways. He tantrums if the mood takes him. His hearing in hypersensitive so he spends a good deal of the day with his fingers jammed into his ears. You get the picture. His parents would give and do anything to help him 'recover' from his autism. And so we went.
Ironically, the 'church' was located in the seedy side of town. I didn't know such a small town could have a seedy side, but it does (there's a little red light district that no-one admits to but everyone knows is there - so funny!). We went up and found a large room that was already full of people, all singing what I took to be religious hymns. At first, I didn't want to go in. I don't like crowds much and a fervent crowd such as this one is even worse. However, I followed behind my friends, stuffing my idiot fear down and took my seat. The preacher was up front, strutting his stuff, telling everyone "let Jesus into your lives and you WILL be saved". I just sat there, taking it all in, an observer and skeptic. I was wondering to myself whether there was a possibility that it could be real? That's what I wanted to see and to show myself whether my non-belief in religion is reasonable or not.
A week ago I saw an episode of Oprah who'd had one of her producers go to a 'healing centre' in India. She interviewed some other people there, one of whom went because she had cancer. Two of the three people interviewed reported feeling more positive and experiencing a 'rise' in their spirit ie they felt better and actually 'felt' a positive energy around them while they were there. The lady with cancer was glad she went but was not 'cured'. Many other people (not interviewed on the show) have reported being 'cured' of whatever their problem was.
The preacher here did what I expected him to do - he touched the person on the head, claimed that there would be no more pain now, no more- the person 'fell' down and went to 'sleep', right there on the floor. My friends were amazed at how this could happen. I couldn't help myself. I wasn't convinced that it was real at all. First of all, the preacher was pushing these people down - any resistance meant that they didn't fall that easily and had to lower themselves down to the ground. Others were caught by their families and lowered. Even though my friend said that no, he wasn't pushing them, any amount of pressure from his hand would signal to them that they should fall. One guy had trouble 'falling' and had to put himself down and he didn't sleep either. In fact, he got right back up again and he was fine - but judging by the look on his face, I don't think any miracles happened.
One old lady was 'cured' of having to use her walking stick, but guess who needed to be carried out by her family? Another was supposedly deaf in both ears. He tried to 'cure' both but the lady reported that now only one ear was clearer, the other still deaf. He tried again, blowing into her ear with a loud 'pump' sound. I don't know what the result was but this lady was so old, he could have been saying anything and she probably would have nodded her head because she couldn't hear him! Then there was the guy who couldn't run without pain. After being blessed, this guy ran - as good as any other 65 year old guy would. He said there was no pain. I argued (very quietly to my friends) that being in such a fervour-filled environment would probably raise your adrenalin to the point where it would act as a mild painkiller.
Nup, not convinced. I think all those people 'fell down' because they knew what to do. This sort of 'healing' is not new so they knew their 'role'. The mind is very powerful and the placebo effect has been proven by science and that's what I think took place. As for my friend's son, well, I don't think the preacher really knew what to do with this boy who was laughing hysterically and jumping up and down, flapping his hands. There was no way he was going to convince the boy to 'fall down' so he 'blessed' him instead using some 'holy oil' which was rubbed onto his forehead. How convenient! The preacher said "I can see a big change coming for you in your life", gave him a hug and sent him on his way. Other autistic children there were ignored. We walked out of that place with my friend's son still flapping and laughing - not calm and definitely not speaking.
I haven't seen my friends since Tuesday, but when I do, I'll be sure to ask them (nicely of course) if any big changes have happened to their son. As for this person healing people, I think it's just preys on people's hopes, fears and naivety. People will always believe what they want to and that's fine. It's true for them. It just wasn't true for me.
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