The settingbetween 2015 and 2020 a medical assessment team evaluated 27 reports of prayer healing in the Netherlands.ObjectivesThree research questions were formulated. What are the medical and... Show moreThe settingbetween 2015 and 2020 a medical assessment team evaluated 27 reports of prayer healing in the Netherlands.ObjectivesThree research questions were formulated. What are the medical and experiential findings? Are there medically remarkable and/or unexplained healings? Which explanatory frameworks can help us understand the findings?MethodsThe reported healings were analyzed using both medical files and patient narratives, as part of a case study research design compiled by a multidisciplinary research team. An independent team of five medical consultants, representing different fields of expertise, evaluated the 27 case files. According to criteria these were selected from a larger group of 83 received reports. Experiential data was obtained by in-depth interviews and analyzed. Instances of healing could be classified as ‘medically remarkable’ or ‘medically unexplained’. Subsequent analysis was transdisciplinary.ResultsEleven of the 27 healings assessed were evaluated as ‘medically remarkable’, none were labelled as ‘medically unexplained’. Recurring characteristics were common to some degree in all healings, whether ‘medically remarkable’ or not: a temporal connection with prayer, instantaneity and unexpectedness of healing, strong emotional and physical manifestations, and a sense of ‘being overwhelmed’ and transformed. The healings were invariably interpreted as acts of God. Positive effects have persisted for 5 to 33 years, with 2 relapses.ConclusionsOur findings on remarkable healings do not fit well in the traditional biomedical conceptual framework. All healings exhibited important non-medical aspects, whether or not they were assessed as medically remarkable. We need a broader multi-perspective approach in which all relevant data is considered to be valuable, both experiential and objective. This so-called horizontal epistemology may be helpful when trying to understand the findings, and it may bring about mutual understanding between patients, health practitioners and relevant disciplines. Show less
Yoder, H.N.C.; Tol, W.A.; Reis, R.; Jong, J.T.V.M. de 2016
Connecting and Correcting is a case study of Sami healers in Porsanger, Finnmark, Norway, and focuses on two Coastal Sami healers, their worldview and healing practices. The cultural and historic... Show moreConnecting and Correcting is a case study of Sami healers in Porsanger, Finnmark, Norway, and focuses on two Coastal Sami healers, their worldview and healing practices. The cultural and historic context of Sami healing practices is explored, most notably Sami folk beliefs, the Laestadian branch of Lutheranism, and the changes in the discourse on the noaidi, a Sami term that is often translated as __shaman__. Healers today may be connected historically to the noaidi of the past, but they cannot be identified with the noaidi. The healers are Christian and conceive of their healing gift as a special connection to God. This gift resembles important Laestadian concepts. In Laestadianism the __congregation of the reborn__ holds the Keys to Heaven, which are the binding and unbinding keys received from the Savior. Having inherited the gift the healer can diagnose; bodily experiences, visions and/or thoughts are their guide. The leading principle for Sami healers, their __inside__ knowledge, is that a __correct connection__ is required. The local discourse concerning healers active during the twentieth century, shows that expectations are quite consistent, most notably healers can prophesize and render immobile. These were features already recorded by Schefferus (1674) and Laestadius (1843). Show less
This study examines the social world of reconciliation and healing in the aftermath of the protracted Mozambican civil war. Using a multidisciplinary approach (sociology, history, legal and medical... Show moreThis study examines the social world of reconciliation and healing in the aftermath of the protracted Mozambican civil war. Using a multidisciplinary approach (sociology, history, legal and medical anthropology, and international law) this research explores how reconciliation and healing unfold contributing to the repair of a devastated social world. It examines the war survivors__ judgments regarding the potential roles of various forms of transitional justice in redressing the abuses and crimes of the past, the contributions of the agricultural cycle and customary justice to reconciliation, and those of healing practices in addressing ill-health problems. The overall goal is to elucidate how the various social practices invested in reconciliation and healing contribute to rebuilding the shattered social world, to peace and to social stability. The study demonstrates that amidst the indescribable and appalling human disruption and material destruction coupled with the officially orchestrated post-war cultures of denial, war survivors in Gorongosa have laboured to create and maintain peace and social stability by breaking the cycles of injustice and unaccountability, reconciling with former enemies and healing the wounds of war. Show less
