Arabian traditional healer.

Abstract

LettersArabian Traditional Healer Raghu GaindFRCP FRCPsych Raghu Gaind Search for more papers by this author Published Online::3 Jun 2004https://doi.org/10.5144/0256-4947.2004.218SectionsPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload citationTrack citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail AboutIntroductionTo the Editor: In his recent article, Dr. Abdul Razzak (October 2003, pages 289–290) takes to task traditional healers and urges that patients should be protected “from intimidation and abuse.” “Healers,” he further adds, “should be prevented from confusing the patient and family by specifying supposedly divine, but unknown conditions as the cause of the patient’s illness.”Psychiatry is a complex subject. Much of it is little understood. Aetiology of most major mental illnesses remains unclear. Even the specificity of the syndromes is debatable. The truth is that there is very little evidence-based psychiatric medicine. Sir William Osler, a great Victorian physician is known to have described physicians as “like eggs, either good or bad.” The same I suggest applies to Arabian traditional healers. They have, however, served the psychiatrically ill from time immemorial. Historically mental illness was and is still deemed by some to be a manifestation of evil. Traditional faith healers use the person’s inner resources, their faith, in overcoming disease. Going to sacred places and devotion to a sacred object is known to restore health, which is in fact no different than going to a health spa or bathing in holy waters. Hundreds and thousands of my countrymen visit Lourdes in France to achieve a miracle. Pilgrims by immersion in the Euphrates (Iraq), Pharpar in Damascus Syria, the River Jordan (Palestine), Tiber (Italy), Nile (Egypt), Ganges Jumna Sarasvati in India have achieved purification, cure of disease and protection against further illness.Almost every religious founder, Saint and Prophet has been credited with special powers to heal either as a demonstration or a consequence of their holiness. In every culture and in every continent there are specialist/healers who have gone through extraordinary initiations and much training that confers on them special powers. These individuals – “medicine men/shamans, folk doctors, voodoo men of Africa, Phanda men of the Orient” – do healing through concentrating their energies in winning the confidence of the patient and helping them to regain health.Faith is an inner attitude of mind, a trust. It is the faith/trust that urges us to seek help from a given person. Healers either medically qualified or otherwise trained attract clients/patients because of this innate quality. Call it trust, empathy, special psychic power or whatever, it helps the healer to achieve a positive change, in the recipient.In Christianity and Islam, faith is equated with trust. The Christian First Letter to Corinthians asserts that faith is a gift of the God (1 Cor 12: 8–9). In Islam, faith (Arabic Imam) sets believer apart from others. “None can have faith except by the will of Allah” (The Holy Quran Surah 10 (Yunus) – 100). In Buddhist and Hindu yoga traditions, recommended inner attitudes are attitudes of trust in Guru or a spiritual preceptor. The “trust,” (Pali Saddha, Sanskrit Sraddha) in Buddhism is comparable to the confidence which an ill person declares and thus entrust himself to the healer. It is the faith that leads an individual in need of help to seek it from another. Technically trained, and with abundant factual knowledge present-day clinician alas are low on one other essential; the healing power. This, traditional healers, good ones, use to such great advantage.Traditional healers heal through faith in their art and the faith in them of those who seek their help. Faith, trust, and confidence are all aspects of healing that are exploited by traditional healers in making the patient well and restore him to health.Psychiatry must not be elitist. It must look at itself more critically. Misdiagnosis and mistreatment is not uncommon within this speciality. Long-term medication with potent psychotropic drugs has created more complications and misery for our patients than the gentle art of healing practiced by “good” faith healers. Rather than preventing them from offering help to the mentally ill, we should be endeavouring to work with them and to learn from the divine art of healing. Previous article Next article FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 24, Issue 3May-June 2004 Metrics History Published online3 June 2004 InformationCopyright © 2004, Annals of Saudi MedicineThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.PDF download