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An investigation into the phenomena and practices of spiritual ...

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Chapter 2 thus showed that <strong>the</strong> clinical literature tends to define Therapeutic Touch ra<strong>the</strong>rloosely, as an interaction where <strong>the</strong>re is direct or indirect contact between <strong>the</strong> healer <strong>and</strong><strong>the</strong> patient with direct contact not being necessary. Indeed <strong>the</strong>y may include all <strong>the</strong>occasions where <strong>the</strong> doctor touches, prods or taps <strong>the</strong> patient during conventionaldiagnostic procedures. 4 It can be anything from massage <strong>the</strong>rapy <strong>and</strong> acupuncture toanointing with oil as recommended in <strong>the</strong> bible <strong>and</strong> practised in <strong>the</strong> churches. Thiscontrasts with some <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> non-clinical popular literature such as King (1976) <strong>and</strong>Lawrence (2001) who distinguish sharply between contact healing <strong>and</strong> non-contact healingIn both direct <strong>and</strong> indirect contact, <strong>the</strong>rapeutic touch is an interaction with <strong>the</strong> personalspace <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> person receiving healing by <strong>the</strong> person giving healing. Although Sayre-Adamset al.‟s (1995) textbooquire <strong>the</strong>rapeutic touch to be performed in a specificphysical context, <strong>the</strong>y assert <strong>the</strong> person performing <strong>the</strong> act <strong>of</strong> touch is in a meditative statethat is similar to that <strong>of</strong> prayer <strong>and</strong> meditation. It has even been hypo<strong>the</strong>sized byAchterberg (1985:120) that <strong>the</strong> physical effects <strong>of</strong> this mental state may be <strong>the</strong> result <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>neurological processes involved in imagining or thinking about healing <strong>and</strong> suggests it is“<strong>the</strong> inter-relatedness among neurons <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir activities that is critical to <strong>the</strong> assumptionthat imagery serves an integrative mechanism between <strong>the</strong> mental <strong>and</strong> physical processes”.If <strong>the</strong> healers <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> recipients conceive that every living thing has an energy field, mostillness has started before developing <strong>into</strong> a physical illness. Then <strong>the</strong> touch takes placewhen <strong>the</strong> energy field <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> healer touches <strong>the</strong> energy field <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> person seeking healing(Krieger 1975). Stony Brook University Medical Centre provides an example <strong>of</strong> a hospital4 All medical <strong>and</strong> nursing requires technical skills that include look, listen, <strong>and</strong> feel (touch) as outlined in Hunter(2008). Hunter describes an example in <strong>the</strong> technical skills <strong>of</strong> touch in respiratory assessment <strong>of</strong> a patient as„feel that <strong>the</strong> chest movements are symmetrical. Chest expansion can be observed or felt to determine <strong>the</strong> depth<strong>and</strong> quality <strong>of</strong> movement <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> chest during both inspiration <strong>and</strong> expiration‟ No one asserts that <strong>the</strong> <strong>spiritual</strong>healer requires <strong>the</strong> same level <strong>of</strong> technical skills as described by Hunter (2008).261

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