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

her directly‟. Not these words from the interview cited at much greater length in section6.3 above.‗I felt that these words were God speaking to me directly and at the invitation for prayer Iwent forward for prayer. This is not something that I do lightly or on a regular basis. As Istood at the altar I started to pray and I was playing with my throat, like this! using myhands to gently touch and rub my throat (as she said this she was demonstrating heractions of rubbing her throat during her prayer)‘ I felt that something had moved in mythroat but I did not say anything to anyone.She believed that by massaging her throat and praying for herself she was able to claimhealing. Rubbing her throat and praying drew from the energy field of prayer and with theenergy generated from her own altered state of consciousness, she was able to self heal.This action was probably not predetermined and her explanation would probably be that itwas the inspiration of the Holy Spirit during her openness to receive healing. Theenvironment of worship and music was also a contributory factor. She may have beeninfluenced by non-academic popular healing literature like Lawrence (2001) who suggeststhat actions such as placing the palms of the hand together holds positive energy within.Where this person would normally be laying hands on another person she used the sameenergy to heal herself. She described the result as „I felt something had moved in mythroat.‟Below is a description of the apparently „forceful‟ touching action of the minister during aservice at the COGIC convention (in August 2004). The most outstanding aspect of this275