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

Ward (1992). Like the physical healing process, the psychological/spiritual process cantake time and can go through an apparent process where the healing is superficial andexcludes the granulation process as outlined in section 2.2.1. On the other hand, sometimesspiritual healing can be instantaneous in the way that Jesus‟ healing miracles are describedin the bible.Miraculous events can be accepted as part of a traditional Christian understanding of thecreative power of God, which for many does not need explanation. As Tugwell et al.(1976), and McGrath (1995) suggest, for many Black Pentecostals who often have an oralinstead of a written tradition, miracles do not need an explanation but are accepted as the„norm‟. For the URC congregation, it is more likely to be believed that miracles can be partof a natural process whilst Pentecostals are more likely to accept that miracles are commonplace and instantaneous. This discussion is further developed in chapters 4 and 5 and 9.Both the academic and the popular literature have studied ambiguities and inconsistenciesas to what is miraculous, which perhaps betray an underlying awareness that this is acontextualised social construction. Whether healing is a slow process or a quicmiracle‟,as the Australian tourism professor and theorist of cultural relativity, Philip Pearce (2005)suggests, depends on the lesson that the person have to learn and how well they learn it.Recurrence of a wound that has been healed through prayer can take place in the same waythat the physical wound breaks down because the healing was superficial initially.Superficial healing of a physical wound take place when scar tissue forms over the woundbut the deeper section of the wound is not healed. One of the deeper psychological woundscomes through the experience of bereavement and grief which is high on the list ofemotional hurts as outlined in Tugwell et al (1976). Grieving is a psychological process47