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

activities other than that of praying. It was important that I respected this aspect of culturalactivity.Although I was a participant observer in the worship services, I was a non-participantobserver in prayer for healing where observing the interaction between the healer and theperson seeking healing. I often felt like an intruder in this private interaction between God,the Holy Spirit and the participants. The insight into what actually happened was limitedunless the participant explained their own understanding. The research strategy did notautomatically lead to the participants explaining their understanding or perception, even ininterviews. The writer did try to follow the advice of Spry (2001) that the researcher, ininteracting with others, becomes part of the subject of research and must constantly reevaluatetheir own self and culture to develop a more sophisticated self-understanding.Auto-ethnography, however, as promoted by Muncey (2010) was not chosen as theresearch methodology as the aim was to create a distance from the data collection processand to make it easier to add to and place in the context of the literature on spiritual healingby a rigorous analysis of qualitative data.As a participant observer my previous experiences and expectations were shattered as I„hung around‟ with the intention of collecting information and hoping to become one ofthem so that more information can be shared between them and me.Being the investigator and the research instrument is often as emotionally painful as it isemotionally isolating. I wondered if my previous experiences of feeling different to mypeers in my quest for knowledge as outlined in „a personal journey‟ chapter 1; section 3were reproducing themselves in the experiences as researcher. The intensity of the75