A STUDY OF THE REPORT OF THE CLERICAL AND MEDICAL COMMITTEE OF LONDON, ENGLAND

This Committee, since 1910, has been conducting "an inquiry into Spiritual, Faith and Mental Healing," and in 1914 issued a Report which contains points of much interest. Especially is it of interest when viewed in the light of facts set forth in this little book. We take pleasure in very briefly reviewing the Report here for the benefit of our readers.

The Committee, composed of eminent divines and distinguished physicians, prepared seven questions, and the examination of the selected witnesses, men of equally noted position, was based upon these questions.

The purpose was to learn what the witnesses understood by the term "Spiritual Healing"; what were their views of the difference, if any, between Spiritual and Mental Healing; whether they related present day Spiritual Healing to the Gifts of Healing in Apostolic times; whether moral excellence or religious faith on the part of the healer or the healed, is a requisite in "Spiritual Healing," and, whether in the opinion of the witnesses Spiritual Healing should be exercised apart from both medical diagnosis and supervision.

It has been said that any problem, to be truly solved, must be viewed from seven standpoints. We offer the following as one of these standpoints. That we first need to place Health in its proper category, else we cannot determine its relation to natural laws, its methods of distribution, and the nature of its powers. Also the terms Spiritual, Faith, Mental Healing, need to be clearly defined. We have taken the position that Health is of the Spirit; that Health being spiritual and the polar opposite of disease, Health and disease can never meet; therefore, an intermediary of some nature is necessary. This, as we have attempted to show, is of the nature of a conveyor or channel composed of invisible Intelligences, through whom Health flows to any given point. By means of these Shining Ones, the Health Life is distributed through priests, doctors, laymen, drugs, or any of the five elements with their elemental essences, or even through or by the means of the patient's own higher Self.

Now, if the doctors, ministers, and the various types of healers are not the Health-Life itself, nor the disease itself, then they must belong to the third factor, they must constitute one part of the channel through which, or the instrument by means of which, the spiritual Health Life can flow out to the patient. This human part of the channel or instrument may or may not be "Spiritual." It ranges from the blinded and cabined living elemental essence in the five elements and in drugs, up through the various stages of awakening consciousness, to the unlimited wisdom of divine Beings such as the Christ. Hence it would seem that the human part of the channel, as in the case of the banks of a stream, approaches the spiritual to the degree that it is a perfect channel, not seeking to hold, or to profit by any atom of that which flows through, nor to consciously display its own power, but to pass on unobstructed the full amount of Health-Life needed. From this viewpoint, only those of superior love and wisdom, absolute knowledge, utter unselfishness, boundless sympathy, and oneness with the law of God, those in whom the Christ nature is fully developed, would be true spiritual healers. Below this there might be grade upon grade of students. The terms Spiritual Healers. Faith Healers, and Mental Healers, from this standpoint seem to be misleading, and possibly the nomenclature should be revised.

Again, if we should place the instantaneous and drugless cures such as we have cited, in one class, with its higher and lower subdivisions, they could be examined under the conditions pertaining to their own nature, viz., the conditions of etheric electronic matter. The instantaneous and drugless cures would thus be lifted out of the drug class, which is related so closely to dense physical matter. Such cures will become more frequent in the near future, and no legislation, or regulation by any body of men can prevent their occurrence. They are a result of advancing evolution.

The examination of the instantaneous and drugless cases will naturally fall under the jurisdiction of the spiritually advanced, the enlightened expounders of the Scriptures, who by the very law of their own evolution in their own special line of education, will be awakening the higher vision such as was exercised by the saintly Apollonius. The cures made with drugs or surgery would quite as naturally come under the jurisdiction of the medical men. The very character of the cure itself constitute a classification which requires on the one hand special training of religious studies and spiritual experiences, and on the other, the close following of modern scientific investigations. Unless these two widely divergent methods are embodied in one person, we should not expect a diagnosis of the Holy Spirit's action from a medical man, nor a clear understanding of a medical case from a minister of the Gospel.

The cures by "suggestion" cannot, if we have correctly defined the spiritual healer, be classed with the spiritual work of the Christ. He knew absolutely what He did; there was no guessing, no suggestion, no waiting for results in His work.

In regard to the "Gifts of Healing" as in Apostolie times, or a Healing power bestowed by the Holy Spirit on any person, the witnesses varied in their beliefs. Our own observation is that such power is conferred on some, usually temporarily. The healing work of the Earl of Sandwich, whose evidence as a witness embodied in the Report, may possibly be of this nature. An invisible intelligence or deva may be temporarily aiding him; and yet no consciousness of the nature of this aid sifts through into his physical brain. Under the views advanced by Professor Bergson, of the limitations in brain receptivity to mental concepts, such as physical brain unconsciousness might reasonably exist in connection with a definite expression of power; for knowledge and power are not one and the same. It can easily be seen that great injustice might be done such a healer, if the examiners had no criterion except that of present day medical and surgical knowledge, which does not include in its curriculum the etheric bodies of men, nor the possibility of cure by the Holy Spirit, nor its power to bring out through its temporary agents the higher potentials of the Health Law. Such examinations result in doubting the healer, and denying the cure, and yet the fact of the cure remains.

If, however, the power of the Holy Spirit is admitted as a fact, then who, not acquainted with the Holy Spirit and its methods of working, can determine whether the cure is of the Holy Spirit or not? Even the disciples, so intimately associated with the Christ and His teachings, failed to discriminate, for we read that they forbade one who was casting out devils in His name to continue the work. When told of it the Christ answered: Forbid him not; for there is no man which shall do a mighty work in My name, that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is for us.
(St. Mark, IX, 38-40, St. Luke, IX, 49-50.)
We may reasonably apply His own test to the present cases.

The Report states that the Committee will continue its work, and proposes to "formulate a basis upon which some more clearly defined relationship and cooperation may be secured between ministers of religion and members of the medical profession in the treatment of disease."

We offer our sincere gratitude to this Committee, which has so nobly and bravely entered this difficult field of cooperation in service.

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