GlorytoGod
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How do these differ if at all ?
Christian vs Shamanic Healing ?
- Thread starter GlorytoGod
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shawn
Well-Known Member
I think that they differ only in style.
There is only one God / creator / Source of Life and people have found that connection in many ways over time around our world.
Why would anyone heal another?
Because they care about them perhaps and want to promote life and health, because that is what their belief system guides them to do.
(Among those who are not just promoting themselves of course).
So does it matter how?
Moses held up a brazen serpent on a pole to do this and this is accepted as being of God, yet it sounds much like idolatry (you know make no graven image type of thing).
I know that people who are taught that they have the only true path to God have a problem with that.....a big problem, as history teaches us, but is this right on their part to be so thick and closed minded?
Is it wrong to see such people as being thick and closed-minded?
There is only one God / creator / Source of Life and people have found that connection in many ways over time around our world.
Why would anyone heal another?
Because they care about them perhaps and want to promote life and health, because that is what their belief system guides them to do.
(Among those who are not just promoting themselves of course).
So does it matter how?
Moses held up a brazen serpent on a pole to do this and this is accepted as being of God, yet it sounds much like idolatry (you know make no graven image type of thing).
I know that people who are taught that they have the only true path to God have a problem with that.....a big problem, as history teaches us, but is this right on their part to be so thick and closed minded?
Is it wrong to see such people as being thick and closed-minded?
Dream
Well-Known Member
In the picture the sons of the prophets cannot eat the food put before them, but Elisha adds meal and makes it good to eat. I think it tells about hope for the time when everyone eats the same spiritual food. In that case all people can benefit from eating the wild food that grows just wherever it comes up as if it were Eden again, because everything has been made edible. In that time people do not need to be told what to believe or how to love each other, because it will be obvious and all will share everything. The poison will be non-poisonous.
At this time healing and miracles are often poisonous to those who seek truth. The miracles are the gourds and various messages of truth that come with them. The meal is the law (principles). People use miracles all of the time for deceitful purposes, and also fake miracles are plentiful. Some day this will not be the case, and all miracles will be beneficial. Right now, it is hit-or-miss.
Jesus talks about Christians having salt within themselves. Salt is a preservative, and it makes things you can't eat into things that you can. Of course he is talking about making the whole world good by internalizing spiritual truth (which of course requires living a certain way). When that is accomplished there will be no false healings or fake miracles, and then there will be no poison gourds. Everything will become beneficial. Until then, there is poison in the pot.
path_of_one
Embracing the Mystery
If you mean Christian faith-healing... I would say the mechanism is different, but the underlying process is similar.
Christian healing largely uses a laying on of hands and prayer. Shamanic healing largely uses soul-journeying, but it is often paired with more materialistic treatments, such as prescribing certain herbs. Shamanic healing is more like Christian healing + a trip to the doctor and pharmacist. It's a more holistic system that treats the body and the mind/soul.
Shamanic healing often is grounded in the soul-journey. The shaman will induce a trance state and then either be possessed by ancestral or other spirits/gods or will journey to the spirit-world in order to receive information about the illness and treatment. In many shamanic religious systems, individuals are thought to be tied to larger environmental processes. So imbalances in the environment or spirit-world perpetuated by the group can result in illness in individuals of that group. This is why in some Shamanic healing, the treatment may have little to do with the patient. The Shaman may make offerings to certain deities or spirits that have been ignored, admonish the group as a whole to be more respectful in hunting, or other such systemic actions. When the worlds come into balance, the illnesses are healed. On the other hand, the shaman will also sometimes diagnose illnesses much as a doctor would and prescribe herbs and actions. The shaman will sometimes assess the patient's mental state and social support, because some illnesses can be cured through providing the patient a peak experience and reintegrating him/her into the community (demonstrating the community's care for the patient). So sometimes the Shaman acts as a religious practitioner, and sometimes as a medical doctor, sometimes as a psychologist and sometimes as all three.
Because of Western medicine, Christian healing rarely incorporates this aspect of herbology and social system/psychological assessment. Instead, it focuses primarily (and often exclusively) on the spiritual aspect of healing. While it involves prayer to Christ and is widely thought by practitioners to work due to God's power and will, I think its efficacy would be rooted in the same principles that ground all energetic and magical work: human focus of the will to effect change. In fact, I have seen little difference between Christian healing and Pagan healing in terms of practice. People channel energy through their hands in a wide range of healing systems. People pray to deities in a wide range of healing systems. People's beliefs about the mechanism and the names they call upon in prayer change, but the general practice is remarkably common.
Christian healing largely uses a laying on of hands and prayer. Shamanic healing largely uses soul-journeying, but it is often paired with more materialistic treatments, such as prescribing certain herbs. Shamanic healing is more like Christian healing + a trip to the doctor and pharmacist. It's a more holistic system that treats the body and the mind/soul.
Shamanic healing often is grounded in the soul-journey. The shaman will induce a trance state and then either be possessed by ancestral or other spirits/gods or will journey to the spirit-world in order to receive information about the illness and treatment. In many shamanic religious systems, individuals are thought to be tied to larger environmental processes. So imbalances in the environment or spirit-world perpetuated by the group can result in illness in individuals of that group. This is why in some Shamanic healing, the treatment may have little to do with the patient. The Shaman may make offerings to certain deities or spirits that have been ignored, admonish the group as a whole to be more respectful in hunting, or other such systemic actions. When the worlds come into balance, the illnesses are healed. On the other hand, the shaman will also sometimes diagnose illnesses much as a doctor would and prescribe herbs and actions. The shaman will sometimes assess the patient's mental state and social support, because some illnesses can be cured through providing the patient a peak experience and reintegrating him/her into the community (demonstrating the community's care for the patient). So sometimes the Shaman acts as a religious practitioner, and sometimes as a medical doctor, sometimes as a psychologist and sometimes as all three.
Because of Western medicine, Christian healing rarely incorporates this aspect of herbology and social system/psychological assessment. Instead, it focuses primarily (and often exclusively) on the spiritual aspect of healing. While it involves prayer to Christ and is widely thought by practitioners to work due to God's power and will, I think its efficacy would be rooted in the same principles that ground all energetic and magical work: human focus of the will to effect change. In fact, I have seen little difference between Christian healing and Pagan healing in terms of practice. People channel energy through their hands in a wide range of healing systems. People pray to deities in a wide range of healing systems. People's beliefs about the mechanism and the names they call upon in prayer change, but the general practice is remarkably common.
GlorytoGod
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Path of one
that sounds very much like some deliverance ministry that I have experienced, and also some testimonies given by those involved in faith healing. I take your point though about the Shaman prescribing herbs etc.
that sounds very much like some deliverance ministry that I have experienced, and also some testimonies given by those involved in faith healing. I take your point though about the Shaman prescribing herbs etc.
path_of_one
Embracing the Mystery
That's fascinating. I hadn't seen/heard of Christian healing that involved soul-journeying. Though I have seen it involve trance states. Where do they say they journey to and who are they talking with? I'm very curious how it gets put into a Christian framework. Very interesting stuff, G2G.
GlorytoGod
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Well its possible we are not talking about the same thing, we shall see.
As far as deliverance ministry or Theophostic Prayer that I have received its more like you that goes on a journey than the people praying for you, its sort of like going on a journey into the unconscious or another realm or something.
As far as healing goes I have heard people when Preaching give testimony that when praying for healing they been up to to a room in heaven where there were all sorts of spare body parts, they just needed to get the right bit and the person was healed.
path_of_one
Embracing the Mystery
That is just super fascinating to me. I'd never heard about something like that. I've seen faith healing and even Christians enter trance states (Pentecostal movements by the Spirit are often much like trance states anyway- the same sorts of things happen in Vodun and other religions) but I'd never heard of them going anywhere. Seems like a similar process, just a different place to go and different "people" to see.