Skip to main content

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of various religious, spiritual, and life views of healing and healing practices related to both physical and mental health. Where relevant, approaches are explored on the scriptural basis. The chapter augments the discussion of ritual in Chap. 4 and provides a foundation for later chapters that address reliance on spirituality and religion in the context of preventing and coping with illness and disease .

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 189.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Albanese, C. L. (2000). The aura of wellness: Subtle-energy healing and New Age religion. Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation, 10(1), 29–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Albanese, C. L. (2008). A republic of mind and spirit. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alonso, L., & Jeffrey, W. D. (1988). Mental illness complicated by the Santeria belief in spirit possession. Hospital & Community Psychiatry, 39(11), 1188–1191.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arrington, F. L. (1994). Christian doctrine: A Pentecostal perspective (Vol. 3). Cleveland, TN: Pathway Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Asser, S. M., & Swan, R. (1998). Child fatalities from religion-motivated medical neglect. Pediatrics, 101, 625–629.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baez, A., & Hernandez, D. (2001). Complementary spiritual beliefs in the Latino community: The interface with psychotherapy. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 71(4), 408–415.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnes, L. L., Plotnikoff, G. A., Fox, K., & Pendleton, S. (2000). Spirituality, religion, and pediatrics: Intersecting worlds of healing. Pediatrics, 104(6), 899–908.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belcher, J. R., & Hall, S. M. (2001). Healing and psychotherapy: The Pentecostal tradition. Pastoral Psychology, 50(2), 63–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brandon, G. (2002). Hierarchy without a head: Observations on changes in the social organization of some Afroamerican religions in the United States, 1959–1999, with special reference to Santeria. Archives des sciences sociales des religions, 47(117), 151–174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brandon, G. (1991). The uses of plants in an Afro-Cuban religion. Santeria. Journal of Black Studies, 22(1), 55–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braun, C., Layton, J., & Braun, J. (1986). Therapeutic touch improves residents’ sleep. American Health Care Association Journal, 12(1), 48–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brennan, B. A. (1988). Hands of light: A guide to healing through the human energy field. New York: Bantam Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc v. City of Hialeah. (1993). 508 U.S. 520.

    Google Scholar 

  • Christian Science Board of Directors. (1982). Christian Science: A century later. Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conner, R. P., & Sparks D. H. (2005). To make the spirit manifest: Eric K. Lerner/Adekun. Ashé! Journal of Experimental Spirituality, 4(2), 245–251.

    Google Scholar 

  • Csordas, T. J. (1988). Elements of charismatic persuasion and healing. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 2(2), 121–142.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Csordas, T. J. (1990). The psychotherapy analogy and charismatic healing. Psychotherapy, 27(1), 79–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Csordas, T. J. (1983). The rhetoric of transformation in ritual healing. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 7, 333–375.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eddy, M. B. (2000). Science and health with key to the scriptures [1875]. Boston: The Writings of Mary Baker Eddy.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eliade, M. (1964). Shamanism—Archaic techniques of ecstasy. London: Arkana.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fish, S. (2009). Therapeutic touch. Charlotte, NC: Christian Research Institute. http://www.equip.org/article/therapeutic-touch/. Accessed August 26, 2016.

  • Gause, R. H. (1976). Issues in Pentecostalism. In R. P. Spittler (Ed.), Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism (pp. 40–65). Grand Rapids: Baker House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glazer, S. (2001). Therapeutic touch and postmodernism in nursing. Nursing Philosophy, 2, 196–212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glik, D. C. (1988). Symbolic, ritual and social dynamics of spiritual healing. Social Science and Medicine, 27(11), 1197–1206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gordon, A., Merenstein, J., D’Amico, F., & Hudgens, D. (1998). The effects of therapeutic touch on patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. Journal of Family Practice, 47(4), 177–271.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gottschalk, S. (1973). The emergence of Christian Science in American religious life. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Groothuis, D. (1989). Unmasking the New Age. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanegraaff, W. J. (1998). New Age reforms and Western culture: Esotericism in the mirror of secular thought. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harner, M. (1990). The way of the shaman (3rd ed.). New York: HarperSanFrancisco.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hays, C. L. (1995). They play drums. They vacuum late at night. They kill chickens. What do you do when you have the neighbors from hell! New York Times, April 9. http://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/09/nyregion/they-play-drums-they-vacuum-late-night-they-kill-chickens-what-you-when-you-have.html?pagewanted=all. Accessed August 29, 2016.

  • Heidt, P. (1981). Effect of therapeutic touch on anxiety level of hospitalized patients. Nursing Research, 30(1), 32–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Helsel, D. G., Mochel, M., & Bauer, R. (2005). Chronic illness and Hmong shamans. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 16(2), 150–154.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Helsel, D. G., Mochel, M., & Bauer, R. (2004). Shamans in a Hmong American community. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 10(6), 933–938.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoekema, A. A. (1963). Christian Science. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horwitz, J. (2014). Shamanic rites seen from a shamanic perspective. Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis, 15, 39–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jiler, W. G. (2005). Transforming the shaman: Changing Western views of shamanism and altered states of consciousness. Investigación en Salud, 7(1), 8–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaptchuk, T. J., & Eisenberg, D. M. (2001). Varieties of healing, 2: A taxonomy of unconventional healing practices. Annals of Internal Medicine, 135(3), 196–204.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keller, E., & Bzdek, V. M. (1986). Effects of therapeutic touch on tension headache pain. Nursing Research, 35(2), 101–106.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kleinman, A. (1980). Patient and healers in the context of culture. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krieger, D. (1979). The therapeutic touch: How to use your hands to help or to heal. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krieger, D. (1975). Therapeutic touch: The imprimatur of nursing. American Journal of Nursing, 75(5), 784–787.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krieger, D., Peper, E., & Ancoli, S. (1979). Searching for evidence of physiological change. American Journal of Nursing, 79(4), 660–662.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lane, J. E. (2013). New Age religions. In A. Runchov & L. Oviedo (Eds.), Encyclopedia of sciences and religion (pp. 1528–1531). Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Lefever, H. G. (1996). When the saints go riding in: Santeria in Cuba and the United States. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 35(3), 318–330.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lemoine, J. (1986). Shamanism in the context of Hmong resettlement. In G. Hendricks, B. Downing, & A. Deinard (Eds.), The Hmong in transition (pp. 337–348). New York: Cener for Migration Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levin, J. (2008). Esoteric healing traditions: A conceptual overview. Explore, 4(2), 101–112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levon, J. S., & Coreil, J. (1986). ‘New Age’ healing in the U.S. Social Science and Medicine, 23(9), 889–897.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lex, B., & Schor, N. (1977). A proposed bioanthropological approach linking ritual and opiate addiction. Addictive Diseases, 3(2), 287–303.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mackey, R. B. (1995). Complementary modalities/Part 1: Discover the healing power of therapeutic touch. American Journal of Nursing, 95(4), 26–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mandell, A. (1980). Toward a psychobiology of transcendence: God in the brain. In D. Davidson & R. Davidson (Eds.), The psychobiology of consciousness (pp. 379–464). New York: Plenum.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Mason, M. A. (1993). “The blood that runs through the veins”: The creation of identity and a client’s experience of Cuban-American “Santería Dilogún” divination. Drama Review, 37(2), 119–130.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mason, M. A. (1994). “I bow my head to the ground”: The creation of bodily experience in a Cuban American Santería initiation. Journal of American Folklore, 107(423), 23–39.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mason, M. A. (2002). Living Santería: Rituals and experiences in an Afro-Cuban religion. Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McPeake, J. D., Kennedy, B. P., & Gordon, S. M. (1991). Altered states of consciousness therapy—A missing component in alcohol and drug rehabilitation treatment. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 8, 75–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meador, K. G., Koenig, H. G., Hughes, D. C., Blazer, D. G., Turnbill, J., & George, L. K. (1992). Religious affiliation and major depression. Hospital & Community Psychiatry, 43, 1204–1208.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meehan, T. C. (1998). Therapeutic touch as a nursing intervention. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 28(1), 117–125.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meehan, T. C. (1993). Therapeutic touch and postoperative pain: A Rogerian research study. Nursing Science Quarterly, 6(2), 69–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Melton, J. G. (1990). New age encyclopedia. Detroit: Gale Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Money, M. (2000). Shamanism and complementary therapy. Complementary Therapies in Nursing and Midwifery, 6, 207–212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Money, M. (2001). Shamanism as a healing paradigm for complementary therapy. Complementary Therapies in Nursing and Midwifery, 7, 126–131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Noll, R. (1985). Mental imagery cultivation as a cultural phenomenon: The role of visions in shamanism. Current Anthropology, 26, 361–443.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • North American Nursing Diagnosis Association. (1994). Nursing diagnosis: Definitions and classifications. Philadelphia: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nurses Christian Fellowship. (2009). This we believe about energy-based theories and therapies. Madison, WI: InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. http://ncf-jcn.org/sites/ncf/files/uploaded/pdfs/twbaet.pdf. Accessed August 26, 2016.

  • Ohio Revised Code Annotated § 2919.22(A) (2011).

    Google Scholar 

  • Peel, R. (1987). Spiritual healing in a scientific age. San Francisco: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poloma, M. M. (1991). A comparison of Christian Science and mainline Christian healing ideologies and practices. Review of Religious Research, 32(4), 337–350.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rodgers, D. V., Gindler, J. S., Atkinson, W. L., & Markowitz, L. E. (1993). High attack rates and case fatality during a measles outbreak in groups with religious exemption to vaccination. Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, 12, 288–292.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosa, L., Rosa, E., Sarner, L., & Barrett, S. (1998). A close look at therapeutic touch. Journal of the American Medical Association, 279(13), 1005–1010.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sequeira, D.-L. (1994). Gifts of tongue and healing: The performance of charismatic renewal. Text and Performance Quarterly, 14, 126–143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Siikala, A. (1978). The rite technique of the Siberian shaman. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simington, J. A., & Laing, G. P. (1993). Effects of therapeutic touch on anxiety in the institutionalized elderly. Clinical Nursing Research, 2(4), 438–450.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singh, A. N. (1999). Shamans, healing, and mental health. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 8(2), 131–134.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, H. P. (1913). The laying-on of hands. American Journal of Theology, 17(1), 47–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Straneva, J. A. (2000). Therapeutic touch coming of age. Holistic Nursing Practice, 14(3), 1–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swensen, R. (2003). Pilgrims at the Golden Gate: Christian Scientists on the Pacific Coast, 1880–1915. Pacific Historical Review, 72(2), 229–263.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner, J. G., Clark, A. J., Gautheir, D. K., & Williams, M. (1998). The effect of therapeutic touch on pain and anxiety in burn patients. Journal of Advances in Nursing, 28(1), 10–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Viladrich, A. (2006). Beyond the supernatural: Latino healers treating Latino immigrants in NYC. Journal of Latino/Latin American Studies, 2(1), 156–170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Viladrich, A. (2007). From ‘shrinks” to “urban shamans”: Argentine immigrants’ therapeutic eclecticism in New York City. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 31, 307–328.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weiss, C. L. (1992). Controlling domestic life and mental illness: Spiritual and aftercare resources used by Dominican New Yorkers. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 16, 237–271.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winkelman, M. (2001). Alternative and traditional medicine approaches for substance abuse programs: A shamanic perspective. International Journal of Drug Policy, 12, 337–351.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winkelman, M. (2000). Shamanism, the neural ecology of consciousness and healing. Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wirth, D. P. (1990). The effect of non-contact therapeutic touch on the healing rate of full thickness dermal wounds. Subtle Energy, 1(1), 1–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yi, K. Y. (2000). Shin-byung (divine illness) in a Korean woman. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 24, 471–486.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sana Loue .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media LLC

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Loue, S. (2017). Understanding Religion-Based Healing Traditions. In: Handbook of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work Practice and Research. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7039-1_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7039-1_8

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-7038-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-7039-1

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics