"My own interest in the Spiritual Massage Healing Ministry stems from my belief that massage is the anointing with oil and laying on of hands, as recorded in the Judeo-Christian Bible. I believe touch is the original healing gift given to us by God, that Christ showed us touch can generate spiritual healing and anointed his followers with the gift to be vehicles for the same; and that God, not myself, is the healer.

"It is work I asked God for, in prayer, and is a  part of my worship. I never enter into massage without first centering with prayer, turning my space and myself over to God for His spiritual healing."1

"I'm so glad the spiritual basis of massage is being recognized and reestablished…  I long ago recognized that massage is of God and that the 'anointing with oil and laying on of hands" mentioned in the Bible must have been massage. I enter each massage session by giving it over to God for His healing through me and my Christ. It is beautiful…

"I use … Swedish techniques which have evolved into my own unique massage… Since I open it with prayer … and keep the prayer open through the session, it usually takes off on its own much to my and my client's … delight… It is always a beautiful confirmation to learn others have been led by the same guidance within relatively the same time period. Those called will, I hope, come together in work, around the country and the world… for massage and its yet undiscovered gifts to manifest themselves in spiritual healing.

"I am not highly educated in the formal sense. Nevertheless, God has called me … to do this work at this particular place and time… I believe massage is included in "his sun" in Matthew 5:45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. " (Personal communication) 

The massage modalities practiced and being brought forth today were all once ours and got lost along the way. As we grow, God is returning them to us as re-discoveries. Each of them is meant to be, and eventually will be, incorporated into Spiritual Healing... We've lost that knowledge. It will be returned to us.1 

It is not my belief that spiritual healing takes place only through Christians. There are too many documented cases of spiritual healing through others."2

I will not place my hands under the jurisdiction of the medical community or ever practice medical massage.1

Editor's comment: I recently received the following announcement from Marian:

You are invited to attend the first gathering of the Fellowship of the Divine Healer with the church at Marian's House. Your guests are welcome.

The main purpose of this and future gatherings is to have a great time in spiritual fellowship. Bring some reading material, the Bible, a favorite book, an article, some poetry, etc., something that has had great impact on or meaning to you, for sharing with others. There will be plenty of time allotted to discussion, giving opportunity to sharing your path, thoughts, and aspirations with others.

A central focus of the Fellowship is inherent in its name, "Divine Healer." A central tenet of our belief and mode of worship is that God Heals. God heals not just our bodies, but the earth and all it's life. God heals through our prayers and through our prayers combined with our volunteered vehicles. We will spend time discussing our individual and corporate rolls in that healing, and how we might grow in that capacity.

We believe that every member of the Spiritual Body is called to minister in one capacity or another or even in many capacities. We believe each, under God, is on equal footing with every other minister and is called to ordination. Some of our time will be spent in sharing information on and exploring avenues for becoming ordained, how to register with the state if you plan to perform weddings, baptisms and funerals and how to set up and legally operate your own state-recognized church. The plusses and minuses of incorporating, tax exemptions, etc., will also be discussed.

We will have a vegetarian potluck meal, probably a grazing spread so folks can meander by and enjoy a bite during the day whenever the mood strikes. Bring food (a covered dish, to add to the potluck), your own non-alcoholic liquid refreshment, your lawn chairs, and - so that no one person will be left with cleanup - a dinner plate and or bowl, utensils, drinking cup and or glass and napkins for you and for any guests you may bring. Water and bread will be furnished. If it is nice weather, we will spend the time in the shade of the yard. Mosquitoes will still be out, so if they like you, you may want to bring a citronella candle.

Marian is a member of the World Christianship International Association of Clergy. She was ordained by - and the Fellowship of the Divine Healer was chartered through - the World Christianship Ministry. Her ministry follows Jehoshua (Jesus) Christ as guided by the Holy Spirit. As He welcomed everyone, so is everyone welcome to come and share their spiritual walk with us.

Please call me at the number above to let me know how many people you will be bringing. Directions to my house are on the back of this invitation. I am home most evenings after 7:00 except on Monday, all day Tuesday and Thursday as well as most weekends, or you may leave a message.

May God Bless you and yours.

References

1. Two gardens of massage - secular and spiritual. Which one do you want to be in? Spiritual Massage Ministry Newsletter. 2(3):3-5. 1996.

Within 10 days of this injury, I developed for the first time a quite severe stiffness and limitation of movement of my left elbow which was diagnosed as a bursitis, tendonitis. During this time, I had more anti-inflammatory medication and more physiotherapy. Over the next five weeks, I got intensive physiotherapy twice weekly. For the bad tear of my right hamstring, I got ultrasound, gentle massage, and light stretching exercises by a physiotherapist.

Six weeks after the injury, the (right hamstring) muscle and my elbow were no better than at the beginning of treatment. I then asked to be tested for Lyme disease because what I had thought might be an arthritic condition in my knee in 1994 turned out to be a belatedly diagnosed case of Lyme disease. The test was negative; I didn't have Lyme disease.

Why wasn't I getting better? All roads were leading to the orthopedic surgeon. (Perhaps a steroid injection in the elbow of my left arm?) With other difficult things going on in my life at that time, feeling sick from a right leg and left arm injury led to a desperate state of mind and body.

I called Albert and arranged to see him the same day. I did not tell him what the problem was. The first thing he did, without asking me any questions, was test the energy fields of my whole body, including my elbows, and thighs, with L-rods. I could see the rods move, and knew that something was consistently happening with my energy fields when he checked them each time before and after he did a healing on me.

After initially checking my energy fields, Albert would "ask nature" what healing, if any, he should do. He does spiritual healing, Therapeutic Touch, and works with nature in his own unique way. Sometimes he did a healing with his hands on different parts of my body - on my knees, my shoulders, and my head.  When he did a hands-on healing, I often felt considerable heat form his hands. Other times, he did a healing which did not involve his touching me.

I saw Albert almost daily for about two weeks. Each of these sessions began by his checking my energy fields. He did this before I told him how I felt. After the first few sessions, I no longer told Albert how I felt. He decided whether to do a healing; and, if so, what kind of healing, on the basis of his evaluation of my energy fields. Within a few days, my energy fields had expanded, and had become symmetrical and stabilized.

When I first saw Albert, my energy fields had been significantly smaller and asymmetrical. The energy field of my injured left arm was significantly smaller than the energy field of my right arm. The energy field of my injured right leg was significantly smaller than the energy field of my left leg.

The first time Albert did a hands-on healing, one of his hands was on my left elbow and the other on my right knee. Almost immediately, I felt a sense of moving through an energy field in a clockwise manner. I had the sensation that my movement was irresistible and powerful, but at the same time gentle. I opened my eyes to see what was happening, and then closed them; and continued to feel the irresistible "pull." I felt no sense of alarm. 

I associated the feeling I was having with the experience I had when I learned to dowse for water several years ago. There was the same quality of some unmistakable force that one cannot resist. I can best describe this experience as moving through an energy field.

I never had the above-mentioned experience again during the healings, but I always had a sense of calmness and well-being, and of working in synchronization with something irresistible and natural. From the first session, I felt I was on an improvement course even though there was nothing miraculous, as one usually sees with the healings of the Television evangelists. I felt that Albert's interventions and, in fact, our collaboration in my healing were working in the same direction as nature.

I never felt passive, as if something was being done to me. In fact, I began to feel that maybe I could influence the extent and symmetry of my energy fields and the movement of the L-rods. On Albert's advice, I began to do brief meditative exercises in which I visualized my energy field expanding and becoming uniform. I felt that what was going on with me mentally would influence my energy field. Albert explained the concept of subtle energy and said that the dichotomous body-mind concept was irrelevant to his working with nature.

Would I have made the same improvement over the three week healing sessions, and since then, if I had done nothing but just waited? Well, time is nature, but I think my improvement quickened because in some way Albert and I were working with time and with nature/energy. The experience instilled a faith that is easily lost, that nature is itself reparative.

We ministers of spiritual massage, when we volunteer ourselves to be the delivery vehicles for the creator's divine healing power, concurrently although often unconsciously, also allow ourselves to be the delivery vehicles for the healing of the earth.

Our ministry demands that we enter the personal space of another person; and that they enter ours. Whether or not our minds recognize it, telepathic communication, physically, emotionally and spiritually, is automatic at this level of intimacy. Recognition that telepathic communication is occurring allows us to focus our intent not only directed to bringing about healing of the body, even to the release of a muscle spasm, but to focus our intent also directed to the healing of the earth.

I am not quite sure that it is possible, at the level of spirit, to focus intent to healing of the physical without automatically focusing it to healing of the earth. The life of creation is nature — every bit of it — including you and me. Every living iota of nature is within the creator, for within God is life.2(a) As positive change is brought about in the body, which being part of the creation, is nature, so a positive change be must be brought about in the earth.

There is an old adage, "Practice makes perfect." And so it is. As we practice focusing our intent, our capacity as vehicles for the gift of healing becomes more perfected. Our capacity to contain and deliver the creator's healing power grows in direct proportion to how much we practice.

As we practice with individual clients, a time will come as we minister to them, that we may find them open to our sharing with them our intention of focus for not only their healing, but that of healing the earth. As we share and as they are healed, so will they become aware of their responsibility in the healing process and become active participants in the healing of the earth.

There is a story2  of a time in the past when people had multiplied heavily upon the earth. They had polluted their way upon the earth. The earth was filled with violence through them. A cleansing flood came and wiped all but a few people and other living things from the earth.2(b) Much later, - after the earth, man, and other living things recovered -  a vision of a future time came to one of the creator's prophets, a man called Isaiah.  He heard God say, "The earth is defiled3 under the inhabitants thereof. I make it empty, waste, and turn it upside down and shake it. There are few men left."2(c)

It rather sounds like our time may be the time of fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy, doesn't it? One nice thing to be learned from the same source of this story, is that God must really love His creation. He, expressing grief at the defilement3  we create, rants and raves for a while before he destroys most life within the creation. But, over and over through out the biblical stories, almost as if pleading with us, He gives us a chance to save the earth's life from destruction, and promises not to destroy, if we will just change our ways.

I believe as we are healed, we will want to change our ways. More and more of us will begin asking help from God in fulfilling our responsibility as the creator's vehicles for healing of the earth. I, like the Reverend Albert Schatz, have optimistic hope for our future good health.

References

1. Utne  Reader — September/October. 1995.

2.  This story is gleaned from the King James Version of the Bible. (a) St. John 1:4. (b) Genesis: Ch. 6. (c) Isaiah: Ch 24.

I totally enjoyed visiting with Albert Schatz when he was here to present his workshop. He is a kind and caring person with a deeply serious side balanced with a wonderful sense of humor. He devotes much of his time toward working with nature with hopes of saving humanity from extinction. He and his wife practice living very simply, support and volunteer time at their local food cooperative, and grow a bit of their own food organically in their postage stamp sized yard in Philadelphia.

Albert is a wonderful instructor. His six hour workshop did not hold a dull minute. Once he demonstrated the 'how to' of Therapeutic Touch and, the surprisingly easy to learn, use of L-rods to measure subtle body energies, everyone became excited about practicing the techniques and measuring the energy before and after treatment.  He also worked with a class mate who was experiencing pain from an ovarian condition for which surgery is scheduled later this summer. Her pain left. It did not return by class end.

I am incorporating the techniques into my practice, practicing on family, friends, and me, with good results. I hope to get together with other classmates in my area for practice to increase the amount of healing energy we impart.  I recommend this class to everyone. It will give those open to it a wonderful gentle gift of pain alleviation and healing to share with others.

Nancy Brewer invited all who attended the workshop for a luncheon and discussion period with Albert on Sunday. The food was delicious vegetarian fare of Greek beans and a delicious juicy salad that was great for dipping toasted garlic bread. (I'm hungry remembering it.) We ate and visited on Nancy's deck and in her lovely shaded back yard. The atmosphere was pleasant and relaxed.  Even the birds and squirrels didn't leave nearby feeders.  (Thank you Nancy.)

We had a fun and education visit with Albert. He shared his concern and his hopes for the future of nature (which includes humanity). He pointed out that the ocean of air in which we live contains two other oceans, one of chemical contamination and one of low level radiation. As a result, many of the earth's species have become and are becoming extinct. Man is in as much danger in this atmosphere as other species. Living within the chemicals and radiation compromises our immune systems leaving us susceptible to today's new, and old but stronger bacteria and viruses.

We are not threatened with disease plagues only. Many of the chemicals imitate reproductive hormones. Many animals have been found with reproductive organ abnormalities. Many are sterile. Others are born, but quickly die. Often gender and its related behavior is confused. Scientists studying theses problems believe we are seeing similar problems in people.

Albert believes our hope of saving ourselves and the rest of nature lies within our churches. Many are beginning to take man's responsibility as stewards of the part of creation that is earth, seriously. They are beginning to work with nature to bring about positive change, responsible stewartshp, non- harmful lifestyles. etc. within their congregations and communities. Albert has high hopes and is quite positive about our chances of turning things around to health when congregations take up this work.

Books recommended by Albert:

1.To Hear the Angels Sing by Dorothy Maclean. 1980, Lindisfarne Press. RR 4, Box 94 A-1. Hudson NY 12534.

2. The Findhorn Garden. Pioneering a New Vision of Man and Nature in Cooperation by the Findhorn Community. l975. Harper and Row Publishers. New York.

3. Kinship with All Life by J. Allen Boone. 1954 Harper & Row. New York.

4. Awakening to the Animal Kingdom by Robert Shapiro & Julie Rapkin. 1988.  Cassandra Press. San Raphael, California.

5. Listening to Nature. How to Deepen Your Awareness of Nature by Joseph Cornell. 1987, Dawn Publications. Nevada City, California.

Books I recommend for Therapeutic Touch:

1. The Therapeutic Touch. How to Use Your Hands to Help or to Heal by Delores Krieger, 1992, Fireside Edition, Simon & Schuster, New York.

2. A Gift for Healing. How You Can Use Therapeutic Touch by Deborah Cowens with Tom Monte, 1996, Crown Trade Paperbacks, New York.

Book detailing the consequences of our chemical pollution:

Secular massage therapy

The term massage therapy refers to a secular symptom-directed and medically-oriented procedure.1 Secular massage therapy, as it is usually defined by state massage laws, consists of well-defined manipulations. The term massage is sometimes used in a broad sense to include other kinds of secular bodywork.

Non-therapeutic massage therapy, which the Pennsylvania Physical Therapy Act does not restrict to physical therapy, is a secular modality  administered primarily to induce relaxation for stress reduction. However, many medical problems are associated with stress; they cause stress or are caused by stress.

Secular massage therapy is the primary concern of massage schools, massage books, massage periodicals, massage organizations, state massage laws, local massage ordinances, national certification, continuing education credits, massage conferences, massage workshops, etc. Other kinds of secular bodywork may also be included.

Spiritual massage healing

Spiritual massage healing is a form of divinely inspired and divinely guided religious healing. It consists of prayer, love, anointing with oil and movements derived from the laying on of hands. It is the practice of one's religious faith and conscience. It is a mode of worship, and therefore a religious ceremony. The spiritual massage practitioner is a religious healer. Prayer is an integral part of spiritual massage healing. It provides the healer with guidance. Without prayer, there is no spiritual massage healing.2

Spiritual massage healing is a religious ceremony which the spiritual massage healer initiates, and conducts. The healer and those who come for healing all participate in the religious ceremony.

There is no one right way to do spiritual massage healing. It may include movement of soft tissue and/or simply resting one's hands lightly on a persons skin without moving it. Some spiritual massage healing movements may resemble the movements of secular massage and other kinds of secular bodywork. "The term massage is derived from the Greek masso - I knead, and from the Arabic mass - to press softly"3 without moving. The Bible does not tell us whether the laying on of hands involves hands which move or simply rest without moving. A spiritual massage healer's hands may do either one or both. In spiritual massage healing, the laying on of hands is a form of prayer2 which in and of itself may be effective healing.4

Spiritual massage healing is the primary concern of the Fellowship of the Divine Healer, the New England Academy of Co-Creative Science, the Church for Spiritual Healing and Health, the Spiritual Massage Healing Ministry, the Journal of Spiritual Bodywork and the Spiritual Massage Ministry Newsletter. 

 The term healing refers to the purpose of spiritual massage which is to help an individual achieve her unique wholeness. This wholeness results from regaining and maintaining whatever measure of health is optimal for that person at that time. The spiritual massage healer, like other spiritual healers, facilitates self-healing which involves the participation of what Albert Schweitzer called "the doctor within." 2

According to Harry Edwards, the famous British spiritual healer,  "One of the vital differences between a sick one's attendance on a doctor and a healer is that he visits the doctor to get treatment, but he goes to a healer to get well."5 When doctors said Harry Edwards' healing occurred because of the way he talked to people, Harry Edwards replied, "If I can heal them that way, why can't you?" He also informed them that many people go to spiritual healers because they were not helped by doctors.  

 Two kinds of spirituality

There are two kinds of spirituality. The term spiritual in spiritual massage healing refers to revealed religions and to nature/earth religions. Religious spirituality is associated with revealed religions "such as Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. These religions are founded on 'truths' allegedly made known by supernatural revelation and hence divinely authorized."6

Nature/earth spirituality is associated with nature/earth religions. These religions are based on people's spiritual beliefs about nature. Some nature/earth religions have no prophets and no scripture; and are often referred to as primitive, pagan, mythological, and preChristian.7 We shall henceforth refer to nature/earth spirituality and nature/earth religions as nature spirituality and nature religions. 

Two kinds of spiritual massage healing

Because there are two kinds of spirituality, there are two kinds of spiritual massage healing: spiritual massage healing based on revealed religions and spiritual massage healing based on nature religions. The latter may be called nature spiritual massage healing.

Spiritual massage healing, based on revealed religions (defined above) is a form of divinely inspired and divinely guided religious healing. It consists of prayer, love, anointing with oil, and movements derived from the laying on of hands. It is the practice of one's religious faith and conscience. It is a mode of worship, and therefore a religious ceremony. The spiritual massage practitioner is a religious healer. Prayer is an integral part of spiritual massage healing. It provides the healer with guidance. Without prayer, there is no spiritual massage healing.2

Spiritual massage healing, based on nature religions, is nature-inspired and nature-guided religious healing. It consists of prayer (communication with nature), love, anointing with oil, and movements derived from the laying on of hands. (In nature spiritual massage healing, anointing with oil and the laying on of hands are not done with the same meaning they have in spiritual massage healing based on revealed religions.) Nature spiritual massage healing is the practice of one's nature religious faith and conscience. It is a mode of nature worship, and is therefore a nature religious ceremony. Prayer (communication with nature) is an integral part of nature spiritual massage healing. This kind of prayer provides the healer with guidance. Without it, there is no nature spiritual massage healing.

Two legally different modalities

Secular massage therapy (which is symptom-directed and medically-oriented) is subject to state regulation because it is secular.1 The two kinds of spiritual massage healing are religious practices, forms of worship. and religious ceremonies. They are not subject to state regulation because of the separation of church and state.1

The Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and state constitutions restrain the government from interfering with the practice of one's religion. The Arkansas constitution, like other state constitutions, guarantees people the right to worship according to their conscience, without control or interference by any human authority. But Arkansas goes beyond that. Its constitution requires the General Assembly to enact laws that specifically protect that right; namely, the people's right to peaceful enjoyment of public worship.8

An important Supreme Court decision 

Beliefs "parallel to that filled by the orthodox belief in God," have been accorded equal validity by the U.S. Supreme Court decision in United States versus [Pete] Seeger, 380 U.S. 163 (1965). The Court "concluded that Congress, in using the expression 'Supreme Being' rather than the designation 'God', was merely clarifying the meaning of religious training  and belief so as to embrace all religions and to exclude essentially political, sociological, or philosophical views.

"We believe that under this construction, the test of belief ... 'in a relation to a Supreme Being' is whether a given belief that is sincere and meaningful occupies a place in the life of its possessor. Where such beliefs have parallel positions in the lives of their respective holders we cannot say that one is 'in relation to a Supreme Being' and the other is not."

The Court decided that Pete Seeger's "skepticism or disbelief in the existence of God" 'did' "not necessarily mean lack of faith in anything whatsoever"; that his was a belief in and devotion to goodness and virtue for their own sakes, and a religious faith in a purely ethical creed.... He cited such personages as Plato, Aristotle and Spinoza for support of his ethical belief in intellectual and moral integrity 'without belief in God, except in the remotest sense.... His belief was found to be sincere, honest, ... and made in good faith ... and based upon individual training and belief, both of which included research in religious and cultural fields."

Healing by God and/or nature

Some people believe healing is accomplished by God in heaven who is the God within each of us. "Whether we know it or not, God is our healer and God's Spirit is the energy for our healing. The various healing techniques we employ all act by channelling the energy of the Spirit in our behalf."9

Others believe that nature does the healing. "Hippocrates (460 B.C.) wanted ... physicians to know all about massage." 3 He believed, "Nature is the cure of illness." and advised, "Leave thy drugs in the chemist's pot if thou can't heal the patient with food."10 It is interesting that Hippocrites attributed healing to nature rather than to Phoebus Apollo, the Greek God of Healing and the one "who first taught men the healing art."11

Phoebus Apollo, was "the son of Zeus and Leto (Latona), born in the little island of Delos. He has been called 'the most Greek of all the gods.' He is a beautiful figure in Greek poetry, the master musician who delights Olympus as he plays ... his golden lyre; the lord too of the silver bow, the Archer-god, far-shooting; the Healer, as well, who first taught men the healing art, Even more than these good and lovely endowments, he is the God of Light, in whom [there] is no darkness at all, and so he is the God of Truth. No false word ever falls from his lips."11

The Romans were also massage enthusiasts. "A pretty anecdote is told of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, who ascended the throne about A.D. 200. When Hadrian at one time took a walk through the streets of his capital, he saw an old soldier rubbing his back against the corner of a house. The Emperor asked him to give an explanation for this. The soldier answered, 'Because I am poor and have no slave who gives me a massage.' The Emperor, well known as a kind and generous sovereign, sent him a slave for a present. When Hadrian, however, again passed this street the following day, he saw a large number of men rubbing their backs against houses. He at once divined their purpose and advised them to rub each other, if too poor to keep slaves."3

Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach (1804-1872) contended that "man had created God in his own image - the precise reverse of the creation story - and that therefore religion was to be explained on the basis of psychology rather than theology."12

Feuerbach wrote, in his lecture The Essence of Religion, "It is a universal principal of this upside-down world that God manifests Himself in nature, whereas we should say the opposite, namely, that originally at least nature manifests itself to man as a God, that nature makes on man an impression which he calls God, which he becomes conscious of and objectifies under the name of God. It is a universal doctrine in our upside-down world that nature sprang from God, whereas we should say the opposite, namely, that God was abstracted from nature and is merely a concept derived from it."14

The may be no separation between God and nature for healing. Like Hippocrates, nature religions attribute healing to nature. But Genesis tell us that God created nature. Dorothy Maclean believes, "Nature is the glory of God."14 According to Inayat Kahn, "There is only one holy book, the sacred manuscript of nature, the only scripture that can enlighten the reader."14

There is no need to differentiate between God as healer and nature as healer. On earth, we humans have ephemeral bodies, that are part of nature, and timeless spirits (souls) that are the God within us.  Out-of-body experiences tell us that our consciousness can exist independently of our material bodies. This consciousness is our "knowing faculty. When [it] has no object to be conscious of, it is pure intelligence."14 Consciousness/intelligence and our free will are functions of our souls (spirits).

God may work through nature to effect healing. Our soul (spirit, the God within) activates, through our consciousness, the mechanism in our material (nature) body which is responsible for healing. An important component of this mechanisms may be the remembered wellness with which Herbert Benson has been concerned.15

What about doctors?

Voltaire believed that, "The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease." Dr. Franz J. Ingelfinger, editor of the New England Medical Journal, estimated in 1978 that 80% of those who see doctors have problems which are self-limiting; that is, the problems are resolved or in the process of resolution within two weeks even if they are not treated in any way. Doctors help 10% of the patients and harm the remaining 10%.16

Since then (1978), conventional medicine has become significantly more harmful. Research at Harvard, in the early 1990s, revealed that conventional medical care is the fourth leading cause of death in" the United States. It follows "heart disease, cancer and stroke."17 Although doctors are very helpful in some cases, seeing a doctor, like smoking, "may be dangerous for your health."

Spiritual massage healing is safe

Spiritual healing, including spiritual massage healing, has not harmed anybody. Spiritual healing can also be done as distant healing where the healer does not touch the individual on whom she is working. The healer can, in fact, be half way around the world. Distance is not a factor in spiritual healing because the healer and the person she helps are connected by subtle energy.18

Secular massage therapy is needlessly state-regulated because it is erroneously alleged to he harmful.19,20 Massage is a safe modality which has been remarkably helpful to many people for many centuries. Massage therapists have  not injured people because, among other things, their intent is to be helpful to their clients.

References

1. Schatz, A. Massage therapy and spiritual massage healing are legally different modalities. Spiritual Massage Ministry Newsletter. 1(1):1-2. 1995.

2. Schatz, A. The Church for Spiritual Healing and Health. Spiritual Massage Healing. Journal of Spiritual Bodywork. 1(1):1-53. 1994.

3. Haehl, R. Massage. Its History, Technique, and Therapeutic Uses. Dunlap Printing Co. Philadelphia. 1898. Reprinted by Books. O'Fallon, MO.

4. Dossey, L. Healing Words. The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine. HarperSanFrancisco. 1993.

5. Edwards, H. The Power of Spiritual Healing. The Harry Edwards Spiritual Healing Sanctuary. England. 1963.

6.  Vernon, T.S. Thomas Paine. The world is my country, and to do good is my religion. The Human Quest. page 8. July-August, 1997.

7. Pelikan, J. Editor. Introduction. The World Treasury of Modern Religious Thought. Little, Brown & Co. Boston. 1990.

8. Two gardens of massage - secular and spiritual. Which one do you want to be in? Spiritual Massage Ministry Newsletter. 2(3):3-5. 1996.

9. Hogben, G. Spiritual awareness as a healing process. pp. 82-91. In Spiritual Aspects of the Healing Arts. Compiled by Dora Kunz. The Theosophical Publishing House. Wheaton. IL 1985.

10. Skolimowski, H. Wholeness, Hippocrates and ancient philosophy. Op. cit. Ref. 10. pp. 14-20.

11. Hamilton, E. Mythology.. Little, Brown and Co. Boston. 1940.

12. Op. cit. Ref. 7. page 54.

13. Feuerbach, L. The essence of religion. Op. cit. Ref. 7. pp. 54-71.

14. Maclean, D. To Hear the Angels Sing. Lindisfarne Press. Hudson, NY. 1980.

15. Benson. H. with Mark Stark. Timeless Healing. The Power and Biology of Belief. Simon & Schuster (Fireside). NY. 1996.

16. Rossman. M.L. Healing Yourself. The use of Imagery in medical self care. (Audio cassette No. 101. Insight Publishing. Mill Valley. CA 1987.

17. Whitaker, J. Health & Healing. Tomorrow's Medicine Today. (newsletter) 6(1):1. Phillips Publishing, Inc. Potomac. MD. 1996

18. Schatz, A. and Brewster, M. Subtle energy is involved in healing, health, and bodywork. 2(4):2-6. 1996.

19. Schatz, A., and Brewster, M. Why is the Pennsylvania Licensure Coalition promoting state licensure to protect the public from harm? Will PALC please tell us how many people have been harmed by bodyworkers in Pennsylvania, and how serious their injuries were? Journal of Spiritual Bodywork.  2(4):7-10.1996.