Healing is based on the principle that there is a universal energy – or ‘Chi’ - which exists all around, is available to everybody, and which can be used for the purpose of restoring harmony, balance and health.

Traditionally, healers conducted their treatment in the name of a god or spirit and today many practitioners still believe in a spiritual presence behind their work. However, the patient is not required to have any specific set of beliefs: even the most sceptical person can benefit from energy healing.

Rather than possessing Chi themselves, healers believe that they are simply the channel through which the energy passes. During a healing session, the practitioner draws in the Chi that is around them and directs it towards the person they are treating. By doing this, healers are able to trigger changes in the patient’s own energy field, resulting feelings of relaxation, wellbeing and rejuvenation. Some consider this channelling of energy a gift exclusive to only a few people, but others argue anyone can do it with practice.

There are many different forms of healing:

• Spiritual healers believe that they are channels for a healing force which can pass through them and into the energy field of the person they are treating.
• Absent healers work by visualising and transferring a healing energy from a universal energy source to someone who is physically removed from them.
• Aura healers say that they can see ‘aura’ - or bands of changing colours which represent an aura - around the person being treated which reflects their state of health. They believe that they can influence these aura by placing their hands on or near the person’s head and visualising healing colours.
• Spiritualist healers claim that whilst they are in a trance, a force from the spirit world performs healing by taking over their body and using it as a medium.
• Faith healers believe that the patient’s faith in their ability to heal is essential. Without this faith, there can be no cure. 

Many people are convinced of the benefits of healing, but there is much debate as to how it actually works, with no sound explanation. Many medical practitioners are sceptical, with a significant number of doctors attributing any positive effects of healing to the ‘placebo effect’ or ‘autosuggestion’. But recently healing has become more widely accepted, and healers can now be found in some clinics and hospitals – although the popularity of healing still varies from country to country. 

We would like to acknowledge the use of information taken from the European Parkinson’s Disease Association website http://www.epda.eu.com