What is Spiritual and Distant Healing?

Spiritual healing is still higher in its nature than either of the former methods [physical healing, mental healing]. It can be performed by a single being as well as by a group of people. In this case the heart of the healer can send forth its feelings and vibrations, and in accordance with their intensity the subject is healed. In absent spiritual healing the desire spreads forth its rays and reaches the patient wherever he may be, curing him without the presence of the healer. The concentration of several people united together works still more wonderfully.

By spiritual development is meant God consciousness. There is a believer in God who may be called pious, but it is the God‑conscious who become spiritual. It is the belief and realization that: 'I do not exist, but God', which gives power to the healer to heal from a distance; also it is this realization that gives him the belief that his thought can reach to any distance, because the knowledge of the all‑pervading God gives him the realization that the Absolute is life in itself, and that even space, which means nothing to the average person, is everything; in fact, it is the very life of all things.

The Divine Power

The secret of healing is to rise by the power of belief above the limitations of this world of variety, that one may touch by the power of intelligence the oneness of the whole Being. It is there that one becomes charged with the almighty power, and it is by the power of that attainment that one is able to help oneself and others in their pain and suffering. Verily, spirit has all the power there is.

...God alone is the Healer; those who minister will only truly heal when they keep this truth always before them, for it is not the solid wood that makes the flute, it is the empty reed. The healer is only the instrument which God Himself is using and, only in so far as he can put aside his own lower personality and dedicate and consecrate his life to the great service, will he be successful in the work he has undertaken. He should endeavour to cultivate an attitude of calmness, serenity and poise, of harmony within and without...

Concentration in Healing

The power of concentration is the first thing necessary to develop healing power. The healer must be able to hold steadily the thought for the cure of his patient whenever he requires. Concentration is most difficult, but if this is accomplished, there is nothing that one cannot accomplish. It is useless to try and cure the patient by any process, however successful and good it may be, if there is no power of concentration. The work of the mind in healing is much greater than in anything else, for it is using the power of the mind on matter; and matter, which has been a disobedient slave of the spirit for ages, through the mineral, through the vegetable, and even through the animal kingdom always rebels against being controlled.

...The concentration of a healer should be so developed that not only when sitting in meditation and closing his eyes can he visualize the desired object, but that even with his eyes open he should be able to hold fast the picture that his mind has created in spite of anything that may be before his eyes. In healing it is necessary to know what picture one should hold in one's mind. If the healer should happen to hold the picture of a wound, he would help the wound to continue instead of being healed; and so if he thought of pain it might perhaps be continued more intensely by the help of his thought. It is the cure that he should hold in mind; it is the desired thing that he must think about, not the condition...

We see that the mind is creation. In concentration it is more so; and as deep the concentration, so deep and divine is the power of mind. And when the mind touches the Divine through deep concentration, then it is not only this one who concentrates that creates, but it would not be an exaggeration to say that even God creates through him who concentrates. Therefore, apart from attracting the spirit of the Lord, of the Messiah, or of the Saviour, the soul creates the Divine Healer and Saviour, with all natural powers and blessings. A devotee's concentration has never been in vain.

Breath ‑ Fikr

The mastery of Fikr helps a healer to hold the thought of the patient before his mind. It is Fikr that helps to heal a patient from a distance. Breath, so to speak, is an electric current that can be attached anywhere; distance makes no difference. A current of breath so established puts the ethereal waves in space into motion and according to the healer's magnetic power the space between the healer and the patient becomes filled with a running current of healing power. There is no doubt that spiritual evolution is the first thing necessary; without this the mind power of a healer, however strong, is too feeble for the purpose.

Heart ‑ Compassion

...No doubt warmth of heart is not the only quality the healer needs, he must have the power to heal, besides concentration and a desire to heal. But at the same time it is the name of Christ that is known as that of the Messiah. Messiah in the East means healer, and for a Messiah the power of love is the first quality, love in the form of sympathy. One sympathizes with another, thinking perhaps, 'He is my relation, friend, or acquaintance', but when sympathy develops to its fullest extent one begins to see in everybody 'I', 'myself', and the pain of everybody one begins to feel as one's own pain.

...The healer must have the power to heal, besides concentration and a desire to heal. But at the same time... Messiah in the East means healer, and for a Messiah the power of love is the first quality...

Hazrat Inayat Khan’s Teaching

Realize the phrase in Salat: ‘Let the star of the Divine Light shining in Thy heart be reflected in the hearts of Thy devotees’. Use this as a meditation in order to develop the attitude of a spiritual healer ‑ say it often in the day and before giving a healing treatment.

‘The Soul is the Divine Breath, it purifies, revivifies and heals the instrument, through which it functions.’ This is the central point of life. Concentrate every day a few minutes on it.

The great central breath draws to itself all that it needs.

Prayer passes out the region of petition and is in the region of realizing the Power of God.

Sufi‑healing is: making yourself a channel for the Divine Healing Power of God. Your intelligence is the channel; (this does not mean, you are a channel like a gas pipe). The success of a healer depends more on what he is than on what he does. He must have courage and deep human insight, sympathy, boundless sympathy, His intuitive faculties must be developed. He must have the power of concentration and endless patience, firmness, must be able to separate himself from the disease, (never make yourself part of the disease or sorrow, never think about pain or disease, ‑ realize that the Light, coming through you, sweeps the disease away, and think, you are only the channel).

A healer must be always in practice for storing up the healing power. Living your whole life in the presence of God is the preparation for the work of healing. Let the power in us be accumulated for the service of suffering humanity. We can store it up always, for we live in it as the fish lives in the sea.

If you want to help a patient, first relax, then realize the presence of God as the great battery of life, (picture this if you like as all‑pervading, as a fountain). Realize that you yourself are connected with it. Mystically breath is the link between God and nature. The breath of God keeps this earth floating in space. Everything exists here because it partakes of the Breath of God.

To heal oneself, one must change the point of consciousness from the mind to the soul. Realize the ‘I’ as the soul, live in that consciousness; do not say, ‘I have a headache’, but ‘my body has a headache’. Realize that: the whole work of life is to change the consciousness from the unreal to the real.

The power of concentration: A good exercise for training this is: To stand erect and to concentrate upon perfect health of body, heart and soul. Realize the Divinity within. And think of your patients and think only of them as being perfectly well. Think of them as they ought to be and as we ought to be. Shut out all pain, misery and disease. Christian Science tries to do this by the denial of matter; we, instead of this, penetrate the matter with the Divine Power of God to make it perfect. We do not deny matter, we make it living, to serve its purpose. The healer ‑ from the beginning to the end ‑ must hold the thought of cure and nothing else!

A spiritual healer is never exhausted; the actual giving of a treatment never tires (you are drawing in from the Divine Source).

Purity of body, mind and soul are necessary in order to possess healing power and a healing presence. The body must be healthy, clean and pure. The healer’s very presence must be a source, overflowing with life‑power and magnetism.

For the absent treatment: let the patient remain for some time, say a quarter of an hour, at a fixed time, in a receptive attitude. Even if you do not send the healing‑power at the same time, the patient will get it. The patient may even sleep at that time, but if awake, let him relax.

For absent treatment the best plan is to sit down in your room, still your mind. Realize that you are in touch with the great Inexhaustible Source of Life. Make a mental picture of the patient (using a portrait may be helpful). Do not think of the disease of your patient, think of him as being perfectly well, think of the Divine Spark in him. Then, make yourself very still, and let the current of healing travel to the patient on the channel of the thought you have made.

As a preparation for absent treatment a wonderful method of healing is: hold your dear ones (with you) in the Presence of God.