Dilemma Of Healing: Psychological Vs Spiritual

Needless to say that it is unfortunately difficult to determine if a person is indeed suffering from psychological disturbances or spiritual possessions. Modern psychiatry attributes those who behave abnormally to be psychosis that could either stems from genetic or environmental influences.

 

 As the matter of fact, victims of spirit possession will not know that they are possessed. When the victims complaint to a psychiatrist that they have seen a ghost, or that they have heard spirits whispering near their ears; the psychiatrist just brush the complaints aside as ‘hallucination’ or ‘auditory hallucination’.

 

When someone complaints that he or she experienced hag ride at night or a spirit is following this person, modern psychiatrist would say that this person is suffering from ‘delusion of persecution’ (被迫害妄想癥). If someone said that he or she can communicate with spirits and that he or she is the reincarnation of certain higher order, then psychiatrist would attribute this to ‘religious delusion’ (宗教妄想癥).

 

Well, the good psychiatrists may be correct most of the times, but at times miss their target completely. The reason is that psychiatrists work within a set of theoretical framework formed through hypothesis and observations. And as a common rule, we cannot study what we cannot see; so they don’t have the required spiritual training to perceive if a spirit possession is genuine. That explains why at times the spirit mediums and magicians could cure what was incurable by the modern psychotherapeutic methods.

 

In many cultures, folks healing namely spiritual healing employed by shaman, medium or magicians alike are a subset of our culture; and that mental illnesses are in fact closely related to elements of our culture and society. So isn’t it natural that those who suffered from mental illnesses seek folks healing?

 

Now the question remains that, in the perspective of modern medicine, folks healing methodologies are somehow less scientific; added to that it is frequently flashed out in mass media that spirit mediums tend to involved in crimes like money cheating and raping the unwearied; general public are more dejected to folks healing so to speak. Personally, I would think that the modern psychotherapeutic techniques should be used as first choice and supplemented by related folks healing. This is the only way to ensure that no big fishes escape the net.