An Inquiry Into Healee's Perceptions of the Healing Experience
The problem. This study described the healing experience and its meaning for five individuals who received healing in the context of a Catholic healing mass. Procedure. Each of the five subjects were interviewed twice and extensive field notes were accumulated. The subjects were asked to describe their healing experience and then asked "What did this experience mean to you?". The second interview was utilized to validate and clarify the researcher's understanding of the data. Findings. Each of the five healees considered themselves to have had an experience which affected them physically, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. The healings were defined by the healee and included the stabilization of a cancer process, total and partial relief of chronic back problems, relief of persistent tachycardia, and total relief of kidney area pain. Each healee had developed preparatory behavior for continued healing experiences. None of the healees perceived their experience to conflict with, or be in lieu of, their traditional medical and nursing care. Conclusions. The strongest theme in the findings was of a relationship between belief and healing outcome. Recommendations. Further studies are needed in the area oi nontraditional healing.
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