The National Federation of Spiritual Healers Charitable Trust Ltd, a UK-based pan-denominational organization of spiritual healers, has changed its name to The Healing Trust. Founded in 1954, the organization is the largest and oldest membership organization of spiritual healers in the UK, with over 50 healing centers throughout the country that volunteer members staff. The Healing Trust provides national standards of training delivered by accredited trainers, a minimum 2-year training period with national standards of the final assessment, a professional code of conduct, disciplinary procedures, professional insurance, and accreditation of independent voluntary centers that meet Healing Trust standards.
What is Healing?
The term “Spiritual” comes from the Latin word “spiritus” which means “breath of life”. Healing is defined as the regaining of balance of mind, body, and/or emotions. Spiritual healing or soul healing is a natural energy therapy that complements conventional medicine by treating the whole person, including the mind, body, and spirit. Healers are believed to act as a conduit for healing energy, which can be felt on many levels, including the physical.
The Healing Trust acknowledges that while many people have reported physical and/or emotional benefits from attending healing sessions, they cannot promise or guarantee any particular result.
Does Spiritual Healing Work?
Spiritual healers hold the conviction that they know how to become a spiritual healer and can cure their patients or considerably improve their health by channeling healing energy into their bodies. Failing that, they believe they can at least significantly improve their patients’ health. This idea may be interpreted in a variety of different ways, and the language may be difficult to grasp in certain cases. Some of these variations include therapeutic touch, remote healing, faith healing, intercessory prayer, Johrei, and Reiki. Other examples include Johrei and remote healing. In the United Kingdom, there are around 1400 healers who are registered.
According to a patient guide that was sponsored by the Department of Health, research has shown that spiritual healing can have benefits in a variety of areas, including the healing of wounds, chronic conditions such as migraines or irritable bowel syndrome, reducing the side effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy for cancer patients, providing pain relief, relaxation, improving sleep patterns, reducing tension, stress, and anxiety, and providing emotional and spiritual support. Some of these benefits include: the healing of wounds; the reduction of side effects of chemotherapy and radio
Members and Operators
The National Federation of Spiritual Healers (NFSH), which is now celebrating its golden jubilee, is the largest professional association of healers in the United Kingdom. It currently has over 5000 members and operates across the country. The institution maintains that it has been working towards the goal of enhancing the standard of care that is offered within the healthcare sector. On its website, the National Foundation for Science in the Humanities (NFSH) acknowledges the importance of scientific evidence but also points out that there is a paucity of it at the moment. They have expressed their hope that more studies will be carried out in order to establish the efficacy of this natural medicine.
Efficacy of the National Federation of Spiritual Healers
Despite the fact that the NFSH‘s effort at a self-critical appraisal may seem to be worthy of praise, the data paint a quite different image. A comprehensive analysis of healing studies, which included 23 placebo-controlled randomized controlled trials with over 3000 patients, revealed that it was not possible to draw any conclusion from the primary data. This was due to the various methodological restrictions that were present in the original data. A systematic evaluation of healing studies revealed this. An updated version of this analysis contained the results of 17 more clinical investigations, which, when considered together, shifted the weight of the evidence against the hypothesis that healing may be more than a placebo effect. The new study was conducted by the same researchers as the original study.
Both the hypothesis that therapeutic touch helps in the healing of wounds and the hypothesis that intercessory prayer promotes general health were found to be unsupported by the results of the Cochrane reviews. The two largest studies on healing, which included a total of 1493 and 748 participants, respectively, were unable to establish that intercessory prayer had any type of positive impact on the outcomes of heart surgery. Both of these studies had 748 participants.
There is no mention of the fact that there are presently over fifty controlled clinical trials and several systematic reviews available and that when taken together, these pieces of data do not imply effectiveness, on the website of the NFSH. This is despite the fact that this information is readily available. Even though the NFSH would “like to see more studies,” the public needs a higher level of transparency.
Works and Services
It is of the highest significance to highlight the systematic way in which the general public is being misled about alternative medicine. Investigations to a significant depth have shown that falsehoods may be cunning and difficult to spot. Education and regulation are going to be the two primary focuses of a new project that the Competition Bureau of Canada has only just launched to prevent the type of health fraud that was described before. “Consumers should be skeptical of health-related products or services that look too good to be true, and they should always speak to a health care professional before trying any new treatment,” said the statement that was credited to the organization’s deputy commissioner.
It is vital that steps be done to prevent this continued and perhaps damaging misrepresentation of the general population in order to protect the general public. It is unfortunate that it seems as if the authorities in the UK are on the side of those who duped people, in contrast to the situation in Canada, where this is not the case.
Achievements
Since 2008, UKH has been a part of the Healer Professionals Regulatory Working Group (HPRWG), which is about to establish Voluntary Self-Regulation (VSR) Standards created expressly for healers who seek to operate in statutory settings such as hospitals, hospices, and surgery. These standards will be tailored to the needs of healers who wish to do such work. As a consequence of this, any Healer will have the opportunity to register with the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC), which has been recognized by the Department of Health. The CNHC is a government-sponsored organization that was founded to guarantee the highest possible professional standards for the sake of the public’s safety and protection. Together with the British Alliance of Healing Organizations (BAHA), the National Federation of Spiritual Healers (NFSH) was able to contribute a significant amount of expert knowledge toward the formulation of these standards.
2009 was the year that the National Federation of Spiritual Healers made the decision to publicly establish its new and distinctive working name. They wanted something that would better accurately define the emphasis of their activities and, as a result, have the greatest possible influence on the general public.
The transition to the organization’s new headquarters in Northampton was planned to coincide with the introduction of the new working name, which was given at that time. The charitable organization was able to acquire its own Central Office as a result of a considerable gift left by a Scottish member named Clark Findlay as well as an additional big contribution made by an anonymous donor.
Conclusion
Spiritual healers in the UK created the National Federation of Spiritual Healers Charitable Trust Ltd, now The Healing Trust, in 1954. Its 5,000 members and over 50 UK rehabilitation institutions get national training requirements, a professional code of conduct, disciplinary processes, and professional insurance. Spiritual healing addresses the mind, body, and spirit through complimentary energy treatment. Despite many people reporting physical and emotional benefits from healing sessions, the Healing Trust cannot guarantee a specific outcome. Spiritual healing aids wound healing, chronic ailments, minimizing chemotherapy side effects, pain relief, relaxation, and emotional and spiritual support. Spiritual healing may not be more effective than a placebo, according to many researchers.