THE MYSTIC HEALERS

by Paris Flammonde ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1974

The lives and practices of well-known mystic healers. Though messiahs and saints are barely touched on, Flammonde includes such practitioners as Mesmer, Eddy, Cayce, Roberts, and Kuhlman. They seem to have some sort of power; but Flammonde suggests that it is often merely an ability to inspire faith, not a direct link to God or an eschatology. Moreover, charlatans abound (John Brinkley the pseudo-M.D. who offered to transplant a goat testicle into a man as a cure for impotence); cults such as Dianetics and Scientology, and certain Esalen practices are transparent; and the huge financial empires of Oral Roberts and Leroy Jenkins under the guise of ""a dollar for deliverance, a little cash for Christ"" must give us pause. But how to account for Cayce, Arigo, or Harry Edwards? Flammonde is sympathetic to the possibility of a spiritual or psychic process in which the faith of the patient is irrelevant -- and healers who claim it to be so are, as Flammonde presents them, remarkably undogmatic. The author offers no conclusions, no pieties and remains appropriately objective -- but there is nothing very new or exciting here.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Stein & Day

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1974

Categories: NONFICTION