Belief that religious faith or faith in the healer will cure disease.
The treatment of pain or illness by a person who prays and may also lay his or her hands on the patient.
The restoration of physical, emotional, or spiritual health by invoking the intervention of divine power through the laying on of hands or other means. Faith healing is a feature of some religions. Some faith healers believe that all disease has its source in the disorder of the mind or spirit, such as the Christian Science belief that disease is the result of “ignorance of true reality.” Other faith healers believe that disease is caused by demons, and they practice healing techniques in which the divine Spirit is believed to triumph over evil ones. In less extreme forms of faith healing, prayer is used by people who are sick, either as a supplement to traditional medical treatment or as a last resort when conventional medicine has failed.
The facility, claimed by some people, to cure disease by a healing force present in their make-up. The healer ‘transmits’ this force by direct contact with the person seeking treatment. Strong religious beliefs are usually characteristic both of the healer and of his or her subject.
Recovery from illness attributed to the agency of a divine being or power, usually through a variety of spiritual practices such as prayer, laying on of hands, anointing with oil, or other rituals.
The act of healing the sick or crippled by appealing to the faith of the sufferer or to divine intervention. It is an activity with a long history, going back to biblical times at least. In the New Testament, Christ heals miraculously on several occasions, curing the blind, the sick, and the lame. Through the centuries many faith healers, sometimes claiming personal powers, sometimes claiming to act for Jesus, have practiced the art. Faith healing takes various forms the laying on of hands, casting out of devils (particularly in mental illness), and so forth and is supposed to be effective against almost any disease or affliction, physical or mental: epilepsy, tuberculosis, cancer, blindness, deafness, psychosis, phobias, and so on. Sometimes, the healer claims to be the one and only true practitioner, sometimes he or she accepts that many may have the same power, providing only that the basis of faith is the same.
Sometimes, the claims made are virtually limitless; on other occasions healers accept that there are illnesses or infirmities they cannot cure and which must be referred to a conventional doctor.
This refers to the alleged capability of some individuals to heal diseases using a therapeutic power that science cannot currently explain.