Harry edwards healer biography of mahatma

Home / Religious & Spiritual Figures / Harry edwards healer biography of mahatma

The Harry Edwards Healing Sanctuary still provides that service to this day.

A Growing Reputation

After the war he set up a successful printing business but was soon persuaded by friends to explore his potential as a Healer. Spiritual Healing Career

Harry Edwards' spiritual healing career began with a personal discovery and rapidly expanded into a nationally recognized practice, culminating in the establishment of a dedicated sanctuary and numerous public demonstrations.

3.1.

In 1955 he founded and was the first President of the National Federation of Spiritual Healers (NFSH). But he always emphasised that any immediate improvement that did occur would unlikely to be a ‘cure’; may not be permanent; and that the patient should seek treatment from a local healer to maintain what had been achieved with Edwards, or to seek further improvement.

On April 1, 1954, Edwards traveled to the island of Cyprus for his initiation into Daskalos' inner circle, known as "The Researchers of Truth."

3.4. He was vague, however, in relation to the status and nature of the subconscious.

The importance of the foregoing to the healing process, to Edwards, turned on the part that both aspects of mind play in the all-important state of attunement.

Shere, Guildford, UK: The Healer Publishing Company Limited.

Medland, F.J. (2008). Life Around My Father Harry Edwards. He published his rebuttals to the medical panel’s findings alongside his original documentation and further information from the patients or their families.95

The BMA panel had considered case histories from many sources other than Edwards, a ‘large proportion’ of which had come from mission hospitals.  They had been asked by the Commission to comment on ‘…evidence that the medical profession might be able to submit of spontaneous cures of apparently incurable disorders or of rapid or accelerated recovery from serious illness, following upon spiritual ministrations… whether there was any evidence of the physical or psychological value of healing services, the laying on of hands, unction, and the influence of public and private prayer…’

After remarking that the medical definition of a ‘cure’ often differed from that of patients, they concluded that:

Most of the ‘cures’ of organic diseases claimed for spiritual healing are explained, in the view of the Committee, by mistaken diagnosis or prognosis, alleviation or remission, spontaneous cure and combined treatment… Summing up, the Committee finds no evidence ‘that there is any type of illness cured by spiritual healing alone which could not have been cured by medical treatment, which necessarily includes consideration of environmental factors.

Throughout the report there was scant detail of individual cases, but the eight supplied by Edwards (plus the ninth that wasn’t) received special, albeit brief, mention at the end of the report:

During the inquiry two of the patients suffering from leukaemia died, so did the patient suffering from carcinoma of the bladder.

Philosophy and Beliefs

Harry Edwards' approach to spiritual healing was underpinned by his unique claims of receiving guidance from spiritual entities and his association with other prominent figures in the spiritualist movement.

4.1. His vision was for Healers and Doctors to work together and for Healing to become available to all.

Medics and Clerics

As the popularity of Spiritual Healing grew, both Church and Medical establishments showed their public disapproval of it, regardless of the fact that some Healers were also priests or doctors.

In 1953 an ‘Archbishops’ Commission on Divine Healing’ was created to investigate the phenomenon.

He initially imitated the practices of other Spiritualist healers, such as dramatic healing ‘passes’, or blowing onto the affected area. ‘When corroborative evidence exists of fundamental changes for the better which cannot be medically explained, the excuse is given that the first X-ray plates… cannot apply to the patient and… have been wrongly labelled.’

Spontaneous Healing ‘This reason is frequently given without any explanation, implying that the patient has ‘just’ got better.  It is surprising how many sufferers just suddenly recover when given spiritual healing.  The fact that the recovery is dated by the spiritual healing is not considered.’

Louis Rose

Dr Louis Rose was associate chief assistant in the department of psychological medicine at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, and honorary neuro-psychiatrist at the Lowestoft and North Suffolk Hospital.61

Early in 1951, at the suggestion of KM Goldney, secretary of the Society for Psychical Research, Rose attended one of Edwards’s demonstrations at the Royal Festival Hall.  The following year he began a study into the claims of healers.  He approached Edwards and other healers, including Dr Christopher Woodard, for help in obtaining details of cases worthy of examination.  Rose also posted notices in the Lancet and British Medical Journal asking for information about successful cures.  He claimed to have received letters from all over the world from people claiming to have been healed, and from healers themselves.  To those who responded Rose sent a questionnaire inviting them to obtain the co-operation of their doctors, hoping to ‘gather such details of their diseases as duration, the names of hospitals attended, and the dates during which treatment had been given.’62

Several healers submitted cases, but Edwards was the only one named in the study.

He also complained that the critics habitually attacked the weakest cases.59

Response to Medical Criticisms

Edwards commented on the objections of hostile doctors that he encountered throughout his career.  Broadly these objections were summarized in the report of the medical panel of the Archbishops’ Commission. He was despatched to the North West Frontier where he was seconded to the King’s Own Sappers and Miners and promoted to lance corporal.  After undergoing rudimentary training as an engineer, Edwards was sent to Baghdad, where he was commissioned in the field to the rank of captain.

This was purely for the purposes of demonstration, and he would frequently give healing to anyone suffering from other conditions after the demonstration had ended. Daily Telegraph, 8 December.

Denham, C. (1973). There, he was involved in the construction of a railway track between Tekrit and Baghdad.

Edwards then gave his usual demonstration of healing.109

Edwards’s biographer Raymond Branch remarked later that the effect of the Archbishops’ Commission was to boost Harry Edwards with a tidal wave of publicity that effectively established him as the preeminent healer of his age.110

Legacy

Edwards’s obituary in the Daily Telegraph remarked that he had been credited ‘…as the man who made psychic healing respectable’.111  Certainly, as far as the UK and former British overseas territories are concerned, it would be difficult to argue the contrary.  His non-denominational approach to healing, and non-ritualistic methods drew huge attention to the wider healing movement outside of Spiritualism, and forged links with the medical profession.  His development of a formal code of conduct and training program for healers made it possible for doctors to refer patients to accredited healers and other accredited complimentary practitioners.

Steve Hume

Literature

Barbanell, M (1943).