healing cult

healing cult, religious group or movement that places major, or even exclusive, emphasis on the treatment or prevention by nonmedical means of physical or spiritual ailments, which are often seen as manifestations of evil. Such cults generally fall into one of three types: those centred on certain shrines or holy places, those centred on certain organizations, and those centred on particular persons.

Pilgrimage to a sacred place and devotion before a sacred object is a major means of religious healing. From earliest times, healing and healing cults have been associated with springs and other sources of water. Water—as the source of life in many myths, as that which is an absolute necessity for existence, and as that which cleanses—is the most all-encompassing means of restoring health. As in the spa-therapy (bathing in mineral waters) of contemporary health resorts, so thermal and mineral springs were conceived to be curative in ancient times. There is evidence of Neolithic and Bronze Age devotion at the sites of a variety of such springs in western Europe (e.g., Grisy and Saint-Sauveur in France; Forlì, Italy; Saint Moritz, Switz.). Every country in which they occur has healing traditions associated with such springs. In ancient Greece the most famous shrines were at Thermopylae and near Aedepses. In ancient Rome, the springs at Tibus and the hot sulfur wells of Aquae Abulae were well known. In the Middle East, Callirrhoe, where Herod attempted to find relief from his fatal illness, was perhaps the best known; in ancient Egypt many of the temples dedicated to Asclepius (the Greek god of medicine) are adjacent to mineral springs.

Elaborate cultic practices surround those sources of water that have been the scenes of epiphanies (manifestations of deities or sacred beings) or in which divinities are believed to dwell. The most famous Western example of this type of shrine is that at Lourdes in France, where the Virgin Mary is believed to have appeared to Bernadette Soubirous in a series of visions in 1858 and to have indicated a miraculously flowing stream that would heal the ill. A number of other European water shrines are associated with epiphanies of Mary (e.g., the Shrine of the Madonna of the Baths at Scafati, Italy). Because of his association with water, many streams and wells are believed to have healing powers on the feast of the Conception of St. John the Baptist. More frequently, however, it is minor local water spirits (nymphs, water serpents, etc.) or wells and streams blessed by saints or other holy men to which devotion is made and from which healing is expected after immersion.

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Certain great landmark rivers, the scene of both civic cults and private devotions, are believed to have general therapeutic and apotropaic powers. By immersion in the Euphrates (Iraq), the Abana, the Pharpar (in Damascus, Syria), the Jordan (Israel), the Tiber (Italy), the Nile (Egypt), or the Ganges, Jumna, or Saravatī (all in India), one might be cured of disease, purified from transgression, or protected against future disorders.

These same basic features—unusual natural characteristics, scenes of epiphanies, locations associated with the life or the burial place of holy men, or great national landmarks—are present in other varieties of healing shrines (e.g., those associated with sacred trees, stones, or mountain peaks).

As in the case of various monastic orders throughout Europe that have as their primary function the care of the sick (e.g., the Knights of Malta, the Augustinian Nuns, the Order of the Holy Ghost, and the Sororites Order), healing has frequently been delegated to certain groups. Among these are special classes of priests (e.g., the Akkadian Āshipu or Kalū priests, the Greek Asclepiads); religious castes (e.g., various Brahman groups in India, the Vaidya caste in Bengal); secret societies (e.g., the Midēʿwiwim type groups among the American Indians—such groups can be highly specialized; for example, among the Sia Indians there are eight societies: one specializes in treating burns, one in ant bites, etc.); or dynasties of healers who trace their knowledge back to the gods (e.g., the Physicians of Myddvai in Wales, who have been active herbalists for more than five centuries). The formation of such groups is connected with the priests’ services at shrines and their possession and manipulation of certain sacred objects and relics that are the sources of the priestly charisma (supernatural power) of office. Most prominent are those priests who serve in the cults of healing deities (e.g., Asclepius, Hygieia in Greek religion) or at shrines devoted to healing saints (e.g., St. Cosmas and St. Damian in Christianity). The tendency to concentrate healing activities in specialized sacred organizations also arises from the length of training required to master the arts of healing, the need for special equipment and libraries, and the expense of maintaining such facilities—all of which may be readily borne by settled religious communities. Thus, many important religious leaders have also been physicians (e.g., Mani, Moses Maimonides), and the origin of hospitals in both East and West is linked to religious orders.

Healing may be accomplished by those who derive powers from their office, such as priests and kings. More frequently, however, individuals are believed to cure by means of a special gift or sacred commission. They are holy men, and one means by which their sacrality is manifested is their power to heal. This power may be revealed in a vision, it may be sought after, or it may be accidentally discovered that an individual possesses such abilities.

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Almost every religious founder, saint, and prophet has been credited with the ability to heal—either as a demonstration of or as a consequence of his holiness. In every culture there are also specialists who have gone through extraordinary initiations that confer curative powers upon them. These individuals (e.g., shamans, medicine men, folk doctors) may fill a cultural niche alongside certain religious groups. Some work within an established religious tradition but concentrate their energies primarily upon healing (e.g., well-known Christian faith healers of the 19th and 20th centuries, such as John of Kronshtadt, Leslie Weatherhead, Edgar Cayce, and Oral Roberts). Others have founded their own religious communities that maintain a focus on healing (e.g., Phineas P. Quimby and the New Thought movement, Mary Baker Eddy and Christian Science, and the various independent churches of Africa).