Home :: page 1 of the magazine << Previous edition  next issue >> Volume 11, Summer 2008 "I give my life to all people on this earth and help them in any way I can - in so far as they are ready to accept my help." Bruno Groening

‘Are you dry?' – ‘No, healed!'

The systematic recording of healings from addiction in the Bruno Groening Circle of Friends

Grete Häusler, former Director of the Bruno Groening Circle of Friends, would often ask the friends during her frequent worldwide visits, "Do you also have people dependent on drugs in your country". She never got "no" for an answer.

The first healings from addictive disorders in the Bruno Groening Circle of Friends occurred in the eighties. Even then the entire spectrum of addictions was to be seen: heroin, cocaine, LSD, marijuana, hashish, alcohol and many more.

Initial contacts

After the first experiences with spiritual healing of people dependent on addictive substances through the teaching of Bruno Groening, the first specialized communities were founded by a small group of friends starting in 1992.

The so-called "Communities for Those Most in Need of Help" first arose in large German cities and soon thereafter in nearby European countries with the special purpose of holding community hours to attract people dependent on drugs. The helpers would speak with the people out in the drug scene, and some of them would then later find their way to the community hours.

These "people most in need of help" soon began to report incredible improvements in their health as well as help in their personal lives. And this was also true in cases of severe drug or alcohol dependence. 

Even addicts with whom a short conversation had been held on the street were sometimes hardly to be recognized after three to six weeks. They would have suddenly found a place to live, and visible positive changes in their outward appearance and overall health would be seen.

Progress Could Be Seen

Up to this time it had been frequently observed that extraordinary changes for the better were taking place through conversation with the drug addicts alone, especially if they had absorbed the Heilstrom*. It often happened that someone would say that shortly after the first contact with the teaching of Bruno Groening they no longer had to consume drugs, medication or alcohol, simply because they no longer had the desire and there were no perceptible withdrawal symptoms.

Although these extremely unusual occurrences were indeed observed or learned about through conversations with the afflicted, the help and healings were seldom written down, not to speak of systematically recorded. This was to come later.

Drug addiction tends to take hold of a person's soul, strongly influencing and changing his character and entire life.

Mr. and Mrs. Hagen (left), responsible for "those most in need of help" in the Bruno Groening Circle of Friends, with their closest helpers

One often speaks of astonishing changes in personality structure, and this is also observable with regular hashish consumption. Thus it has not usually been easy for these socially uprooted people to keep to the attendance schedule of community hours every three weeks. For instance, they will sometimes be so distracted on the way there that even with the best intentions they don't make it to the hour.

Their attendance at the community hours has often been too short to determine whether a spiritual healing has occurred and whether it has been lasting. The only reliable information obtained was "It is obviously helpful!"

Healings from Addiction Systematically Recorded

This changed in the year 2001 with the founding of an independent Working Group within the Medical Scientific Group (MWF) for the recording of healings from addiction. Specialists (doctors and psychologists) met under the direction of a psychologist and began to systematically record the healings. Since then healings from substance abuse are checked according to definite criteria, medically documented when possible and finally provided with a specialist's commentary.

This scientific work is based on the "International Classification of Psychological Disturbances" of the WHO (World Health Organization), or ICD-10 (see box below)

The healing of severe dependence in particular has always been a major concern. In this regard, it has been shown that a healing is possible through absorption of the Heilstrom* regardless of the level of severity of the dependence. Numerous remarkable healings lasting for more than a decade have already been verified.

Not Dry, but Healed

Thus when a friend who had reported of his healing from alcoholism at a conference of the Circle of Friends was asked whether he was now "dry", he responded, "Not dry, I'm healed". Surely a person really healed from drug addiction would no longer turn to drugs, but isn't that less likely with those "healed" from alcoholism, subjected as they are to the continual temptation of a socially-accepted drug? On the contrary, experience has shown that even though they are offered alcohol socially or are thirsty in the summer for a "Radler" (a mixture of beer and lemon soda) they nevertheless do not relapse into addiction.

After being freed from the symptoms (stopping consumption) many of these long-term healed persons change their entire social environment, reconcile with their families, and become fully reintegrated into their profession and society. The old life of dependence is a thing of the past and a new life in freedom and trust in divine help begins.

To Deal Openly with the Addiction

Since the year 2005, people dependent on addictive substances have been integrated into the regular adult communities of the Bruno Groening Circle of Friends. As a result of growing acceptance within the Circle of Friends, the special communities for people seeking help with addictions could be closed. Thanks to the pioneer work of the 1990s, most of the Bruno Groening Friends have become aware of the volatility and great significance of such dependence for all of society.

Through dealing openly with a subject that was formerly taboo, the Bruno Groening Circle of Friends has seen a rise in the number of recorded healings from addiction. Thus, for the first six months of 2008, around 60 additional verified healings are to be published in the Internet under www.bruno-Groening.org/drogenhilfe, among them reports from countries such as Italy, Croatia, the USA and Russia.

Many long-term healed persons actively help in their region and act as contact for new seekers of help in the area of substance addiction. On the other hand, there is also a growing number of helpers without addiction experience who are ready to lend a hand to the afflicted people.

At the 2007-2008 schooling week, over 100 people spoke of their healings from various addictions from overeating and addiction to gambling, alcohol and prescription drugs to severe drug addiction.

As a result of the many years of systematic verification work by psychologists and doctors in the Bruno Groening Circle of Friends, more and more help-seekers are finding a way out of the dead-end street of addiction. (umt)

Healing from Psoriasis

Success Report of Szegedi Sándorné, 61, Nyíregyháza, Hungary

Eight or nine years ago, around the year 1999, a scale-like rash appeared on my upper arms near the elbows.

At first I didn't think much about it. I noticed that the rash would always appear toward the end of winter or in early spring. But as time went on it increased and finally this strange, scale-like rash would appear not only on my arms, but also on my legs, thighs and waist.

Diagnosis: Psoriasis

When I scratched, a red sore would appear that healed very slowly. Around the year 2002 I had to go to a skin doctor. He diagnosed psoriasis. I was given various salves whose names I no longer remember. I would rub them into the sore and treat it with a quartz lamp.

In the summer the sunlight brought a little relief. The rash healed more and more slowly. Later I used Cutivata 5%, Carbamid and marigold salve, and began to spray it with Oxycort spray, but that just made my skin even drier.

It Becomes Visible

In the year 2006, it began to get critical for me. At this time the skin changes were already appearing in large patches almost all over my body. In the end they were visible all over except for my face, neck and chest.

New salves and a 30-day light therapy hardly helped at all. After the unsuccessful light therapy I didn't visit any more dermatology clinics.

I should have exposed my skin to the sun, but I didn't go to the public swimming pool any more. I tried to wear clothes that concealed the rash.

Something Drew Me There

One morning in October, 2006, I found two leaflets folded together in my mailbox. One was an invitation to an Information Lecture and the other dealt with Bruno Groening, the Circle of Friends and healing.

I was touched by one particular sentence; "God is the greatest physician". I had the feeling that I should go there. I went to the information lecture on October 6, 2006, where I was introduced to the teaching of Bruno Groening.

My Skin Is Smooth Again

When we did einstellen for the first time to the Heilstrom* I had a strange feeling. I felt as though I had finally arrived "at home" after a long time of seeking God. I felt very good and a powerful warmth streamed through me. After that I began to do einstellen to the Heilstrom* every day.

Since that time I have not concerned myself with the ailment and somehow completely forgot about it. Then one night around the middle of February I stroked my legs while lying in bed. I was very surprised to find that they were very smooth. I couldn't feel anything rough sticking out any more. I quickly got up, went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. I was surprised to see that the rash had disappeared. The very unusual thing about it was that I hadn't noticed at all when and how it had happened. It had simply disappeared. As quick as a flash the thought came to me, "God is the greatest physician" - really. He had helped me.

Since then the rash has not reappeared, and my skin is smooth and healthy. I need neither salves nor treatment. In the summer I can wear sleeveless blouses or a swimming suit again.

Healing from Drug Dependence

Success Report of Eric Haven, 44, Community of Forbach, France )

As a youth I was often alone and unhappy. At 16 I became the drummer in a rock band. For ten years we traveled all over France. With the music also came drugs, first cannabis, hashish and LSD. At 19 it was finally heroin, cocaine and amphetamines. Every day I would already be high on drugs early in the morning. Then there was also alcohol. It went so far that I had to give up my music. I simply wasn't up to it any more.

I Hit Rock Bottom

So there I was at 30 without a job and completely penniless. To satisfy my addiction I needed between 800 and 1000 Francs daily. I would steal money whenever possible. The addiction had hardened me to the extent that I pilfered most of it from parents and family. When that no longer sufficed I became a dealer myself. The police caught me, and I was in prison for twelve months. In addition to ten withdrawal cures, I underwent four in-patient courses of therapy, each one year long. Although I struggled against the addiction I kept having relapses. Through my grandmother, an artist, I was attracted to art. She taught me painting, sculpture and the fine arts, and I later worked as a draftsman for an advertising agency. I worked for a while in an association for the support of young drug addicts. I introduced them to various kinds of painting. I would pull myself together during the day. I was thus very nervous and it was only the expectation that I would get my drugs in the evening that calmed me down somewhat. I wanted to hide my addiction from the teenagers at all costs. Starting in 1996 I wanted to earn my living as a painter. I sought my inspiration again in drugs - cannabis, hashish and cocaine - but beer, too, always had to be at hand. My painting was sad and gloomy, and I had little success. As is often the case in this scene, my artist's agent was also my drug supplier. In 1998 I realized that I wanted out of that. I began to read a lot of esoteric books.

First Contact

In the spring of 2002, I was introduced to the teaching of Bruno Groening. A community hour followed and, although my mind raised many objections, I felt drawn to this Circle of Friends. My life went on as before, with a lot of beer and drugs. After my second community hour in May, 2002, I suddenly felt physically free from any need to take drugs or alcohol.

A New Person

After I had begun to regularly do einstellen twice a day to receive the Heilstrom*, my entire life changed. By July of 2002 I had already separated myself from my artist's agent and set up a studio in my mother's house. From one day to the next my painting became more alive and varied and even spiritual to some extent, and new colors appeared as needed. In 2003 I participated in an art exhibition in Switzerland. I had previously only copied the pictures of other artists; now I paint my own pictures. Today my life is full of joy and I perceive a very pleasant inner peace.

Healing From 11 Years of Gambling Addiction

Anton Gödl, 36, Austria

Starting at the age of 22 I went at least three to five times a month to a casino to try my luck at the slot machines. During my first visit at a casino I had won the considerable sum of around 2,500 Euro. After that I wanted to win more and more. I simply couldn't resist this urge. It often happened that I would overdraw my bank account in this way. I lost my self respect and got the feeling of having failed or that I wasn't strong enough to give it up. When I realized two years later what I was really doing, it was too late. 

I could no longer stop and was addicted to gambling. It was unclear to me how I would ever get away from it, and I didn't consult any therapists or doctors in this connection. One month before my first contact with the Bruno Groening Circle of Friends, the frequency of my visits to the slot machines had increased to up to eight per month. When I ran out of money, I would borrow from other gamblers. My bank account was often overdrawn to the limit. I scrupulously concealed this 11 years of gambling addiction from my family and friends. After my introduction on November 13, 2004, I went directly to a casino - I couldn't help it. On that day I gambled away all my cash, around 300 Euros. I felt anxious and frustrated. Then I suddenly thought, "Why am I doing this?" I left the casino and since then haven't gambled a single time, although I do occasionally go to a casino to have a drink. It is as if something has been erased from my hard drive. I no longer feel any urge at all to gamble. On that day I was liberated from that horrible addiction.

Entirely Normal Drinking Behavior

Success Report of Heinz Werner, 62, Mödling, Austria Community

Alcohol was a part of daily life in my family. At about 15 years of age, I myself also began to drink beer and wine with my friends.

After I had become self-employed, I hired an employee for one day a week in 1982. It came about in the daily routine that we would begin the day with a "breakfast beer". As time went on we would occasionally spend the entire day drinking in a bar - sometimes until late in the evening - instead of working together. On the remaining days I worked in the office, where I occasionally drank two or three bottles of beer. After work on these days my alcohol consumption would consist of three bottles of beer and five mixed drinks. From 1985 on, my colleague worked full time in my office and with this my daily routine and drinking behavior completely changed. I drank all day long and got home several times a week after midnight. Nevertheless I was at work every day at 7:30 and felt fit for work.

Alcohol Determines the Daily Routine

By 1995 I even had the habit of enriching my breakfast tea with a shot of schnapps. My alcoholic condition was accepted by my business partners, but not by my wife and my family. My wife moved out of our apartment at year's end 1996, and we were divorced in 2001. Then I lost my driver's license for three months and suffered some business losses. Up until the year 2000, I drank up to ¾ liter schnapps, eight bottles of bier and a liter of wine daily. I would have physical withdrawal symptoms if I didn't have the right blood-alcohol level, and my hands would shake and I would break out in a sweat, among other things. In the period following I tried everything to become free of the addiction. My companion did her best to support me and I visited a psychologist and made an effort to control my drinking behavior. I even went so far as to take a course in self-hypnosis. Nothing helped in the end, not even the Alcoholics Anonymous, and I went on secretly drinking. I had already heard of Bruno Groening in 1995, but it wasn't until October 2004 that I got myself introduced to the teaching of Bruno Groening on the advice of my partner after seeing the documentary film on Bruno Groening. I regularly attended the community hours and did einstellen to the Heilstrom*. I often asked Bruno Groening for help to be able to keep the amount of alcohol within reasonable limits; in secret I went on drinking the same amount of alcohol as before the introduction. My partner kept discovering my hidden schnapps bottles and my partnership was thus sorely tested.

Healing

On the morning of September 27, 2005, my breakfast tea remained alcohol-free for reasons inexplicable to me. I had completely forgotten the schnapps. Since that day the desire for schnapps and wine has been simply gone, as if I had never drunk. To my astonishment I had neither physical nor emotional withdrawal symptoms. I am totally happy and very grateful to finally be freed from the compulsion to drink and lie, and from the continual games of hide-and-seek. And it doesn't bother me when people near me are drinking socially, as I have no desire at all. Today I feel as if newly born and enjoy the harmony in my family.

25,000 Pain Pills in 29 Years

Healing from Addiction to Prescription Drugs
Success Report of Verena Stegmann, 61, Berlin

From 1966 on, I had suffered from severe migraines that appeared every three weeks. To at least be able to relieve the severe headaches somewhat and be as fit as possible for work, I took the pail pills Neuranidal (with caffeine) from the beginning. Since in the following years the doctors were unable to help despite many other medications and treatments, I kept taking Neuranidal exclusively. Because I lead a very stressful life, the migraine attacks came increasingly often - already every two weeks in the eighties and from 1990 on once a week. To be able to endure the great pain at all I needed more and more Neuranidal. I lived in constant fear of the next attack. Therefore I began to take the pills preventively before especially important appointments or as soon as I felt slightly unwell.

The Consumption Increases

Without the pills I wasn't able to cope with my life at all. But since Neuranidal was freely obtainable, I could pick up a supply of the tablets anywhere. Around 1990 I suddenly got severe shortness of breath that led to fear of suffocation and death. This shortness of breath would disappear only when I took Neuranidal. It reoccurred every two or three hours and immediately led to a daily consumption of up to seven tablets. One of the doctors treating me advised me at the very beginning, "Mrs. Stegmann, I recommend that you keep a pain-pill diary." I kept a record and with the help of this information I was able to easily calculate that from 1966 to 1995 I had taken around 25,000 Neuranidal tablets.

Healing

In May, 1995, I saw a television program on alternative healing methods in which Bruno Groening friends from Berlin told of their healings. Included was a healing from migraines that had lasted for 30 years. Afterward I immediately wrote to the address given and was introduced in June, 1995. Three days after a conference of the Circle of Friends in August, 1995, the shortness of breath had completely disappeared the next morning and for good. I simultaneously felt a sudden inner resistance against all kinds of pain pills. From that day on I was able to endure even the most severe pain without pain pills, something that had not been at all possible before. From September 1, 1995 until today I have not taken a single pain pill.

The Heidelberg Test

1949--Thousands make a pilgrimage to Bruno Groening's places of activity – incredible misery and unbelievable healings - Part 6

From the beginning, Bruno Groening endeavored to collaborate with doctors. When, in the summer of 1949, he received the offer to have his "healing methods" tested through medical "experiments" in collaboration with the Heidelberg University Clinic, he accepted. Two reporters and the Marburg psychologist, Prof. Gerd Heinz Fischer had investigated and verified the healings in Herford for the magazine "Revue". The "Revue" then decided to finance the entire project. Bruno Groening explained in 1950 why he had made himself available for this test.

"That I had then, and still have today, a positive attitude toward doctors is proven by the fact that I made myself available to the doctors in Heidelberg under the direction of Prof. Weizsäcker, Prof. Fischer and Dr.Wüst, with the honest intention of demonstrating my healing methods to them and proving that I would like to help people without disregarding the medical profession."

Interesse der Wissenschaft

Bruno Groening described in his article 'The Heidelberg Test" how the tests had come about: 

"Professor F. was so greatly impressed that he investigated the matter of the healed people and determined that the healings had actually occurred. As a result, interest kept increasing and it was inevitable that inquiries corroborating the success would also be made on the spot. 

Professor F. had got everything moving in Herford, so I received the message in Herford that I should come immediately to Herford, since a certain Professor F. and other gentlemen were waiting with great interest for me with the intention of paving the way for me to work freely. I complied with this request.

.

Bruno Groening conversing with Dr. Wüst und Prof. Fischer

In Herford I had the talk with Professor F., and thereafter he granted me his full support in collaboration with Professor W. in his Heidelberg clinic. They not only wanted to do everything possible to pave the way for me, but the medical profession, too, had great interest in me and my work, and for this reason alone wanted to bring about an ongoing collaboration.

The gentlemen were so greatly interested because, as they emphasized, they had convinced themselves one hundred percent of my work and above all because my work should be allowed to benefit all of mankind. It was agreed that I should make myself available to the above-named people for ten days at the Heidelberg Clinic, also in order to prove to the entire medical profession that healings through the person Groening could be medically verified and endorsed. A few days later I learned that the magazine "Revue" wanted to finance this entire endeavor.""

Bruno Groening before the Physicians of the Heidelberg University Clinic

The magazine "Revue" reported exclusively on the tests.

"We arranged with Dr. W. that the experiments would begin on July 27, 1949. The patients would be chosen from among the group of sick people who had sent letters of petition to Groening. There were over 80,000 letters from sick people who had only one hope left - that Groening would be able to heal them - and letters of gratitude from people whom Groening had treated. We picked up the 80,000 letters that had been received from Herford with a truck.

A number of additional patients are supposed to be transferred from the Ludolf-Krehl-Klinik for treatment. On July 26, the "Revue" rents a house in Heidelberg for Groening and his closest associates in which he is supposed to practice." (the)