Dorli Meier (61) of Rupperswil (Switzerland) leads the way up the stairs to her apartment rapidly and without any effort. It was not always like this. To be exact, it is only since the middle of August. Before this, stairs were a painful and almost insuperable obstacle for Dorli Meier. 

It is a moving story she tells as she sits at her kitchen table. From 1966 this former children’s nursing sister had suffered from severe pains in her left foot. Plantar warts that repeatedly became inflamed, as well as callouses and pressure sores, pained her intensely with every step she took. For 25 years she had had intermittent sciatica, sometimes for weeks on end. "I thought that if this continued I’d soon be on crutches." Sometimes she was even unable to sit, or lie down. For over six years she had suffered from angina pectoris, a coronary vessel disease, and up to three times a day she had frightening heart spasms. "I was on medication and my family doctor looked after me very well" she said. 

"A wonderful feeling!"

One morning in the middle of August 1996 Dorli Meier awoke - and had no pains. "I couldn’t understand it. It was an overwhelmingly wonderful feeling; one just cannot describe it!" Dorli Meier searched for the right words. Softly she said: "Simply gone, after all those years." Since the middle of August all her problems have vanished. 

What had happened? Dorli Meier’s daughter, Eva, learned about Bruno Groening’s teachings and every day since the end of June she had asked for healing for her mother. It had been distant spiritual healing that had cured her mother overnight. Like her daughter, Dorli Meier then joined the Bruno Groening Circle of Friends. "When you are allowed to experience something so wonderful you want to know more about it," she says. And "The Circle of Friends is not a sect. I would never become involved with anything like that. I’d rather have the pains again." 

Spontaneously healed

On June 26 1996, Dorli Meier’s daughter, Eva (26), who lives in Unterentfelden (Switzerland), went to a talk about Bruno Groening’s teachings. As she sat listening, she felt a tingling sensation all over her body. "I was immediately aware that something was happening," she said. On June 27 1996 she was spontaneously cured from an unpleasant fungus infection in her lover abdomen, which she had had since the age of 16 and had never been able to cure with medication. 

C. Bardecki (83) from St. Gall (Switzerland) was cured from arthritis in both knee joints and a sensitivity to weather. Today she is sprightly and full of zest. A. Casutt (66), from the Grisons (Switzerland), suffered from angina pectoris, high cholesterol, shortness of breath and stomach pains. Within four months he was free from all his complaints. 

A trend

There is no question about the fact that there is a trend towards spiritual healing. The psi-days in Basel were only about this subject. But what is spiritual healing? To begin with, even though it may be uncomfortable and old-fashioned to bring God or loving cosmic energy into the picture, there is no avoiding this factor. "There is a power at work which is responsible for every healing" says Matthias Kamp, a doctor who specialises in spiritual healing. "In its purest form spiritual healing is the living reunion with God, the Power that created us. This union brings about every healing." 

Placebo effect?

Yes, but are these healings not simply imaginary or prompted by auto suggestion or a form of hypnosis" a person’s critical common sense wonders. But if this were the case, how is it possible that not only plants and animals, but also babies - whose consciousness is still developing - are healed? 

Many spiritual healers offer their services to their fellow men, and it is not our intention to overlook their work by not mentioning them in this article. But today we wish to concentrate on one of the greatest - and in his day the most controversial - spiritual healers, the German, Bruno Groening. 

There are various reasons for this: 

• The DGH, the German central association for spiritual healing, has 50'000 members today. The Bruno Groening Circle of Friends, with 30'000 "friends" as they call themselves, is by far the largest spiritual healing organisation in Europe. 
• No spiritual healer, either before or after Bruno Groening, has ever attracted such a following; up to 30'000 at a gathering. 
• Apart from Lourdes, only the Circle of Friends has a Medical-Science Group which consists of 1700 doctors and professionals in the field of healing in Europe. They collect and check the healing reports.
• In this way over 3000 reports of help and healing have been methodically documented and checked since 1988. And this, although Bruno Groening has been dead since 1959. 
• The healings are free of charge. They can occur anywhere and to anyone.

Who was Bruno Groening?

In the 1950’s there was hardly a name that caused such a stir as that of Bruno Groening, the German spiritual healer (30.05.1906 - 26.01.1959). No healer attracted crowds the way he did. Everywhere the talk was about the man who could make incurable illnesses disappear from one moment to the next. Groening talked to people about God and witnesses reported how biblical scenes came to life: people were freed from pain and the lame left their wheelchairs. 

Above all it was the doctors, with whom Groening would dearly have liked to work, who attacked this simple man who had never studied, who did not acknowledge the word "incurable" and who never accepted payment from those he had healed. According to his own prediction he died in 1959, internally burnt out by the healing stream which he was not allowed to pass on to other people. A legally enforced prohibition order greatly curbed his working possibilities. 

Free will is sacrosanct

Bruno Groening urged the sick to take responsibility for their own healing process. His conviction was that man is in a field of tension between two sources of power: one which is negative and destructive, the other, positive and constructive. The energy to which a person is receptive depends on his spiritual orientation. Negative thoughts bind him to negative potential, which deprives him from his strength and exposes him to illness; positive thoughts connect him with all that is good, with the Divine source of power which feeds him with energies of a strengthening and healing nature. 

Admittedly Bruno Groening’s teachings require a change of attitude from a sick person, for he inclines to fear, anxiety or concern for his illness, thereby binding himself even more firmly to the complaint he wants to be rid of. 

According to Bruno Groening, the most important step towards recovery is a conscious mental separation from the illness. In this way the healing powers have free access into, and through the body. When this occurs, there is often a sensation of a pleasant, warm prickling. But, as many people who have been healed report, there can also be physical reactions. Bruno Groening called these healing crises "regulations" and as is the case with homeopathy, there is often an initial worsening of the condition before the improvement and healings sets in. 

For Bruno Groening, man’s free will was the cardinal rule. He rejected suggestion and hypnosis as an interference in this supreme gift. He did not ask people to believe what he said. On the contrary he said: "You must not believe what I tell you. But do you not have the obligation to prove to yourselves whether it is true?" 

Open hands and hearts

In the community meetings of the Bruno Groening Circle of Friends the audience sits quietly relaxed, hands open and palms upward, resting on thighs. They have met to receive the healing powers in a friendly and tranquil atmosphere. For after the death of Bruno Groening the healings, amazingly, continued. In time communities came to be formed, where those who had been healed, those who sought healing and those who where simply interested, came together. Presently they total more than 30'000 people. 

"We are not a sect, we are not even an association" a participant explains, "everybody comes and goes as he wishes. I haven’t been to a community meeting for a long time. The healing stream can also be absorbed at home." 

Nobody receives therapy at a community meeting. Nor are there diagnoses or promises made that healing will be received. And, most important of all - and this is particularly stressed - nobody is advised to discontinue medical treatment, should he be receiving it. Free will is still the most important criterion for the "friends" of Bruno Groening. And, everything is free of charge. 

"This has nothing to do with mysticism"

Spiritual healing: an orthodox physician looks beyond the boundaries of orthodoxy. The following is an interview with the physician Matthias Kamp, Medical Director of the Medical- Science Group in the Bruno Groening Circle of Friends. 

Biography of Matthias Kamp

AARGAUER KURIER:
What is disease and where does it come from? 

MATTHIAS KAMP: ecause I know that spiritual healing is possible, it must be assumed that the roots of disease are to be found in the mental and emotional sphere. Orthodox medicine has already proved the interaction between feelings, thoughts and the immune system in psychoneuroimmunology. It is ancient knowledge that thoughts are forces. This is why I find it irresponsible to confront a patient with a diagnosis like "incurable" or a statement like "You have only six month to live." 

As a doctor, why are you interested in spiritual healing?

I work in the emergency ward of a hospital and there I value orthodox medicine. But as a realist I am also aware of its limits, particularly in the case of chronic illnesses. I see suffering without end. So it is my duty as a doctor to look beyond the boundaries of orthodox medicine in the interests of my patients. 

But spiritual healing is difficult to understand for somebody who thinks rationally. 

Spiritual healing is the most natural form of healing and has nothing to do with occultism or mysticism. It occurs through the conscious union of man with the Power that created him. Bruno Groening said: "Divine power helps and heals. Man does not heal, but the Higher Power which he can absorb, does. It is like a plant that is kept in the cellar which, although it receives water and a fertiliser, turns brown and sickens. But if this brown, unsightly plant is placed in the sun, a miracle occurs and it turns green." 

Are doctors and alternative-medical practitioners becoming superfluous? 

Not at all. This does not mean that all medication should be stopped or operations should not take place. Orthodox medical therapy does not contradict spiritual healing. The aim is collaboration, so that working in concert, both sides can lead people back to the sources of power which emanate from the spirit and soul. 

There are many other spirit healers besides Bruno Groening. Why are you so interested in his teachings? 

The big plus for me is the independence they give me. I can tune in to the healing power on my own and can retain it. I don’t need to seek out a healer. Furthermore, the Bruno Groening Circle of Friends does not ask for payment. Through these teachings healing once again becomes what it was originally: a gift from God. Healing is the first step in the process of becoming a loving person within. 

There are people who suffer from so-called "incurable" illnesses like cancer. Can you, with a clear conscience, really give them hope for healing? 

Turn the question around. Can you, with a clear conscience, not give them hope for healing? Seventy-five-year old Mrs. W. from N. was cured of a highly malignant non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. After a stroke, 58-year old Mr. K. from W. was stricken with hemiplegia for 13 years, and received complete healing. Mrs. M. from A. received spontaneous healing from depressions which had lasted many years, as well as healing from pronounced varicose veins. 

Consequently, healing is possible, but one cannot and may not promise that it will occur. Healing is a gift from God. 

These are big words. Where is the evidence? 

I have personally attended very many people who have been healed, and have documented the healings after follow-up examinations by independent physicians. These are facts that cannot be refuted. 

Can anyone receive healing? 

Paracelsus said: "All illnesses can be cured, but not all people." It can take years for a healing to occur. It can happen spontaneously. Everything is possible. 

How does one recognise a trustworthy spiritual healer? 

The ethic committee for the DGH, the central association for spiritual healing in Europe, has drawn up clear guidelines in this regard. No promise of healing may be made. If a healer takes money, he may not do so in advance, nor may he stipulate flat rates but instead, reasonable hourly estimates. A trustworthy healer never claims that he himself effects the healing; he feels himself an intermediary for the healing energy or an instrument of God. He will never advise a person seeking healing not to see his doctor, stop taking medication or not to have an operation. A healer is humble, he venerates God and has no claim to being omnipotent. Finally, the patient must feel good in the presence of the healer. 

Where will this knowledge lead us in future? 

I see it as orthodox and alternative medicine working together with spiritual healing possibilities. But to achieve this, the arguments must be factual. We of the Medical-Science Group of the Bruno Groening Circle of Friends seek to create the necessary scientific foundation for this by medically documenting the healings. The official authorities can no longer exclude us.