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Volume 8 - Winter 2005

Table of Contents

(Selected articles from the magazine)

News from the Circle of Friends 

Documentary film on Bruno Groening abroad

Summer activities of the Bruno Groening Circle of Friends

Medical Scientific Group

Healings recorded as Success Reports on film

Healing shoulder pain

Bruno Groening back then

The Traberhof in Rosenheim, part 2

Nature and Heilstrom* – active vacation for body and soul

Summer activities of the Bruno Groening Circle of Friends

The summer vacation activities of the Bruno Groening Friends are becoming ever more popular. This year the number of events in Germany and abroad reached a new high. In addition to the Hiking Weeks for youth and adults that have taken place for some years in Filzmoos, Austria, and the equally traditional Youth Week in Berlin, there were the following additional events in the summer of 2005: three Family Weeks in Berlin, Davos, Switzerland and Mühlviertel, Austria; three Sailing Weeks; a Mountain Week in Croatia; Hiking Weeks in France and the Czech Republic; and Youth Weeks in the mountains and on the Baltic Sea.

"I draw on the experiences and energy from these weeks all year long." This is typical of the remarks made by many participants about the summer "Weeks" of the Circle of Friends. They tell of newly gained knowledge, of improvement in their health and even of healing they have experienced during the Weeks with the Bruno Groening Friends. For many friends and families, attendance at a summer week of the Circle of Friends has been part of their vacation planning for years. What is so special about this kind of vacation that causes people to prefer it to a separate vacation of their own?

Experiencing nature together

Whether hiking at the mountain weeks or the seaside weekends, enjoying the varied children's activities of the family weeks or taking a sunbath on the sailboat, the deliberate perception and experiencing of nature is a central element of events in the Circle of Friends.

In accordance with Bruno Groening's remark that God reveals Himself in all living things, nature is given special attention at Circle of Friends' events. Children and adults experience nature as strengthening and exhilarating. For example, the tree that, having been struck by lightning, straightens up and grows with new strength and beauty again can be regarded as a symbol that one should never give up. During the mountain weeks certain hikes are taken in silence so that each participant can experience the surrounding nature fully and completely. Although most people aren't used to it at first, it is gradually perceived as more and more soothing to be silent and experience nature with all one's senses. It is often just such moments of silent observing and experiencing that remain in the memory the longest.

Absorbing strength together

Just as at all other conferences and meetings of the Circle of Friends, the common Einstellen* to the Heilstrom* at the vacation weeks is something special. During the community hours in the evening friends from various countries tell of help and healing and of the worldwide expansion of the communities. 

During the mountain hiking week in Filzmoos a special large tent has to be set up for the over 700 participants because no sufficiently large hall is available anywhere in the area. The friends get together there in the evening after participating during the day in one of the over 25 different hikes.

For the approximately 180 friends speaking other languages the community hour is simultaneously translated into several languages. The guests from abroad enrich the hiking week with their verbal contributions and cultural presentations at the "variety show."

 In view of the enormous organizational expense even Director Grete Häusler asked herself this year why she carries on with a hiking week involving so many people. The reason is the great deal of help and healing experienced by the friends during and after the week. One is profoundly moved on seeing how people whose movement was limited by disease have experienced healing and are able to hike in the mountains free of pain.

For the whole family

This year 250 children and parents gathered together at the family week in Berlin. Just as with all the summer weeks of the Circle of Friends, here, too, there is a regular daily schedule. After breakfast the friends meet for a morning circle at the lake to begin the day together. The children are then divided into four different age groups. In addition to community hours, there are numerous activities such as singing, playing music, folk dancing, sports, hiking, games, handicrafts, painting, etc. Here, too, the high point is also the "variety show "presented by the children, with the songs and dances they have rehearsed. A further impressive high point this time was the three-day visit of N. Joshi, country leader of the Circle of Friends in India. 

 The third annual family week held in Davos, Switzerland in August 2005 was similarly organized. During the day the Swiss friends and their German guests split up into groups for hiking in the mountains, then got together again in the evening for Einstellen* in the community hour. A special highlight for some of the older children was a "Three-peak Tour" with Mr. Jud, Leader of the Swiss communities and the family week.

This summer a family week was held for the first time in Austria. About 80 friends met, along with around 80 guests from Germany.

Summer weeks in neighbouring countries, too

After participating in the hiking weeks in Austria the friends from neighboring countries wanted to hold such a week in their homelands as well. Friends in the former Yugoslavia have had regular mountain weeks for several years in the Paclernica National Park, and their sailing weeks are very popular. In the summer of 2005 the third annual mountain hiking week took place in the Czech Republic.

In early October the French friends met in the Alps to combine relaxation in the mountains with schoolings for the individual task areas of the Circle of Friends.

Friendships arise

During the daily programs there is also enough time for getting to know one another on a personal basis. Many positive, constructive conversations take place and friendships are made. And there is also contact with people from other countries. Thus it is not only the body that recuperates in the natural environment with its fresh air, sun and opportunity for exercise: the spirit, too, is also strengthened. (chh)

Picture and sound speak for themselves

Healings recorded as Success Reports on film

"There was suddenly a strong streaming, a tingling that flowed through my injured arm, and then the pain that had accompanied me for three years had already simply disappeared."

Serena Herold, 84, suffered for years from the after effects of a fractured upper arm. In spite of diverse attempts her doctors were no longer able to help her. There remained a tormenting pain that came whenever she lifted her arm above a horizontal position. Hanging up the laundry, dressing, and combing her hair became a daily torment. Through absorption of the Heilstrom* all pain disappeared. She can move her arm freely again.

"I'll never forget it!"

It was the same with Ferdinand Duwe. He had suffered for several decades from gastric ulcers. "At first I couldn't believe there could be a healing power that could take away my pain. At my introduction into the teachings of Bruno Groening I sensed a force in my body. It was a soothing streaming through the body like a pleasant current. A few weeks later something very special happened to me.

In the morning before I went to work the pain was more severe than ever before. I struggled through my work and when I had time I did Einstellen* to the Heilstrom* with a request for healing. I will never forget what happened then. A strong current went through my whole body and from one moment to the next the tormenting pain simply disappeared. It was as if I had stood under a shower and the water had rinsed all the suffering away. Twenty-five years of pain were a thing of the past from then on.

Many people are intended to experience it.

Both Serena Herold and Ferdinand Duwe are deeply moved when they recall that great time of healing. Their lives had been changed from one moment to the next. Through a power invisible to the human eye complaints disappeared after many doctors had tried everything without being able to effect healing. Now both of them have only one wish: to pass on what they experienced.

"I would like many people to learn that one can become well even at 80 years of age," says Serena Herold. She is one of the healed persons who agreed to the filming of her path to healing from an incurable illness.

Not just empty words 

That's how a seven - minute film was made, vividly showing what no written report can express. The audience can experience the miracle of Serena Herold's healing in technically perfect, digital quality. She hangs her curtains with youthful vigor, washes windows and does her own laundry. Ferdinand Duwe, too, describes in moving words the incomprehensibility of his healing. Everyone who sees this film knows there are no empty words spoken here, no play-acting - that every word is felt.

The establishment of film groups

Thomas Eich, who was Co-director of the documentary film's production team, initiated the filming of healings in the Bruno Groening Circle of Friends. "The effect of the documentary film on the audiences clearly showed me how important it is to document the activities of the Circle of Friends on film," he said. The testimony of 80 witnesses filmed during nine years of work documents in the five-hour film the stations in the life and work of Bruno Groening. During the past year Thomas Eich has established film groups in the regions of the Circle of Friends that he trains at the conferences. "A layman doesn't realize how much work is required just to produce five or ten minutes of good-quality film. The sound, light and picture composition have to be right. Then at the end there is still the editing. The Success Report films should be presented to the public in good quality and with vivid pictures."

 This goal has been reached. There are more than 30 films, all of which were checked by experts for their technical quality and by doctors of the MWF for their medical soundness before being released.

They bear witness

The Austrian painter Prof. Elisabeth Wildbolz, 71, gives authentic testimony to her healing from a severe paint allergy of many years' duration by painting a colorful still life before the eyes of the viewers. The severe allergic reactions that had always appeared whenever she took up a paintbrush-a tormenting, itching rash and urtica (water blisters)-have disappeared. Her words in the film, "For that I have to thank the teachings of Bruno Groening and the regular absorption of the Heilstrom" are very moving.

Farmer Egbert Wagner, 45, drives his tractor again, repairs the fences around his fields, removes with a pitchfork the heavy manure from the calves' stalls, digs ditches-in short, the film shows an active farmer who shuns no work or effort.

However, until recently Egbert Wagner had been severely ill. Ankylosing spondylitis, a chronic inflammation of the spine, and a painful arthritis (inflammation of the joints) had rendered him incapable of working.

In spite of all medical efforts and numerous stays in rehab clinics he was still only able to walk with a cane. He had to apply for early disability. Here, too, it was the wonderful force that Bruno Groening called the "Heilstrom*" that put an end to the chronic disease. Although it was inexplicable from a medical point of view it did happen. Egbert Wagner has been well again since absorbing the Heilstrom*.

"I'll never forget it"

Karin Heinemann leads the film group for success report work in the Cologne region. She says, "When a success report is released for filming after medical verification we come together in a working circle and discuss our approach. A friend is responsible for the sound, I handle the camera and we have a few other helpers. Then we write up the production instructions and plan the work sequence. An appointment is made with the healed person and we can get started. I always try to document the healing as vividly as possible through pictures. For this it is often necessary to film outside. We accompanied Egbert Wagner with the camera for several hours as he worked on his farm. All of us enjoy this work a lot".

Petra and Karsten Lindner have taken over the task for the Berlin region. He is in charge of the technical work of the film group, while his wife collaborates by making use of her experience in success report work. Karsten Lindner says, "The nice thing for me is that by conversing with the healed person all of us in the film group can experience the healing once again up close. The conversations with the healed persons are something special for all of us. Bruno Groening said, "God's work is revealed in the healing". Since I have been working on the success reports with the film team I have been able to understand these words in a special way".

Final inspection by a doctor

Before shooting the film the approval of a Circle of Friends doctor is obtained. A trained success report worker from the Circle of Friends is present at the filming.

After the film is completed a technical expert inspects the takes once again.

A doctor makes a final inspection of every single film from the medical point of view. The physician Matthias Kamp has been associated with the success report work for years. For this reason he has gladly taken on the medical inspection of the reports.

Matthias Kamp says, "The technical side of a film is important. However, the film also has to be of good quality from the medical point of view. In the healed person's report the diagnosis, therapies carried out and course of illness have to be clearly described. In the process it is important to assure that the symptoms that make up the illness are also emphasized with sufficient clarity.

A simple, natural way back to health

With a healing from ulcerative colitis (severe intestinal inflammation) one has to mention not only the abdominal pain, but also the frequency of diarrhea. With a healing from angina pectoris it has to be clear what the physical limitations were and what physical capability is present after the healing. The description of the illness and healing also has to be presented in a chronologically balanced way. The healings should be described in a clear and simple language and with the required inner participation of the healed person. One has to be aware that in the films a type of happening is described that is largely unknown to medicine and the general population. The films have the task of showing a wide section of the population that healings occur in the Bruno Groening Circle of Friends that are not medically explicable-but that nothing mysterious or mystical is taking place, that, on the contrary, spiritual healing through the teachings of Bruno Groening can be a simple and natural path to help and healing for everyone.

In this way the films can become a wonderful bridge to absorption of the belief in the restoration of people's own health. They have the opportunity to check for themselves the truthfulness of what they see in the film".

Thomas Eich: "A layperson doesn't realize how much work is required just to produce five or ten minutes of good-quality film. The sound, light and picture composition have to be right. Then at the end there is still the editing. The success report films should be presented to the public in good quality and with vivid pictures".

 

Success Report

Healing shoulder pain

Rita Kirsinger, age 55, Germany

Through watching the documentary film people have already received healings, which have been verified by MWF doctors.

In early April, 2005, I started suffering from continual shoulder pain and could hardly move my right arm. On April 4, 2005 I was admitted to the Ravensburg Hospital to receive a "port" (vein access point). During the small operation on the front of my right shoulder a tendon was damaged to the extent that I could no longer move my arm and had pain from then on. I was able to do only the most necessary housework, and my husband always had to help me dress and undress. For this pain I was given "Novalgin" and "Arthotec-forte", which only occasionally helped for about half an hour. Otherwise, the pain was always there. The doctors determined that there was an inflammation of the right shoulder.

On April 18, 2005 an x-ray examination was done on my right shoulder (CAT scan) in the hospital. They found a tear in a muscle tendon with inflammatory changes in the shoulder area.

Through a leaflet I became aware of Bruno Groening's documentary film, to be shown in Gaisbeuren near Bad Waldsee on April 30, 2005.

On April 30, 2005 I went with my sister to the showing of the documentary and paid close attention to the events back then. When Bruno Groening spoke I felt a tingling and felt touched in my heart. After that scene came one in which a man was able to lift his stiff arm again after many years. Then I noticed that something had happened in my shoulder area and felt no more pain. I wanted to lift my arm right away, but was afraid and shy in front of the people.

Before I went to bed that evening I wanted to know if I could raise my arm and indeed, I was suddenly able to hold it up again and noticed that I was pain-free. The next morning, upon arising, I tried again to hold my arm up and I did it without pain. When I told my husband about it at breakfast he wept with emotion over this healing and began to concern himself with the teachings of Bruno Groening. Since that time I have again been able to help my son with the renovation of the house and do the housework myself. 

Medical commentary: During a thoroughgoing examination, including CAT scan, Rita Kirsinger was determined to have inflammatory-degenerative changes in a tendon important to shoulder function. This is medically known as the "supraspinatus tendon syndrome". As Mrs. Kirsinger mentioned in a personal conversation, she was unable to lift her right arm over 90 degrees and was often dependent on her husband for help. Pain-killers had brought no noteworthy improvement in her complaints. Normally with such an illness a prolonged course of medical treatment, physical therapy and physiotherapy is expected, and often an operation is unavoidable. That such complaints could "spontaneously" improve (after viewing the documentary film on Bruno Groening) as in this report and the arm be moved painlessly and fully on the following day as Mrs. Kirsinger assures, is very unusual in the illness at hand and inexplicable from a medical point of view. M. Kingerter, M.D.

Bruno Groening's activity in 1949: the Traberhof in Rosenheim, part 2  "Parade of misery" and miraculous healings Just as in the spring of 1949 in Herford, Bruno Groening was not continually at the Traberhof in Rosenheim during the autumn. He was often traveling around, sometimes with the film team shooting the documentary film dealing with him, but also visiting the sick or speaking with government officials. Thus it happened that the seekers of healing often had to wait for him for several days. A journalist described how Bruno Groening would then address those waiting. God is the Greatest Physician  When, after several days, Bruno Groening once again stood before the crowd of around eight to ten thousand people and spoke briefly before leaving for Bremen, he asked the following questions: 'Are you patient?' – A chorus of voices answers, 'Yes!' - 'Do you have trust in me?' - Again, a roaring 'Yes!' - 'Do you have, and do you maintain faith in God?'' - For the third time Groening's audience-chorus answers, 'Yes!" 'And so I want to say goodbye to you in God's name!' Then shouting reached us on the veranda from the mouth of a man that a few minutes before had been gasping for breath: "I'm well! I had asthma! I thank you, Groening!" Then the healer Groening continues speaking: 'My dear ones! Don't think about your illness now. Put it aside and concentrate completely on what you perceive in your body! That which has to happen for every individual person is already happening-what he deserves and what he wants. Your heart, your body and your spirit have to be pure. Then God can enter in where Satan was before. Then I'll be able to help all of you! After all, you are all children of God. But God is and will remain the greatest Physician!" Everywhere the same scene Wherever Bruno Groening appeared in1949 dozens, hundreds, thousands of people streamed together in a very short time. The name Groening electrified the masses and set them moving. A newspaper in Munich wrote in September 1949 about a visit by Groening: "At 7:00 p.m. thousands were standing in the Sonnenstrasse. At 10:30 p.m. they were still standing there. I had experienced five years of war, but I was never as shaken as during the four hours I sat opposite to Bruno Groening and experienced the dreadful parade of misery and suffering. Epileptics, the blind and the lame on crutches pushed their way towards him. Mothers held their paralyzed children up to him. There were unconscious people, screams rang out; there were pleading cries for help, requests, wishes, and groans. The sick on stretchers, the paralyzed, blind, dumb-everywhere the same scene. Bruno Groening was no pop star who collected fans around him. To him came the poorest of the poor, the sick, the abandoned, the hopeless, people without a chance whom no one could help any longer. He took up their cause and enlightened them, told them that God is the greatest Physician, that God can still help when people no longer can. And the miraculous happened: the sick took hope, took faith-the power of belief-and many became well. The sick stood up from their stretchers, the lame could walk again, the blind could see and the dumb could speak again. An eyewitness reports A woman who was at the Traberhof at the time reports on what she experienced there: "There were at least ten to twenty thousand people on the stud farm, but Groening was not to be seen. So we waited for hours. The crowd wasn't hysterical. The people there believed and hoped to become well. It was deeply moving to see those people lying on the boards or walking on crutches-the crippled, the paralyzed and those disabled in the war. One could hardly stand to look at them. And each of them had the desire, "I want to become well!" Then Groening came, went onto the balcony and spoke through a microphone to the people. He said that we should pay attention to our body and if we felt a tingling or a flowing feeling it meant healing. Then I felt an electrification and a vibrating, a tingling throughout my body. It was only thereafter that I saw how other people were shivering all over (trembling and shaking). It was all very automatic, as if all one's limbs were going to fly away. If I hadn't seen it myself I wouldn't have believed it. Then some of them shouted, "I don't need a cane any more!" "I can see again!' etc. Then I went through the crowd-which was very, very difficult because we were all standing shoulder to shoulder-because I wanted to see what was going on and who had been shouting. Suddenly the Red Cross bearers brought a man who was lying on crude boards and was paralyzed. Then he raised his hands and with the help of the Red Cross bearers he slowly sat up. Sweat was running down his face. When I asked him he said he had been disabled in the war, and then he stood up.  Then I saw a man crying. He had made a little cart for his eight-year-old grandson out of very crude boards. The boy hadn't been able to walk and the man had been on the way like that with his grandson all day long. I asked him why he was crying and he said to me that his grandson was now able to walk and he was afraid to go home because when his daughter saw it she might have a heart attack. Then I saw a chic young gypsy woman slide to her knees, and I addressed her as well. She told me that she had always had such clenched hands and that now she was able to open them up. She repeatedly gave thanks. I witnessed one being healed. One man sprang over a fence and I said to him, "Well, you've come to the wrong place," at which he answered that five days before he had gone around on crutches, showing me his disabled- veteran ID. It confirmed to me that he had been 100 percent paralyzed." My battle is against evil,  my life is for God. Bruno Groening The to-do in the press and the profiteers Contrary to those in Herford, the authorities in Bavaria were restrained. The Prime Minister even spoke positively and said that one shouldn't let an extraordinary phenomenon such as Bruno Groening fail because of red tape. Still, the happenings at the Traberhof had their dark side. The more the people gathered, the more unpleasant the conditions became. The newspapers brought out big special editions and their reporting became more and more sensational-driven by the lust for profit and sensation. For them it wasn't a matter of helping the sick or of supporting Bruno Groening. They wanted to sell as many newspapers as possible and make as much money as possible with the name of Groening. To do this many were even ready to spread lies and slander about him, to run him down and drag him through the mud. Many profiteers, too, came to the Traberhof. They tried everything to make money out of the plight of those waiting. Some sold photos of Bruno Groening, others sold places to sit for the exhausted or food and drink for the hungry. Still others maintained that they knew Bruno Groening or one of his assistants and could take the sick person to him-naturally for a fee. Eventually the conditions became intolerable. Bruno Groening had actually come to the Traberhof to get away from the fuss being made over him, but now things had become much worse than ever before. Indeed, wonderful and previously unheard-of mass healings were taking place at the Traberhof, but the external conditions were becoming more and more threatening. Finally Bruno Groening had to retreat from the Traberhof. to be continued