Bruno Groening - A Revolution in Medicine

Chapter 1

The man who was misunderstood

Nothing is incurable

There is hardly anybody who has been written about as much in post-war Germany as Bruno Groening. In March 1949, soon after the first publicised healing in Herford in Westphalia, his name was a household word throughout the country. Thousands of people, crippled in body and soul by the war and considered incurable according to orthodox medicine, flocked to him as their last hope. He spoke to them about God as the Supreme Physician, not only on the property Traberhof near Rosenheim but also at many other places in Germany, and as one newspaper reported: "biblical scenes" became reality. 

Common sense is quick to dismiss such occurrences as fiction because they do not conform to the current pattern of thought. The facts, however, tell a different story. Not only then but still today, over 40 years after Bruno Groening's death, healings that cannot be medically explained, occur through following his teachings. 

In view of the catastrophic situation of today's Public Health Service, there is an urgent need to test these occurrences without prejudice. It is irresponsible to be arrogant, indolent and money conscious, dismissing the astonishing possibilities of spiritual healing simply because of the thousand-year-old tenet "What may not be, cannot be". 

However, "spiritual healing" is a vast area and it is very necessary to separate the wheat from the chaff. A blanket rejection because of a negative experience shows a lack of objectivity. Charlatans who wish to profit from the suffering of their fellow men are everywhere. Neither a medical degree nor government-recognised approbation as an alternative medical practitioner is a protection against such people. To be too trusting is not wise and can have serious consequences for sick people. They urgently need specialised advice from experts whose knowledge exceeds conventional thought. 

This is why I avoided the usual prejudices and followed up the astonishing reports of Bruno Groening's healings which are still occurring today. My findings have been noted on the following pages. I remind whoever has difficulty in believing what I have written, in spite of all the furnished proof, to recall Shakespeare's words: 

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, "Than are dreamed of in your philosophy."1 

It seems appropriate to begin such an investigation with a case history which strikingly confirms the healing power that is still generated today through Bruno Groening's teachings. 

For more than five years, Margarethe Mast (52) from A. suffered from serious venous circulatory disturbance in her legs (chronic venous insufficiency, CVI), which caused her great problems. 

She told me: 

"The blood did not move upwards in my legs. It kept dropping back and the result was a considerable blockage in both of them. I couldn't stand for a moment without having the feeling that my legs would burst. On warm summer days it was particularly bad and when it was hotter it was unbearable. My doctor made the above diagnosis, and prescribed the strongest possible elastic support stockings. 

"I wore these stockings every day. Despite them, I still had to put my feet on a chair when I sat down. 

"These last two years a chair was no longer a help. I needed a high table and a cushion. 

"My doctor told me that this condition was incurable, but he could prescribe some home treatments which might prevent it from deteriorating still further - (hot and cold showers, brushing my legs and wearing special health shoes)."2 

In addition she told me that she had suffered for 25 years from nightly spasms in her calves. These had resisted all forms of medical treatment. 

For 20 years she had also had a chronic facial skin inflammation which, despite many creams and tinctures did not improve. (Prescriptions included Volonimat 20 gr., Acidum salicylicum 0.25, Glycerine 7.5, Eucerin cum aquosum ad 50.0, Unguentum emul-sificant aquosum 50.0, Lotio alba aquos AA 50.0, Liniolitial emulsion, Acknefug milk). 

For over 30 years she had been plagued by constant back pains which, in the 10 years prior to her introduction to the teachings of Bruno Groening, made it impossible for her to sit on a normal wooden chair. She was forced to give up her profession and her husband constructed a special couch for her at home. It had a large board under the seating cushions and the arms and back were arranged so that Margarethe Mast could sit in a semi-lying position. 

The peripheral vascular disease also forced her to keep her legs raised. 

In addition the doctors diagnosed severe osteochondritis L4/5 and L5/S 1. Her disability pension, endorsed by the orthopaedist, was under consideration.3 

The great restrictions imposed on her life through these illnesses led to depression as well as deep sadness, despondency and an ever-growing sense of hopelessness. She was overwhelmed by feelings of guilt towards her family and the constant conviction that she had failed in life. 

Margarethe Mast: 

"It was no wonder that this misery was transmitted to my family and the children eventually had the same sad faces as I did. 

"The feelings of guilt that I harboured troubled me for years. I desperately wanted to be a good mother, but I couldn't. It is difficult to describe how these constant problems, that continued for 20 years, affected me. No matter how hard I tried to turn the situation around and be positive, nothing worked. On the contrary, one problem piled onto the next and one misfortune followed the other. 

"None of the doctors whom I consulted over the years could help me."4 

She heard about the teachings of Bruno Groening in 1988 and the first healings occurred shortly afterwards. 

"Shortly after my introduction to the teachings, I became aware of a current in my legs. Apart from brief intervals, it was a continuous, subtle and delicate feeling. A warm, tingling sensation began at the bottom of my lower leg, then the upper part, until it flowed through the whole lower leg. 

"Four months later I was able to take off the elastic stockings. Since then I have worn normal stockings and shoes. I can stand for long periods without problems. I have had no more pains. Since the healing I no longer need to raise my legs."5 

Margarethe Mast was medically examined that year and, at my request re-examined in 1991 by medical colleagues. A Doppler ultrasonographic examination followed in 1991. 

My colleague's findings were as follows: 

"The examination of the lower extremities was undertaken because CVI was suspected. The Doppler ultrasonographic examination of both sides showed no sign of CVI. There were no visible signs of varicose veins. Tests for venous pressure points or signs of thrombosis also proved negative."6 

During her introduction to the teachings of Bruno Groening the 30-year-old back pains disappeared. Suddenly she could sit on hard chairs for hours. Soon after her introduction she attended a convention and was able to sit on a normal wooden chair for up to ten hours. Margarethe Mast can now undertake all her duties as a housewife and mother. Seven months after her introduction to the teachings, her 25-year-old nightly calf cramps ceased. 

Her 21-year-old skin inflammation disappeared permanently after absorbing the healing stream for six months. She no longer needs creams or tinctures. 

It was the same story with her depression: 

"Since I have joined the Bruno Groening Community, I have not had a depression. I have adopted a positive outlook. My family is happy and we have a new type of contact with each other. I am at peace with myself and have become more confident. Every day I rejoice in my new lease of life. We experience help in many ways and I could submit a new report each day. 

"I just cannot say thank you often enough for the new life that has been given to me."7 

How is all this possible through the teachings of somebody who has died? It is certainly not imagination. I have seen the reports of the medical examinations. Neighbours have made impressive statements under oath confirming her suffering over decades. I have met her and many others who have been cured after years of illness through the teachings of Bruno Groening and have been able to satisfy myself as to their excellent state of health. 

Is there really a connection between these events of today and a man who, on the property Traberhof near Rosenheim in 1949, spoke to 30.000 people about God, the Supreme Physician? 

When I first heard about Bruno Groening some years ago, these words of his particularly impressed me: 

"Nothing is incurable, God is the Supreme Physician."8 

Working in a clinic I experienced the exact opposite every day. I often saw how patients, broken in spirit after the prognosis: "You must live with it" or "I give you six months" left the ward with no hope for their remaining days. When I asked colleagues how they came to give such prognoses, they referred to statistics and their personal experience. They wanted to be honest with their patients and on no account wanted to raise unjustifiable hopes. Is such a way of thinking acceptable? Can statistics make reliable predictions about individual fates? May a doctor who does not feel justified in raising false hopes, feel justified in generating hopeless despair? 

What is truth? Who is right? The experienced doctor who informs his patient that he is `incurable', or this unknown person, without academic qualifications and only primary education, who dared to declare publicly that nothing is incurable? 

For centuries millions of doctors have genuinely striven to free their patients from the scourge of illnesses. In our modern society thousands of hospitals spare neither money nor effort to help people. On the other hand it cannot be denied that the potential of orthodox medicine is limited. The statistics tell a very clear story. Despite the expenditure of billions, there is a marked increase in sickness, and cardiovascular disorders, rheumatism, allergies and tumours are only some of the illnesses that are aggressively on the increase. 

Dr Scheiner, a Munich physician, writes: 

"The 1988 statistics of the Scientific Institute of the General Sick-Fund in Bad Godesberg show that the various types of illnesses continue to increase. [...] The fund's statistics compare the hospital cases of 1980 with those of 1988. In all sectors a considerable growth can be established. Psychiatric cases were up 50%; illnesses related to the nervous system and sensory organs, 70%; bone, muscle and tissue illnesses, 90%; tumours, 30%, cardiovascular problems 35%. At the same time at no period of our country's history have doctors been called upon so often on a pro capita annual basis. German doctors write 500 million prescriptions a year; if they were stacked on top of each other the result would be a tower 200 times the height of Cologne Cathedral!"9 

Medicine is in a state of crisis. Taking into account all the victories in the battle against acute illnesses it is no doubt able to offer the majority of sick people relief, but no longer a cure. 

On the other hand I have about a 1000 reports which record the help and healing received through following the teachings of Bruno Groening. How is such a difference possible? Is it perhaps because modern medicine has forgotten the one factor which Bruno Groening always made the focal point of his work: 

"The Supreme Physician for mankind is and remains God."10 

To throw some light on these matters I would like to explore the life of Bruno Groening and the events around him. 

The miracle of Herford 

Inseparably bound to Bruno Groening are the events that took place in Herford in March 1949. The successful healing at that time of nine-year-old Dieter Hülsmann, who had suffered from progressive muscular atrophy (an incurable disease marked by wasting muscles; some forms lead to death in young children) was the beginning of his work in public, which continues to this day. 

In his book, Das Wunder von Herford, A. Kaul Ph. D. reports: 

"The sick come in their thousands and gather in the small West- phalian town of Herford where the `miracle doctor' is staying. In buses, trucks, cars and on foot, in horse drawn vehicles, on bicycles, in trolleys, wheelchairs and ambulances. Day and night the crowds of people come to Herford's Wilhelm Square in front of house no. 7 where Bruno Groening is staying with the parents of the child he has healed. The human suffering manifest here is boundless and deeply distressing. [...] They stream in from all parts of the country, [...] from all walks of life. Americans, English, Belgians, Swiss, Swedes, Hungarians, Poles and even gypsies, who swarm in after the successful healing of a mute gypsy child."11 

He continues: 

"My report is true and contains only what I could see with my own eyes. I also followed up rumours and spoke with those who had been healed. I stood amongst the masses of people seeking help outside no. 7 Wilhelm Square in Herford. I spent a night in the house of the `miracle doctor' and watched everything that happened at close quarters. I have spoken with doctors and priests. [...] I stayed in Herford for three days and three nights working, experimenting and trying to find an answer to the question fascinating millions of people about the mystery of Herford."12 

Dr Kaul concludes with the following words: 

"Nobody can deny that Bruno Groening has already healed many sick people who were considered incurable. Orthodox medicine has lost no time explaining that this is not out of the ordinary when an illness is psychically based. But it does not say why orthodox medicine has had so little success with this type of therapy. Or are there so few cases that it is better to say nothing at all? In any case the new healing method at Herford is well worth the sensation it has created."13 

The Government authorities could not share this enthusiasm. The local Public Health Office only authorised him to treat psychic problems. 

After a short period of public work in Herford he was forbidden to heal. 

The grounds for the ban were "the law concerning working profes- sionally in a healing capacity without a licence to practise" in short the Alternative Medical Practitioner Law. But those seeking healing still continued to come to Herford and camped, some of them for days, outside the house where Bruno Groening was staying. At this stage he had received around 80.000 letters and at times the crowds swelled to 5000. Repeatedly officials, overcome by the pressure of the events, relaxed the ban. But in the end he had to leave Herford, and at the beginning of June 1949 accepted an invitation to visit 

Hamburg. But there too, through fear of an invasion of sick people, the officials did not allow him to work. 

The magazine Revue then stepped in and offered to finance a scientific examination of his work at the University Hospital in Heidel- berg.This offer was intended to enable him to continue working. The investigation, in the psychosomatically-equipped department of the famous Professor von Weizsäcker, had good results. The scientists concluded that "Bruno Groening is not a charlatan, hypnotist or miracle doctor, but a talented alternative medical psychotherapist (psychic doctor)."14 

His healings were confirmed. Nevertheless the hospital did not issue a medical certificate and the promised help for the sick was not forthcoming. In the meantime crowds of people had once again found their way to Heidelberg and Bruno Groening accepted an invitation to visit the property Traberhof near Rosenheim. The owner, Leo Haward, hoping that his lame sister-in-law would be cured, wanted to offer Bruno Groening a quiet place to rest. But, alerted by the press, more than 30.000 people soon gathered at Traberhof. Here too there were reports of healing (see chapter 4). At first the Bavarian Government showed goodwill, but then it banned Bruno Groening from working once again, quoting the law for alternative medical practitioners. 

He sought new ways to gain access to those needing help. His objective, to establish a sanatorium where he could work together with doctors, was thwarted by the authorities. So he worked for a while with an alternative medical practitioner in his rooms near Munich, but this soon led to the first court case in 1952. Although the Public Prosecutor appealed, he was found not guilty of contravening the law for alternative medical practitioners. The Court considered that, because of the vacillating attitude of the Bavarian authorities who first allowed him to work, then changed their mind, the legal situation had not been sufficiently clear. Nevertheless, they did confirm the ban because Bruno Groening's work was subject to the stipulations of the law for alternative medical practitioners, and as such required special permission from the authorities (see chapter 5). 

Bruno Groening then tried to obtain permission from the Public Health Office in Stuttgart to work as an alternative medical practitioner (1953). His request was, however, turned down on the flimsiest grounds (see chapter 5). 

Once again he attempted to circumvent the authorities in order to assist those seeking help. 

In 1953 the Groening Union was founded to give his work a statutory basis. Everywhere in Germany and Austria group meetings, where he could speak to those seeking help, were organised. 

But as the healings continued, another court case was begun in 1955. The preliminary hearings dragged on until the middle of 1957. A final judgement was never pronounced because Groening died in Paris on January 26, 1959 before the case was concluded. 

Many who hoped to receive help, gave up. The number of participants in the groups began to dwindle. And then something incredible happened. The healings continued just as he had forecast! At the beginning of the 1980's, after a lot of hard work, the groups started to grow again, this time under the leadership of Grete Häusler, who had been healed by Bruno Groening in 1950. Today there are more than 800 groups around the world. More and more unusual healings are being reported. I have been given the opportunity to examine some of them in detail and have been able to verify, beyond any doubt, that these medically inconceivable healings have indeed occurred. 

As I am convinced that the healings today are real, I wanted to find out more about Bruno Groening as a person. Through the accounts of many people who knew him and to whom I could talk, and through his writings and recorded addresses, I have been able to reconstruct a very lively picture of him. This is the subject of the following chapters.