A Social Anthropologist’s Analysis of Contemporary Healing, Part 2

David Lewis — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 22:24:49 +0000

The Power of the Cross: The Biblical Place of Healing and Gift-Based Ministry in Proclaiming the Gospel

How do doctors respond to claims of healing? Are there any lasting social effects when people experience divine healing?

Physical and Spiritual Phenomena

Since John White is contributing a chapter to this book concerning the physical manifestations which sometimes seem to accompany the working of the Holy Spirit, here I shall confine myself to a few brief remarks arising out of my own investigations.³²

When some people at a Baptist church in Leeds began to display behaviour such as shaking, weeping or falling over (Jer. 23:9; Dan. 10:10; Neh. 8:6, 9; Jn. 18:6; Rev. 1:10, 17-18)³³ during a healing service led by some of Wimber’s team, a critic later described the events as a case of mass hysteria. This opinion was expressed by a theologian with no training in psychology or psychiatry. However, it led me to include in my follow-up interviews a simple psychological test which gives a preliminary indication of the plausibility of this explanation.

A retrospective study of a case of mass hysteria among some English schoolgirls confirmed the hypothesis of Professor Eysenck that more hysterical individuals tend to rank high on scales of both extroversion and neuroticism.³⁴ However, only twelve out of the one hundred people in my random sample ranked high on both these scales, and all but two of them were only just over the border into the ‘high’ category on only one of the two scales. Nevertheless, virtually all of these 100 people had themselves experienced at least some of the physical phenomena. I found that reports of these experiences were spread across all the different psychological categories of people and were by no means confined to any one psychological ‘type’. This argues against any theory that these physical phenomena can be explained away by a theory of mass hysteria.

It is difficult, and in several cases probably impossible, to explain away these and other kinds of experiences.

Another theory is that these phenomena can be explained away as a form of learned behaviour. A number of experts agree that some form of auto-suggestion can influence such behaviour in at least certain cases. In my questionnaire at John Wimber’s Harrogate conference I asked people to indicate whether or not they had experienced such phenomena in the past or for the first time at Harrogate. The question then arose how to interpret the statistics. For instance, among those who had fallen over in the past, 69% (499 out of 725) did not repeat the behaviour again at the Harrogate conference. It might therefore be argued that this was not ‘learned behaviour’. On the other hand, the fact that 31% did fall over again might be regarded either as ‘learned behaviour’ or else as further genuine ministry from God which necessitated this kind of phenomenon. However, it was clear that ‘milder’ phenomena such as the tingling or shaking of hands, weeping or changes in breathing were much more likely to be repeated or else to be manifested for the first time than were more ‘dramatic’ forms of behaviour such as falling over, screaming or shouting. These ‘milder’ phenomena are often associated with ministry to others (including weeping in the context of intercessory prayer) and are quite likely to be repeated, whereas phenomena connected with receiving ministry tend to recur less often and usually cease once the ministry is completed.

A Social Anthropologist’s Analysis of Contemporary Healing, Part 1

David Lewis — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 21:50:22 +0000

The Power of the Cross: The Biblical Place of Healing and Gift-Based Ministry in Proclaiming the Gospel

How do doctors respond to claims of healing? Are there any lasting social effects when people experience divine healing?

What kinds of healings are associated with contemporary Christian healing ministries, conferences for training Christians in praying for healing, and such ministry in many evangelical churches? How do medical doctors perceive the healings? How do healings relate to the revelations known as “words of knowledge” (I Cor. 12:8; 14:24-25)¹? Can associated physical phenomena be explained by psychological mechanisms? Why does God appear to heal some kinds of people more often than others?

These are important questions which for the most part have been ignored by critics of healing ministries, who have tended to concentrate on theological and historical questions rather than medical, sociological or psychological aspects.² These are the dimensions to healing which I wish to examine in this chapter, since the theological issues have been addressed by other contributors to this book. In particular I shall present some of the detailed findings from my comprehensive follow-up study of one of John Wimber’s conferences as an example of contemporary cases of healing.

How do medical doctors perceive healings?

In 1986 a detailed questionnaire was given to all those who attended John Wimber’s Signs and Wonders (Part II) conference in Harrogate, England. The questionnaires were collected just before the final session of the conference. Out of the 2,470 people registered for the conference, 1,890 returned usable forms, producing a response rate of 76.5% (which is very high in comparison with most sociological surveys). These were processed through a computer at Nottingham University.

Using a random number table, I then selected from these 1,890 respondents a random sample of 100 people whom I followed up between six and ten months after the conference. With ninety-three of them I was able to conduct in-depth personal interviews, involving my traveling almost literally throughout the length and breadth of Britain. Another seven people had to be interviewed over the telephone or by mail because they lived outside Britain or were unavailable for other reasons. My research combined the breadth of the questionnaire with the depth of the interviews. Some other potentially interesting cases outside the random sample were also followed up by telephone, mail or personal interview. Where appropriate, specialist medical opinions were sought regarding various cases of healing. Although each patient signed a form consenting to the release of confidential medical information, the doctors varied considerably in the extent to which they were willing to co-operate.

Why does God appear to heal some kinds of people more often than others?

Much criticism of evangelical healing ministries and, in particular, of John Wimber and the Vineyard Christian Fellowship has been expressed in print recently. The research described above followed on from the preliminary study which I had undertaken in 1985 of John Wimber’s Signs and Wonders (Part I) conference in Sheffield. My report on that conference was published as an appendix to Wimber’s book Power Healing.³ The report was apparently available to Donald Lewis, who later wrote that his intention was, “to reflect upon my own experience of John Wimber’s conferences, rather than to critique what he has written (although I have read his books). My aim is to evaluate one such gathering from the vantage point of an observer-participant.”⁴

The Pneuma Review » anthropologists

A Social Anthropologist’s Analysis of Contemporary Healing, Part 2

A Social Anthropologist’s Analysis of Contemporary Healing, Part 1