Why Healing the Symptoms Is Never Enough

By Barbara Brennan

September 2006

A popular misconception is that energy healing is good only for physical conditions. Perhaps that’s because initially people rarely consult healers for anything else. And, sad to say, they often stop treatment when the symptoms disappear. Unfortunately, without personal change, symptoms tend to reappear. Even though almost everyone knows that disease tendencies are inherited through genes, it is not necessary to take it fatalistically.

Although clients today have a far greater awareness than even a decade ago, a great deal of ignorance—and disbelief—remains. It’s just too difficult for some people to accept that their diabetes or arthritis is not only the result of physical problems that stem from heredity but also of unresolved emotional issues dating back to childhood.

There is no easy way to educate clients into understanding that, from the holistic perspective, the physical cannot remain healthy unless the emotional does too. There has to be a willingness on their part to look beyond the quick fix to the root cause.

This is happening. People are realizing that the body, mind, and emotion are completely interrelated. Every healing I have given has included all the levels of our being as well as our intentionality or purpose, spirituality, higher mind, higher will, relational issues with others as well as ourselves, and how we take care of our bodies.

Physical illness invariably relates to an unmet need that usually goes back to the very early years when the child was not sufficiently nurtured, loved, or acknowledged. Once the child is taught neglect and self-rejection in this way, it repeats the habit throughout adulthood. Repeated emotional injury eventually becomes physical.

Energy healing works directly on our energetic pathways to open them through all the levels of our being, including our emotions and physical bodies. Through it we learn to meet our true needs.

These needs can also be found in the disease tendencies of our gene pools. If we inherit a tendency for a particular disease, we need to meet all the special needs to ensure that the tendency does not manifest in our bodies.

For example, a person with a pancreatic problem will have experienced a lack of sweetness in early life. Not knowing true sweetness, such a person will seek the sweetness elsewhere. The world is full of sugar! The person with diabetic genes needs to take care of him or herself with foods that have a low glycemic index. Yet since the lack of sweetness in life can easily produce cravings for sweetness, one very important self-care need is to feel the inherited pain to be able to deal with the craving.

The same is true of alcohol. Resolving the pain helps one handle the tendency. This can be a long road, because significant lifestyle changes are required. The support of an energy healer is extremely useful in such cases.

Lack of nurturing in a young child doesn’t mean that its mother was “bad,” just that she too was not fully nourished in infancy and didn’t understand how to meet her child’s needs.

An example of this situation is Pamela, who suffered from weakness in the legs and who, in every sense, needed to learn to stand on her own two feet.

As a child, she had been expected to be the “little mother” to her four much younger siblings. Pamela remembers her father as being strict with her while allowing the younger children infinitely greater latitude. She had to cook for him when he arrived home from work every night.

As an adult, she married a man very similar to her father. Not being received for what she was, but for what others—parents, husband, relatives, friends—wanted her to be, became particularly painful.

She never was able to stand her ground and claim what was hers. So Pamela’s way of dealing with this was to fall back into smoldering resentment—passive-aggressive anger.

After several healings, a gradual change took place. Pamela spoke to her husband about all the issues that concern her—and he listened. She began working hard on being present, on dealing with problems as they arose, and on manifesting outlets for her attention on creative energies. She is infinitely happier and, incidentally, her legs are much, much stronger.

But if we are going to feel and be well, to enjoy optimum health, we must be willing to explore, discover, and work to satisfy our needs in all regions of the inner self—psychologically, spiritually, physically, relationally, and even professionally. It’s a tall order, but anyone can do it.

We all make up for our childhood insufficiencies in unhealthy ways and our bodies suffer. Consider what a healthy world would look like, one in which the majority of people had their needs met. So how can you meet yours? How is holding yourself back from your heart’s desire affecting your life? What is it that you came here to do? Now would be a good time to start looking.

John of God

by Marge Cuddeback

“I do not cure anybody. God heals, and in his infinite goodness permits the Entities to heal and console my brothers. I am merely an instrument in God's divine hands.” Joao Teixeira de Faria

I believe Joao de Deus, born Joao Teixeira de Faria and commonly referred to as “John of God,” is the most powerful healer alive today. At the young age of 16 he accepted the responsibility of devoting his life to act as a healing channel to aid the sick. People travel from around the world to his center in Abadiania in central Brazil to experience the miraculous healings that occur there. Many who flock to Joao believe they have exhausted their medical options and are looking for an alternative healing method. Joao provides free treatment in his center, known as Casa de Dom Inacio, three days of each week.

Working as the medium, Joao allows designated spirit entities to work through him (St. Ignatius Loyola being one of the main ones), to perform visible and invisible operations and to treat physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual bodies. Although he has healed in Abadiania since 1978, there never has been a known case of infection in the casa, despite the hundreds of thousands of physical operations performed there. Of the operations performed, 98 percent are “invisible,” meaning that those who are to be operated on enter a room, sit down, close their eyes, and place a hand over the designated area they wish to be healed. If they want multiple areas in their bodies worked on, they place their hands over their hearts.

Many visitors say they can feel the incarnate entities working on them. Some come out of the operation looking as if they are coming out of anesthesia. They all need rest for 24 hours, as if they had had a medical operation. Most will feel profoundly changed by this experience. Cures are not instantaneous, and as with orthodox medicine, there can be no guarantee. However, the majority of people respond favorably with time. It is recommended that you travel to the casa for two weeks to allow extra time for some internal processing—examining the need for change in your life, whether in your career, relationship, exercise, eating habits, or other areas.

In 2003 I went to the casa for a two-week stay. I intuitively knew before going that I was to return with others to facilitate their healing process. I had my own “invisible” surgery the second day after arriving. Both my hiatal hernia, which I'd had for more than 20 years and which acted up every time I ate, and my lactose intolerance of more than 40 years were healed.

I have witnessed many other healings through John of God in my trips to Casa de Dom Inacio. In my experience as a tour guide, I have seen many visitors healed emotionally and mentally, and I believe that our mental and emotional states cause our physical ailments. One woman who traveled to Joao finally found peace from her unhappiness and daily contemplations of suicide. A man in his 60s returned from Abadiania with relief from years of chronic pain. A woman in her 30s who had been diagnosed with a rapidly progressive type of multiple sclerosis returned from three separate trips to walk without the aid of any walker or cane.

I have met others who have been cured of arthritis, paralysis, and other illnesses such as cancer and brain tumors. Joao's healing powers are truly miraculous and have been witnessed by many. One man who was legally blind had a “visible” operation through Joao and can now read and drive a car. It was the most inspiring experience of my life, and I have returned to Casa de Dom Inacio with groups 11 times since 2003.

The loving energy in Abadiania is tangible, with the constant prayers and meditation and with the hopefulness of those seeking healings both for themselves and others. The journey to John of God has initiated changes that are greatly affecting many lives. I invite you to join me on the healing, transformational, and spiritual journey to experience the power of Joao yourself.

For more information log onto www.margecuddeback.com. You can also contact Marge at 408-997-1869 or via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .