Description
In this engrossing study of "spirit" healing and psychic surgery, the author describes how an initial interest in spiritualism took her eventually to South America to witness the amazing psychic surgery practiced by Brazilian healers.
The author traces the awakening of her interest in psychic phenomena through reading a book by the automatist Jane Sherwood. Subsequently, she studied many other mediums, including the remarkable Geraldine Cummins, author of numerous "transmitted" books, and George Chapman, whose cures are effected through the "control" of a former eye surgeon. The author was then fortunate enough to be invited to a private healing session by the Brazilian psychic surgeon Lourival de Freitas, and from there she went to Brazil to study his work more thoroughly. She brilliantly re-creates for us the highly charged atmosphere of the healing sessions where the extraordinary De Freitas, using only the most rudimentary equipment, performs successful surgical operations on patients that have been medically diagnosed as incurable. The author herself underwent such an operation. A comprehensive picture of the Brazilian Spiritist scene is given, including the work of other healers such as Arigรณ, famous for his lightning diagnoses, and the spirit hospitals for the mentally ill, where faith healing is practiced in addition to orthodox treatment.
This fascinating record of a personal quest will appeal to the sceptic and spiritualist alike, for the extraordinary phenomena the author describes baffle doctors as much as laymen.
