Health Help-Seeking Behaviour in Spiritual Healing Practice: Records from the Panacea Society ’s Healing Department, 1924–1997

This article shows convergence between health help-seeking behaviours in spiritual healing and secular professional health services. It does so by drawing on the archival records from the Panacea Society in Bedford, England, which began an international healing ministry by post-amassing over 120,000 correspondents from 93 different countries. Archives from the Panacea Society ’s Healing Department containing records of the self-reported effects of the prescribed water-taking healing ritual were used to investigate variables related to help-seeking for health problems through spiritual healing. A sample of over 10% of the available records (n = 7192) contained data from 40,627 letters written over a 73-year period from 48 different countries. In line with research from health psychology, and specifically the Health Belief Model, findings showed that those who were older, female, and receiving perceived benefits from treatment were m ore likely to engage in help-seeking.
Source: Journal of Religion and Health - Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research