Notes on the Mystery of Healing:
Every so often I would receive a Thank You note, a hearty handshake or a simple smile from people I have treated. One time, a group of doctors from the US went on a medical mission to an island in Southern Philippines. One morning there was a man who I was told had not walked or was unable to walk for 10 years. He came assisted by two men to the school where the western doctors were treating patients from the villages, teenagers who needed circumcision, women who had large uterine tumors and children who required surgery for harelip. I do not know how this disabled man became my patient but I think it was probably because nobody thought they could do anything for him. Besides I was the only acupuncturist in the group and I guess I needed something to do with my hands.
Well, I did some acupuncture (from the repertoire of my teacher Sensei Kiiko Matsumoto) and some massage and qigong (from Master Mantak Chia) on him for an hour. When I told the man to get up and walk, he did hesitantly. He walked away unassisted. That was the last time I saw him. That night I took a ferry to Manila. I did not hear from that man or anybody about him. I honestly do not know what happened. Did he eventually walk on his own? Was he one of those imaginary invalids who overcame their “disease” after a strong suggestion from an authority figure? I’ll never know and I do not even remotely take any credit for the treatment. Healing is still a mystery to me. Things happen (or not) and we do not really know why. Is it the Mind? Is it Grace? Is the healer just a conduit, a bridge or a channel for some mysterious intervention from somewhere? Who knows. It is inspiring, humbling and confusing at the same time. I have a letter from a medical student, a dancer who was told by western doctors she could not dance (in a Tchaikovsky ballet suite) anymore unless she had surgery on her foot. Well, to make a long story short, she said she was able to appear in the schedule of 45 performances after a single treatment with qigong, acupuncture and herbs. Later she asked me what I did and I was as dumbfounded as she was. How can we explain the mysterious workings of the universe? She is now a famous pediatric oncologist working at a prestigious university hospital credited by the medical community with several cancer treatment protocols she developed. I’ll print her letter when she gives me her permission.
The very first time I did any kind of healing was in 1987 when my law school friend Eddie and I made a pilgrimage to Banahaw, the most sacred mountain in the Philippines, for a weekend. We hired a woman, a retired teacher, to cook for us. I cannot remember her name now but one morning she brought her young daughter to me and asked me to heal her. I did not know what to do. I said, I am not a healer. She replied in Tagalog, But you are! I did not even know what to ask the “patient” and what her problem was. I had trained in the methods of the Healing Tao with Mantak Chia in the US and observed several interesting and incredible healing sessions with Philippine traditional healers, some of them famous as “psychic surgeons.” But I never considered myself a healer. I gently placed my right hand on the head of the teenaged girl and smiled I guess, and that was it. The mother said her thanks and I was left with the strange premonition that something important was happening in my life. Since then, I had studied different healing modalities: massage, acupuncture, healing, feng shui/geomancy, dietetics/nutrition, qigong, meditation, inner alchemy, herbology, among them. Often, healing involved sending Qi to one or a group of students in a seminar, manipulating somebody’s muscles, Lungs or Liver, inserting needles in certain acupuncture points or soaking a painful foot in a bath of boiled herbs. I have done many of these in countless sessions in the US, Egypt, Cyprus, The Netherlands, Thailand, Philippines, UK, Turkey. Yet healing is still a mystery to me.
What actually happens? What are the results? How can one verify their existence? Is there a machine or an equipment in the world that can monitor it — without human intervention and feedback — and tell us what is really the process and the result?
Photo gallery – click on the image to see the full size version with cation.
In some clinics a group of selected “subjects” with the same physical problem – a sore knee or imbalance – are made to do a program of exercises, sometimes Tai chi chuan – and after several sessions they are asked for their feedback. Usually, whatever their reason, they provide positive answers: there is improvement in their condition. But this kind of research is arguably flawed right from the start because there is no objective verification of their condition and character: can they be trusted to tell the truth, did they have the problem in the first place? We have to question the “evidence” that this protocol comes up with because it could be manipulated by some unscrupulous researcher who has an investment – financial, prestige, recognition — in the results. Yet when done by westerners in a purportedly academic setting like an Ivy League university, how many of these researches are actually subjected to close scrutiny?
On the other hand something real happens and yet people do not believe it because there is no physical evidence for its existence. There are just phenomena that cannot be scientifically proven like Qi, the dantian, the Ling, the pathways of the meridians, among others. The Magus of Java demonstrated an electric-like energy to the Blair brothers. Soon, skeptics wanted to test if he really had it. So they brought equipment to verify it. Was it electricity or something else that he emitted from his body when, as he said, he mated positive (yang) and negative (yin) in the lower dantian? He has demonstrated different powers again and again but still people who had a “rational” and “scientific” mind refused to believe it.
When I do Qigong or Tai chi chuan in some places – like Glastonbury and Stonehenge in England, the Pyramids in Giza and the temple of Karnak in Egypt, the Stone Circles of Scotland or Machu Picchu in Peru – I feel this enormous energy around me. I can never really describe or prove it but I know it is there and with certain movements and focused attention I could access it as a form of shamanic experience. I do not know if it is available to anybody else. Like healing, it is a mystery to me.
Here is a note from my neighbor next door:
Rene Navarro has been our neighbor and good friend of over fifteen years. He visits us whenever he can, often bringing special gifts and always telling stories about his amazing life. His experiences are far from anything we have ever known, and we have learned about martial arts and healing practices based on his skills and talents.
Rene’s is an empathetic man, and I could feel his deep concern for me in May of 2023 when I had a bad fall, broke six bones and damaged my spine. I was in continual pain and receiving physical therapy at home for over a month when he suggested that he might be able to help me.
It was a simple, rewarding experience as I sat in a chair, eyes closed and body relaxed.
Rene moved silently around me, never touching me, but I was aware of his presence. In a matter of moments I began to feel a tingling, rippling sensation beginning in my upper spine, spreading gently through my body all the way to my fingers and toes. It was a peaceful and gentle aura that lasted only a few moments. I knew that something positive had just happened to me.
I continued physical therapy for the next month with a renewed confident attitude. I was able to walk again without the aid of walker or cane with my pain reduced to infrequent short-term events. My therapists commented frequently on the speed and extent of my recovery.The following year, also in May, I underwent surgery on my cervical spine. Rene again offered his help, and the whole magical process happened again. The sensation of gentle stimulation is undeniable. I could call it back to mind as I lay in bed recuperating from my surgery. Was it coincidence that Rene lives on the other side of a common wall in our townhouse unit? I don’t think so. Did he help me recover my health? Absolutely.
Dianne Craft
March 15, 2026
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