Heal Thyself

Abstract

Recent work on metaphysical healing practices extends William James’s observations on what he called the “mind cure.” Four titles are reviewed on the topics of mindfulness, ayahuasca use, Spiritualism, and shamanism. In the United Kingdom, advocates join forces with parliamentarians to promote mindfulness as the key to ensuring a psychologically healthy nation. At commercial ayahuasca retreats in Peru, Australia, and China, spiritual seekers have different experiences with the drug based on their cultural presuppositions and relationships to local communities. The village of Lily Dale, New York, is populated entirely by members of Spiritualist churches, especially mediums who work to communicatively connect visitors with the spirits of their deceased loved ones. Finally, an analysis of shamanism in far northern Asia identifies a significant and consequential distinction between practices in which shamanic ability is learned and open to all to cultivate and those in which it is inherited—a distinction that the author speculates is at the origin of the formation of social hierarchy. Although the topics and sites vary widely, all demonstrate the persistence of ideas and practices in which the mind is understood to be an agent of healing.