Healing: magic for this purpose

Traditional healing joins remedy, ritual and relationship. Healers of many kinds are said to treat the body, the family and the spirit together: the curandero in Mexico and the Andes, the sangoma in southern Africa, the hakim in the Islamic world, the Ayurvedic vaidya, the Korean mudang and the Siberian shaman. This page describes these as traditions, not as medical advice. Illness needs real medical care. Healing is also the intent most often exploited, so the page states its limits plainly.

How tradition frames illness

Many traditions treat illness as a matter of balance, relationship or disturbance, not only of the body. A sickness may be linked to an offended ancestor, a broken taboo, soul loss, envy, or a spirit. Treatment therefore includes consultation, confession, offerings, cleansing and a family gathering. Healers describe the aim as restoring a person's place in the community. Examples include the sweating, singing and plant rites of the Americas, the chanting and massage of Southeast Asia, and the Ayurvedic and Unani systems of South Asia, each with its own theory and texts.

Healers and training

Healers are called, apprenticed or hereditary. A sangoma is described as called by ancestors, often after an illness, and trained under a senior. In many places, healers are women, midwives and elders, whose standing does not come from a licensed degree. Governments have set up registers: South Africa recognised traditional health practitioners by law in 2007, and India supports Ayurveda through its AYUSH ministry. The ritual side is often described as being as important as the remedy, since attention, ceremony and support from family are part of the experience.

Working with medicine

Many people use traditional and clinical care side by side. Some healers refer patients to clinics and some campaigns in Africa have trained them to do so. Problems arise when ritual replaces treatment: delayed care for serious illness, harmful substances, and bans on medicine have cost lives. The World Health Organization supports research on traditional medicine while insisting on evidence for safety and effect. Patients also say the healer sat with them for hours, gave time and attention, and spoke the local language, which busy clinics may not manage.

Fraud and abuse

Fake healers exist everywhere: sellers of miracle cures, practitioners who charge to remove a curse, and exorcists who beat or starve people with mental illness. In several countries the courts have prosecuted deaths during exorcism. Scholars separate what communities value in healing, such as attention and meaning, from claims about cure, which should be tested. None of this removes the need to see a doctor for serious or lasting symptoms, and people should not stop prescribed treatment because of a ritual or a remedy.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

Ognyena Maria: Unknown author, Public domain, source

Eight Immortals: Fanghong, CC BY-SA 3.0, source

Zhang Guolao: Hong Zicheng, Public domain, source

He Xiangu: Zhang Lu, Public domain, source

Imhotep: Rama, CC BY-SA 3.0 fr, source

Medea: Frederick Sandys, Public domain, source

Machi: Unknown author, Public domain, source

Mother Shipton: Unknown author, Public domain, source

Morgan le Fay: Frederick Sandys, Public domain, source

Tietäjä: Robert Wilhelm Ekman, Public domain, source

Salige Frau: various, Public domain, source

Pietro d'Abano: Marco Chemello (Wikimedia Italia), CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Marie Laveau: E. W. Kemble, Public domain, source

Holy Grail: Photographed by the National Library of Wales, CC0, source

Healing