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The Role of Performance in Enhancing the Effectiveness of Crystal and Spiritual Healing

McClean, Stuart

Authors

Profile image of Stuart McClean

Dr Stuart McClean Stuart.Mcclean@uwe.ac.uk
Associate Professor Public Health (Health & Wellbeing)



Abstract

In the arena of biomedical sciences, technical skills and expert judgment are at a premium, and the standardization and repeatability of an intervention is crucial to help determine, for example, the effectiveness of a new drug in a clinical trial. Crystal and spiritual healers are less rule-bound, and their playfulness with the systematized conventions and rituals of healing practice is more evident. In this article, based on in-depth ethnographic research, I highlight some of these themes in the context of contemporary crystal and spiritual healing practice at a center in northeast England. I show that the standardized models of measuring effectiveness are less appropriate in many healing contexts, partly due to the unrepeatability and limited standardization of each healing performance, but also due to the performative 'being-in-the-moment-ness' and intuitive sensibility that frames what healers count as evidence. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Jan 1, 2013
Deposit Date Jul 2, 2012
Journal Medical Anthropology: Cross Cultural Studies in Health and Illness
Print ISSN 0145-9740
Electronic ISSN 1545-5882
Publisher Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 32
Issue 1
Pages 61-74
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/01459740.2012.692741
Keywords complementary and alternative medicine, effectiveness, ethnography, crystal healing, spiritual healing
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/939463
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01459740.2012.692741
Contract Date Nov 15, 2016