Healing
Katz also states that the people can only heal when they learn to control their boiling n/um, or energy. The healer learns to “pull out sickness” from the people. When they do this, they use !kia, or enhanced consciousness, to see the things they need to pull out, like “the death things God has put into the people”, and they get them out.
According to Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, to cure people and get the evil out of them the medicine man, or healer, will begin by washing his hands in the fire. He then will place one hand on the person’s chest, and one on their back, and will “suck” the evil from them. The medicine man often shudders and groans as he does this, and then will suddenly “shriek the evil into the air.” Katz states that if the person they are healing has a specific symptom, the healers hands focus on sucking the evil out of that area, but if there are no symptoms of illness the healers’ fluttering and vibrating hands move lightly and sporadically over the person’s chest.
The healers aren’t just curing sicknesses, like disease, as we might think though. In The Old Way: A Story of the First People (2006), Marshall Thomas reports that they expel what they call “star sickness". This is the force that takes over a group of people and causes jealousy, anger and quarrels and failures of gift giving. It is the evils that pull people apart and damage unity. The dance mends the social fabric as it releases hostility according to Katz. To further promote the social cohesion, the healer also pleads with the Gods for relief from harshness. So, healing is an important, central part of their lives, because they can then be a unified and peaceful people. Without the healing dances, their lives would be full of contention.
Read more about this topic: Bushmen Healing And Rock Art
Famous quotes containing the word healing:
“War has always been the great wisdom of all those spirits who have grown too inward, too deep; its healing power lies even in the wound.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“The words of kindness are more healing to a drooping heart than balm or honey.”
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)
“When pain of the world surrounds us with darkness and despair,
When searching just confounds us with false hopes ev’rywhere,
When lives are starved for meaning and destiny is bare,
We are called to follow Jesus and let God’s healing flow through us.”
—Jim Strathdee (20th century)