Abstract

the System of healing used by the Filipino espiritistas:
An Archival Study


Scott Matthew Taubold

Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center

The purpose of this dissertation was to describe the system of healing used by the Union of Espiritistas of the Philippines as perceived by the espiritistas themselves (in accordance with the National Institutes of Health Office of Alternative Medicine standards), from their own cultural context, not from the view of the parapsychological investigators, psychologists, medical doctors, alternative practitioners, and laypersons that have provided most of the existing information on Filipino healing practices.
The roles of indigenous healers were presented by prominent theorists, placing the practices of mediumship and psychic surgery into perspective as indigenous healing phenomena. The essential principles and common factors in healing as described in other systems of healing models were also presented. Following this description of the Filipino espiritistas' indigenous healing system, while incorporating these essential elements of healing (according to the prominent systems of healing theorists), this author's conclusion is that more research of indigenous healing practices in the Philippines is vital to a better understanding of the role of human consciousness in illness and healing experiences.
The research question was: What is the system of healing used by the Filipino espiritistas? The study concentrates on descriptions of the Filipino espiritistas' system of healing in accordance with the parameters for a healing system presented in a journal article in Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, "Defining and Describing Complementary and Alternative Medicine" by O'Connor et al. (1997). Archival data were utilized in gathering the necessary information to develop a description of the Filipino espiritistas' system of healing, and it was determined that the description meets the parameters of a system of healing as presented by O'Connor et al. to the U. S. National Institutes of Health Office of Alternative Medicine (NIHOAM).