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Sceptical Stan's healing experience

Despite being more than a little sceptical, Bristol Evening Post deputy editor Stan Szecowka decided to take up an invitation to visit a healer – with some interesting reults…


One of the joys of being a journalist is that you often get to taste and experience new things, that, on a normal, run-of-the-mill day would be the last thing you would expect.

It can really be a great adventure.

In recent years I’ve jumped out of an aeroplane, danced with a ballet company, (cor, what lovely legs!) had acupuncture, reflexology and chatted to the Queen.

It was during a recent tour of the Bristol Cancer Help Centre that I was shown past a room where the healer works, and being a typical sceptic, the look on my face quickly gave my ignorance away.

People find it really useful, I was told, you should try it.

Well, you should never challenge a Szecowka. I replied I would be delighted to, thinking it had little chance on working on me.

How wrong can you be? My initial appointment was on Friday but I had to cancel and head off to my bed with the most miserable viral infection.

We rearranged the session for Monday tea-time, which although I was over most of the headache, sneezing and sore throat symptoms, I still felt a little under the weather. And then again, I could not see the point of asking to be healed when I was fighting fit.

I arrived at the converted convent in Clifton and was introduced to Janet Swan and we had a little chat about life… you know the sort of thing, I’m too busy to be ill, I’m glad I got the flu this weekend and not next because I’ve got so many things on… etc…

She has been working at the Bristol Cancer Help Centre since it was founded in 1980, and her involvement has been integral to the centre’s work from the very beginning.

Janet asked me to lay down on a couch, placed my head on a pillow and pushed a cushion under my knees.

Soft music was played in the background and I was simply told to close my eyes and relax.

I must state now that I was dressed in a thick T-shirt and woolly jumper (simply because my mother is staying with us for a few days and wouldn’t let me out the house without one because of my cold), jeans and my smelly socks.

I was also covered with a blanket.

Despite all this material I felt the most intense heat coming from Janet’s touch.

Not the sort of heat felt when you accidentally touch a hot iron, a more deep, radiating heat.

The room was in no way brightly lit yet my eyelids experienced that same sensation as when you close your eyes around the swimming pool on holiday in sunny Spain. There is a kind of brightness in the dark.

Suddenly, the most amazing clear images appeared, like I was watching a silent movie, although it wasn’t an old black and white one, this was in amazing technicolor. The face of my late father clearly appeared.

Whilst these images flashed in front on me I could feel the heat from Janet’s touch on my shoulders, arms, knees and feet but at the same time I could have sworn one of her hands never left my head. It was the most bizarre feeling. Where did the heat come from? Why the pictures?

The session lasted around half-an-hour and I was in such a contented state I’m sure I would still be there now if I had not been awoken from that world of dreamland, somewhere in between waking up and deep sleep.

I did feel thoroughly refreshed within a few minutes. It was an amazing experience.

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