An Encounter with a Famous Faith Healer

Last week, I said I was going to address dreams and healing this week. However, before I talk about dreams, I decided to relate a couple of stories, both dating back more than forty years. These stories will provide some background for my discussion of what I learned about healing through my dreams. The first story is about my encounter with a faith healer and occurred before I began my work with dreams, and the second story is about a man I met who had a reading from Edgar Cayce. That encounter took place shortly after I began a study of my dreams.

It was during the 1960s, and I had only been married a short time. My wife and I learned a famous faith healer and evangelist named Kathryn Kuhlman was going to hold a crusade in Columbus, Ohio, where we had both attended college. At this point in my life, I can longer recall why we decided to make the drive and attend her revival because we were not even religious in the traditional sense. I think it was because we were both searching for meaning and were curious about what happened during one of her crusades. As I recall, we were investigating different beliefs, churches, and approaches to God at that time. However, I was quite skeptical about seeing a faith healer.

The crusade was held in a large auditorium, and when we arrived, I was stunned by what I saw. We could not get into the main auditorium because it was filled to capacity. We were in an adjoining building surrounded by wheelchairs and cots filled with people who were not ambulatory. I saw a sea of human bodies suffering from a multitude of afflictions. Many made this trip as a last hope.

We heard Ms. Kuhlman give an emotional sermon, and during the sermon she pointed to various people, some with critical diseases, and proclaimed them healed. After her sermon and audience healing, she began her signature process of inviting people to the stage for her touch and gift of the Holy Spirit that resulted in their collapse to the floor where they lay motionless for several minutes. As people lined up, my wife and I saw an opportunity to enter the main hall. When we did, we entered an aisle that led to the stage. Now, I was introverted and had no intention of going on stage. However, a large crowd up people surged up the aisle as she invited more to come to the stage, and the crowd caught me and carried me to the stage. There was no place else to go and the force of the bodies pushing me was enormous. So I found myself standing on stage looking out over thousands of people. I remember thinking this is crazy. Ms. Kuhlman walked up to a person, said a brief blessing, touched the person on the head, and the person collapsed into the arms of men who stood behind each person as catchers who gently laid the person on the floor. As she conducted this process with the people in front of me, I thought that she was going to be surprised and embarrassed when I was still standing after she touched me. Frankly, I thought it was just a show and I was beginning to become irritated by the heat and crowd. Then my turn came. Tomorrow, I will describe what happened.