Faith healing is the attempt to use religious or spiritual means such as prayer, mental practices, spiritual insights, or other techniques to prevent illness, cure disease, or improve health. Faith healers say they can summon divine or supernatural intervention on behalf of the ill and say their practice may afford gradual relief or bring about sudden "miracle cures."
Faith healing refers to healing that occurs supernaturally, as the result of prayer rather than the use of medicines or the involvement of physicians or other conventional medical care. Such healing's are often referred to as miracles.
Many have asked questions about "faith-healing" in the Philippines. Who are these faith-healers? How genuine are their powers of healing?
In the Philippines, there are basically three types of traditional healers: the Albularyo (herb doctors), the Baylan (mediums) and the Espiritista (spiritualists).
Albularyo
A herb doctor lives in a village and has an occupation. He may be a farmer, a plow maker or a carpenter. He is well sought after. He will not perform surgery, he/she will treat the patient, using herbs and oraciones (prayers).
The Baylan
So called mediumistic healing, in one form or another, is found in many countries. In the Philippines, mediums are believed to possess extraordinary powers to cure sickness, to exorcise evil spirits out of the human body, and to intercede with good spirits for the petitions of the people. The mediums claim to have special knowledge of the environmental spirits. They perform all important rituals and chant prayers for the community when the village faces a crisis.
Espiritista
Plane loads of ailing Western tourists have made their way to Baguio City to seek healing from a "faith healer". Baguio City, a beautiful resort center, north of Manila, is frequented by rich Filipinos and Westerners during the hot dry season. It is well-known for its faith-healers. At least four faith-healers practice there. Some ten others operate in nearby Pangasinan province. These healers are called spiritualist, psychic or astral surgeons who claim to cut incisions with their fingers and perform other miracles of para-science.
WAHSA is affiliated with some of the most respected faith-healers in the Philippines and our chaperone service guides will secure an otherwise hard to get appointment for you with the healer of your choice.