The SNU Healing Code of Conduct
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This Code of Conduct is for the benefit and use of all SNU Spiritualist Healers and incorporates the minimum standard Code of Conduct issued by UK Healers. It is a very important document, vital for the image and presentation of healing within Spiritualism, and should be studied carefully. All Spiritualist healers must have a working knowledge of this Code of Conduct and practise Spiritual Healing according to its contents. Healing has a very special part to play within Spiritualism and all Churches should ensure they retain ample stocks of this Code of Conduct for issue to their healers. |
The National Executive Committee of the SNU issued this Code of Conduct in September 2003. Amended January 2007 |
Contents
Introduction
1 Objects
2 Advertising
3 Medical ethics and General Medical Council policy
4 Trance Healing
5 Code of Practice
Conclusions
INTRODUCTION
Spiritualism is a religion, a science and a way of life enjoyed by many people in their churches or by individual membership of the Spiritualists’ National Union. Spiritual healing has always been part of its purpose and each church has its own healing group holding healing services or clinics each week.
It is important that the confidence now being given to S.N.U. healing by the medical profession is not undermined by anyone acting irresponsibly or selfishly. It is therefore the responsibility of each Spiritualist healer to be aware of the Code of Conduct as given herein and the importance of always working within its confines. Healers should note that any insurance cover only applies when they are giving healing according to the Code of Conduct, which is obligatory. Healing should only be given in response to an invitation from the patient or patients representative.
The minimum standards set out in this Code of Conduct identify appropriate behaviour for healers and are intended to protect the public when they are given healing.
For the purpose of this Code of Conduct, healing has a specific definition involving the channelling of healing energy through the hands and/or with thought. It does not include massage, manipulation, the use of instruments, drugs, other remedies, the practice of clairvoyance or psychic surgery. It does include Distant and Absent Healing. All healers are expected to behave appropriately, take responsibility for their own actions and uphold public confidence in healing.
An established set of procedures will be used whenever a complaint about a healer needs to be investigated, followed by the possibility of disciplinary action if this Code of Conduct has been breached. A healer who is the subject of a complaint must cooperate with the investigating body when called upon to do so, making a reasonable attempt to comply with the procedures and timescales required.
1. OBJECTS
1.1 To promote and encourage the practice, study and investigation of the art and science of Spiritual
Healing.
1.2 To render aid, wherever possible, to all who are sick in mind, body or spirit, irrespective of race,
colour or creed.
1.3 To work as far as possible in co-operation with the medical profession.
1.4 To assist and train potential healers.
1.5 To encourage and help churches and other bodies affiliated to the Union to commence and
maintain Spiritualist healing groups.
2. ADVERTISING
Healers may advertise that they offer a general healing service for most diseases. They must not specify healing for any particular disease or claim a ‘cure�� for any.
3. MEDICAL ETHICS AND GENERAL MEDICAL COUNCIL POLICY
3.1 At present Spiritual Healing is legal in Great Britain.
3.2 Government policy permits a doctor registered with the General Medical Council to use or prescribe Spiritual Healing.
3.3 General Medical Council policy allows a doctor to suggest or agree to a patient seeking the help of a Spiritualist Healer, provided the doctor continues to give, and remains responsible for, whatever medical treatment he considers necessary.
3.4 ‘Patients’ Charter’ states that the hospital has to cater for your Spiritual needs and that includes a patient requesting Spiritual Healing provided that the doctor treating the patient is informed.’
3.5 The Government statement of 3rd December 1991 confirmed a registered medical practitioner’s right to delegate treatment of patients to specialists, including complementary therapists. Such treatment can be paid for either by the Health Authorities or by Primary Care Trusts.
3.6 The SNU wishes to ensure that Spiritual Healing and its impact are properly understood. This will help healers to reach and keep the highest standards of competence and achievement. It will also assist when in liaison with the medical profession.
4. TRANCE HEALING
Spiritualist Healers should be aware that trance healing is not recognised in law or covered by the Spiritualist Healers Public Liability Insurance policy.
Trance Healing as defined within this Code of Conduct means a deep trance state where the healer is totally unaware of what is happening, being said or done. During this time the healer experiences a state described as being ‘sleep like’. The healer is unable to influence any part of the proceedings and, therefore, the spirit working through them has total control of the movements their body makes and the words that are spoken. This is a special state or partnership between the healer and the spirit working with them where a strong bond of mutual trust and respect has developed, usually over many years.
It is recognised that some healers work in the altered state of consciousness (trance) and where this is practised it is mandatory that the following criteria be observed:-
(i) All healing applications must be on a private appointment basis and not conducted publicly.
(ii) A third party to be present at all times during the healing session.
(iii) Public demonstrations of trance healing may be held in accordance with the provisions of
Schedule 2 of these Bye-laws.
(iv) All trance healers before being registered as such with the Healing Committee will be required
to demonstrate their capability before a panel appointed by the Healing Committee.
5. CODE OF PRACTICE
5.1 HEALERS MUST -
Always:
- Seek to improve their knowledge and abilities.
- Be respectful and courteous to others.
- Take responsibility for the relationship they have with their patients and ensure that the trust placed in them is upheld.
- Recognise their own limitations and seek help from those with greater skills and experience where required.
- Maintain suitable working conditions where they give healing and ensure that these are safe and meet local authority regulations where required.
- Have a suitable standard of insurance protection to the level required by UK Healers. All Spiritualist Healers working in the UK should be insured by the SNU and to this end a comprehensive insurance cover has been effected by the Union for its healers. This insurance cover permits the medical profession to prescribe healing or to co-operate with healers without incurring any liability for the consequence of healing or of a healer's acts.
- Produce
details of their professional identification and qualification when
asked by a patient.
Ascertain, whenever necessary, that patients have sought medical advice and advising, where appropriate, that they do so. - Be ready to cooperate with the medical profession. A Spiritualist Healer gives an assurance to doctor and patient that he is a person of integrity, sincerity, knowledge and ability. This responsibility cannot be ignored.
- The
Spiritualist Healer must not countermand instructions or prescriptions
given by a doctor.
Understand and act within the law as it relates to healing (for example, confidentiality; access to patients’ records and data protection; consent to treatment; child protection; sexually transmitted diseases; infectious diseases; dentistry; midwifery; the sale of remedies, herbs, medicines, supplements oils etc; and the treatment of animals). N.B. Refer to Healing and the Law Documentation.
- Use titles or descriptions for themselves or their treatment that may mislead the public.
- Give or offer any other form of treatment or therapy in association with healing unless they are qualified and insured to do so and without first making it clear to the patient and obtaining the patient’s specific consent. However, the Spiritualist Healer is not permitted to give or offer any form of treatment or therapy whatsoever during the spiritual healing session.
- Give healing while medically or psychologically unfit to do so.
- Give healing as a trainee or probationer healer without being accompanied by a qualified healer unless specifically they have been authorised to do so by their supervising trainer and the patient agrees to receive healing from a healer under training.
- Falsify documents or patient’s notes.
- Abuse or exploit a patient sexually, emotionally or in any other way whatsoever.
- Give healing when it is not safe or appropriate for the patient or the healer. For the protection of Spiritualist Healers discretion and common-sense must be used when carrying out healing with patients who are mentally unstable, addicted to drugs or alcohol, severely depressed or hallucinatory. Such patients must be treated with extreme caution. It may be advisable to suggest absent healing rather than contact healing
- Discriminate on the grounds of gender, race, religion, political
persuasion, sexual preference, age or disability.
Always:
- Guarantee, promise, claim or imply a cure.
Always:
- Behave with decorum and propriety, respecting the patient’s wishes and common decency as to where and how they may or may not be touched. A Spiritualist healer must not step beyond the bounds of decency by placing their hands directly on or near what are termed ‘sensitive areas’, such as genital areas or a woman’s breasts. Hands must at all times be disciplined and controlled.
- Healers are personally responsible for their actions. They must behave with courtesy, dignity, discretion and tact. Their attitude must be competent and sympathetic, hopeful and positive, thus encouraging an uplift in the patient’s mental outlook and a belief in a gradual progression towards wholeness
- Respect the views and beliefs of the patient.
- Religion should not be discussed by a Spiritualist Healer unless the patient or his family raises the subject. It is obvious to patients that the Spiritualist Healers are connected to a religion but may have their own beliefs and respect must be shown to these.
- Act in an appropriate manner when attending a patient in hospital or a hospice (for example, obtaining the necessary permission, respecting the responsibility of the hospital or hospice for the patients in their care, carrying identification, giving healing without fuss or interruption to ward staff and other patients and not wearing clothing which gives the impression of being hospital staff).
- Have an additional adult present when giving healing to a child under 16.
- Give healing to patients without their specific consent.
- Ask a patient to remove any clothing other than spectacles, coat, shoes or other incidental items.
- Give a medical or any other form of diagnosis to a patient. Diagnosis is the responsibility of the Doctor.
- Advise or recommend that a patient undergo a particular form of treatment (like an operation or course of drugs) or interfere with the medical advice or treatment which the patient is receiving.
- Have a third party present (e.g. a trainee healer or member of the patient’s family) without the patient and healer’s specific consent. N.B The healer reserves the right to withdraw the offer of healing should the patient not consent to a third person present.
Always:
- Keep clear notes of healing given to patients.
- Ensure that patient notes are kept in a safe place and retained for a minimum of seven years.
- Healing records must be kept in a locked and secure place and shall not be disclosed except on the authority of the President or the National Executive Committee. Under the Data Protection Act 1998 the patient has a right to inspect his own healing records.
- Keep confidential any information received from a patient unless it is required by law or is contrary to public interest (for example, there is a risk that patients may cause harm to themselves, or to others, or have harm caused to them).
- Charge a
fee for giving healing to patients with venereal disease, as it is
illegal to make a charge in these circumstances.
CONCLUSIONS
Spiritualist healers are
aware that the healing energies that are passed through them to the
patients soul or spirit.
This centre is awakened to its responsibilities to its physical vehicle
and works to put that centre into harmony with the entire universe.
When this is achieved, the calming and harmonising effect can be permeated through the other inner levels of being, finally reaching the outer physical body.
This is why the first effects of Spiritual healing can be seen as a loss of pain, tranquillity, and a more positive attitude, all of which are indicators that the healing energies are having a positive effect upon the patient.
In the experiences of many Spiritualist Healers there as been no recorded adverse effect of healing energy interfering with Pacemakers or any other such appliances.
This is where Spiritualist healers differ from most other healers. They have an awareness of the origin of the healing energy, aware of their work as a channel for that energy and aware of the receipt of that energy with the patient in the form most suited for the patient to receive it. Spiritualist healers do not heal; they allow the healing energy to pass through them. It is a simple and gentle act of committal to aid suffering mankind and animals in need.
DEFINITIONS AS USED
SNU - The Spiritualists’ National Union or ‘Union’.
HEALING - A dictionary definition is ‘to make well’.
SPIRITUAL HEALING - as defined by the SNU is being ‘‘a form of healing by the use of forces and energies from the world of spirit, channelled through the healer by the laying-on of hands on or near the body, or prayer or the direction of thought from a distance’’.
A SPIRITUALIST HEALER - is a healer who practices Spiritual Healing within the SNU in accordance with the philosophy and teachings of Spiritualism. All Spiritualist Healers are subject to the rules and regulations of the SNU and UK Healers Regulatory Body.
CONTACT HEALING - Spiritual Healing involving the laying on of hands directly upon the body.
NEAR-TO-THE-BODY HEALING - Spiritual Healing involving the placing of hands within three inches of the body.
ABSENT HEALING – healing sent by the power of thought to a person not physically present.
DISTANT HEALING – healing sent by the power of thought to a person physically present but who is not receiving Contact Healing or Near to the Body Healing.
SUPERVISION – at least one SNU Approved Healer must be observing Trainee Healers at all times and must not be carrying out healing themselves.
When this is achieved, the calming and harmonising effect can be permeated through the other inner levels of being, finally reaching the outer physical body.
This is why the first effects of Spiritual healing can be seen as a loss of pain, tranquillity, and a more positive attitude, all of which are indicators that the healing energies are having a positive effect upon the patient.
In the experiences of many Spiritualist Healers there as been no recorded adverse effect of healing energy interfering with Pacemakers or any other such appliances.
This is where Spiritualist healers differ from most other healers. They have an awareness of the origin of the healing energy, aware of their work as a channel for that energy and aware of the receipt of that energy with the patient in the form most suited for the patient to receive it. Spiritualist healers do not heal; they allow the healing energy to pass through them. It is a simple and gentle act of committal to aid suffering mankind and animals in need.
DEFINITIONS AS USED
SNU - The Spiritualists’ National Union or ‘Union’.
HEALING - A dictionary definition is ‘to make well’.
SPIRITUAL HEALING - as defined by the SNU is being ‘‘a form of healing by the use of forces and energies from the world of spirit, channelled through the healer by the laying-on of hands on or near the body, or prayer or the direction of thought from a distance’’.
A SPIRITUALIST HEALER - is a healer who practices Spiritual Healing within the SNU in accordance with the philosophy and teachings of Spiritualism. All Spiritualist Healers are subject to the rules and regulations of the SNU and UK Healers Regulatory Body.
CONTACT HEALING - Spiritual Healing involving the laying on of hands directly upon the body.
NEAR-TO-THE-BODY HEALING - Spiritual Healing involving the placing of hands within three inches of the body.
ABSENT HEALING – healing sent by the power of thought to a person not physically present.
DISTANT HEALING – healing sent by the power of thought to a person physically present but who is not receiving Contact Healing or Near to the Body Healing.
SUPERVISION – at least one SNU Approved Healer must be observing Trainee Healers at all times and must not be carrying out healing themselves.