“Hospital” Run By Dead Doctor

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 857, 28 December 1929, Page 25

“Hospital” Run By Dead Doctor

SPIRIT POWER CURES

POPULAR INSTITUTION A doctor who died 70 years ago is the chief medical adviser of a “hospital’’ in a luxurious mansion in Queen’s Gate, Kensington, London, where disease is cured by the laying on of hands, as referred to in the Bible. Hundreds of patients, ranging from peers and peeresses to “down-and-outs,” go there to be cured by the dead doctor. It is claimed that the blind have been made to see and the deaf to hear. Attention has been called to the establishment by Colonel Crosfield,

chairman of the British Legion, who, in a speech to the Warrington branch of the Legion, offered to pay for the treatment of any two persons there who would like to try the healing. The house is controlled by the Guild of Spiritual Healing, Ltd. When I called there yesterday, writes a “Daily Chronicle” representative, I was received by a girl secretarj*, who explained, in a matter-of-fact way, that the establishment was under the charge of Dr. Lascelles, who died in 1860. 1 was taken to see the “clinic,” in the basement, where 20 healers treat hundreds of patients daily. Tliere are a number of tiny cubicle-like consulting rooms, 'and over the door of each is the name of the donor of the room, usually a former patient. Each is furnished simply with a few chairs, and in each hangs a religious picture or a crucifix.

We passed through a curtain into a little chapel, dimly illuminated with a rose-coloured light, where there was an altar set with flowers. Here we met Mr. A. Baskerville. the chief of the clinic, who showed me into his consulting room. Blue Flame of Health “What we do here is to cure people

whose cases have been given up as hopeless, by the laying on of hands.” he explained. “This power from the spirit sphere is a gift that is given to some people. I have it, and I can pass it through my hands into other people. “Sit back for a moment.” I leaned back in my chair, and Mr. Baskerville, after shaking his hands so furiously that I thought the lingers must fall off. placed one hand on either side of my head. I felt at once a curious vibrating sensation. “That is the power,” he explained. “With it I can revitalise the dead cells of the body and cure even paralysis. It is invisible to ordinary people, but clairvoyants see it descending in a blue column on the head of the healer, and passing from his fingers in a blue flame.” Mr. Baskerville pointed to a photograph of a kindly old gentleman with a beard, whose head was encircled with what appeared to be a halo. “That is a spirit picture of Dr. Lascelles, our spirit physician,” he said. “He is like the chief physician m

a hospital, and through Mr. Simpson, the chief healer, he gives us advice on difficult cases. Mr. Simpson goes into a trance, and Dr. Lascelles speaks through him.” No drugs aro used, but patients already under a doctor are recommended to continue under his advice at the same time. I was next taken to the consulting rooms of Mr. Simpson and Captain Wright, on the first floor, both ot whom carry on a private practice among the wealthier patients. “Four years ago, when I first came ■ under this treatment,” Captain Wright ! told me, “the doctors told me I was suffering from acute heart disease, and had ouly a mouth to live. 1 was completely cured, and am now curing 1 other people.” Breath-holding Prayers On the top floor is the “Absent Treatment Department,” and the chapel of the “Harmony Prayer Circles.” The chapel is a small room with a blue ceiling spangled with silver stars. In front of an altar aro seven chairs. Here bedridden people, or those who on account of distance cannot '

, ! attend the clinic are. it is claimed# cured by “scientific prayer.*' Seven people forming the pravet? circle sit before the altar. The name of an absent patient is read out. Each of the circle takes a deep breath, holds it for 15 seconds, and then exhales, praying and thinking hard all the time of the patient. The absent patient should co-operate’ | in prayer at the exact time, and as I the patients are in all parts of tlie j world the times have to be carefully worked out. For this reason a largo | map of the world, showing how the ! time in foreign countries relates to Greenwich for every hour iu the day, hangs in the office. “We treat 1,200 people a week." Mrs. M. W. Eadle. the secretary, told me. “At least 60 per cent, of the patients are cured. There are 35 circles, each of seven people, and they sit iu turn from 11 a.m. to 0.30 p.m. daily, generating spiritual health rays to sufferers all over the world."