Charlie the healer

The woman who cuts my hair told me about a TV show called The Healer. The show features an unassuming and handsome young man from Australia named Charlie Goldsmith. In the show, he goes to the homes of people in pain and, in all the cases I saw, makes their pain go away—without charge. He does this by talking to them a bit about their problem, sitting next to them, then either holding his hand near the pain site or merely thinking about the pain site. It takes seconds. His eyes are closed and his eyelids flutter. In case you think this is just the placebo effect, I saw him assuage the pain of a two-year-old with multiple genetic problems.

Charlie says he became aware of this capability at age 18 when he was at a camp. In the dining hall, as he reached for his knife and fork, his hands came together as if pulled by a magnet. He turned to the woman next to him and asked her to hold her hand near his, and she remarked about how strange it felt. Another woman came over and put her hand up to his. Without touching it, he says he was aware of a lump and, without thinking, began focusing on the lump, which seemed to disappear. Afterward, the woman reported that for the first time in four years she was able to bend her finger.

He wants to be studied, but has had an extremely difficult time getting medical people to test him. He did manage to get the Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn to give him a try. Doctors enrolled 32 patients who were not responding to pain medication. They had all manner of illnesses, including kidney stones, prostate cancer, an inflamed gall bladder, and much more. Seventy-six percent of the patients reported "marked improvement." As one of the physicians remarked, “You could see the shift in a patient's status from stagnant to a rapid healing resolution. I can't quantify it, but I would say Charlie cut days off patients' hospital stays. Watching him work has been humbling in the most extreme way."

For more about Charlie, watch the TV show (TLC channel) and read the article I found in Elle magazine. Fascinating stuff.

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