1/1, January 1953-1986(?) 48 pp., £3.50 a year. Harry Edwards (1893-1976) was a printer who came to spiritualism in the 1930s and was told he had healing powers. His spirit controls included Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister. In 1946 he started his Harry Edwards Healing Sanctuary in Sussex, which eventually was healing, it is claimed, 10,000 patients a week—all without charge, although Edwards did charge for subscriptions to this journal and for his publications and lessons on how to “absent heal” and develop mediumship.

The journal claimed a circulation of over 15,000 and devoted a large portion of its space to “Healing Testimonies,” testimonials on the success of his “treatments.” These were scoffed at by the medical establishment. In 1954 the British Medical Journal debunked Edwards’ practice, not on the basis of fraud but of simple ineffectiveness, the placebo effect, and exploitation of the desperate. The journal carried advertisements for the organized spiritualist groups, books and journals of the era, and extensively promoted Edwards’ books and tapes and his “The National Federation’s Study Course on Absent Healing” (for £2.25). It also advertised several healing services for animals, including , “Spiritual Healing for Cats & Kittens.”

Category: Spiritualism, Healing.