Creative Response to Alternative Medicine: Clients of a Modern Finnish Healer in a Northwestern Ontario City

Abstract

Antti Auttaja is a Finnish Canadian businessman who practices alternative medicine in a northwestern Ontario city. His healing method involves pressing his hands and fingers firmly but gently on the feet, wrists, stomach, chest, and other bodily areas of his clients, who recline on their backs on the floor, with pillows propped under their head and knees. His clients respect him and his healing ability, and as the questionnaire and interview data presented in this article clearly show, they feel he has helped them enhance their quality of life in a way that is unique to him and very special to them. He exemplifies a holistic healer working along the periphery of the modern biomedical system. His practice exemplifies the alternative medicine category of the domain of nonconventional medicine.

‘The illness is part of the person’: discourses of blame, individual responsibility and individuation at a centre for spiritual healing in the North of England

“…For example, Teresa explained: ‘You see, a lot of our illnesses are caused by personal, private problems, it's those emotions that block our chakras and cloud our auras’. Emphasising the emotions as the cause of ill health is highlighted in Warkentin's (2000) study of a hands‐on healer in Canada, and also in McGuire's (1998) study of healing groups in suburban New Jersey, in which she states, ‘Like physical pollutants, these negative emotions were viewed as toxins to the body, introducing illness or making the body vulnerable to external sources of illness’ (1988: 105). As I shall demonstrate, healers perceive the spiritual body as a magnet for attracting negativity.…”

Variations in Lay Health Theories: Implications for Consumer Health Care Decision Making

“…This includes the many studies employing attitude-based and other cognitive models to predict specific, discrete illness prevention and response behavior (e.g., Health Beliefs Model; Becker & Maiman, 1975;Leventhal, Brissette, & Leventhal, 2003;Rosenstock, 1966). These approaches do not capture the depth or variety of dimensions involved in consumers' health perceptions (Blaxter, 1997;McGuire, 1988;O'Connor, 1995;Stainton Rogers, 1991;Warkentin 2000). The research gap, therefore, lies in understanding the nature of belief systems present in the current health care environment.…”

Effectiveness of Distant Healing for Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Randomised Controlled Partially Blinded Trial (EUHEALS)

“…Spiritual healing is a ‘broad’ therapy and may be defined as an intentional therapeutic influence of one or more persons upon another individual without utilizing known physical means of interventions [3]. It encompasses prayer and healing, either by touch or distantly [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11] and plays an important role in the traditional healing systems of Northern Europe, Africa and Asia. Despite its widespread use evidence for efficacy is scarce.…”