Romands rely on healers – spirituality right into the hospital
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A French tradition: Some Romands rely on spiritual help for health problems.
Camille KündigEditor Sunday view
Switzerland sniffles and coughs. While many keep their heads above water with powders and remedies, some rely on spiritual help. In French-speaking Switzerland, for example, so-called faiseurs de secret are invoked, healers who are supposed to help from afar with a secret prayer. Free of charge, because according to tradition they are not allowed to charge a fee.
SonntagsBlick asked more than 30 faiseurs de secret. Most report: their phone lines are running hot – they are currently receiving up to 40 calls a day. “Since the pandemic, many older people have come forward who fear for their future health and live in total isolation,” says Freiburg healer Marie-Christine Vaucher.
Unlike free churches, which are currently advertising en masse on the streets with promises of healing (SonntagsBlick reported), the “secret” is a piece of cultural heritage that is on the Unesco list of living Swiss traditions.
Short blessing formula with religious content
The “secret” may only be passed on on the basis of trust and only the initiated know what it consists of. It is probably a short blessing formula with religious content, which is intended to alleviate and heal various diseases and ailments.
Although the practice does not stand up to any scientific explanation, it has permanence in all social and age groups in French-speaking Switzerland. According to the principle: It can’t hurt. Even hospitals are not averse. The Friborg hospital, the Hirslanden clinics in Lausanne VD and Geneva, and the oncology department of the intercantonal hospital in Payerne VD, have phone numbers for prayer healers available for patients, sorted according to the ailments they are treating. The Lausanne University Hospital CHUV confirms that prayer healers are available for special cases and depending on the situation.
The Wallis Hospital in Sion goes one step further and supports the integration of forms of care and medicine, as spokeswoman Célia Clavien reports: “This can be a good option, especially in cases of Long Covid, where science has reached its limits. » The assistant doctor Florence Sierro-Müller accompanies her patients, if they wish, with healing spells in addition to conventional medicine. She uses the “secret” mostly in palliative care and, depending on the case, with pain or burns. She also uses it privately: “My mother-in-law accidentally grabbed a tin in the hot oven with her bare hands. She put her next hand under cold water and called me – she didn’t even have blisters that day.”
Placebo effect as an explanation
The “secret” contradicts her doctorate, says Sierro-Müller. She emphasizes that conventional medicine does not have an answer to all questions and suggests prayer healing as a supplement, never as a substitute for treatment: “Even if I say a prayer to relieve pain, I give the patient morphine if necessary.”
Proponents of the “secret” suspect that saying the prayers reduces the patient’s stress level, which sets positive chemical and hormonal mechanisms in motion. One possible explanation is the placebo effect, which can be demonstrated in the case of pain.
This side of the Röstigraben, however, is reserved. Philippe Luchsinger, President of the Swiss General Practitioners’ and Paediatricians’ Association says: “There are many different ways of tackling health problems. Because there are no studies on these alternatives, we cannot judge whether methods do more harm or more good.”