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Groening followers believe in spiritual healing
By LINDA M. LINONIS
Members of Bruno Groening Circle of Friends believe the road to physical healing is a spiritual path.
Groening (1906-1959) was a German healer who taught about the power of faith in overcoming disease. Various healings took place around Groening and because of his teachings, according to information posted on www.bruno-groening.org.
Grete Hausler (1922-2007), who founded the Circle of Friends in 1979, met Groening in 1950 and was healed of three ailments. She founded the circle to continue Groening’s teachings and her son, Dieter, has carried on her work. The organization has a medical component — a Medical Scientific Group for doctors and other health care professionals.
A forum of doctors compiles documentation of healings. Dr. W. R. Arends of Germany will present an informational lecture tonight at North Side Medical Center.
Arlene Barkan of Cortland is leader of Youngstown and Cleveland Communities, and Children’s Community of English-speaking North America. She also is a Reiki master teacher.
Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. Barkan said she saw a flier about a Circle of Friends medical lecture and decided to attend. She’s been involved with the Circle of Friends since 2006. She said she used the Groening technique to heal her sciatica nerve pain. “I personally know a woman who was healed of four cancers and migraines,” Barkan said.
Barkan said Groening taught that illness occurs because man “has forgotten the relationship with God.” She continued that “God is in nature, and nature is in God.”
The Groening web site details his belief in a divine or life force, “heilstrom,” that plays a key role in healing. His teachings focus on physical and mental attitudes that promote the “healing stream” to alleviate chronic, degenerative and organic illnesses.
Barkan said a simple technique is taught. “Sit calmly, with your palms up and feet on the floor ... no ankles or legs crossed,” she said. “This is called ‘tuning in.’” Postive thoughts are encouraged as negative ones inhibit healing. “I know what’s it like to feel energy go through your body,” Barkan said of practicing Reiki and following Groening’s technique. She said she had experienced the “healing stream.”
Barkan said interested people must attend an introductory lecture before they can participate in community hours. The sessions acquaint newcomers to Groening’s teachings. The Circle of Friends passes on his teachings through lectures focusing on the physical and mental attitude needed to absorb the “healing stream.” A short documentary film also is shown. Admission is free.
Lois Dominko of Canfield, book table keeper in Youngstown and for the Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Cincinnati region, said community hours take place every three weeks. Barkan leads the sessions, which include meditation to music, readings from the “schooling letter” from Germany and discussion.
Dominko said a friend invited her to a lecture. “I was having health problems,” she said. “It helped calm me down and deal with it.” Dominko said doctors in Youngstown Cleveland diagnosed her with an aortic aneurysm and told her an operation would be necessary once it reached a certain size. Since then, she said, the aneurysm has decreased in size. “We talk about illness in the past tense,” she said.
Groening’s teachings don’t discourage anyone from seeing a doctor or undergoing therapy or an operation. Groening said healing was “an act of God’s grace” and there is no guarantee of healing.