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Joe Cassidy

The Diviner

One night a man was brought in for a healing by his wife and his best friend. He needed them both to help him walk into my clinic. I remember him clearly, though this was some time ago. He was six foot five or six tall and a fine-looking man, but things were bad for him. He had a tumour on his brain, and walking wasn’t his only problem. He also had trouble getting his words out. He had come, he explained in his halting speech, to get some relief from his pain.

'That's all I want,' he said. 'The pain in my head - I just can't bear it.'

I gave him a healing, and the pain did seem to lift a little. He said he wanted to come again. Usually, if I'm giving someone a course of healing, I'll see them once a week. But in this case I felt the man would benefit from coming to me every day. I could see how ill he was, and how tortured he was by the pain. I was going by my instinct here.

‘Would you like to come every night for the next week?' I asked him. 'I feel that would be best for you.'

‘Anything. Anything that helps this pain.'

The next night, when his wife and his best friend brought him in again, he didn't look any better. And the third night there was still only a limited improvement. so I was surprised when, Iater that night, I got a phone call from his wife.

‘Joe, you'll never guess what happened tonight. Never in a month of Sundays.' She sounded so excited that her words were running into each other.

They had gone home after the treatment. The man's best friend had stayed for tea. After they'd eaten, they'd stayed at the table for a while, as they had on the two previous nights. 'But something happened,' she said.

‘What was that?'

'He got up from the table. He wasn't thinking about it. He just got up, walked across the kitchen and switched on the kettle.'

'That's amazing.'

'It really was.'

He drove himself for his next three healings. Then I said goodbye and wished him well.

Two months later, I was locking up for the night. The last client had gone, and I was blowing out the candles and tidying up. But when I went outside, I sensed somebody standing behind me. It gave me a fright.

‘What the f**k happened here?'

It was that tall, good-looking man standing there, looking confused.

'I'm sorry? What do you mean?'

'It's unbelievable what you did for me.'

I was thinking, Well, aren't you happy then? You look much better.

And of course he was. He'd come to thank me. It's just that he had got more from me than he was expecting, so he was confused too. When you've been very ill, and suddenly you're not, it can be a shock. He was having to deal with a new reality, and it was taking him some time and adjustment to do that.