Sonsuz:
Dear Cem, a new healing trend has emerged among the spiritual community over the last few years. Very few people have yet to take an interest in healing, so I want to focus on this subject with your help. So, before we get started, what is healing and what makes a healer? I’d like to get your opinion on this subject.
Cem Şen:
Let’s begin with the difference between healing and treatment, Hasan. The healer Alberto Villoldo, one of my favorites, outlines the difference as “the doctor treats, while the healer heals.” It sounds like an assertive statement, but if you really think about it, you realize it’s quite correct. While treatment relies mostly on eliminating the symptoms of an illness, the healing process addresses the real reasons behind the symptoms. In this sense, we can say a real healer aims to find the reasons behind an illness and proceeds to cure the person. Master Hsu, one of the most powerful healers I know, likes to remove himself from the equation when it comes to healing. He believes people should be encouraged to heal themselves. He once told me that, in some cases, sufferers heal themselves in ways we cannot possibly predict. Mind you, this statement comes from a master who healed a person who was blind for ten years and successfully shrank a fifteen-centimeter renal tumor down to one millimeter in ten days, all before my eyes. What I’m trying to say is that while I expected to hear a statement that was way more assertive, the fact that he actually defined the purpose of a healer as acting as a basis for sufferers to heal themselves has seriously made me change my perception of healing. Naturally, when we consider how the illness and the healing process have completely different sources, this seems like a pretty logical perspective to have.
Sonsuz:
Can you please say a little more about the illness and the healing process having different sources?
Cem Şen:
Sure. First of all, the popular spiritual approach teaches us that illnesses serve as warning signs. This, of course, is a reason. An illness rings like a warning bell and warns us to regain our balance when we deviate from “the way of nature.” This ranges from immune system failures to many other cases where people psychologically make themselves ill or even have accidents in the same manner. There are other reasons for illness as well, however. It could be something surfacing from a past life, the result of recent karma, or even an effect of the unseen world surrounding us. Another reason may be a family curse or familial fate. A familial fate can cause diseases and is triggered by the collective consciousness of our families. Or sometimes an evil eye, spell, or similar thing may be the reason.
Recently, a very close friend of mine was bitten by a venomous snake. Many people thought it was a normal accident, but I didn’t believe it was an accident at all. I didn’t believe the accident was actually an accident. All these things may be just different kinds of illness, so the healing needs to follow a different process with each case. In some cases, it may be sufficient to use an antibiotic or undergo an operation, but other cases may require energy medicine or even a visit to the ancestral tombstone. For instance, I witnessed a cancer patient in the final stages of the illness recover immediately once he started disbursing his money. As is clear from this example, a single method may not always be sufficient for healing. Therefore, encouraging the sufferer to take part in the healing process seems very meaningful to me.
Sonsuz:
You know the famous book by Louise Hay, The Mental Causes for Physical Illness. It proposes mental causes for all kinds of illnesses and suggests affirmations to overcome them. What do you, as a teacher with knowledge of the Eastern teachings, say about this book with a Western tendency? As you know, it’s typical bedtime reading for spiritual healers.
Cem Şen:
I find Louise Hay’s book highly beneficial. It should certainly be an interesting read for anyone interested in healing, but even so, its affirmation method is not sufficient on its own. The reason for this is very simple: The heart doesn’t believe everything the mouth says. Plus, it’s not really fair to attribute all illnesses to mental causes. I mentioned some causes earlier, and as you will remember, some of them are far from mental in nature. Still, it’s possible to use Louise Hay’s method as a starting point. What we should remember is how the thing we call “illness” has a reality of its own. This reality takes the illness from being objective to subjective. I mean, some back or neck pains may be indications of excessive stress, burdens, or the feeling of being stuck, but they also could be caused by a disorder in the kidneys or lungs. For this reason, all illnesses are subjective and should be approached accordingly.
Sonsuz:
Well then, do you think a healer should have medical knowledge? I mean, a lot of people are interested in healing,  but it’s debatable as to what proportion has medical knowledge. Is it right to do healing energy work without it? In addition, do you think every Tom, Dick, and Harry should be allowed to become a healer? Can anyone become a healer?
Cem Şen:
Let me try to answer each of your questions respectively, although some are really hard to answer with a simple yes or no. Firstly, I don’t believe every healer needs medical knowledge. For example, most shamans are devoid of any medical education as we know it, but their healing obviously works. As for Master Hsu, he has eyes like an x-ray machine. He has correctly diagnosed various patients in the laboratories of different universities many times. He even defined the stents in one patient’s cardiac vein. In this case, we should question the relationship between modern medicine and a person who can observe the insides of a body like he is watching television.
Speaking personally, I don’t think a healer needs a formal medical education, but I do believe it’s beneficial to have at least a little knowledge without the prejudices of classical medicine. But as I indicated before, these are hard questions to answer with a simple yes or no. I have witnessed healers do things they shouldn’t because of their lack of knowledge. For example, some mistake a compound fracture for a dislocation and wrongly try to reduce it. Others don’t thoroughly understand an illness and so offer nonsensical prescriptions or suggestions. The optimal regulation would certainly be for modern medicine professionals to test people who claim to be healers without sticking to the conventional mentality.
I would really like doctors to give the necessary education and authority to people who can prove that their healing methods do in fact work, but there is unfortunately no regulation whatsoever in this field yet, so it’s left to the initiative of the healer. Perhaps the best thing would be for a healer to work alongside a medical doctor so they exchange ideas with each other. Of course, this would need both doctor and healer to be open minded.
The other question you asked was whether anyone can become a healer. A person with the proper training and a genuine desire to help others and ease their pain can be a healer to some degree. To become a true healer would require many elements to come together after this point. In other words, you need to be born a healer rather than become a healer, and training merely improves this gift. I believe the same thing applies to medical doctors as well. The act of entering a medical school does not make someone a doctor. I see many examples of this every day. Many hospitals almost make me think, “Gee, are these doctors intentionally trying to kill people or what?” For instance, when my friend who was bitten by a snake went to a hospital, they injected him with a tetanus vaccine and an antihistamine instead of the antivenom that should have been administered immediately. Can you believe this? What ’s more, the mixture he was given also increases the deadliness of snake venom. My friend fortunately had great stamina and energy because he had been trained in qigong at the time, so he managed to endure the thirty-six hours before they thought to give him antivenom. Most people would have died.
In another hospital, they told this same friend that his snake-bitten fingers were about to mortify and would require immediate debridement (the removal of dead or damaged tissue). Skin taken from his hip was to be grafted onto his fingers after two months. I took him to one of my pupils who was also a phytotherapist. My pupil gave him an oil mixture, and my friend started using it on his fingers. The fingers that were to be debrided and grafted became healthy in just a week. The doctors didn’t have any malicious intentions of course, but they didn’t know anything other than what they were taught. As you see, healing is not for everyone, but neither is modern medicine.
Sonsuz:
Do you think the recent healing craze has an egocentric motive behind it? Recently, a friend of mine took part in a conference organized by a well-known American healer. When this man asked the audience how many of them were involved with healing, everyone raised a hand except for my friend. I wonder if this is where we are stretching the point. Do you think people try to satisfy their need to feel worthy by pursuing miracles this way?
Cem Şen:
The situation is exactly as you described, and this is even true among successful healers. I have a pupil who is a doctor. He is one of the most gifted people I have ever met in the field of herbal medicine. At one point, he was so confident about his success rate that he claimed he could heal anyone and everyone. I constantly reminded him that he shouldn’t make these kind of claims and that healing is solely in the lap of gods. Eventually, one day he came to me and said, “Master, I don’t understand what’s happening to these people. I removed their tumors completely, but they’re still dying.” He started to acquire the modesty befitting a healer because of this experience. I’m confident he will become a very successful medical doctor, and I’m very proud of him.
Over the last ten years, many people started to consider themselves healers, especially with the recent Reiki trend. Healing is a very precious, very valuable thing, and it gives people a huge deal of contentment. To see the happiness, gratitude, and relief on the faces of others is priceless. Because of this, healing requires a state of mind that is as modest as it can be. However, health is usually the most important aspect of our lives, so a simple solution can appear to be miraculous.
A few days ago, I demonstrated a simple breathing technique to a woman. When we saw each other again after a week, she said, “Cem, may god bless your heart.” I was delighted for sure, but I asked why she said it. She had a heel spur, and even though she had visited numerous doctors all around the world, they could not ease her pain. She said her spur had been relieved after the breathing exercise. I explained that it was because of the waist exercise I showed her rather than the breathing exercise and that it was a simple thing. As you can see, the case I label as easy here was so intolerable for her that she ended up praising me to the skies. If healers, or so-called healers, have big egos that need to be fed by gaining prestige in society, they will surely use healing for that purpose. This situation is inarguably distasteful.
Sonsuz:
You mention a very important point, actually. We’ve lost so many people who started to take credit for their useful work at this very point. They started to consider themselves as some kind of messiah, their egos hit the ceiling, and their friends started to drift away. Only the jesters remain, you know. I guess this is the toughest lure of the spiritual path, the compulsion of an excessive positive ego. Unfortunately, people, especially those with a weak sense of accomplishment and large gaps in their pasts, are beside themselves when they begin feeling effective in some way.
Cem Şen:
Right. There is a perception in Eastern traditions that the greatest strength of humanity is also its greatest weakness and that a weakness can be transformed into a strength. Let me tell you a story. It’s actually from my upcoming novel, but I’ll share it now with you all.
One day, some evil gods came together and started to contemplate ways they could dissuade a man who was soon to become a Buddha. The man led a simple life with a small field and cottage. He spent his days working in his field. One day, his plough hit something solid in the earth that turned out to be a chest full of gold. The evil gods placed it there no doubt. The man looked from the chest to his field and then resumed his labor. The gods were concerned about this, but they decided to play yet another prank. After the day’s work, the man headed for his cottage and suddenly smelled something very delicious in the smoke drifting out from his chimney.
When he opens his door, he is greeted by a beautiful woman who has cleaned his cottage and cooked for him. She introduces herself to the man and tells him she was so impressed with his virtuousness that she has decided to unconditionally serve him from now on. The man listens before slowly walking away and sitting in his yard. He eats the dry crust in his pocket and then sits in meditation. With this, the gods become convinced this man will become a Buddha, and there is nothing they can do to prevent it. But the shrewdest of the gods decides to try one last prank. The next day, when the man goes to his field again, he finds that many of his crops are ripe and ready for harvest. He harvests them all day long before returning to his cottage exhausted. The next day, he finds that more of his crops are ready for harvest. He looks at them and thinks about the looming fall season. The crops will be spoiled if he doesn’t harvest them, so he spends another day working in the field. His days go by like this, and he forgets to meditate. The gods have succeeded in their endeavor to dissuade the man.
As you can see from this little story, sometimes our strengths become our weaknesses. It’s important to understand the ego and maintain a moderate state of mind. Healing should emerge from a truly modest state of mind and harbor a wise approach. In the good old days, the mention of a healer or doctor would give the impression of a wise person. At the time, a healer or a doctor really had to be a wise person, because that was the essence of the matter. Down the ages, healing was in the hands of the wise. A wise person was expected to be a good healer as well. In our time, this reality has unfortunately started to vanish.
Sonsuz:
There’s also the commercial side of the story. This subject is widely discussed on various platforms, such as whether spiritual teachers, especially healers, should charge for their services or not. For example, a vast and growing number of healing centers have been established. What’s your outlook on this matter?
Cem Şen:
Once there was a monk living by a brook. Every day, he fished in the brook and distributed his catch to other people. The only thing he kept was one fish head, which he made soup from. One day, a pupil of his told him that he was going to the holy mountain. The monk asked his pupil to find his elder master and ask him why he was stuck at this level and unable to improve further. When the pupil arrived at the holy mountain, he came across a glorious villa. The villa oozed with luxury. The monk’s master was living a high life over there.
The shocked pupil came before the master and asked, “My master wanted me to ask you why he’s stuck at a certain level and cannot improve further.” The master closed his eyes and said, “Why, you ask? Because, he’s an exceedingly materialistic person.” The astonished pupil climbed down the mountain, relayed these words to his own master, and added, “I guess your master is mistaken.” The monk smiled cheerily and said, “No, my master is correct. When I’m cooking the fish head in the evening, I’m only thinking about the rest of the fish. My master, on the other hand, is not consumed by his possessions, so he knows he cannot be manipulated by them.”
Now, dear Hasan, I don’t believe anything in existence is free. We pay a price for anything we receive, without fail. This is valid not only for the supplies we buy from the market, but for spiritual work as well. We sometimes pay with money, sometimes with goods, or sometimes with another service, but we pay eventually. In my opinion, money is the most humble payment in exchange for healing. For this reason, I believe charging money for both healing and spiritual training is the right thing to do. Of course, the amounts charged are open to discussion.
Sonsuz:
I think there has to be a set price range. After all, a medical doctor doesn’t tell you, “This knowledge is for all of humanity, so let me treat you for free.” Neither does Wal-Mart salute the highly gifted healer and give him his shopping for free. Healing requires considerable devotion and dedication, and these people need to support themselves somehow. Doing spiritual work doesn’t mean you have to be destitute. However, do you do it solely for money or do you make money from the work you do? That is the question.
Unfortunately, many individuals and establishments do it with commercial intentions, and what they do is not healership whatsoever in my opinion, because they don’t care about the people they are serving. That said, there are also a few genuine and devoted healers around, but they are very few and finding them among all the money-driven ones is down to destiny. In fact, destiny may be the right word to use here, according to the law of attraction. Those that think a golden key can open any door attract healers with the same mentality, but if you want to be really healed, you may encounter a genuine healer. Of course, you need to do some research, though, such as finding out who this person you’re consulting is…
Cem Şen:
Absolutely. The real question here is not whether you charge money or not. A friend of mine recently mentioned some guy who had been introduced to him as a great healer. My friend went to see him for some reason. According to him, the man doesn’t charge anyone for anything, but he also doesn’t decline wristwatches or cars when they’re offered. As far as I know, he has considerable healing ability. He has healed many people, including congressional representatives and such. The man said to my friend, “You’re a healthy man, but I can snap your neck without standing up.”
When he heard that my friend was engaged in Taoist practices, he started to talk down Taoism. He told him that Taoists are charlatans who deceive people for money. After that, he phoned a friend of his and made him tell a story about when he drove a woman crazy. Everyone was waiting on him hand and foot. When I hear all these things, it seems like it’s possible for this man to have some kind of healing ability, although that could be the placebo effect. In addition, he doesn’t even charge people. However, I’m having difficulty understanding a healer driving people crazy, snapping people’s necks, and telling lies such as being a professor from some university’s neuropsychology department in America.
I’m sure you know that an immortal Taoist recently visited Turkey. He is an advanced master and a real healer. Although he’s better by a long, long shot, he carefully and humbly listened to my pupil, whom I brought along to meet the master. He then wanted me to ask him to write his own healing methods down on paper for him. He said that he would see if he could benefit from my pupil’s methods and add them to his own. You see, what makes him a master is his modesty and open mind. I think I agree with what you said. Perhaps we only attract healers who have a similar mindset to our own. For this reason, I think both the healer and the patient should be modest and “open hearted.”
Sonsuz:
In my opinion, people who train or heal others with no thought of personal gain receive an even greater prize: gratitude. To me, this is much better than money. The person in your example gained his current circle through this kind of prize, I guess. People say, “Hey look! What a great man, and he’s not obsessed with wealth!” Yet everyone around him was kowtowing to him for some strange reason.
Cem Şen:
Who knows, maybe the man is indeed a great healer. I don’t know him personally, so I can’t say. Nonetheless, his attitude feels wrong to me.
Sonsuz:
To finish, I would like to ask you a particular question: How do you like healing matters? I haven’t heard you mention your abilities so far, but it’s evident you have a lot of knowledge. Do you ever plan to do something in this field?
Cem Şen:
This will be a lengthy answer, but let me try, Hasan. I’m one of those who were born with healing abilities. It was first discovered when I was five or six years old. I recall going to someone in pain and laying my hands on him. I sensed his pain in my own body. Then something from my body poured into his. I felt his pain receding, from both his body and mine. It was a pleasant experience. The word got around and our neighbors started coming to our house with their ailments. Over the years, I started reading whatever I could about medicine and healing. I learned various things from different specialists I met. Although I don’t have a formal medical education, I can discuss anything with a medical doctor.
I have especially studied Chinese medicine, but I have stayed away from practicing it for the last ten years. I keep on learning, but I don’t practice it. I discussed this matter with an immortal Taoist when I was in China last year. I told him, “It’s not that I don’t treasure healing, but I’m not sure if I want to be a healer.” The master squinted at me and studied my face. “Oh yeah?” he said, “So you don’t want to be a healer, but you want to spiritually evolve? How is that possible? You cannot do anything but heal when you spiritually evolve. You will heal people, like it or not.”
He also told me all great masters are also great healers. This conversation has stayed there, and I came back thinking I still didn’t want to be a healer. From the moment I returned home, my family, friends, and acquaintances started to experience minor health problems. I then found myself healing them without noticing. One morning I woke up and finally read a message on my phone: “Pick me up from the airport. Master Hsu.”
I immediately went over and realized that Master Hsu had come to visit me out of the blue. I spent a wonderful week in his company. In the meantime, the thought of healing grew stronger inside of me, and I started discussing it with Master Hsu. If this will benefit the whole, serve us as a conduit on this path, and help us heal, I would really like to do it. Like I said, I hope it’s good for everyone, and I hope I can do it very soon.

Hasan Sonsuz