Great Construction

What Can Be Had from Testimonials?


     When many testimonials to Johrei have been read, there is probably no one who can not help feeling something indeed wonderful. This is because the degree of the power of salvation exhibited in these accounts has yet to have appeared in the world. About this power of salvation, I will here discuss only those portions that concern disease.
     I begin with the reality of contemporary medical science. Nowadays, individuals who come down with disease are of the mental state that thoroughly believes there is no other place to entrust with confidence healing of their condition but in contemporary medical science. This conviction appears to be of the same level as religious faith. But conviction is not only individual. Government authorities on all levels have determined that there is nothing other than contemporary medical science, and every year huge sums are spent on the medical profession, encouraging to the limits of its capacity the development and spread of medical science, so even if a remedy, therapy, treatment, or method from outside the medical sciences were to show effective results, official policy is to recommend that people not involve themselves with such activities on the basis that they have no scientific validity. This is the stance government takes, so of course, the general populace believes in medical science as well. Thus, even from the standpoint of the mental or emotional effect of treatment, patients who receive medical treatment ought to have a better chance of being cured, but probably everyone has experienced results that were not as expected.
     Be that as it may, to return to the subject of testimonials that fill every issue of this newspaper, in whichever testimonial that is read, when writers come down with disease, the first thing they do without exception is see a doctor, and sometimes the results are indeed temporary improvement, but as patients start to feel that they have recovered, something will happen that seems as if a reaction is occurring and there will certainly be a recurrence of the condition. And, then again, there are patients who receive medical treatment but from the start show no improvement and the condition gradually worsens. In such situations, simply from the level of ordinary common sense, some form of doubt concerning medical treatment should naturally arise, but in most patients this suspicion does not. They continue to rely upon and do not give up on medical science. Some of the writers have been on the verge of death when they finally come to doubt, and there are even those who seek out other kinds of therapies, but these are the lucky ones. The unfortunate ones die never having awakened to the truth. Death is taken to be their fate, and family and friends resign themselves.
     In more unfortunate cases, siblings too young for death die one after another, and even after several members of the family have died, those around are still not suspicious but depend on medical treatment, and such is for the following reason. Family members are surprised at the first death, they become afraid of disease in general, and when the next individual comes down with a disease, they worry about being too late for treatment and also start to preoccupy themselves with individual hygiene, nutrition, getting injections, and such, so what happens is that the afflicted individual weakens and dies an early death. From childhood onward, for many generations, seeing a doctor and taking medicine was all that could be done in the case of coming down with disease. Such conviction is deeply instilled and the idea has permeated within all, so when the prognosis of a condition does not proceed as is thought it should, the doctor’s diagnosis is thought to be flawed or the doctor is taken to be incompetent. New doctors are consulted and patients are moved to a larger hospital. But those who do not recover find their situation the same no matter where they go. Their condition gradually worsens. Of course, there is no reason they should realize what is really wrong and they are driven into desperation.
     In the midst of this repeating cycle, that which is the worst of all are pharmaceuticals. Since pharmaceuticals cannot be avoided even for a day, although their conditions are alleviated, slowly over time patients become chronic narcotic users, eventually reaching dangerous levels, and it is at this point that the more sensitive individual will for the first time start to harbor doubts about pharmaceuticals. In all aspects of society, government authorities and specialists warn the public not to trust folk remedies and faith healers, as I mentioned previously, so sufferers are quite hesitant, but at wits’ end they believe no good will come out of their situation as it is. When patients do awaken to their plight, doctors have already given up, and at this point sufferers hear about World Messianity and come for salvation. At first, however, all receive Johrei suspiciously with doubt, but their conditions change completely, a turn toward recovery is made, and yesterday’s pessimism switches to today’s optimism. It is all so mysterious that some patients feel lost and bewildered, but the fact that they rapidly become better makes even atheists admit defeat.
     Such are the reasons why every time I read a testimonial I keenly feel that I do want the true aspects of the Johrei of World Messianity conveyed as soon as possible to the general public.

Eikô, Issue 125, October 10, 1951
translated by cynndd