sought by the sick, who were brought into the street to be
cured as he passed by (Acts 5:15). And miracles were wrought
not only by the hands of Paul but by the clothes that were
taken from his body and given to the sick, whereupon diseas-
es and possession by evil spirits went out of them (Acts
19:12).
The disciples of Jesus healed the sick by anointing them
with oil (Mk. 6:13), and the elders of the church were in-
structed to pray for the sick and anoint them with oil in the
name of the Lord (Jas. 5:14–15). From this developed what
came to be called the unction of the sick, in some Eastern
and Western churches, and extreme unction (a sacrament)
in the Roman Catholic church. To the accompaniment of
prayer, anointing oil is administered to the eyes, ears, nose,
lips, hands, and feet of the sick person “for the health of body
and soul.” This rite is to be distinguished from the viaticum
(“provision for a journey”) of Holy Communion, which is
administered to those near death.
Although Islam affirms that Muh:ammad was a man and
that the one miracle he wrought was the QurDa ̄n, devotees
have credited the Prophet with a healing touch. Al-Bakha ̄r ̄ı
recorded that when one of Muh:ammad’s companions broke
his leg, the Prophet passed his hands over the limb, where-
upon it seemed as if nothing had ever been wrong with it.
A woman brought him her son who was possessed, and
Muh:ammad stroked the boy’s breast and prayed until the lad
vomited and was healed. The Prophet even had power over
nature: a palm tree that was one of the pillars of his mosque
is said to have shouted out until it almost split, whereupon
the Prophet embraced it until it calmed down and was quiet
again.
In ancient and preliterate societies, power is attributed
to the touch of healers, priests, and shamans. Doctors of the
Ndembu of Zambia, for example, encircle a patient’s hut and
bring medicines of roots and leaves. The patient’s chest and
shoulders are washed, and then the doctor catches him by
the little finger and directs him to a fire to warm himself. Still
holding the patient’s little finger, the doctor gives him a rat-
tle, and after a while the patient begins to tremble and dance.
A helper puts his hands on the patient’s shoulders while the
doctor places a medicine basket on the patient’s head; after
further dancing, the patient is led backward into his own hut
to rest and recover.
The practice of touching an animal in order to transfer
evil to it is illustrated in the Bible. The priest Aaron was in-
structed to take two goats into the wilderness, one to be sacri-
ficed as a sin offering and the other to be given as a scapegoat
to EAzaDzel, a desert demon. The priest placed his hands on
the head of the second goat, confessing over it the sins of the
people, and sent it off to wander in the wilderness (Lv. 16:7–
10, 21). In West Africa, a mother of twins who had died took
a goat by the horns and placed her forehead three times
against it in order to transfer her evil to it. Then the animal
was sent away to wander outside the village.
In Asia and North America, both medicine men and
shamans alike have performed functions of healing by touch-
ing. Although the shaman may utilize the curative properties
of plants and animals or may massage patients, many illnesses
are regarded as spiritual, that is, caused by injury to the soul.
Thus the shaman’s method is meant to restore the soul, and
this he accomplishes by ascending to the heavens or descend-
ing to the underworld in a trance. If he perceives the disease
to have been caused by a foreign body, visible or invisible,
he may extract it by sucking the part of the body that he saw
while in a trance, sucking the skin either directly or through
a bone or wooden tube. The shaman then dances and after-
ward may paint magical designs on the patient’s body or in-
struct the patient’s family on how this is to be done.In Japan, Nakayama Miki (1778–1884), founder of the
Tenrikyo ̄ religion, sought to heal sick people by giving them
food or one of her belongings. As the numbers of her follow-
ers increased, she prepared amulets to give them. Relatives
of the sick consulted her and brought with them some of the
afflicted one’s clothes. She took them in her hands and
breathed on them, and it was said that recovery followed at
once. Miki also distributed to her disciples pieces of paper
on which she had breathed, and when the demand on her
became too great she granted this power of breath to her cho-
sen disciples.TOUCHES OF POWER OR REVERENCE. According to the Laws
of Manu, a Hindu high-caste student must clasp the feet of
his teacher both at the beginning and at the end of each les-
son in the Vedas, crossing his hands so that he touches the
left foot with his left hand and the right foot with his right
hand. Similarly, he should touch the feet of his teacher’s wife
and the wife of his teacher’s brother, if she is of the same caste
(Manu 2.72, 132, 217).Down to modern times, the physical presence of a
teacher or guru has been treasured above books or learning,
since true knowledge, power, and even divinity come
through him. Sometimes the guru sits before his disciple in
silence, and the latter squats with eyes closed. The guru may
eventually touch the disciple’s forehead or gaze into his eyes,
and thus power is felt to pass from one to the other.In daily religious practice, a devout Hindu asks pardon
from the earth for touching it with his feet as he rises from
bed. When he is ready for worship, he invokes his god by
nya ̄sa, “placing” or “fixing” the presence of the divinity in his
body by holding the right hand successively in front of the
mouth, eyes, ears, nostrils, top of the head, forearms, navel,
and back. The touching is accompanied by recitation of a
mantra, a scriptural text, and prayers that the gods who pro-
tect different parts of the body may each take up his special
place. Nya ̄sa is also performed on images to install the gods
within them. With bunches of sacred grass, the breast of the
image is touched to install Brahma, the hand is touched to
install Indra, the feet for Vis:n:u, and other parts for the ap-
propriate gods.9256 TOUCHING