I had no reason to believe in faith (or psychic) healing. Then, as a youth, I observed my first such healing. I had accompanied a relative to a private poojah. Those present prayed as the priest washed the stone statue of Ganesha with milk. Each of us then received about a teaspoonful of this milk in our cupped hands from the priest. The priest could, I suspect, feel my scepticism. To my surprise, my relative became free of her pain after that ceremony.
My next comparable experience was after I had retired. I had been investigating clairvoyants and spirit healers, after reading at some depth about psychic phenomena and parapsychology. A local healer, after her husband had cleared my aura of attached spirits (so they claimed), told me during my consultation what her Spirit Healer Guide was telling her about a past life of mine. I had allegedly been treated extremely badly by my then parents, and my legs had caused me great pain.
When I demurred that knowledge of my past life would surely be recorded only in my soul, she replied that her Guide, as Healer, had access to all my past lives. She then said that the pains I was suffering in my legs would now be dissipated. I was flabbergasted. I had told no one about these pains. The pains did not recur, as promised.
This clever sceptic now realises that past lives are not a private matter; and that psychic healing can occur.
Interestingly, on another occasion, while we were sharing a pot of tea, this healer suddenly became still, looking into the distance. When she ‘came to,’ she said “I have been told to advise you to do something with your name.” Since I was then writing my first memoir ‘Destiny Will Out’ (which subsequently became a success), I published it under my birth name Arasa.
Three books later, I adopted my professional author name Raja Arasa Ratnam, blending the cultures of West and East.
RAJA ARASA RATNAM 