Being born and dying mark the boundaries of our consciousness, and only the body's uncertain balance between health and sickness hold the two apart. Small wonder that the mysteries of the healing arts have commanded so much of man's attention through the ages, or that they should have been attended by such fearful credulity.
In Physician, Heal Thyself . . . , John Allegro examines the origins and literary basis for the phenomenon of faith, or spiritual, healing within Christianity. The author traces the activities of a Jewish sect called the Essenes, or Physicians, who believed that through the powers granted to them by their God they could people men from the shadow of death into new life-physical, mental, and spiritual. Their successors, called Christians, were charged with the same task, and through the centuries, despite the opposition of many within their own ranks, they ha~e tried to discharge that sacred calling. Today, their prophets and practitioners claim no less authority over mortal ills than did their spiritual forebears, through a conviction as firmly held of their right to direct access to the throne of Grace and of their power to mediate that knowledge of God to their fellow men. It is no part of this study to confirm or cast doubt upon either the religious validity of these claims or their therapeutic efficacy, but merely to consider their source.
Now, amid all the excitements of a computer age, when men and women are attacking new frontiers of knowledge and physical endurance, they have paused to learn again the secrets of life, of inner harmony, and the confidence to compromise. They want to know when to resist and when to relax, when to speak out and when to listen, and above all they desperately want to know themselves, and to recognize their strengths and limitations. It was this inner tranquillity the Gnostics sought when they prayed for the knowledge of God in their hearts, to become one with the harmonizing spirit of the universe and that is where they started in their quest for the healing of their minds and bodies: "Physician, heal thyself
The late John Marco Allegro was born in 1923 and lived in England. He received his philological training at the University of Manchester and at Oxford. Dr. Allegro is known as author, lecturer, and broadcaster through his work on the famous Dead Sea Scrolls. He was the first British representative to an international team of scholars called to Jerusalem to piece together, edit, and publish the thousands of parchment and papyrus fragments of the Scrolls. His most recent book is The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Myth.