Who is Valentine Greatrakes?
Encyclopedia : V : VA : VAL : Valentine Greatrakes
Biography
He was born in Affane Castle, County Waterford, Ireland where he began his career as a noted Stroker or healer. Healing, to deserve the name, requires either faith in the patient, or robust health united with a strong will in the operator.The disease may be extirpated by the imperative will of the operator which, consciously or unconsciously, draws to and reinforces itself with the universal spirit of nature, and restores the disturbed equilibrium of the patient's aura. He may impose the hands as an auxililiary and 'will' as Newton did, also the healer of many thousands of sufferers, and like many others; or like Jesus, and some apostles, he may cure by the word of command. The process in each case is the same. In all instances, the cure is radical and real, and without secondary ill-effects. Valentine Greatrakes was blessed by this divine gift to heal, and he was a very strong, healthy, positive and determined man using his discovered gift to heal many of the poor.
Bibliography
- A Brief Account of Mr. Valentine Greatrakes and Divers of the Strange Cures by him lately performed. Written by himself in a letter Addressed to the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq. 1666
In fiction
- Greatrakes was mentioned briefly in Susannah Clarkes novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. (pp 211)
- A play by Jim Nolan on Valentine Greatrakes plays at the Finborough Theatre, London, in March 2006.
External links
- [Robert Boyle: Work-diary XXVI] (Accounts of cures performed by Valentine Greatrakes, 1666)
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