Healing, Old-Country Style

[Guest guest]

My grandmother is 95 years old. She uses a healing technique that has been

passed down from generations of old Italian ladies and (according to Grandma,

can only be taught on Christmas Eve).

 

Grandma uses this technique to cure all of the family's headaches. I've seen

her do it for my entire lifetime, and it's been such a regular part of my life

that I'm only now realizing how extraordinary and powerful it is.

 

She puts a few drops of olive oil on her finger, drops the oil into a bowl of

water and says a prayer over the bowl. Depending on how severe the headache

(Grandma says it's caused by someone " over-looking " another--I think this is a

variation on the " evil eye " ); the drops either congeal into one large pool, or

simply disappear into the water. When the oil disappears, so does the headache.

 

When she was younger she used a variation on this technique--holding a

handkerchief or piece of clothing recently worn by the person requesting

healing. I would watch in awe as she began " yawning " uncontrollably. This

seems to have had something to do with the healing process.

 

Any information about this? Grandma doesn't really think it's all that

extraordinary. Just something you do--right up there with going to church on

Sunday or making spaghetti sauce twice a week. It just " is " .

 

A friend of my husband relates a similar story of his grandfather (also

Italian--is this a regional technique?), a barber, who used to regularly cure

headaches by making spiral motions with his thumb and first two fingers (like

rolling a piece of clay into a ball, I imagine) directly above the head of the

afflicted person.

 

I'd really love some more information on this.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Florie