The Role of Performance in Enhancing the Effectiveness of Crystal and Spiritual Healing

In the arena of biomedical sciences, technical skills and expert judgment are at a premium, and the standardization and repeatability of an intervention is crucial to help determine, for example, the effectiveness of a new drug in a clinical trial. Crystal and spiritual healers are less rule-bound, and their playfulness with the systematized conventions and rituals of healing practice is more evident. In this article, based on in-depth ethnographic research, I highlight some of these themes in the context of contemporary crystal and spiritual healing practice at a center in northeast England. I show that the standardized models of measuring effectiveness are less appropriate in many healing contexts, partly due to the unrepeatability and limited standardization of each healing performance, but also due to the performative 'being-in-the-moment-ness' and intuitive sensibility that frames what healers count as evidence. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

From schism to continuum? The problematic relationship between expert and lay knowledge - An exploratory conceptual synthesis of two qualitative studies

Ideas about lay and expert knowledge increasingly underscore debates within qualitative health research. In this article, the authors develop an exploratory synthesis of two qualitative studies in which they critique the lay-expert divide, suggesting instead a spectrum of knowledge(s) about health and scientific issues. In the original studies, the researchers examined food risks and alternative medicine, and they shared an interest in the lay-expert knowledge relationship. Reinterpreting each study in the light of the other led to greater conceptual development. Three mutual themes emerged and are presented with discussion of their contribution to wider theoretical debates. This worked example indicates that researchers can achieve valuable additional conceptual development through the cross-fertilization of ideas across qualitative studies united not by common health topics but by shared conceptual concerns. © 2005 Sage Publications