MEMORIES: N.Z.H.A.1960-2010
Memories of the New Zealand Healing Association
1960 - 2010
At the beginning- Lewis Grant
The Healing Association was the brainchild of Lewis Grant, greatly influenced by the books of Alice Bailey, the master Djwal Khul. Lewis was a retired secondary school teacher and accountant. Lewis had a vision of bringing together all the methods of alternative healing, banded together under one roof. To this end he founded The New Zealand Healing Association, which was to be the unifying body.
A preliminary meeting, to elect a Committee was held in June 1960, and on November 6th of the same year, the first 2 day seminar was held at the Professional Club rooms in Kitchener Street. Most of the people attending were therapists or leaders of healing groups. It was resolved “That a New Zealand Healing Association be formed to promote healing and assist in solving problems and barriers existing between Healers and the public, and to promote a Healing Journal...”.
That first agenda has over the last 40 years remained the basis of The New Zealand healing Association’s aims. The matters raised at that meeting are still valid concerns today.
• The importance of the “Divine Spirit” – D. Duggan.
• The desirability of including different therapies and lines of healing - D Duggan.
• Medical dominance in the field of healing.
• Legal constraints on healing.- Mr Fulton.
• Awareness of the need for training – Mr Duggan.
• Penalties under the law for undertaking some forms of healing – Mr Fulton
• Knowing whether a treatment had been successful or not - Mr Arnold, Mrs Brennan.
• The difficulty of getting impartial reporting in the Press – Mr Kinder, Mrs Kent.
• Difficulty patients had in identifying healers – Mrs J Bryan
Lewis Grant wanted to engage and clarify the aims of that first meeting;
• To publish a healing journal
• To set up a school of basic healing
• To examine the possibility of founding a healing clinic in Auckland.
Joan was given the important job of collecting the 2/6d entry fee at the door.
Early Ambitions
There was a provision in the rules for a school promoting forms of alternative therapies taught by qualified practitioners. The Healing Association continued increasing public knowledge about natural therapies at it’s monthly meetings and seminars. Lewis Grant became the first president. Joan joined the committee and has been a member ever since.
In October 1961 circulars were sent to people and organisations all over New Zealand to find people who might be interested in becoming “field representatives”, who would consult the Association’s officers in Auckland about arranging seminars in their areas. In 1962 there were field representatives for Matamata, Northland, Taupiri, Hawkes Bay, Whakatane, Wanganui, Tauranga, Wairoa, Nelson,
Lewis was president for the first 2 years, succeeded by Roger Walpole in November 1962. At that time the rules set the term of office for pr
Napier, Wellington, Kaikohe, Katikai, Christchurch, and Gore. The first meeting outside Auckland was held at Matamata on October 22,1962. The first New Zealand “ News and Views” appeared in about march 1962.
Pesident for 2 years. One of the vice presidents was Mr B Trim, the other was Gary Courtenay who was later instrumental in setting up the Charter of health Professionals in New Zealand. By 1962 there were 66 non-therapist members of The Healing Association.
Becoming established – Roger Walpole
Roger Walpole was a mystic and a firm believer in the importance of the spiritual side of healing and the unity of all in nature. Trees were sacred to him, leaves were central to a healing therapy about which he wrote in his book “The Healing Power of Trees”. He was a dowser and often effective where other methods had failed. He became editor of the Journal in 1962, until his untimely death in a car accident in 1980. Roger was also an astrologer of note.
A very successful seminar was held in June 1963 at Wanganui, and another took place in Rotorua in October of the same year. There was an air of excitement, energy and anticipation in those early years. The Healing Association provided an opportunity for therapists to get together with fellow practitioners, supporters and patients, to air their ideas, discuss problems, talk about experiences and listen to experienced speakers. There was a demand for seminars from towns all over the North Island.
The Healing Association was still concerned to provide a Certificate of Competence and training for practitioner members. In 1963 candidates were required to submit a thesis in their particular therapy in order to receive a Healing Association Certificate. Members who had passed exams in naturopathy were also issued with a Certificate.
There was a constantly expressed desire to seek affiliation with other societies with like interests, and like-minded organisations who could act together on matters that were important to all of them. In spite of the advance of natural medicine over the last 40 years, the right to freedom of healthcare choice is still not assured.
Change
Roy Powell was elected to the chair in 1964. A dedicated naturopath, he started a course of study which attracted many of our practising members, issuing a Certificate of Naturopathy after exams were passed. In November 1964, Gary Courtenay, then secretary, led the introduction of the monthly meetings, to be of an educational nature, and held in various parts of Auckland on the 3rd Wednesday of the month, to increase the membership. Up to this time The Healing Association events had been seminars lasting either a day, or half day and evening, often on a long weekend. The first monthly meeting took place in March 3rd 1965. In April 1968, following the result of a poll the familiar date of the 2nd Saturday of the month was adopted.
Consolidation
Gary Courtenay was elected president in October 1965. He was among the first therapists to receive a Healing Association Practitioners’ Certificate. He moved to Nelson to practise as a naturopath there, and later took up further training in Australia and stayed to practise there. He returned to New Zealand and was instrumental in founding the Charter of Health Practitioners, helping the committee in the first 2 years.
In October 1965 The New Zealand Healing Association had 97 members, 61 of whom lived outside of Auckland. There were field officers at Matamata, Kaikohe, Tauranga, Whakatane, Rotorua, Wellington, Hamilton, Napier, Hastings, Wanganui, Nelson, Wairoa and Auckland and an additional “roving” field officer.
The Healing Association drew most of it’s speakers from it’s own membership. The first seminar took place on Queens Birthday weekend 1962, and the second on Auckland Anniversary weekend, 1964.
The 1st Annual General Meeting took place at Orewa on October 23 1965, and it was decided that future AGM meetings should be held at a seminar each year at Labour Weekend. We booked a whole house, with 44 beds filled with members coming from all over the North Island, and a few from the South Island. Lectures were held all day with Sunday devoted to Spiritual healing. Monday morning being ‘Member’s Day”- a time for members to talk about their experiences and experiments and to review the seminar.
After the formal lectures ended each day the real education and exchange of ideas and information took place. Groups of people gathered to discuss and expound on their pet subjects. There was a sense of excitement, of exploring new ideas and expanding horizons. In October 1967 it was decided that Arundale House would be the permanent home of the October Seminar. The Orewa Annual Seminar kept members who lived outside Auckland in touch with the Association. Everyone was in residence. That type of association and atmosphere could not be duplicated in a non-residential weekend. In 1970, when membership had risen to 151 there were still 73 members who still lived outside of Auckland.
Futher memories… 1970 – 2009
From 1970 it was rather chaotic. Along came Milan Yelavich! He had a large house in Epsom, and we finally ended up having meetings in his garage. We moved the AGMs and seminars to the Gonzaga Hall on Mountain Road. The hall was a bit large but otherwise very satisfactory. Milan became president about that time, for about 10 years. He attempted to open branches in Wellington and Rotorua but these did not succeed as did Hamilton and Whangarei. Branches were expected to be self supporting apart from the Journal, which was supplied by Auckland in return for subscriptions. We all charged entry fees (donations) and held fairs etc to raise money.
The Journal
Roger Walpole a member who had journalist experience, was the long term editor. Production was expensive so Milan purchased an old printing press which took up half his front room. He was the only one who could manage to use it. We produced our Journal on it for many years, putting it together on Milan’s big kitchen table.
After several years, with increasing membership, the garage became too small for monthly meetings. We moved to the Spiritualist Church Hall in Grafton Road, at the Newmarket end. After the Gonzaga Hall in the grounds owned by the Mater Hospital closed for alterations we made a successful move to the Takapuna Senior Citizens Hall in The Strand, Takapuna, where we held our seminars and AGMs. Milan remarried, and he and his wife Pauline sold the Epsom House and moved to the Whangaparoa Peninsula. This ended our self production of The Journal. Roger found us a new printer in Papakura to do The Journal but this was fairly expensive.
Labour Weekend
Around 1980 Roger Walpole died in a car accident. Such was his popularity, for his freely given dowsing of people’s health and treatment of ill health and astrological wisdom.
Association member and practising naturopath Brian Murray took over the printing of The Journal. Another member, Barbra Beauchamp and Joan struggled to get together and assemble The Journal. After 2 years a fire in Brian’s building destroyed the printer.
Brian Murray is the discoverer of Homeobotanical Medicines, which makes his practise very important. He started a training course where natural therapists could learn to use his Homeobotanical Medicines, which are quite different from orthodox homeopathy.
Milan continued as president. He also became Chairperson of the Federation of Spiritual Healers, who were also meeting in the Spiritualist Church Hall in Grafton. With many trips back and forth proving too much he had to resign both positions. Joan by this time had been secretary for some time, actually serving for 13 years. She had also accumulated quite a lot of culinary skills.
In 1982 Malcolm and Diane Bagnall joined the Association. Malcolm is a psychotherapist and Dianne had worked as a professional secretary. She had experience and wrote in shorthand for minutes and was definatly more organised. Diane also served for a long term of 14 years.
The Olympic swimming pool building was built in Newmarket, at the end of Carlton Gore road. Parking, hitherto excellent, became impossible, so once again a frantic search for a hall began. Many members helped in the search but particularly Mrs E A Robbertson, “Robbie” to us all, used her time and car to ferry all over Auckland. Joan had previously seen the Horticultural Hall in Great North road, Western Springs. The Horticultural building was the right size and had a good kitchen and one could book all or part of the building according to need. There was the large off street parking for cars, so we thankfully moved to this building holding both meetings and seminars in the same place.
The Association, since soon after it’s inception, held seminars all over the North Island. This was fine whilst field officers were in many districts but when they became professional practitioners worked to our disadvantage. One member said “I can’t afford to belong to 2 organisations”. When Milan took over and opened fresh branches we of course held seminars there. Then Barbara White became president and she started organising fairs in different areas booking a stall in fairs organised by other health-minded folk, displaying health literature and selling produce. We handed out leaflets to publicise The Healing Association. One fair was held in the Student Union Building at Auckland University when Malcolm Bagnall was president.
At the Horticultural hall, a long time member Joy Walsh had the wonderful idea of starting a trading table at our monthly meetings. This was a great success helping financially as members brought plants, cookery and various bric-a-brac which was eagerly snatched up. We also held a monthly raffle.
The Charter Of Health Practitioners
Gary Courtenay, who graduated as a naturopath in 1964 returned from Australia where he had been practising, was concerned that there was no centre where all the different Natural practitioners could meet as a unit. One of the aims of The Healing Association, The Charter of natural Practitioners was formed and formally opened in 1996.
The Charter gave practitioner members legal protection in the event of any litigation. Any practitioner wishing to join The Charter had to belong to a recognised Incorporated Society prior to applying to The Charter, which is where such organisations as The Healing Association is helpful. The applicant joins The Healing Association, and after their credentials have been assessed and approved, then applies to The Charter for admission to that organisation. Practitioner members would assist The Healing Association with their knowledge of Natural Healing as lecturers, consolidating their practices. Several of them were from other countries to New Zealand adjusting to a different lifestyle.
In the year 2000 we celebrated the 40th Anniversary of The Healing Association’s founding with a celebration dinner at The Springs Restaurant in Western Springs. A short address was given on the history of the organisation by Joan Brennan. Members and friends attended.
Two Associations
At the 2001 AGM President Barbara White, re-elected suggested that Merlin Maloney should be made co-president to facilitate managing and running The Healing Association. The committee decided to move meetings to a new venue at the Memorial Hall in New North road. The AGM 2002 was held in this new hall. So there were, for about 18 months 2 associations functioning.
The New Zealand Healing Association Reinstated
At the AGM on the 9th October 2004 in the Horticultural hall Pearline Ferguson was elected president. Pearline was a very experienced person on health matters and also managed a Stay Well festival each year at the Kelston Community Centre in Waitakere City. She died in her 2nd year as president and was succeeded by Barbra White. The healing Association had a stall at the Stay Well Festival three consecutive years.
Mary MacMillan started doing the typing for the Journal in 2004, refusing to accept any renumeration for her efforts or expenses, and continued to do so until 2008. We cannot thank her enough, it greatly reduced the cost of producing The Journal.
Isabel Hutchinson supported the committee travelling all the way from Waiuku to attend meetings.
Members like Diane and Malcolm Bagnall and the Locks and Browns although out of Auckland helped when they could.
By the year 2004 members growing older were unable to travel at night or were no longer driving a car, lacked transport. This placed a heavy load on a few members. Barbara White who though president was doing a lot of secretarial work. Members Pip Lalande, Pauline Fisher and Gordon Greenough all volunteered to fill the breach, until March 2009. Diane and Malcolm were able to assemble the basis of a committee from some new members, electing a very competent person, Julian McCusker-Dixon as President
A new beginning. They are all younger and enthusiastic, Julian determined to know about and keep the principles on which The Healing Association is founded, and to bring the traditions of the past into the future
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