The flood of chronic illnesses of psychological origin

On June 30, we first started in Northrhine-Westphalia, but thereafter went up as far as the Hamburg area, examining patients Gröning had treated and apparently healed. This was easier said than done.

The sick people treated by Gröning had returned to their home areas. No one had recorded their exact names and addresses. Gröning, like a wandering healer in the true sense of the word, went around healing wildly, and except for stories, press notices, allegations and rumors, no exact material about his activity was available, even from his followers. We would probably have had to overcome considerable difficulty if pure coincidence had not connected us with a man in Bielefeld who had already attempted to get a certain overview of Gröning's actual successes before us.

This man, by the name of Lanzenrath, was the district director of a health insurance fund. He was smart, down-to-earth and farsighted. He had been able to penetrate the "entourage" that had formed around Gröning – at that time we couldn't yet judge whether they were believers or profiteers – some members of which had remained in the Hülsmann home, where Gröning had been active, after his departure for Hamburg. He was just as convinced of Gröning's ability to influence and heal numerous illnesses as he was of his personal modesty. But he was afraid that the "entourage" would direct Gröning's good attributes in the wrong direction. Lanzenrath himself was at first mistrustful of us. But at the same time, it was also Professor Fischer who opened doors for our group and moved Lanzenrath to help us further and to cite cases he knew of, where closer investigation could lead to conclusions about the seriousness of the Gröning phenomenon. The motives that had led Lanzenrath to Gröning's entourage, by the way, were extraordinarily interesting. An illness, a painful kidney ailment, had also led him to Gröning. Since then – two months had passed, meanwhile – he had been free of pain. At the same time, the fate of his health insurance funds had caused him to seek a connection with Gröning. He told us that the German health insurance funds were threatened with financial breakdown because they were confronted with a sea of chronic illnesses that simply would not heal. He thus naturally confirmed something that is well known to the psychotherapists who pay attention to what has been happening in our time. The Second World War, with all its trauma, left behind a real flood of illness that, for the most part, would have had emotional causes, which are, however, expressed organically, from countless stomach and rheumatic ailments to marked neurosis or paralysis. For these illnesses, the psychologists have created the concept of the so-called 'psychosomatic' illnesses. After the currency reform, they were able to statistically identify a new rise in the number of illnesses that had never before appeared to this extent and which could hardly be attributed to organic causes. Lanzenrath had actually hoped to find a method of healing through Gröning that could perhaps serve to relieve the overburdened insurance funds. Lanzenrath had carefully observed a large number of treatments and healings. He first introduced to us to 20 cases. In the period of a week we carefully analyzed and investigated these cases and, wherever possible, interviewed the respective family doctors in order to clarify the question that was decisive for us: "Can Gröning heal?”

On July 8, we surveyed the results of the 20 investigations. Among the 20 cases there were seven that were perhaps interesting, and here and there even somewhat mysterious, but they gave no clear picture for or against Gröning. Of all cases we first worked hard on these seven. On the third day of investigation we were inclined to despair. At least that was true for us laypersons.

The Housing Office

There was, for instance, the Klüglich case in Bielefeld. Klüglich, an ordinary white-collar worker, had been shot through the kidney during the war. The injured kidney functioned only partially. After the war, the second kidney became greatly inflamed and it advanced to that stage that the doctors treating him were considering an operation. We saw the x-rays and other findings. Before Pentecost, Klüglich had approached Gröning through a letter to Lanzenrath. At first, he "distance-healed" and asked Klüglich to carefully observe what happened in his body over the next days. Klüglich noticed an increased activity of the kidneys and a lot of dark-colored urine and after that, a growing relief from his complaints.

The doctor treating him also confirmed an improvement. Afterwards, Gröning visited Klüglich personally, and the improvement continued. Klüglich had left his bed and went on walks. However, when we visited him and Professor Fischer examined him, his condition had worsened again. The Professor soon learned that Klüglich had been granted an additional room from the Housing Office due to his illness. Since word had quickly gotten around about his "healing," the Housing Office had informed him that, under these circumstances, they had to take back the room. On the same day, the worsening of his condition set in again. It was obviously not a pretense, but a genuine worsening, which was however, doubtless to be attributed to a mental cause, namely fear of losing the room and the association between the ideas of illness and possession of the room. It was naturally nonsense to speak of a healing. In this case, traditional medicine could point out that Gröning had merely succeeded in bringing the sick person out of his lethargy and thereby temporarily increased his resilience. They admitted the immediate relationship between psychic treatment and the power of the body to resist illness, but rightfully rejected the idea of a healing. The question naturally remained open as to what Gröning could have achieved, had he been able to continue to influence the patient.

She sat on her cash-box

The second case was that of Mrs. W., also from Bielefeld. She was a widow and owner of a bicycle shop. She oversaw the shop and the family from an armchair in the kitchen behind her shop. For 15 years, she had suffered from demonstrable problems with walking and dropsical swelling of her legs. Her heart and kidney activity were, however, normal. On the other hand, there were signs of rheumatoid arthritis. Gröning had sat with her for half an hour and predicted a quick recovery. After that, she was able to walk around the yard and felt quite well. The professor determined that the edema was only negligible. An examination by the physician who had also treated her found considerable decline in the swelling since Gröning had visited Mrs. W. Recently, however, the complaints appeared to slightly worsen again. In this case, too, did the psychological uplift and stimulation bring about a temporary improvement which – while again pointing out the close relationship between emotional condition and illness – was not sufficiently conclusive for us? That is, unless one in this case also expected a continuing and conclusive success through regular treatment by Gröning. It is also an interesting discovery that Mrs. W. had sat for many years on her cash-box, and that the difficulty in walking, which bordered on paralysis, could have been exacerbated by the compulsion to continually guard the cash-box. Gröning had probably also temporarily eliminated this compulsion, which is in itself a remarkable achievement, which, for a normal psychotherapist would have required days or even weeks, instead of half an hour. But this achievement, too, did not suggest anything unusual enough in Gröning's work to justify our support of major clinical experiments.

Gröning gave her a silver ball...

Then there was the Schwerdt case in Bielefeld. This concerned two patients: a girl, the daughter of a minor official or white-collar worker, whose mother exerted an oppressive influence on her; and, secondly, a factory owner who seemed to be watched by his inheritance-seeking relatives. The man and the girl had begun a relationship with one another, and as a result, the man came into violent conflict with his family. The girl was faced with continual reproach from her mother, who wanted nothing to do with the rich man because "nothing could come of it." Both of them, the man and the girl, finally lost courage. They separated. The girl became ill with an unusually severe cardiac neurosis, which forced her to lie down continually. The man had an accident at the same time and stayed in bed, even after the injury was long healed. He felt drawn to his beloved. To avoid following this urge, he grew obsessed with being ill and took to his bed. Gröning treated the case. On his first visit with the girl, he effected a considerable improvement, so that Miss Schwerdt could leave her bed. She then visited Gröning and gave him the name of the factory owner, among other names of persons he should help, without saying anything further about him. But Gröning obviously suspected the true circumstances. He took the silver paper of a cigarette package out of his pocket and gave the ball he made from it to the girl with the command to hold it in her hand until she could personally put it in the hand of the man she had named. He would then regain his health. Miss Schwerdt carried the ball in her hand for 36 hours.

Meanwhile, through the rumors that were circulating, the man heard about Gröning's successes and his instructions to Miss Schwerdt. Curiosity drove him from his bed to the girl. The severed relationship was thereby restored, and both felt healthy again. In reply to Professor Fischer's question as to whether they both saw one another regularly, the girl said, "Yes, unfortunately." The actual conflict that had brought on all the havoc, the tension with the mother and with the relatives respectively, had not been removed – for she had said "unfortunately" - and could sooner or later give rise to the old situation again.

The impression in this case was also unclear. Nevertheless, here, too, Gröning had removed an ailment brought about through emotional complexities in an amazingly short time. He had correctly recognized the situation with remarkable powers of empathy and had employed a trick with the little ball method which the best psychotherapist could be proud of. He had, however, failed to see that the cause had remained. The Schwerdt case was the first case that began to convince Professor Fischer about Gröning. If there was nothing else of an unusual nature to find out about Gröning, it couldn't be denied that he possessed a surprising natural talent for psychotherapy.

The recalcitrant motorcycle

The so-called "Wehmeyer case" was very strange. Wehmeyer was a haulage contractor in Herford. He was active, powerful and with healthy nerves, certainly not the kind of man who would kid himself. He had also gone to Gröning to get help for his wife, who lay in a clinic in Münster with a chronic illness of an indeterminable nature. Gröning had explained to him, "Your wife will, after a certain time, express the wish to come home. But you are not allowed to go there earlier and prompt her to come home." Wehmeyer was, as mentioned, a man who neither believed in clairvoyance, nor liked to take orders. So, against Gröning's instructions, he got on his motorcycle and went off to Münster to see his wife. It was then that a strange event took place that he simply couldn't cope with. Along the way, the motorcycle stopped running. He then went to a repair shop in Bielefeld. They examined the cycle from top to bottom – the cycle was in good condition. It should have run. The mechanic changed the plugs, did everything possible, but couldn't understand why the motorcycle wouldn’t work. At a loss, he told Mr Wehmeyer he’d better drive home again. Wehmeyer started back. And the moment he turned back toward Herford, the motorcycle ran as if nothing had been wrong. He happily turned it around. It immediately stood still again. It wouldn't run in the direction of Münster.

Still completely shaken by this spooky event, Wehmeyer then went a short time later to Münster by train. There his wife indeed spontaneously said she would like to go home at once. She felt considerably better and the physician treating her also said that he had finished his treatment.

The hot current
An unusual preliminary success

On the fifth day of our investigation, we experienced our first really great surprise. And from that day on, there was one surprise after the other, which finally led to an incident that, without exaggeration, must be called a sensation.

We had all driven to Hamburg, because Lanzenrath knew of a case there that seemed particularly impressive to him. Moreover, the case had been closely medically monitored. It was a matter of the little daughter of Mr. Mendt, who ran a car repair shop in Hamburg. The child had survived spinal poliomyelitis, but was left with paralysis in her legs.

Here there was a precise, carefully-compiled case history with clear diagnosis. Gröning had treated the child in his usual way, through calmly sitting opposite her, slowly asking her about her physical feelings, and perhaps lightly stroking her with his hand. Then he left, after instructing them to carefully write down what else the child felt in her body in the days to come. This had been carefully done, and Prof. Fischer now read that the child had felt tugging pains in her legs going toward the lower back. These increased and gave way to an increasing warmth and strong flow of blood in the paralyzed legs. The child began to make movements again, which she previously had not been able to make. Professor Fischer carefully examined the limbs of the child and found that the circulation of blood was astonishingly good. The entire process reminded him of the principle of "autogenic training," although it had not as yet been successfully applied to spinal poliomyelitis. "Autogenic training" was developed and taught in Germany by Prof. I. H. Schulz, former lecturer in psychotherapy at the University of Jena. Schulz's methods were basically nothing other than the application of the old, well-known and – for every European – mysterious practice of Indian yoga in modern European medicine. It put all physicians trained by him in a position to steer the blood circulation of their patients into particular parts of the body through an emotional influence that should not be confused with hypnosis. They didn't succeed in all cases. Above all, it demanded weeks, sometimes months of effort, which really deserved the name "training." Here in the Mendt case, Gröning had chalked up an initial success that was completely unusual. Even if a medically-trained psychotherapist had tackled the case, he would at best have required many weeks to achieve the result that Gröning brought about in half an hour. Fischer had another long conversation with the Hamburg Professor Burckhard, and both were so excited that Professor Fischer said for the first time that he was now of the opinion that Gröning possessed unusual psychotherapeutic powers, that he emitted a vibration or something else which had to be investigated in a large clinical test. In the same way, the possibility of influencing spinal poliomyelitis and its consequences should be observed over a long period through a continuing treatment.

No physician could help him

The very next day brought a new, impressive surprise. Lanzenrath had brought us to another patient of Gröning, a Mr. Kargesmeyer in Bad Oeynhausen. Kargesmeyer was 47 years old, and from two years of age had suffered from headaches that developed over time to a severe trigeminal neuralgia. This involves pain in the facial nerves that is one of the most terrible forms of suffering there is. The severity of this pain can drive people to suicide. The ailment can rarely be influenced by a normal physician. Medication offers only partial relief of the pain. In totally desperate cases, they try to obliterate the nerves through alcohol injections or simply by severing them. In both cases it is a matter of a difficult operation with uncertain results. Kargesmeyer had undergone various operations. Finally, they removed his tonsils and sinuses through a radical operation in a clinic in Münster, since it was suspected that an inflammation located there was the cause of the facial pain. The operation had had no effect on the neuralgia. Naturally, it was possible that the inflammation mentioned had originally provoked the neuralgia. But after the removal, the pain remained "fixated" in the facial nerves, similar to the terrible pain that amputees often feel in the nerves of the amputation stump and thus have the impression that the pain runs through the whole arm or amputated leg which is no longer present. Gröning had treated Kargesmeyer. He had asked him to hold his head firmly between his hands.

After that, Kargesmeyer felt a hot current in his face. The pain continued for a few days, but then disappeared more and more, day by day. He had already been free of pain for four weeks.

Here also, an unusual ability to steer the circulation of blood had obviously led to success. Perhaps other factors were also involved. But at this moment, they could not play a role for us. Up until then, only a miniscule number of trigeminal neuralgia cases were known to have been treated by psychotherapy. And in those cases, it had taken weeks and months before success was achieved. Gröning had done it in a short session – an achievement that is unparalleled to this day.