Southern Oregon Healer and Musicians Team Up to Explain How Scientific Prayer Brings Healing

At a time when many people are struggling with the fear of disease, lacking health insurance, and wondering how to pay for healthcare, Medford-based spiritual healer Janis Hunt Johnson offers a totally different way of dealing with the healthcare crisis.

Johnson proposes, "What if every time we had a problem — no matter how big or how small — we turned to God in prayer first, instead of as a last resort?" She contends that scientific prayer is an effective way to stay healthy, and to bring healing when we do get ill or injured, rendering medical treatment unnecessary.

"God as a First Resort: Our 24/7 Healthcare System" is a workshop she'll present on August 22nd to explain and discuss the science of prayer. The musical guest will be 4 Stories High, the duo that is Laura Berman and husband Craig Benelli.

Johnson says, "Last December, which was the first time I heard Laura Berman sing, I had goosebumps during the entire performance. The music of 4 Stories High inspires me like no other music has. To me, every song is a prayer for getting closer to who we are as God's child — each of us called to express God's healing love to the world in a unique way."

A few months later, Johnson, a former singer/songwriter from Chicago and Los Angeles, wrote Berman a fan letter introducing herself. "I knew something special was bound to happen," she remembers. Sure enough, they soon met in person and became fast friends. As Berman's number-one fan, Johnson memorized all of 4 Stories High's songs. When Berman read Johnson's book, Five Smooth Stones: Our Power to Heal without Medicine through the Science of Prayer, she suggested they combine forces.

Berman says, "Janis' wisdom and faith runs deep, and her insights and astute word clarity make her a number-one bestseller in my eyes. Five Smooth Stones is like deliciously fine chocolate: a paragraph at a time, one little nibble after the other, it does my body good."

Johnson is looking forward to offering the songs of 4 Stories High to magnify the universal message that scientific prayer heals. "The inspirational energy of these songs will help drive home the reality of spiritual healing's effectiveness, in a way that only music can."

In the workshop Johnson will introduce ideas from her book, and asks participants to bring to the table any problem they haven't been able to solve. "When we look at everything as spiritual, a whole new world of possibilities opens up," she says.

Johnson’s book offers a practical guide to spiritual healing that includes many real-life examples of healing by scientific prayer alone — from the common cold to terminal illness and everything in between. She explains that a radical reliance on God (Infinite Good) can heal and transform, even in life-threatening situations.

Based on her own experiences since 1991, when she suffered from chronic carpal tunnel syndrome and all medical treatments failed, “I had a full physical healing through prayer alone. Over the years I’ve learned that no matter what your problem is, you can heal anything with scientific prayer — which, rather than requiring a leap of faith, is based on a true understanding of the unchanging laws of the universe. Science and spirituality don’t have to be in conflict.”

Rabbi David Zaslow, founder of The Wisdom Exchange, the Ashland publisher of Johnson’s book, met her in 2005 after she attended a Passover Community Seder meal. She started taking his classes, began studying Hebrew, and eventually edited Zaslow’s seminal interfaith work, Roots and Branches: The Jewish Roots of Christianity.

Johnson told him about her own book, and ultimately he offered her the opportunity to publish it. Now Berman and Johnson both take Zaslow's Talmud class together.

Zaslow says, "The combined talents of Janis Hunt Johnson and Laura Berman is the joining of two of God's angels here on earth. 'God as a First Resort' promises to be both inspirational and intellectually stimulating. The talents of these two women combined is more than just one plus one – it is an alchemical equation that promises revelation and personal transformation."

The workshop will be held Sunday, August 22, 2010 from 2:00-4:30 p.m. at the Havurah Shir Hadash, 185 N. Mountain, Ashland, Oregon. Cost is $20. Johnson's book and 4 Stories High's CDs will be on sale at the event. To sign up call 541-488-7716 or 866-732-8201. Find out more at www.csrenewal.com and www.4storieshigh.com.