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Healers claim case overblown
Posted: Wednesday, Sep 08, 2004 - 04:36:48 pm MDT
By RICHARD HANNERS
Hungry Horse News
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A Columbia Falls couple who allegedly treated patients by contacting long-dead medical doctors has been ordered to stop practicing medicine, but Tamara and Andrew Overlee claim the investigation was "blown out of proportion" and the Montana Board of Medical Examiners failed to "fully investigate the spiritual healing practice." "How can you assess a subject if you're not educated in it?" Tamara asked. "In another state that was more open, none of this would have happened in the first place."Tamara, who claims to have written a 503-page book using "automatic writing," said she and her husband have spent many years developing their Joy of Healing practice and have worked in Masonic temples and Buddhist churches among other groups. "Millions of medical intuitives exist--there's a ton of them here in this area," said Andrew, who claims to be a "physical trance medium" and not a "channeler." |
"We don't diagnose, prescribe or treat," Tamara claimed. "There's no likeness to the medical profession."
According to court records, the medical board began their investigation of the couple after they received a complaint alleging the Overlees had advised one "patient" to discontinue certain medications prescribed by a physician and to adjust dosages of thyroid medicine.
The Overlees claim that allegation was made "secondhand" by an ex-wife and that the "patient" voluntarily flew to the Flathead to offer them help.
"It's not true that we advised him to change his medication," Tamara said.
Two investigators were sent by the state to the Overlee's home on Lewis Lane on March 12 where they listened to Tamara describe her husband's "history of contact with the 'spirit world.'"
The couple's healing technique depended on Andrew contacting Dr. Robert Koch, a German physician who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1905 and died in 1910, the investigators claimed.
During a session that lasted three hours and cost $125, investigator Billie Veerkamp lay face up on a table while Andrew stood over her, moving his hands in circular motions and speaking "in a higher pitch and with what sounded like a German accent," the investigator reported.
When Veerkamp told Andrew her ovaries had been removed, he said he had removed scar tissue left on her "urethra gland." He also told her that her oxygen and insulin levels were low, that she had polyps on her colon "the size of nickels and quarters."
Veerkamp noted in her report that she had undergone a colonoscopy 18 months earlier and was "absolutely clean."
Noting that she worried too much, was under too much stress and ate too much sugar, Andrew recommended Veerkamp follow the Joy of Healing's "medicine diet" for six months and return for a session with "Dr. Gregor, a spirit doctor specializing in psychology or psychiatry."
The Overlees, who have been ordained ministers with the Florida-based International Assembly of Spiritual Healers and Earth Stewards Congregations for 14 years, dispute the investigators account.
"Some of their statements are true and some are false, but the whole thing was blown out of proportion," Tamara said.
Their attorney, Lori Miller, claimed the Overlees' work was protected under the Montana Constitution's provision for the right to free exercise of religion.
"Joy of Healing followers share common beliefs and lifestyles based upon 'Constitutional Reality,' the five elements of life: love, truth, honesty, humility and gratitude," the Overlees explained in a press release. "It is unfortunate that the Board of Medical Examiners did not take the time to more fully investigate the spiritual healing practice of the Overlees."
Despite their criticism of the medical board's investigation and their claims to religious freedom, the Overlees consented to sign a stipulation agreeing not to practice medicine as Judge Lympus strictly defined in the injunction he granted to the state.
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