Healing of Memories or Cleansing of the Conscience?

by Bob DeWaay
October 2006

In the 1940’s Agnes Sanford invented a new ministry called “inner healing.” She claimed that during an out-of-body experience that supposedly brought her back to before her birth as a pre-existent soul, Jesus asked her to come into the world to relieve suffering. Sanford gained her inspiration from very questionable sources such as Theosophy, New Thought, the depth psychology of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, and Emmet Fox of the Unity School of Christianity (New Age). She became the mentor of John Sandford, whose inner healing theories are still followed by many. She was also associated with Morton Kelsey, a mystic who was a proponent of the theories of the occultist Jung.  The theories and practices of nearly every popular inner healer can be traced back to Sanford or can be shown to be based on the same premises.