Worrall, Olga Nathalie Ripich (1906-1985)

Spiritual healer and associate director of New Life Clinic, Mount Washington Methodist Church, Baltimore, Maryland. She was born on November 30, 1906, in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1928 she married Ambrose Alexander Worrall and the two of them worked together for many years as healers. For many years prior to their marriage she healed the sick through a psychic talent that had manifested itself when she was eight. In addition to human beings, she healed cats, dogs, horses, chickens, and plants. In the 1950s, the Worralls associated with the newly-founded Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship (now the International Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship ), and for many years they were among the fellowship's leading speakers and resource people.

Her special gift was of great interest to physicians, some of whom were her patients. One physician who sought her aid was John Cerutti, who had suffered from severe back pain for many years. Cerutti's experience with the healer was so profound that his wife Edwina, originally a skeptic, was won over and eventually published a book about the healer: Olga Worrall, Mystic with the Healing Hands (1975). Following her husband's death in 1972, Worrall continued to be active within the new wave of interest in alternative healing and during the 1970s became one of the most famous healers in the United States. In spite of her fame, she continued to focus her healing work in daily prayer sessions and with the New Life Clinic.

Worrall was also interested in the work of parapsychologists and on one occasion noted, "Since I am gifted in psychic abilities such as clairvoyance, etc. and spiritual healing, I am interested in the scientific research approach into parapsychological demonstrations motivated by personal experiences, especially in the areas of proving immortality and spiritual healing."

Worrall wrote a number of pamphlets explaining her methods of prayer and healing and coauthored several books with her husband. She died January 9, 1985, in Baltimore, Maryland.

Sources:

Cerutti, Edwina. Olga Worrall, Mystic with the Healing Hands. New York: Harper & Row, 1975.

Worrall, Ambrose, and Olga Worrall. Basic Principles of Spiritual Healing. Evanston, Ill.: Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship, 1969.

——. Explore Your Psychic World. New York: Harper & Row, 1970.

——. The Gift of Healing: A Personal Story of Spiritual Therapy. New York: Harper & Row, 1965.

Worrall, Olga. How to Start a Healing Service. Chicago, Ill.: Inner Creations, 1947.

Wortcunning

Anglo-Saxon term for knowledge of the medical and occult properties of plants.

(See also Cunning )