Dear Veronica:

I think about 90% of the "swooning" is psychological, 8% from God, and 2% from the devil.

There is a great deal of peer pressure and expectation to swoon when the priest or other person lays on hands to pray over the person. The people are wanting to swoon, they expect it, the see others doing it, they want to experience the same thing. They get what they expect from subconscious dynamics. That accounts for most of this phenomenon.

The kind of "swooning" found in what is called the "Toronto" experience where people bark like dogs and such is psychological hysteria at best and demonic at worse.

When people do have a spiritual experience it is often reported as like a electrical force going through their body. This is also reported when demons leave a person's body.

Those that actually go unconscious when they fall are the one's most likely having a genuine experience. But, if you watch carefully most do not really go unconscious. You can see women, for example, falling and adjusting their skirt or their hair. If they were really swooning in the Holy Spirit they would not have a thought about their skirt or hair.

Much of the time the healing service after Mass is not done by a priest or laity with any special gift of healing, but with the ordinary power prayer.

There are also those priests and laity who have a gift of healing. This is a supernatural gift of healing that is specifically given to a person.

As for those who "thirst" for this healing experience, those are the types who often end up with psychological reactions and not genuine spiritual experiences.

Our "thirst" should be for our Lord and His will, not for healing. I am disabled myself. I am in pain every day. When a healer asks me if I would like him to pray for my healing my response is no. Instead I ask him to pray for God's will. If God wishes to heal me, that is great, praise God. If God knows that it is my best interest to remain disabled then great, praise God.

I would rather be disabled and close to God than to be healed and take God for granted.

St. Paul was in a situation like this. He had a thorn in his side that he identified as a demon. He asked God three times to heal him of this affliction. God said no three times. Jesus told him that His sufficiency was good enough for him.

In that state St. Paul learn something. He learn a profound lesson that "in my weakness I am strong in Christ".

As for a Vatican Document, there is Instructions on Prayers for Healing.

On the subject of people who claim to "sense negative forces in you when you are ill and even pinpoint where in your body" those are two different things.

Those with the Gift of Discernment may be able to discern evil presence with a person. There are hordes of people who think they have the gift of Discernment but do not. Pentecostal types often behave more like mediums in this regard.

The phenomena of identifying a particular illness or body part that is diseased is mostly fake, self-delusion, or demonic manifestation. There are those rare cases that God may give this information to someone, but this is very rare and happens only in specific cases where it might be needed. The generalized ability to do this on the fly and anytime is mostly self-delusion or outright fake. I would never allow such a person to discern an illness in me.

All this is related to the so-called Charismatic experience. For a thorough analysis of the Charismatic experience see the essay, "Charism Gifts Building Up the Church".

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary