Healing

Gadreel heals Castiel of his stab wounds.

Castiel heals Sam after Gadreel is expelled.

Healing is an ability used by angels to repair the physical damage of others, usually humans, and in some cases other angels. An angel's ability to heal or resurrect the dead is typically tied to Heaven; if an angel is cut off from Heaven in some fashion, they may lose the ability. Angels, unlike demons, will also heal a vessel of any and all injuries they receive while possessed.

When an angel heals a human, or another angel, the effect can be achieved by either placing two fingers on the injured's forehead or through a bright light emanating from the palm of the angel's hand. Occasionally, a brief golden glow appears around the injury as it vanishes, even with the finger touch, but usually the injuries just disappear without a trace.

Episodes

The Reaper heals a man for Roy Le Grange.

1.12 Faith

Sue-Ann Le Grange used black magic to harness the power of a reaper to make her husband Roy Le Grange seem like a real faith healer. When Dean is diagnosed with a damaged heart after a rawhead hunt goes sideways, Sam takes him to see Roy, who heals him of his ailment. When the Winchesters learn that Sue has been sending a reaper to kill those she deems unworthy and transfer their life force to others, they end her control over the Reaper, who quickly turns on Sue and kills her.

2.01 In My Time of Dying

To save Dean's life, John summons and makes a deal with Azazel. In exchange for Dean being healed, John gives up the Colt as well as his life. When the deal is struck, Azazel travels to the Veil where he possesses the reaper Tessa and pulls Dean back to his body, healed of all wounds.

4.01 Lazarus Rising

As a side effect of Dean being resurrected by Castiel, all of his past wounds have been healed. As he relates to Sam in 4.05 Monster Movie, he has no more bullet wounds, knife cuts, or fingers left off-angled from old breaks. He mentions that his skin is as smooth as a newborn's, as well as theorizing that with his new body, he is once again a virgin.

4.16 On the Head of a Pin

After Alastair breaks free from the devil's trap and severely injures Dean, Sam demands that Castiel heal his brother, but Castiel states that he can't.

4.20 The Rapture

When Jimmy Novak is mortally wounded, he pleads with Castiel to leave his daughter and let him be his vessel again. After Castiel warns him of the toll it will take, Jimmy accepts and is possessed, whereupon his wound is healed.

5.01 Sympathy for the Devil

In the face of Dean's continued refusal to become Michael's vessel, Zachariah first offers to heal Bobby of his paralysis. When Dean still refuses, Zachariah gives Dean stage 4 stomach cancer, and removes Sam's lungs. As the boys writhe in pain and hypoxia, Castiel arrives, claiming to have been resurrected by God, and demands that Zachariah put Sam and Dean back together and leave, which Zachariah reluctantly does.

5.02 Good God, Y'All

Castiel reveals to Bobby that his powers are derived from Heaven, and with him being cut off, certain abilities are no longer at his disposal, such as healing Bobby's paralysis.

5.13 The Song Remains the Same

After Sam is killed by Anna Milton, he is resurrected by the archangel Michael who healed Sam's fatal wound in the process.

5.16 Dark Side of the Moon

After Sam and Dean are shot and killed by Walt and Roy, their journey in Heaven takes them to the "Garden", where they meet an angel named Joshua, who tells them to stop looking for God, as they will not find Him. Joshua also tells them of their many prior deaths and how this time he has been given instructions for Sam and Dean to remember, before sending them back to earth in their restored bodies.

5.21 Two Minutes to Midnight

Crowley reveals that he used Bobby Singer's crossroads deal to heal Bobby's paralysis.

5.22 Swan Song

After Castiel is brought back to life by God, he proceeds to heal Dean of all his wounds incurred by Lucifer and resurrects Bobby.

6.07 Family Matters

After Sam is revealed to be soulless by Castiel, Dean reluctantly orders Castiel to heal Sam's injuries from Dean's beating of him.

6.08 All Dogs Go to Heaven

After causing a small burn upon Sam's hand as a demonstration of his power over Sam, Crowley heals it.

6.19 Mommy Dearest

After being bitten on the neck by Eve, Dean, believing he's been turned into a Jefferson Starship, asks Castiel to "clear that up too" when healing his neck wound.

6.21 Let It Bleed

When a demon possessing Lisa stabs itself in the stomach, Dean rushes Lisa to a hospital after exorcising it from her body. At the hospital Castiel places his hand on her forehead, healing her in addition to removing any memories of Dean from Lisa and Ben's mind at Dean's request.

7.01 Meet the New Boss

Believing himself to be the new "God", while walking the streets Castiel heals a homeless man of his blindness.

Castiel takes on Sam's Hell trauma.

7.17 The Born-Again Identity

Desperate to save Sam from his hallucinations, Dean receives a call from a fellow hunter named Mackey who tells him of a man named Emmanuel Allen who can heal the sick, telling Dean of his right eye being cured of its blindness.

Upon learning Emmanuel is an amnesiac Castiel, Dean takes him to the hospital where Sam is staying, where after confronting demons, Castiel remembers his true identity. Unable to cure Sam of his insanity, as an act of penance for destroying Sam's mental wall, Castiel transfers Sam's trauma from the Cage to himself, becoming catatonic in the process.

8.08 Hunteri Heroici

After an orderly is found with a gunshot to the stomach, Castiel heals him, allowing Dean to question him about the missing Fred Jones.

8.10 Torn and Frayed

After hearing a baby's incessant crying, Castiel appears and tells the child's mother that the doctors missed an inguinal hernia which is very hard to detect. Castiel heals the hernia, stopping the baby's crying, before he is summoned away by Naomi.

8.14 Trial and Error

After revealing that she made a deal with Crowley, Ellie explains that it was to heal her mother's Parkinson's disease.

8.17 Goodbye Stranger

When Castiel's mind is rebooted from coming into contact with the angel tablet, he goes on to heal Dean of the wounds he'd inflicted while nearly beating him to death.

8.21 The Great Escapist

Metatron heals Kevin Tran after rescuing him from Crowley.

8.23 Sacrifice

After stealing Castiel's grace, Metataron heals the cut in Castiel's neck used to siphon the grace from his vessel.

9.01 I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here

Due to the nature of Sam's failing health and his own injuries from the Fall, the angel Ezekiel proposes to Dean he possess Sam to heal him from the inside out, as well as allow himself to heal, and when they are both healthy he will vacate Sam's body. Desperate, a reluctant Dean agrees and together they are able to trick Sam into consenting to being a vessel.

9.02 Devil May Care

A demon named Jason performs a spell that heals Josie Sands' body of all the burn damage it took from Sam's holy fire and being cut into pieces, allowing Abaddon to repossess her.

9.03 I'm No Angel

After being tortured and stabbed by April Kelly, Ezekiel heals Castiel of all his cuts and knife wounds while resurrecting him.

Gadreel takes over Sam's body and heals his wound.

9.05 Dog Dean Afternoon

When Sam receives a severe neck wound from Chef Leo, Gadreel briefly takes over and heals the wound, erasing Sam's memory of the attack as well.

9.06 Heaven Can't Wait

Castiel explains to Dean about the Rit Zien, a special class of angelic healers who killed those angels on the battlefield who were beyond their ability to save.

9.10 Road Trip

Castiel heals the puncture marks in Sam's head after their attempt with Crowley to hack Gadreel's brain to expel him from Sam's body.

9.11 First Born

Castiel continues the healing process which was begun by Gadreel to heal the internal burns from Sam's attempt at the demon trials.

Learning that the residual grace from Gadreel's possession is fading each time he is healed by Castiel, they attempt to extract what remains to use to track the angel. However, the extraction proves to be too much for Sam, and in an act of compassion, Castiel heals Sam of his wounds completely, removing the remaining grace in the process.

9.18 Meta Fiction

Castiel is drawn to a warehouse by the Horn of Gabriel, where he finds angel upon angel slaughtered in a room. He comes across an injured angel named Hannah, and heals her of her wounds.

9.23 Do You Believe in Miracles?

After Gadreel is attacked by Dean with the First Blade, Castiel and Sam find him in a field outside the Bunker. As Castiel goes to heal him, Gadreel initially refuses due to the toll it would take on Castiel's fading grace, but Castiel goes forward and heals him.

Seeking Crowley's aid in tracking down Metatron, Dean is shown a camera phone video of Metatron, as a homeless man, healing a woman who had been hit by a car. Later at a homeless encampment, Metatron heals a man named George of his diabetes (filling his flask to celebrate as well).

10.02 Reichenbach

When he is unable to heal his own chest wound, Castiel is aided by Hannah who offers to help him.

Dean is sitting at a piano in a bar, playing a few notes but his mind is elsewhere. He takes out the First Blade and slices open his left palm. It instantly heals. Later when confronting Cole Trenton in the bar parking lot, his cheek is cut, but like his hand it heals instantly.

10.03 Soul Survivor

When Castiel is severely injured by the angel Adina, Crowley arrives and removes the angel's grace and kills her. He gives her grace to Castiel, which heals him of all his wounds.

10.17 Inside Man

After breaking Metatron out of Heaven's jail, Castiel pulls out his angel blade, slices Metatron’s throat open, and takes his grace in a little glass vial. Castiel goes on to heal Metaton's throat wound, before Sam shoots him in the leg.

10.18 Book of the Damned

Charlie Bradbury jokingly asks if Castiel can heal her carpal tunnel. Castiel gladly obliges and heals Charlie's bullet wound as well. He does suggest that Charlie continue wearing her wrist brace at night.

10.20 Angel Heart

Due to Tamiel feeding off Amelia Novak's soul, Castiel is unable to heal her of the damage her body has been through.

Ronnie Cartwright reveals that Tamiel had healed him of his blindness to get Ronnie to work for him. After Ronnie betrays him, Tamiel undoes the healing before killing Ronnie with his angel sword.

11.02 Form and Void

After Hannah stops Efram and Jonah from torturing him, Castiel asks Hannah to heal him. Though Hannah tries, Rowena's Attack Dog Spell prevents the healing from working.

11.06 Our Little World

After finding Metatron filming the aftermath of a man getting shot, Castiel heals the victim of his gunshot wound before taking Metatron away for questioning.

11.10 The Devil in the Details

Castiel reveals to Dean he is suffering from smiting sickness due to proximity to the angel's attack on Amara, and is unable to heal him of it. He tells Dean to get as far away from ground zero as possible.

11.18 Hell's Angel

Reeling from the mass smiting by the combined forces of Heaven, Amara is found by Rowena who goes on to use magic to heal Amara's body back to full strength -- an act which Rowena soon regrets after witnessing the Darkness' power.

Lucifer is healed by Chuck.

11.21 All in the Family

After rescuing Lucifer from Amara, a beaten and bloody Lucifer is healed by Chuck, which Lucifer is not happy about and resents.

11.23 Alpha and Omega

When Dean is able to appeal to Amara's love for her brother, she teleports the mortally wounded Chuck to the garden where the two reconcile, with Amara placing her hand on his chest and healing him of his wounds. With Chuck no longer dying, the sun begins to shine brightly in the sky.

12.02 Mamma Mia

At Needham Asylum, Crowley and Rowena attempt to trap Lucifer to send him back to the Cage. With Lucifer unable to move, Crowley throws top-shelf sulfuric acid onto his vessel, in an attempt to damage it to the point Lucifer can no longer occupy it. As Vince Vincente's face begins to burn away, Lucifer is able to power up and heal his vessel of its wounds before Rowena can send him back.

12.03 The Foundry

Dean mentions that Castiel healed Sam's blow torched "s'mores foot" and they should get back to hunting.

While tracking Lucifer, Castiel and Crowley are directed towards Vince Vincente's sister, Wendy, whom they learn Lucifer promised to Vince he would heal and give her back the use of her legs.

12.07 Rock Never Dies

After being banished to the bottom of the ocean in his deteriorating vessel by Rowena, Lucifer is summoned to the basement of a teenager through his fossilized feather. Placing the fossil on his chest, he is engulfed in a bright light and his vessel is healed of all deterioration.

12.10 Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets

In a confrontation with Ishim, Lily Sunder is slashed across her side by Castiel. After escaping, Lily is able to tap into her Enochian magic and heal the wound.

At Ishim's safe house, Castiel remains with Ishim to heal his wound, which weakens him, as Sam and Dean search for Lily. Ishim comments that after Castiel's healing, he feels better than he has in a millennia.

12.12 Stuck in the Middle (With You)

As Castiel is slowly and painfully dying from being stabbed with the Lance of Michael by Ramiel, he is saved by Crowley, who realizes the magic is in the rune work and breaks the lance in two, causing Castiel's blackened wound to heal instantly in a flash of bright light.

12.19 The Future

Before Dagon can deliver a killing blow to Castiel, the unborn Nephilim child of Kelly Kline transfers his power to Castiel. As it courses through him, all of Castiel's wounds are healed before he incinerates Dagon.

Before leaving with Kelly, Castiel heals Dean's broken arm from his confrontation with Dagon.

12.23 All Along the Watchtower

When the Winchesters find Castiel and Kelly Kline, Dean's knee injury from using his grenade launcher to escape the Bunker begins to bother him. Seeing this, Castiel heals Dean, causing both his knee injury and the facial lacerations from Dean's fight with Mr. Ketch to disappear, a brief golden glow appearing around the cuts as they vanish.

13.06 Tombstone

After Jack accidentally blasts a security guard into a pole, he begs Castiel to heal the man. Castiel tries to heal him but can't as he is dead.

13.07 War of the Worlds

After Michael extracts most of Lucifer's grace, he heals his neck wound.

13.13 Devil's Bargain

When Lucifer learns of Sister Jo, he pays a visit and witnesses her healing an old woman, giving her the ability to walk without the need of a walker, and healing a veteran of his terrible facial burns. Seeing her work, Lucifer immediately recognizes Sister Jo as the angel Anael. The two come to an agreement, where Lucifer will siphon off her grace slowly, to allow her to regenerate it between extractions, in exchange for him not killing her.

13.16 Scoobynatural

After Shaggy Rogers breaks his arm falling out a window, Castiel secretly heals the break before he and the Winchesters are sent back to the real world. As a result, Shaggy is left thinking that he was wrong about having broken his arm, causing Castiel to laugh.

13.18 Bring 'em Back Alive

Seeing that Gabriel is severely damaged due to Asmodeus's torture, Sam asks Castiel to heal him, but he is unable to as lower angels cannot heal archangels.

When confronted by Asmodeus in the Bunker, Gabriel musters up all his energy, healing himself of all his wounds before killing Asmodeus.

13.21 Beat the Devil

When Rowena angers Lucifer with the revelation Jack is in Apocalypse World, he is able to break his bindings and heal his neck wound to prevent any more grace from leaking out.

After Sam is killed by having his throat torn out by an Apocalypse World vampire, he is resurrected by Lucifer who heals Sam's neck wound and massive blood loss at the same time.

13.23 Let the Good Times Roll

After stealing Jack's grace, Lucifer places his hand on Jack's neck, healing the wound.

14.02 Gods and Monsters

After Michael collects blood from one of his captive vampires, he heals the cut on the vamp's neck before forcing him to drink his blood / grace concoction.

14.03 The Scar

Castiel attempts to heal a young woman, Lora, from the hex that has been placed on her which is causing her to rapidly age. However, due to the nature of the magic being too knotted, he is unable to heal her.

14.07 Unhuman Nature

In an attempt to heal Jack, Castiel places his hand over Jack and moves down his body, but is unable to heal or understand what is wrong with Jack, who begins coughing up blood during the process.

Castiel heals Jack's cuts.

14.08 Byzantium

After being resurrected, Jack recites Lily Sunder's Enochian spell, which taps into a piece of his soul, healing his body and preventing it from deteriorating without his grace.

14.09 The Spear

After reuniting with Sam and Jack, Castiel heals Jack's facial cuts from Garth's attack.

14.12 Prophet and Loss

After realizing Donatello's mind is trying to rebuild itself by trying to organize his memories of the Word of God, Castiel is able to find a fragment of Donatello's consciousness and bring it forward, waking him from his vegetative state. Castiel subsequently tells Dean that while Donatello remains soulless, he is back to normal and is no longer the twisted, corrupted version of himself that Donatello became due to the dark energy resonating within the demon tablet.

14.14 Ouroboros

In a diner bathroom, Jack begins having terrible coughing fits, which ultimately lead to him coughing up blood. After washing the blood from his hands, Jack uses his soul to heal himself.

When Castiel is poisoned by the gorgon Noah Ophis, he is administered anti-venom which does not reverse the effects. With no other option, Jack taps into the power of his soul and heals Castiel.

14.16 Don't Go in the Woods

After accidentally stabbing Stacy with an angel blade, Jack attempts to fix the situation by removing the blade and healing Stacy's wound.

14.17 Game Night

After Sam suffers a serious head injury from Nick bashing him in the head with a rock, Jack heals him and saves Sam's life.

15.01 Back and to the Future

Castiel heals a slash across Sam's abdomen he received from John Wayne Gacy, while also mending the tear in his shirt. However, he is unable to heal Sam's wound from the Equalizer.

15.02 Raising Hell

Castiel is unable to heal Arthur Ketch after Dean shoots him with iron bullets to save him from possession by Francis Tumblety. Though Castiel is worried by the development, Sam brushes it off as Castiel simply being tired.

After having been shot with the Equalizer, Chuck seeks healing from Amara. However, disgusted by her brother's lack of change, she refuses, comparing it to when He sealed her away as Chuck is now too weak to even leave the Earth without her help.

15.06 Golden Time

While being shot by the djinn Sheriff Alden Roy, Castiel heals himself. After dumping Roy's dead body into the lake, he heals Caleb Krakowski's injured leg, but his failing powers cause him to struggle while doing so.

15.07 Last Call

Castiel states that he can't heal Sam's wound from the Equalizer, but suggests probing it instead to get insight into God's mind. Castiel later calls shaman Sergei for help with healing Sam since the wound is divine in nature and beyond Castiel's abilities.

15.08 Our Father, Who Aren't in Heaven

After Dean slices his hand for a spell allowing travel to Hell, Castiel heals the wound, which appears to take some effort on Castiel's part.

15.09 The Trap

In the Butch and Sundance ending, Sam notes that if Castiel were still around, he could've healed some monster victims that they had failed to save. However, Castiel had to be trapped in a Ma'lak Box after going insane from the Mark he'd had to bear to keep Chuck trapped.

After capturing Sam, Chuck reveals that He can't heal the wound from the Equalizer because something is "festering" in Sam's end of the link. After failing to have Eileen Leahy cut it out, an annoyed Chuck heals the damage Eileen did with just a wave of His hand, though the injury from the Equalizer remains. Once Sam gives up hope, the thing that was festering, God is able to heal His wound in a flash of gold light simply by looking at it, causing Sam's wound to heal too. With the wound healed, God regains His full power.

15.14 Last Holiday

A remorseful Mrs. Butters heals Sam, causing the fingernails that she had removed to be instantly restored.

15.15 Gimme Shelter

Castiel heals a stab wound and reattaches a woman's severed fingers.

15.17 Unity

After Adam has Serafina remove one of his ribs to give to Jack for his final ritual, Serafina heals his wound.

15.19 Inherit the Earth

After absorbing all of Chuck's power, Jack snaps his fingers and heals the Winchesters' injuries.

See also

• Faith Healer
• Resurrection