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Metaphysician, Heel Thyself
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, defines a metaphysician as one who specializes or is skilled in metaphysics.
However, that definition doesn't quite seem justifiable, for two reasons.
If someone who specializes in the science of physics is called a physicist, then why isn't one who specializes in metaphysics called a metaphysicist?
If a physician is someone who is licensed to practice medicine, then why isn't a metaphysician one who is licensed to practice metamedicine?
If one looks closely at the alternative definitions of the above key words, perhaps a weak case can be made to support the American Heritage definition. Still, it is by no means obvious that this should be the primary definition.
I've seen it suggested that a metaphysician is a metaphysical healer. It's been my observation, though, that most people who label themselves a metaphysician are simply students of metaphysics and are not healers in any sense of the word. Praying for someone's health does not make one a healer, nor does the New Age equivalent of "sending love and light."
On the other hand, someone trained in the art of Reiki or Ayurvedic medicine, for example, might have legitimate claim to be called a metaphysician.
In most cases, however, my peeve is that the label metaphysician is misused and misleading, and that the term metaphysicist is more accurate.
Besides, I've never yet met a physician who could heal using metaphysics. And neither, apparently, has the James Randi Educational Foundation which offers "a one-million-dollar prize to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event."
