Monday, December 8, 2008

The Darkness and the Light

I had a sad sort of experience the other day - the first time something like this has happened to me. A person, I'll call him D, contacted me first for a Reiki healing, and then for attunements. He saved up the fee, and was very excited about it. I had sent him the first two attunements, both of which were met with great enthusiasm and success. Then, right before his third attunement, he abruptly told me he would not be continuing. I was surprised, and asked him what happened. His explanation surprised me, and left me feeling sad.

He had gotten into a conversation with a member of his religion's clergy. This person told him that Reiki is evil, the devil's work. That Reiki makes people think they have powers, like a diety, and is meant to undermine God's plan by causing them to deny the existence of God, thinking they are gods themselves. He went on to say that the man who told him this had been into energy work before - astral projection - and had met evil entities on the astral plane. He advised me to quit practicing and teaching Reiki based on this.

I find it very disturbing that the practice of Reiki could be so misunderstood and vilified. I also find it disturbing that someone who had experienced it for himself could be so easily convinced of these extreme views. I tried to express how I disagreed, and how Reiki has helped me strengthen my connection to Source rather than make me need it less. I stressed that as God's creations, we are capable of helping each other and all of God's creations, which is what we are told to do in the Bible. I told him Reiki is a blessing to me.

Then I wished him well. That was all I could do.

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I made today a day devoted to Energy and Light. I rested, and then did a Colors of Angels self healing, which was marked by powerful rushes of energy healing going through me. I loved it. I channeled three attunements, two healings and two channelings. I chatted about healing with some amazing people on Twitter both online and on the phone.

I met an interesting person who is running a program called 9 Weeks to a New You with Amythyst Wyldfyre, which sounds like some guru thing I know, but it is about transforming yourself, connecting with your Higher self, and realizing your potential. I wouldn't normally go for something like this, but I spoke with her on the phone today and she talked to me at length about how to develop the Rites of the Munay Ki. I received these Rites when I spent the weekend with Connie back in June. But I've never really known what to do to develop the Rites. I haven't even been able to explain them very well. Today Amythyst really spent time with me talking about how to work with the energies and connect to the potential in each of the 9 Rites. It was very helpful. Then she suggested the workshop and explained what she was doing, which includes mentored coaching on this kind of spiritual development. Tomorrow there's a free call-in which gives a taste of the course link here which I may do if I can so I can sense whether this is something that would be right for me at this point. I have lots of opportunities for self growth right now, so I'm not sure about doing them all at once or not. Plus, money is also a factor. But I'm learning to trust that things will align themselves. Amythyst's home page is here if you want to check her out. I do have doubts about whether this program is right for me at this time, but respect her and am grateful for her guidance today.

I met a wonderful person, Amy Bush Bradley. She has a remarkable parenting coaching program called Transformational Parenting and Evan & I are very psyched to gain some insights and a little help from her program. She graciously agreed to trade a few months of the program for Kundalini Reiki attunements. We've exchanged Reiki healings already, and enjoyed each other's feedback. Wonderful opportunities!

I have made some contacts with very connected people lately who are giving me insights into developing my spiritual awareness further. They suggested exercises for getting in touch with my guides and hearing messages more clearly. One of these people is a Twitter friend, Frank Butterfield who graciously allowed me to channel a question for him, and gave me wonderful feedback and some excellent suggestions.

Another impressive person I met on Twitter recently is Ken (although I don't know his last name...) and I really like his approach and sincerity. Click on his name to view his website.

And, last for my blog entry for tonight is that I have signed up for Lightarian AngelLinks attunements, which are certified by the Lightarian Institute (yes it's real). I'm waiting for the manual to arrive by snail mail. This is supposed to deeply connect one with the Archangels, which lately I've been feeling more from Colors of Angels healings and would like to further develop this connection. So I'm excited the most about this.

So just a little darkness, and my day of light today helped it go away.
Peace.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmm...the experience you write about is one that I think about a lot. Living where I do, there are many people around me and even some of my own loved ones who hold such views about Reiki. It is sad. At the same time, I've been surprised by some of the people who have come to me for treatment -- people who I would have thought would have felt a resistance because of their religious beliefs. All we can do is keep walking forward in our truth, I guess.
Peace~

Alice Langholt said...

Hi Lori-Lyn,

Thanks so much for your comment. For me, this was much more negative than any comments from "ignorant" people for whom Reiki is outside their version of reality and they naturally reject it. I figure those people will one day be more open minded, or they won't. So this one was much more disturbing to me.

But you're right - every time I introduce someone to the beauty of Reiki I feel so great. And thankfully, those experiences are in the majority for me.
Keep lighting the way!
Peace.

Anonymous said...

This attitude towards Reiki and any energy healing at all is quite prevalent in certain branches of Christianity. The same sort of people who think that The Golden Compass is anti-christian because people's souls (demons) live outside of their bodies in the fictional tales.

cm said...

Im sorry you had to see the not so bright side of Reiki and peoples old beliefs. Your on the right path and you know it. I think you handled it really well!

Im glad your getting all these opportunities coming to you. Its all to help you grow and develop more fully. Hang in there!

T J said...

I had a similar experience when I was a part of a fundamentalist church, which I no longer attend. The difference was that my pastor told me acupuncture was evil & allowed evil spirits to enter a person when the needles go in.

It is sad for this gentleman but we are all on different paths. Perhaps this isn't the end of the road for him with Reiki?

I'm glad that you were able to balance yourself with light and end up in a positive place.

Just know the work you did for him has made an impact on some level. It's never fun to be misunderstood but Reiki is such a wonderful thing & the best you can do is continue on.

I've had great experiences with it & hope to have more in the future....

Anonymous said...

Hi Alice!

Thanks for the mention -- you are amazing and I am honored to be able to work with you!!

Although it doesn't have quite the same level of intensity, as I'm re-reading your excellent post again, I am thinking about a recent chat with a friend.

She works as a life coach and has had interesting reactions when she tells people this in reply to their query about her work.

Since I am a channel, she asked me what I tell people when this question comes up. And, because I live in Texas, I am a bit cautious about saying I'm a channel.

My friend very rightly pointed out that the reaction of other people is their stuff, not mine (or hers, for that matter). And we both agreed that it seems like we walk a fine line at times around this issue. How can we be clear about who are and what we do, which is so powerful, while also being aware that who we are and what we do sometimes runs smack into other people's belief systems.

The conclusion we came to was the answer that always works... Pay attention to inner guidance and be intentional about all conversations, including the casual ones. We'll know the perfect right thing to say each time, if we do that.

Thanks again Alice for the great post -- looking forward to reading many more!!

Much appreciation,
Frank

http://frankbutterfield.us
http://twitter.com/frankaustx

Anonymous said...

Hey Alice, I just love the Reiki is Evil stuff... I know that may seem a bit twisted but it sure is an opportunity to educate someone on their own terms... if it was me I would have quoted the many times in the bible that hands on healing has occured... the many times that "be not afraid" is in the bible... over 300 times. I know not everyone believes in Jesus, but when a person does; then talking about the fact that he said something like people could do what he did as well, seems to be a pretty powerful statement.

The one thing I have learned being raised in Seattle where energy healing and mediumship and channeling are just one of those things, to living in Florida and the deep seated religious beliefs in fear is: that once I learned to come to a person from their belief network things ran much more smoothly for me. This is just my own experience but I chose to learn about the bible for the people I worked with so that when I had a question regarding scriptures I could at least speak with a bit of education regarding the matter...

now I have the opposite experience with my Reiki students... many of them are judgemental about organized religion because of their own experiences. What I tell them is that I understand all of the reasons they do not feel comfortable in the beliefs they pull away from and that if they allow the poison of their own judgement into the conversations about religion and Reiki then they may lose an open minded individual as well. Food for thought... thanks for posting about this!
Tara1212

Alice Langholt said...

Hi Tara,

Thanks for your post. I find that I don't know enough about the Christian bible to make points or engage in philisophical debate. (I could hold my own for "Old Testament" though - lol). So I wish I knew you when I was trying to write a response to D. Next time I'll ask you for some specifics to use! Having a resource to turn to for rebuttals sounds like a good idea. And your suggestion about getting more educated about other religions myself is also well taken.

You bring up another excellent point about people who are disillutioned with religion and thus skeptical about anything of a spiritual nature.

Thanks for bringing so much to the discussion!
Peace,
Alice

A.man.da said...

Hi Alice, I just recently stumbled by your blog, and I thought I found this little debate quite interesting.

What I would rather say is that Reiki and other energy practices are only considered "evil" (note inverted commas :P) when the person becomes too egoistic and selfish, but the bright side to all of this is that God would'nt allow any better advancement as long as the practitioner is selfish. I heard from a Yoga book that the power of the Siddhi (awakened by the Kundalini and different chakras) will come to you, not you running after them. That's all I have to say, cheers~

Amanda

trinlayk said...

it's really not about Reiki, but controlling the members of that church by keeping them AFRAID of anything new/different or anything from outside the particular church.

It's about the power of the church (or in the worst cases the power of the PASTOR) over the parishioners. I've seen the motif taken so far as eating Chinese food, or having Asian/African decor-motifs in the home as being described as opening doors to the demonic.

It's silly, but it's really NOT about the Reiki, OR about faith/G-d at all.

It's about power, it's about money.