Beyond the Mind

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Lately, I've been pondering the way people think about healing energy and try to define it. Students in my Energy Healing Certification Program are charged with defining Reiki in a paragraph, an "elevator speech" they could use to answer the inevitable stranger's query "What is Reiki?" They don't pass the program without being able to do this. And it isn't easy! Search on the Internet and you'll find a great variety of definitions, just for the word Reiki. But look for energy healing and you'll find thousands of techniques and methods, variations on methods, and practitioners saying that their method is the most effective of them all.

I love what I do, and yet I'm very interested in learning more, expanding my abilities, incorporating new energy methods, and making sense of it all from an experiential perspective. So news stories such as this one really draw my attention.

Dr. Nemeh lives in my area, and I know several people who have had individual or group sessions with him. As you saw on the video, he has "catchers" to stand behind the people he works on, because they often become overwhelmed with energy and collapse. That's different.

I'm also fascinated by the noise discussed in this news story, that occurs when he does healings via Skype. I haven't tried doing a live distance healing over Skype, and I have some interesting and powerful distance healing techniques that I wonder if they would produce such a sound if I tried them live that way. Think I'll have to grab some colleagues and do some investigative work on that one!

Then there's Braco, the Gazing Healer. He came here recently and one of my students went to see him, skeptical, and yet she reported feeling profoundly changed by the experience. Here's a video about him, and his healing sessions via Skype.

Braco simply gazes, stares out at people, over internet or live. And those watching report powerful emotions, strong energy, and often visions while looking at him or being in his presence.

Recently, I read a book "Whose Hands Are These?" by (the late) Gene Egidio, an autobiography. In this book, Gene tells his fascinating story, and reports how he began doing "Open Eye Healing" - basically staring and sharing healing energy for a group of people at a time. His crowds grew to enormous size, just as Braco's have.

So what's going on here? There are connections. I believe the connections are these basic ideas:

• Energy is directed by intention.
• The energy that is directed is a natural part of our inherent essence already, but at a higher "frequency" or "vibration" so it affects our own by also elevating it, enhancing the ability to heal and balance.
• The limits to what we can do are ours to discover. The more we are open to allowing for endless possibilities, the more we find that to be true.
• Love, gratitude and humility strengthen this connection.
• Understanding that healing for others is a direct result of the recipient's openness and ability to receive the energy, rather than the healer "doing something to them" is also important.
• We are all connected by this ONE energy, our collective consciousness - intentions, thoughts, and emotions - create our reality. This creation via intention and manifestation by expectation of results is Spirit energy. Not separate from us, doing something, but a part of the endless and limitless energy of life that we are and create. This means that WE are, collectively, God/Spirit/Source.

So what do we do now? Bring all of these methods, modalities, etc. under the umbrella of "energy work" and know that whatever we do, the concepts above apply to strengthen it. I think that Dr. Nemeh and Braco are just examples of what happens when we do that. (Plus perhaps some factors such as near death experiences, or being open to a spiritual "calling" where they are concerned). How much is learned, acquired, or brought into being by being open...that much I'm still engaged in finding out by observing myself.

I'm one who knows that healing can be learned, because I learned to do what I can do now. I wasn't gifted from birth, had no significant near death experiences or bold flashes of light and understanding thrust upon me. No, just a lot of "try it and see."

I know that I plan to learn more, try more, and discover more. And keep doing what I already am doing - try things and reflect on what it means. And I have Skype, but haven't tried live distance healing over Skype ...yet.

Are you interested in moving beyond self-imposed limits too?

Misconceptions

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On the phone today, during a coaching call with one of my students, I heard that there is someone on the big conference circuit who is teaching a workshop in "everyday shamanism." Sounds nice. She's up there with Doreen Virtue, Gregg Braden, and other bigwigs. Except that my student reported that this person is telling Reiki practitioners that Reiki energy is "lower level" and the symbols are "blocking higher forms of energy from getting through." Then she brings Reiki practitioners up to the stage so she can "remove their symbols" through a "deattunement" process and thus free them from their energetic limitations.


Oh dear, I think I feel my blood boiling. Must be the reason smoke is coming out of my ears.


Grounding...yes...a good thing for moments like these.


And now to set the record straight.


Reiki is not a "lower level" of healing. Reiki is a specific frequency of healing. And Practical Reiki, furthermore, is an expanded frequency because it includes Earth (Kundalini) energy in the mix. All energy healing techniques work with specific frequencies of energy. Qi Gong, Quantum-Touch, Polarity, and more, all have methods, techniques, and subtle energetic frequencies that activate to create energetic change. Think of an orchestra, and each method is a specific instrument in a family of instruments. One who learns to play a range of instruments has more tools for his use, in combination or singly. It's not that one is "better" than another, but the more one uses, the more energetic ranges are affected for healing and balance.


Symbols are a way of setting the intention for the energy to work. I teach a method of Reiki that does not use symbols. I do not "remove" symbols for people who use them (as if that were possible!!), but instead I teach that the use of symbols is optional. I teach people to access intention through words instead of symbols so they have a choice. I also give everyone an understanding of what symbols really are - shortcuts for directing intention. Speed-dial. When people learn Practical Reiki, they learn, experience, and then practice directing Reiki energy by thoughts and words only. There are no hand positions or symbols. This isn't a higher level of healing, it's a higher level of understanding about what's really going on behind the scenes when one is practicing Reiki.


What this person is doing, actually, is the same as what I'm doing, but her way is misleading. She doesn't have the power to remove symbols. There is no "symbol removal" necessary or even possible, even if symbols were used in one's attunements (as many are). In essence, that's not what she is doing. But by making people think that after she does her little ritual, they will magically be "free" of the "limitation" of using symbols, these people are now ready to believe that they are practicing a higher form of healing - without "needing" to use symbols. Ta-daa! I no longer need those symbols!! It's mind manipulation.


By being a person at the forefront, accepted as a authority, and speaking alongside others who are at the top of this energy healing and metaphysical field, she is responsible for the accuracy of what she teaches. And I have to say that I totally resent her giving the impression that Reiki is sub-par or that a Reiki practitioner needs an energetic "deattunement" of any kind in order to move forward. That's just wrong.


Increasing the strength of the intuition and the power of one's energy healing ability is done through mindful practice and dedicated learning. It is good to become attuned to various systems, as long as one takes the time to fully learn and incorporate these new energetic frequencies into his or her own. I'm trained and familiar with several methods of energy healing and going to a workshop to learn another method in November.


But you will never hear me telling someone that one method is "lower level" than another. Because just as methods are different, people are too. Different methods will naturally resonate with different people. I'm very resonant with Reiki. My good friend and colleague Ernie Betz is very in tune with Quantum-Touch. We've each learned Reiki and Quantum-Touch both, and we both experience profound results in our practices. But we both understand that it's about the practice and the person's comfort level that makes the difference. As long as one is mindfully practicing, one's intuition gets stronger, and the results continue to show themselves as valid and powerful.


Anyone who doesn't understand this does not belong in the spotlight teaching others.


(Alice steps off the soapbox...for now.)