Where the Lightworker Stands, and the Energy Flows

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I'm on vacation this week, with my family, in beautiful Sandbridge, VA. We come here every year for a week, to slow down, get some beach time, and be together without a schedule. The weather has been gorgeous (up until yesterday and today, which are cool, just dipping below 70 degrees, and a bit rainy). Still, it's so great to be here.

One of the things that vacations like this do for me is give me time to contemplate. I love this opportunity. I always bring along a book or two to read, which I've been wanting time to dive into. This year, I brought Energy Medicine by Donna Eden. I have been enjoying it very much, and learning a lot too. I intend to continue learning about it when we get home.

This year, I've also been contemplating two very different driving philosophies of energy healing. I've learned a bit of both, and I'm pondering the ideas of how they might work together, if they need to work together, and the ultimate effects and usability of each.

Dr. Lawrence LeShan calls them, perhaps a bit clinically, "Type 1" and "Type 2" healings. These defined types aren't at all unique to his method of healing, but the designations describe two paths to working in this scope of the energy healing field.

The first one, (he calls this Type 2), is the one which is more widely practiced. This describes any approach in which the practitioner is the facilitator, and the recipient is the one receiving the healing. Reiki is in this category, as well as acupuncture, acupressure, Energy Medicine, Therapeutic Touch, Cranial-Sacral Therapy, and most common energy healing modalities. There may or may not be manipulation of the physical body or energy field involved, either through intention or pressure, or both. I teach my students that the recipient is healing him or herself by receiving energy which helps him or her come into balance. The practitioner helps to create a "healing space" around the recipient by initiating and offering a connection to a flow of Life Force Energy. 

In this type of healing, the practitioner is able to observe the recipient's energy field, if he or she so desires, and may receive some intuitive information about the ways and places which may be off balance (and engaged in a process of self-correcting during the session). The practitioner becomes the observer of the process, after intending that the energy flow to the recipient. In this type, the practitioner and recipient are in separate roles, with the first offering and observing the latter, who is receiving.

The second type (LeShan's "Type 1") is different. Essentially, this type requires the practitioner to go into meditation, and then to intend to include the recipient of the healing in this meditative space with him or her. It is thought that when we are in this meditative state, we are connected fully with the All One energy field which is our true essence. In being connected with this true essence, we naturally will be able to experience a return to balance; a clearing, a healing, a wholeness. The practitioner intends to merge into this All One field with the person receiving the healing, so in this sense, the two are not separate, but together inside the All One energy field. There is no observing, because that implies separateness, as in, "I am over here observing you, who is separate from me." You can't observe because that makes you step out of the experience. You are just to BE in this state, and flow with it, and allow whatever happens, whatever you might experience, to occur. Then you're done. The LeShan Method is not the only method that follows this philosophy. There are others, with different names, that encourage doing the same thing. Some call it Non-Local Consciousness healing, or something of that nature that means entering into a deep meditative, altered state of consciousness.

I've read of a man who will sit in the room with someone who is ill, and go into deep meditation for hours. Then the ill person experiences healing. Also, people such as John of God and Braco seem to affect a healing process by looking at, being in the presence of, or touching the recipient. It's a presence - an energy of Beingness- that acts as a catalyst for the healing. I feel that these are also similar to the 'Type 1" LeShan Method that I learned in April.

Both philosophies are valid, and may offer beneficial, sometimes "miraculous" results. Yet, they are so different that they can't be combined together without doing one first, and then the other. I'm able to offer a healing session in which I do the meditative type first, and then switch to offering Reiki. This involves intentionally shifting from the All One state to that of the facilitator-observer. 

As a Reiki practitioner, It's often more comforting and validating for me to be in the place of the observer, because information comes in - I can intuitively tell which chakras are blocked, or where the recipient is experiencing physical or emotional pain. Then I can share these insights with the person, and get feedback from him or her on how my observations and the healing session resonate. It is satisfying on some level to have this interaction.

With the "Type 1" method, on my end, offering the meditative state healing brings me only the sort of deep, blissful feeling of being in a non-physical, flowing consciousness, and perhaps some dreamlike visions. I know that something happened, but can't really quantify it. The recipient may experience something, but I can't always be sure that what I experience correlates in any way with her or her experience, and I have no certainty or expectation of any specific results that may occur as a result of this type of healing method. My only intention is for the recipients Highest and Best to happen during the session. It takes a lot of surrender to do this. Still, I find it very intriguing, and the feedback I've received has been very meaningful when I've offered this sort of healing.


So, now I'm putting these questions out there to you: 

• Have you experienced or do you practice either of these energy healing paths? 
• Do you have some experience you can share about how either affected you?

I realize that learning more, and going deeper, into the understandings of energy healing, and the energy systems of the human experience (aura, meridians, and chakras), is important at this stage of my career and personal growth. I also know that doing so will help me be a better practitioner and teacher. 

So that's where I'm at, and I'm inviting those interested to follow my journey here, or to actively come with me by joining the Advanced Healing Pioneers, a new membership program, here.

The Feedback is Back

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In my previous post, I was interested in testing out the new psychic healing method I had learned. And, I received requests from many volunteers to help me try it out and receive feedback (for which I'm very grateful). 

The sessions were good for me. They made me mediate - sometimes three times a day! I found myself recognizing when I was in "the zone" -  because this really blissful sort of happy feeling would fill me, and I'd feel disconnected from my tendency to think about stuff - I was just present, without judgement or analysis. 

They also helped me to try something totally different in practice and philosophy from Reiki. Differences included:

• I wasn't trying to "do anything" - I was simply engaging in a sort of universal merging with the other person, asking for the person's highest and best to happen.
• I wasn't scanning, looking for intuitive information, or trying to "sense" anything about the other person's state of balance.
• I couldn't even try to send Reiki because in order to do that, I need to be separate from the other person. In this method, we are one and the same. So I can't be the sender, the observer, or anything that's not simply as one with the recipient and the Universal Energy (however you want to call it).

So, I was extremely curious about how these psychic healings would be on the receiving end. Here are some snippets of the feedback I received. The least remarkable experience was when the recipient fell asleep for a restful 30 minute nap. The rest of the feedback was like this (different colors and the line of asterisks indicate different people's responses):

With the healing, I saw a huge bluish light on my right side. Oval. I felt energy in different places and saw people coming in and out during the latter process.

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It was very relaxing and soothing, like a Reiki treatment. I felt a lot of warmth over my face, almost like a very gentle massage, around my sinuses and eyes, and a slight tingling at my temples. I did go into a deeper meditative state, where I don't remember much, but I was alert at the 9:30 mark, like the session was over, feeling refreshed. 

*******************

My finger tips and palms began to "buzz" as they do during a Reiki session, and later I felt a bit of the same on the soles of my feet. Shortly after the hand buzzing began, I did notice my breath had slowed and I felt more relaxed; calm. This lasted for about 10 more minutes before I felt the "buzzing" fade away.  

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My experience was very different from Reiki.  I felt a strong energy connection immediately as I set my intent to receive a psychic healing from Alice.  For me it was a strong hand tingling much like an attunement. Stronger than I feel in a self Reiki session.  This connection was solid and strong within the first five minutes.  Then I felt very clear in my 3rd eye, and was able to sit with memories I was seeking, much like meditation but without any effort to focus on breath or quiet mind.  These memories I sat with for a full 10 minutes, and then I felt a body warmth, and I felt a nice healing and understanding which was very gentle and loving. Then I felt very relaxed and knew the energy was wane.  This happened about 22 minutes into the session.  I knew at 25 minutes the connection was closed, and I just felt good, clear, and relaxed.

Your psychic healing session last night brought me a sense of calm and peace. I felt like I was floating outside of time. Amazing and blissful. Just what I needed at this time!

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Right away I noticed some pulsing almost twitching but I don't think there was actually physical movement..but it felt like the pulsing in my feet and legs could be seen if someone looked. My feet and hands felt warm and tingling but not like the reiki sending tingle..it was like a tingle of electricity subtle but noticeable. I started to notice pulsing or the bubbling sensation in various parts of my body. Arms and legs were the most noticeable.

I remember thinking I had an alert awareness of my whole body..the tiredness was gone. It was peaceful but definitely a beautiful awareness of my body like an energy field.

The pulsing inner switching or bubbling kept occurring throughout the time in various areas but mostly my feet legs and arms.

I felt a sense of peace ...relaxation but at the same time this rare sense of awareness. I felt a sense of great well being and still feel that along with a lightness in spirit. 

Honestly this to me has been a profound stretch of time. Thank you so much for this experience. This was honestly unforgettable healing.. I have no awareness that there was a specific healing yet I know something important happened within me.!

I just feel wonderful, lighter, calm, and filled with inner peace right now.

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I was getting dinner on the table and realized that I only had two minutes until the healing was going to begin. I lost track of time briefly and all of a sudden I said to my husband "I've got to go - I can feel the energy flowing already."  I was feeling warm and a sense of lightheadedness because the energy was flowing so strongly. I laid down upstairs in our room and immediately felt the loving and caring energy. It felt like I was being melded into the bed like clay, especially in my heart chakra.  Then I felt the healing energy move into my head which is where most of my troubles of been lately. I have felt like such a cloud has been in my head these past few days and it's as if I could feel it being physically moved up and swirling out if my head to be released.  I was feeling immediate relief. Then I felt the energy shift and start moving downwards in my body.  The next place I felt an immense amount of energy was in my sacral chakra. I also felt the release of bubbles in my stomach :-) then I felt the energy going into my legs down to my feet. Eventually I could feel it moving again into my sacral chakra and heart and finally into my head again (the pressure had completely dissipated). I could sense the healing was coming to an end. 

This is the first distance healing I have ever received and it felt so powerful. I am reminded again and again that Spirit is real and that the power to heal is real! It was a beautiful experience.

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I'm grateful for this feedback, because it really taught me a lot about energy work! I've also been thinking about how I can incorporate this method into making the distance healing sessions I offer even more powerful, and still offering the observational reports that I include with a distance Reiki session. You see, when I give a distance Reiki session, I spend time observing the energy flowing to the recipient, and in which chakras and body areas the energy flows differently (blockages, pain, or depletion, for example). I prepare a report of these observations for my recipient, and include it in the email I send after I do the healing session. I still want to offer this, because my recipients find the observations to be very useful, along with the energy of course.

I also am aware that giving a psychic healing with this method requires a different sort of work on my part. I need to be in a totally quiet place, and can't be distracted or disturbed by any of my family members. I need to be completely immersed for this part of the session. 

So, I am going to offer an option of having both the psychic healing session at the beginning, and the Reiki session with report next, as part of the same healing session. That way, the recipient can have the benefit of both methods. They can also still receive a more personalized report and accounting of my observations about their energy flow as it was being received. I feel good about this decision. 

I've also decided to charge a little more, but not double, for the combination of psychic healing and Reiki. 
It's an option to make my services more valuable overall, but still give the person receiving a choice.

I look forward to the new experiences this will bring for those receiving healing sessions from me, and for my own growth as a lightworker.

If you'd like to schedule a distance healing session, please go to reikiawakening.com/reiki-healing

Comments are always welcome.

Doing the Work

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As my loyal readers know, meditation has been a struggle for me. 
I've posted about it a lot, but especially here:
Meditation Has Annoyed Me
and here:
Practical Meditation...Not
Pretty easy to get the picture, even from the titles, right?

In the post above, a year ago, I wrote about reading How to Mediate by Lawrence LeShan, followed by The Medium, the Mystic and the Physicist. These were some big, powerful reads for me, and both books inspired me to learn more. After waiting a year, last week, I traveled to Connecticut to attend the 5 day LeShan Healing Seminar, to learn this little-known method of psychic healing that Dr. LeShan trained himself to do and talks about in his book The Medium, the Mystic and the Physicist.

The lessons from the week were many, but most of all, I learned something about myself: 

           I've been copping out on meditation. 

Yes, it's true. I've given myself excuses by the dozen - This kind of meditation isn't "my thing." I'm not the kind of person who can - or needs to - quiet down in there. I'll get it, or I won't, and it doesn't matter really...blahblahblah. Anything to avoid the work of actually struggling through the noise to find the silence and just BE here.

On the second day of the seminar, I even blurted out to the entire group of thirteen people, "I SUCK at this!!" And, I meant it. My meditations for the first two days were like trying to tame a wild horse. I'd be quietly breathing for a bit. Then I'd comment in my head how nice and quiet my thoughts are. Then I'd mentally tell myself to stop commenting. Then I'd comment that telling myself to stop was still commenting. Then, a little while later, the pizza guy showed up in my head with a couple pizzas, and I looked to see what kind they were, and started to thank him, and then WHAM! I realized that I was supposed to be meditating, and the pizza guy was a big distraction (though a pleasant one) by my thoughts, and I'd have to start again. 

But, meditation is a BIG, IMPORTANT part of learning this healing method, and I was VERY motivated to learn it. So, it was time. I had to sit my butt in the chair, close my eyes, and MAKE myself make the effort to meditate. This was the sole activity for two days and I had to do it. No excuses, nothing else to be running off to do. Just this - the "calisthenics" that would build our intuitive muscles to be able to do the healing work, which we'd learn on the third day. I'm doing the work, so I can do the real work.

I guess it's about time, right? 

By the start of day three, I was calmer. I wasn't beating myself up anymore. I was just bringing my mind back to the meditation at hand, observing and noticing which methods (visualization, contemplation, breath counting, etc.) were a little easier for me to stay focused doing. I was seeing myself as more of an observer than a critic. And that's progress. 

The healing method is very interesting and profound. I am looking forward to working more with it now that I'm home. 

On the last morning, we did one more meditation together. It was contemplation of a three part quotation, as it pertains to ourselves. I had a very different experience here. As I sat, thinking about my life, my path, the way I relate to myself, others, and the world, I found I was smiling - hugely. I felt so much happiness fill me. Gratitude, maybe joy too. Just so completely happy about being where I am in this journey - knowing why I'm here, knowing that the work I do is meaningful, and feeling supremely grateful for the ability to connect with and help others. 

This seminar was very beneficial to me, because learning to meditate (finally) is going to help my entire life - my healing work, my parenting, my focus...all of it. And, the healing method is one that I can work to further develop, now that I have the tools and the means to actually practice without being in my own way. 

If you need some help with meditation, don't ask me. Hahaha! Read LeShan's book, How to Meditate. All of the explanations of how the brain works, and the different methods we learned can be found in there.

If you'd like to experience a healing with the method I learned, please send me an email. I will offer a free distance session to the first 12 people who ask, in exchange for feedback afterward, to let me know how your experience was. Just shoot me an email.

Thanks for reading. Your comments are so welcome, always. 

There's No Place Like Home

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The kids with my Grandma Goldye

Last week, the family and I went to Cleveland to celebrate Passover with family. It was the first time I had been back since we moved to Maryland six months ago. In the weeks before the trip, I had had two nightmares about moving back to Cleveland - in the second one, Evan had told me we needed to move back for three months, and I had flatly refused, telling him to take the kids and let me stay here for the time he'd be there. That's how much I love living here in Maryland. 

When we were there in Cleveland last week, we went to see our Cleveland house. It's sold, by the way, finally, and we are scheduled to close the sale at the end of this week. So it's empty, and ready for a new person to have a life there. Even driving down the street was surreal for me. We lived in that house for fifteen years. We had all four kids while we lived there. My oldest is now in eighth grade. It was the only home my kids knew until six months ago. Walking in the door, walking around the house, I had two very distinct questions come into my mind, as if a deep confusion was going on under the surface. 

The first question was, "Is this a weird dream? Will I wake up in my bed in Maryland if I shake myself out of it?" The second question to surface was, "Have the past six months been a weird dream, and am I back home now?" I answered both questions, as if speaking to a frightened child, with reassuring answers about why I was there, and that we would be going back to Maryland soon, where we live now. But the uneasy feeling continued. 

Shortly afterward, we went back to my parents' house, where I had lived between breaks in college, and for four years after graduation, before getting married. It also, was my "home" for those years. This was the first time that my husband and I had spent the night there together as a married couple, and we've been married for seventeen years. When we lived in Cleveland, we all ate dinner as a family every Friday night, usually at my parents' house. Being back there, and especially sleeping there for a few nights, was another one of those confusing feelings for me, under the surface. I heard my inner voice, "Where is home? This was home. Am I home?" This poor, confused little me inside my head was really having a time of it. Again, I reassured this little voice with images of my new home in Maryland, and the date that we'd all be back there. 

Several times during the trip, I caught myself talking to the kids and using the phrase "we'll go back home" but referring to my parents' house, because that's where we were staying. But once I used it referring to the Cleveland house, and once I also used it to refer to our Maryland house. I felt odd each time.

On Wednesday, I left for a five day seminar in Connecticut to learn the LeShan Psychic Healing Method - something I had been waiting a year for, and was very excited about. So I flew out of Cleveland, and spent five days and nights in a retreat center. I had a room there, of course, and all that. The seminar was intense and deep. I have a lot to think about, a lot to practice, and new tools. (Side note - if you want to know more about what this method is, read The Medium, the Mystic and the Physicist by Lawrence LeShan.)

Yesterday, I flew from Connecticut to Baltimore, and then took a bus back to Gaithersburg, where I gratefully arrived back here, "Home" now. This is where I live. This is home. 

But my roots feel a little unsteady. It left me thinking about how long it takes, and what events need to happen, for the place you live to settle in deep enough that one can say the word "home" and it comfortably relates to the place that person resides. Most of all, I wonder how long it will take for me to be able to say "home" and have that deep, comfortable knowing where I mean. 

I want the word "home" to resonate as here in Gaithersburg. I LOVE our house here. (We're renting for now, though I hope to buy this house eventually if we have the opportunity). I love the area, the opportunities, the new friends and associates, all of it. It feels so much better to me energetically than the years we struggled in Ohio. I want this place to be the one that resonates when I say the word "home." 

Selling our house - being done with the closing and all - should help. Also, we still need to get MD driver's licenses and plates for our cars. That should help too, I think. 

I have a place to practice and teach Reiki. I have been teaching here, making contacts, and have some events lined up to go to for business networking and stuff like that. We have new doctors, eye doctors, dentist, and library cards. We have a new bank, and checks with our new address. 

Energetically, I really need to be here all the way. Home is where the heart is. 

"Be here now." This concept is a part of cultivating the full presence that helps in all energy work, and in mindfulness that is essential for being effective, confident, and balanced. 

I'm working on that. 

Practical Meditation...Not

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One of the things I love most about Reiki, and most intuitive skills, is that they can be learned easily. Some methods seem deliberately complicated, with structure and ritual injected to help a person feel secure ("Just tell me what to DO"). But I like things unplugged and simple, and find that I'm thrilled when they work that way. That's why I wrote my book Practical Reiki. Simplicity, along with understanding the underpinnings of how things work, these are my favorite ways to learn, and my favorite things to teach.

Along those lines, I've been trying to find a practical, simple way to learn to effectively meditate. I've studied and tried some different methods. I've purchased and tried out a headset that displays my brain waves, and shows me if I've hit the "zone" of delta or theta waves- the ones indicating meditation states. I've tried 5 minute meditations, humming, staring, visualizing, counting breaths, using beads, emptying my mind, listening to binaural tones, listening to Deepak Chopra's series, guided meditations, unguided meditations, and haven't yet stuck with anything. 

I asked myself why I haven't felt successful yet. I think it's because I keep having the same issue of my mind wandering. Or falling asleep. Or sometimes I feel more frustrated than peaceful. So I try something else until I hit the same sorts of snags. 

I'm blessed to be in Florida for a few days with my parents and my sisters. Big thanks to my husband, Evan, for encouraging me to go when I had the chance. I don't have very many opportunities to see my sisters, who live in different far away states. So this wonderful opportunity is a very rare blessing and I'm so happy to be here. 

Being away has given me the chance to read more. I brought along a really good book, How to Meditate, a guide to self-discovery by Lawrence LeShan. It's immensely readable, and I like his sense of humor too. I'm learning something very important from this book - there are no shortcuts. Meditation is work. It just is. It needs to be done consistently, and it's common to hit snags. You still have to keep doing it. Some days will be good, some will be not good. It doesn't mean to stop or try something new. LeShan offers many different methods, with clear explanations of the purpose and approach (emotional, intellectual, and other categories) of each. He advocates for choosing one that seems to fit your style now, not what you want it to be. Then you are advised to work with the style daily for at least three weeks before deciding if you like it or not. 

LeShan says that meditation is work. Period. There are no shortcuts, and if you're looking for enlightenment or psychic experiences, then you're basically doing it wrong. While one might, from time to time, experience some intuitive experiences (flashes of light, psychic phenomena), they are to be enjoyed for the moment, and then you get back to the work of meditating. If they are your reason for meditating, you are meditating for the wrong reason, and you'll lose your progress in both areas should they become your focus.

While I am wishing that there was a quick, practical approach, and I also do teach about doing mini meditations during the day (such as taking 3-5 slow deep breaths while washing the hands or at a red light), I understand that meditation is really more than that. There doesn't seem to be a quick way to get there. It is work. But the benefits make it worthwhile if you can stick it out.

Up to now, I've been a lazy meditator. I know, though, that there are benefits to following through. I've seen the results in my friends who are very intuitive. They credit meditation with the increase in their intuitive abilities. That's what I want to achieve as well. Not during meditation, but during my regular intuitive work. 

One thing that I really loved in his book is this quote - it's not about meditating, but about letting your experience teach you what's true. This idea is something that I teach ALL of my students, in every class. 

"In the Kalama Sutra, a statement attributed to the Buddha states: 'Do not believe on the strength of traditions even if they have been held in honour for many generations and in many places; do not believe anything because many people speak of it; do not believe on the strength of sagas of old times; do not believe that which you have yourself imagined, thinking a god has inspired you. Believe nothing which depends only on the authority of your masters or of priests. After investigation, believe that which you yourself have tested and found reasonable, and which is for your good and that of others.'"

Surprisingly (to me), he talks with some measure of disdain about chakras and energy work in this book, saying that they are basically fake. I kinda laugh at that, because I really disagree. But he's a science guy, and so I guess I understand. 

LeShan also wrote another book that I'm reading this trip. It's called The Medium, the Mystic, and the Physicist.  In it, he gets fascinated with energy healing, including distance healing, and after doing a lot of research, he determines what psychic healers "do", and he trained himself how to do it. Then he experimented with seeing if it would work. I love that he did this. I mean, he trained himself how to be a psychic healer (his term), and let his experience teach him if it would work. 

That's my approach to learning intuitive skills - to try and see, and keep experimenting until there are enough consistent results for me to believe it's working. I seriously love that he did this. 

So because he and I seem to have this approach in common, I'm going to give meditation a try again, and follow his suggestions. I'll keep you posted.

Now I'm going to enjoy my last day on the beach for this trip! 

 

This Funny Role

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I made this today...how do you view yourself?