Biology was my favorite subject in high school. The study of life – I can’t imagine anything more intriguing!? In college I studied psychology and biology and where they intersected as neuroscience. I had not discovered grit, so I talked myself out of trying hard enough to pursue medical school. After college, I moved to California and got a job as a lab tech. Kathleen worked as the only other employee office admin, and we would eat lunch together most days. Her background was very different from anyone I had met so far – she had spent time with a cult and was in town to work with a spiritual healer.
A year of lunch discussions from the viewpoints of science and spirituality. She had studied the energy healing thought leaders of the day, including Carolyn Myss and Louise Hay. These trailblazers showed a direct correlation between our beliefs and illness. Donna Eden was able to see energies and reestablish health and vitality by balancing them in the body. Our lunch conversations were lively. She patiently explained energy, energy blockages, healing, quantum physics, timelines, and so much more. I listened, asked questions, and challenged many of the things she said.
At the end of the year she took me to meet her spiritual healer. Bob Mahaney lived in a small non-descript suburban house. He had worked as a janitor before he retired and now spent his time exploring energy and healing people around the world by releasing energy blockages. He received a phone call from someone in the UK with cancer when I was there that evening in 1998 (long before we understood much about distance healing).
We had an hour session. He looked at me and said my soul connection was missing. Using a L-wire dowsing rod, he traced back along my timeline and announced that I had been attacked in utero. Then he restored my soul connection. In that hour I went from agnostic scientist to firm believer in the world of energy. I immediately sensed energy with a “knowing”.
The shift was dramatic. I went to a bar with friends that night in San Francisco and a guy came over to ask why my aura was the brightest he had ever seen. My friend told me he was hitting on me, but he didn’t stay to chat and it was a gay bar.
Bob gave me an L-wire and I began to play with energy myself. He had started sensing energies in plants, so that is where I started too. When my friends were struggling I would see if we could find a blockage and work to release it. I started to get hunches and would call my friends and ask cryptically if everything was ok? Sometimes it was and sometimes it was not. I talked with a friend and we devised a scientific experiment to test my abilities, which was not successful. I got Reiki training and practiced “playing with energy” with a group of friends every Sunday morning.
At the time, I was in graduate school for nutritional biochemistry. Scientists are generally not allowed to believe in things that cannot be proven. Researchers are shunned and ostracized for unpopular viewpoints. So I kept this part of me hidden out of fear.
Luckily, others have been more diligent. Richard Gerber MD published his handbook Vibrational Medicine with research findings across disciplines and eras. He explains that the body is more than the function of its parts. Through the interconnection of the subtle energies (thoughts are energy), we influence our health. “Fear, by its depressing effect on our mentality, thus causes disharmony in our physical and magnetic bodies and paves the way for [bacterial] invasion.” Various modalities influence these energies, including sound therapy, acupuncture, homeopathy, and more.
When I began my journey of self-discovery, I remembered “energy” as one of my favorite areas of exploration. I had lapsed in my practice as life got busy with kids and I had pushed this part of me down. It was now twenty years later and the tolerance for energy healing was much higher (although generally still not acceptable in the scientific community). It was time to play again!
It turns out that energy healing and shifting energy through belief work has been an indispensable part of my journey. Hypnosis jump-started my finally successful weight-loss journey, and the self-reflection I did to shift my beliefs was critical to get to the bottom of my coping to be able to maintain it. I have also been helped by EFT tapping. My daily intuitive messages keep me motivated and on track, while working towards my bigger life. I suspect most of my best product ideas these past twenty years came from intuition.
I have seen people on both sides of the fence. There are plenty of healers who believe traditional modalities are the only ones that work and plenty of healers who believe alternative modalities are the only and best option. Both are important and both have a place.
Modern traditional medicine has saved my life many times. My emergency C-section after 3 days of labor saved the life of my baby, and my damaged lungs (from avoiding antibiotics during my 2nd pregnancy) has required life-saving antibiotics several times. Back in caveman times, I likely would have died (like many did!). These medical discoveries are precious gifts, just like energy healing.
The strength in our healing journey (and life!), is in the multitude of perspectives. We grow by having experiences and meeting people with different viewpoints. Our understanding of healing grows in this same way. When we stay open-minded and try new things, sometimes we learn something new. What a glorious abundant world we live in! I am not saying don’t be discerning. Ask questions, talk to practitioners and clients, experiment, weigh what you learn with what you already know (questions are healthy and should be allowed and encouraged!). Then after all that, trust your internal guidance.
I am guessing you already tried cutting calories. I am also guessing if you are here it didn’t work. When it comes to some aspects of our health, one modality isn’t enough. Just adding broccoli to a junk diet doesn’t make you healthy – it’s not just one thing. What worked for me was a complex interweaving of nutrition, hypnosis, energy healing, reflection, coping strategies and habit change. When we utilize all the tools, we find the strongest path to healing.
References
- Donna Eden, Energy Medicine (New York: Jeremy Tarcher/Putnum, 1998).
- Louise Hay, You Can Heal Your Life (Carlsbad California: Hay House, 1984).
- Carolyn Myss, Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing (New York: Random House, 1996)
- Richard Gerber, Vibrational Medicine: The #1 Handbook of Subtle-Energy Therapies. (Vermont: Bear and Company, 2001).
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