On March 11, 2011 I was in Tokyo getting ready to teach my Diploma Course seminars, when the floor began to shake. Then the walls of the restaurant Yui and I were sat in began to move, causing the decorative fish tank next to me to look like it was boiling. Living through a major earthquake event is like being in a high-speed car accident, when all your physical senses are stunned yet paradoxically still observing. Tokyo people sitting nearby, accustomed to regular earthquake events in their city, suddenly started to pay attention when the shaking continued beyond one minute. After three minutes of shaking the terrified elderly lady at the next table suddenly ducked under it, following the Drop, Cover, and Hold On protocol. Once the shaking eventually stopped (at the six minute mark) we all headed home to search for news of just how bad this quake actually was. We would soon discover that this, the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake, was the most powerful seismic event ever to hit Japan. It was one of the five biggest earthquakes in recorded history, shifting the Earth on her axis by 10 cm (4 inches).

Although Tokyo was hit by what felt like a mere 4.0 magnitude, the true power of the event was a 9.0, with an epicenter located 72 km (45 miles) East of the Oshika Peninsula of Tohoku. Like the rest of the world, we in Tokyo witnessed the tsunami event via television screens and internet video streaming. It was shocking to behold. The Pacific Ocean surged as far as 10 km (6 miles) inland to the north of Tokyo, killing thousands, and destroying homes. The Western Main Stream Media gave the misleading impression that the disaster covered the whole of Japan. Emotionally, at least, that was true. But while the impact of this disaster was undeniably horrific what was soon to follow would make this calamity pale in comparison. Because the tsunami also impacted the six nuclear power reactors at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Station. That’s right: someone had thought it was a good idea to situate six nuclear reactors right on the coastline. On an earthquake-prone island.

The tsunami quickly knocked out the electric power to the Fukushima reactor buildings, leaving them with only emergency batteries for backup. Five of these six reactors are the BWR Mark 1, designed and built by General Electric (GE), and known to be especially vulnerable to containment breaches should the coolant to the nuclear fuel bundles ever stop flowing. And coolant did stop flowing, after the emergency batteries at the Fukushima station were depleted many hours after the tsunami hit the facility. While all nuclear reactors are designed to shut down in an emergency situation, if the fuel bundles do overheat and if the reactor containment does fail, the result is predictable. The Tohoku earthquake has now led to an enormous radioactive pollution release into the global environment from the Fukushima station. Isotopes ranging from Iodine-131 all the way up to that superstar of death-dealing contaminants, Plutonium-239, are now leaking in our ecosystem. We can expect the winds and ocean currents to distribute this cancer-causing pollution throughout the world. This is, of course, what happened with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Europe. But the Fukushima disaster will outdo Chernobyl. I am praying I am wrong, but all current indicators are that this event is a game changer for the human race.

There’s much more to this story than aging nuclear reactors hit in their most vulnerable spot, leading to coolant failure followed by fires and meltdowns, all due to the bad luck of the tsunami event. There’s the reality of the stored fuel bundles sitting alongside the reactors, because the Tokyo electric company (TEPCO) did not relocate them to a secure storage facility. This, by the way, is common practice throughout the nuclear industry that, rather than deal with the cost and inconvenience of storing used fuel bundles (decayed uranium and isotope byproducts encased in ever-weakening-by-heat-and-radiation metal fuel pins), they opt to pop them into a nearby storage pool next to the reactor. After all, what could possibly go wrong? We now know the total spent and current nuclear fuel at the Fukushima station dwarfs that at Chernobyl in the Eighties. This is beyond a nightmare.

As an energy healer (and as an-ex Nuclear Worker with the early UK nuclear reactor program) several things scream for my attention. Design flaws. Inexcusable inefficiency. Criminal negligence. But the biggest is my shock at the media response, as the current “spin” put upon this disaster by Western news clearly demonstrating just how far our corporate-owned news have fallen away from responsible reporting in service of everyday people. Radiation levels are well below safe levels, the news coos. Any pollution will be diluted by the environment, government “experts” assure us. The danger from radiation is overblown, mock our well-meaning TV pundits. Alongside dealing with the reality of environmental radioactive pollution we are now faced with this, another disaster: the discounting of the real situation by official sources, either the governments, or the corporations connected to the nuclear power industry. “But Nuclear power is safe!” they assure us. No, it is not. It’s not been safe in the past, and it will get increasingly unsafe in the future unless things change. Now is the time to learn from our mistakes. As a beginning let’s start shutting down the GE-designed Mark 1 reactors all over the planet. Because this is not a corporate profit issue. It’s a planetary safety issue.

Unless we come together as a global community, and demand these reactors be decommissioned, the Fukushima Nuclear Power Facility disaster will inevitably be repeated. Doomsayer? No. Trend observer? Yes. If the problems such as reactor containment design flaws and stored fuel bundle protocols are further ignored after this event then we are simply awaiting the inevitable repeat of the situation we now find ourselves in. Denial – a key challenge in how we humans awaken from illusion and into reality – must be dissolved when it comes to facing the dangers held by these aging nuclear reactors. GE Mark 1 reactors need to be shut down and replaced with an alternative power solution.  If we don’t act soon then we are no different from the elderly Tokyo lady ducking under her table. She – and the rest of the human race – are not safe under any structure, even those covered with an analgesic sheet of denial. It is time for us to fully awaken to the dangers of nuclear power, and to band together for the sake of our planet, and our children. It is time to steadfastly ignore the lies and misdirection spun by mainstream media and the government, and to educate ourselves as to all our options. And here is one practical and essential action we can take: tell the electric companies to shut down all GE Mark 1 nuclear reactors, and to build safer ones. And to start now. Because, while they may disagree,  these corporations do not own the planet and the ecosystem upon which the human race depends. We do.

We are here for another day, and then we fly to France.

Now I was sitting on Napolitano, a full-blooded Lippizan horse, and we were slowly treking downhill towards the olive fields and vineyards that surrounded our hotel. We were not getting along very well. Napolitano was young, but slow and stubborn. I respect that, but he was also big, strong, and a muncher. Every time we passed anything remotely green he was trying to grab it. There’s a lot of green stuff on a Tuscan hillside, so I was spending all my time trying to manage my horse. Symbolic, no doubt, of my frustrations with having to let go of two weeks of sessions.

I’m not an experienced rider, but I can hold my own with the average horse. And today Napolitano was in Silver Chakra mode, making me do something I didn’t want to do: spend all my time staying on his back while trying to guide him down the dangerously-steep rocky trail. And not fall off. As for the continual munching… very frustrating.

But I’m still only a few days away from my Higher Chakra Intensive in Germany, which has left me open to new experiences and perceptions. A Silver chakra situation calls out what you don’t want to face but must face: it is the hard work part of the transformational process. I begin to wonder what the point of all this struggling is, for me.

Not all of us want to deal with life as a challenge; mostly, we want life to accommodate to our desires, and to our demands. It takes struggle to spur new growth, to create an enhanced response to any life situation. Otherwise, we just stay the same. Without accepting our challenges we will grow older, but we remain the same person inside. It is the level of difficulty, and how we wrestle with it, that stimulates our personal and spiritual development. In this most mundane of moments, I was engaging in only two challenges: to stay on the horse’s back, and to control his head without being overly harsh with pulling on his bit. Sightseeing the vineyards was not currently an option.

Energy healing can be like this, in that we all want to get results but we don’t necessarily want to welcome the drudgery of practice. If we are healers we may want to become a “Master”, or a teacher, or another authority-enhancing title, and with a minimal effort. If we are a healing client we may want someone to do our personal work for us, to hand us all the answers so we can get back to life as usual. Very few of us enjoy the monotony of practice, and wrestling with a strong-willed being. We don’t want to let the Silver (Eighth) Chakra mess with us; we want the Gold (Ninth) Chakra to appear to us with the end result. Personal development is hard work.

Almost two hours later my uncomfortable relationship with the Lipizzan began to change me. My heels were down, not because of what I had been told but because, well, because that is how you stay on your horse as you descend a steep rocky trail. But you need to take care. Feet too close to his belly and it may trigger a cantering response, while too far away and you can slip off the horse’s back. Repetition results in competency. Also, my attention has been moving continually down, not through my feet chakras as usual but through Napolitano’s body, and into his hooves. I am no longer two legged, but a four-legged creature.

It’s now the end of the ride, and we are returning back up the hill. I’m standing up in the stirrups to shift my weight forward and off his back, to make the climb easier for him. My stubborn silver muncher is breathing harder, and our male competitive natures have relaxed and come together, so as to manage the steep climb efficiently. Then my heels accidentally touch his belly, and the Lippizan surges powerfully uphill, and we are joined as one. Silver is transformed into gold, and I am no longer the rider. For a few seconds I am centaur, and not just a man. Sightseeing is not why I am here; it is for this experience that I am here.

It is the day after my Higher Chakra Intensive in Germany and Yui and I are in Tuscany for Lipizzan horse riding, and to pay a visit to Florence. And I feel awful. The base of my neck is tightly contracted, and I have a headache. My brain is slow, and although I am functioning fine there are no thoughts in my mind. Oh, and it feels like someone is holding a flashlight over my forehead, and everything is very bright. Even with my eyes closed, and in a darkened room.

Welcome to chakra upgrade time. It’s not always fun.

With intellectual studies you can expect to feel tiredness after all your efforts. You may even have a normal tension headache. That’s to be expected. But with consciousness transformation studies, such as spending time with a spiritual teacher or the days following a meditation retreat, there are often physiological changes that may be a result of an energetic upgrade to your auric consciousness system. These upgrades may be uncomfortable or – as in my case – downright painful. They usually pass after a few days, and so there is nothing to do but wait for integration to happen. Discomfort is part of the price we all pay for change.

When we attend any kind of spiritual healing training we are not just spending time learning from the teacher, but we are making ourselves available to the spirit world that accesses the material and etheric world through that teacher. In previous blog entries I have stressed the need to assess your teacher thoroughly, as well as suggested some differences between initiation (transformation into a whole new stage of consciousness) and an “upgrade” (a shift in level of consciousness and chakra functioning). The ideal teacher has moved through various initiations and upgrades of their own, and can now act as a doorway for others. But you should know that an uninitiated/failed initiation teacher cannot fully initiate others; they can only unconsciously exploit the longing of their students for authentic initiation. They cannot take you to where they, themselves, have not evolved. And how to spot the difference? An initiated teacher helps you grow and become free to fly on your own; an un-initiated teacher keeps you in bondage to them.

At the Higher Chakra Intensive I would spend a lot of my time lying on the floor, closely attending to Rosalyn’s words, but mostly my eyes were closed and I was in a state of rest. Yes, I had jet-lag, and the Intensive was a welcome break from my busy private practice, but there was more was going on than mere recuperation. My system was being rewired, by the spirit helpers in the room.

I would not have trusted this “upgrade” process to anyone, or just to any energy healing event. In fact, on many occasions I have consciously erected psychic boundaries and rejected spirit beings who wanted to mess with my auric field. Why? Because it did not intuitively feel right to me at the time, and I seriously questioned their motivations. Just because spirit beings don’t have a body does not mean they always have our well-being as their highest priority. It is important not to confuse naivete with a healthy trust.

In my case, clearly the chakra upgrade work is centered around Talu chakra (brainstem), Sahasrara (crown chakra) and Ajna chakra (aka, the sixth chakra. Verification of my current state came from Yui, who experienced a similar upgrade experience at the similar Higher Chakra Intensive with Rosalyn many years ago. That’s how you get useful feedback, by the way: from someone who has been through the process themselves. Experience beats opinion hands down.

Upgrades occur in any chakra. If you are doing a creative movement or dance workshop, the upgrade can occur to Muladhara chakra; your physiology and balance may become altered. If you are doing emotional clearing or trauma healing work, the upgrade will be in Swadhisthana, your second chakra. You will begin to “feel” emotional attachments to others shift to a higher functional level, and you may gain increased emotional safety. And so on, up the chakra system. Upgrades will alter the chakra that is related to the issue you are transforming in your life.

So, before you grab your aspirin or head out for a CAT scan to search for physiological complications, wait a few days after your workshop or retreat. If the discomfort subsides, and your mind becomes still and clear, know that your energy consciousness system is “rebooting”, and you will be starting at a new level in your personal growth.

Be willing to be uncomfortable, upon occasion. The wiring of your auric system will always need to be upgraded in order for you to progress as a spiritual being … which means you will need to embrace upgrades and change. And change is not always fun.

Background Info: I studied concurrently with Rev Rosalyn Bruyere and with Barbara Brennan from 1988-1992, yet still consider Rosalyn my primary inspiration for energy healing knowledge and guidance, despite my long and loyal career at BBSH. I feel tremendous gratitude to Rosalyn for her generous spirit and vast knowledge base over the decades, and I am looking forward to this particular learning – and nourishment – experience in Germany. So much so that I’d like to share it with you.

For new student healers unaware of Rosalyn, she is the premier spiritual healer and energy healing ritual elder in North America, with skill sets ranging across multiple disciplines such as mediumship, energy healing scientific and medical research, Native American ritual eldership, Ancient Egyptian mystery studies, and Bon (Shamanic Tibetan) studies. When Barbara Brennan wanted training as an energy healer prior to opening her school she chose Rev. Rosalyn Bruyere. The BBSH chelation and brain-balancing skills are both descended from Rosalyn’s original techniques, and are taught at BBSH by permission. In conjunction with her partner Ken Weintrub, a martial arts instructor and healer, she currently teaches high-level Energy Healing intensives internationally.

DAY ONE: Wednesday September 8, 2010

2.00 am: I’m wide awake early in the morning at the Sonnenstrahl Retreat Center, just outside of Munich. After two days of traveling to Germany from North Borneo, which including a missed flight in Malaysia and a short layover on the Persian Gulf, Yui Wang and I finally arrived here earlier yesterday. After a typical German breakfast of freshly-baked bread, cheese, granola, and yogurt we did manage to grab a few hours of sleep but we feel remarkably fresh after our long journey. Flying West around the globe does produce a less brutal jet-lag experience than when flying East, but it still knocks you off your game. Luckily, the cultural matrix in Germany is heavily grounded into the earth and – like our solid breakfast – will anchor us quickly.

My hopes for live-blogging directly from the Intensive floor itself were dashed upon arrival when I discovered that the retreat’s Wi-Fi exists only in the Astro Bar (see below), leaving me to update this page every few hours rather than hour-by-hour. Oh, well.

I do like the Sonnenstrahl retreat center. Most of the staff speak good English, which is great because my Deutsch is minimal (mostly confined to basic polite expressions and earthy German expletives). If you are concerned about attending any future Intensive here do not be worried about language difficulties; you’ll manage just fine.

The accommodation rooms are small and very basic, more seminary-style than a regular hotel, but you have everything you need, including a heated towel rack in your room (essential in this damp climate), and a hair dryer (ditto). True, the mattress is a back-ache inviting foam rather than a coiled-spring, but the essential thing you need in Germany is … heat. The rooms do have solid radiators, and are nicely insulated from the outside. Don’t forget to bring a bunch of those pig-nosed German electrical adapters, for your electronics and your computer. In a nutshell, everything here is very functional, and I would expected nothing less from the German people. They do lose points for an absence of wide-ranging Wi-Fi access, however.

The dining room here is delightful, and the buffet dinner food last night was excellent. I’ve been on other Intensives at retreat centers, and I usually lose a kilo or two because the food, well… it usually sucks. But no weight loss here, methinks. Delicious vegetarian food, significant root vegetables, German beer or apple juice to accompany the evening meal, and I may as well kiss my waistline goodbye right now.

We met Rosalyn and Ken briefly, in the hallway, soon after we first arrived. They both look rested and in good health, and are clearly happy to be here. They told us that there will be 120 participants this week, the perfect group size for this retreat center. There will be English-to-German translation, so while I will miss Rosalyn’s trademark quick-fire delivery there will be additional time for reflection between translations.

I’ll update again in a few hours, and just add to this page as we move through our first day here. Feel free to post your questions or comments in the “Leave a Reply” box below, and I’ll try and respond to your specific needs.

8.15 am

Heading out to breakfast, on this misty and cool morning. I’m watching hearty German people jogging along the road, in front of the retreat center, and then Yui and I will walk over to the Intensive room, for a 10.00 am start with Rosalyn and Ken. Well, I’m guessing more like 10.30 am …

9.40 am

Yui and I have staked out our place in the prepared Pyramid Room: our home at the Intensive for the next few days. People are still having breakfast, but we will be starting soon.

6.00 pm: The first day morning session ran from 10.00 am to 1 pm, and was a delightful introduction to Rosalyn’s work here in Europe. My concern that her natural flow of teaching would be interrupted by the German translation proved not to be the case; bite-sizing her teaching topics allows for more digestion of the material, and additional coherence. Similarly, when Ken added his own observations or comments to the mix the translation “pause” worked well for me, as an English speaker. More space between their sentences led me to a deeper appreciation of their material.

Rosalyn began the morning by talking about brain research, and the process of remembering things as she becomes a little older. Then she branched out into family stories, a familiar teaching motif of Rosalyn’s teaching delivery, but always important to track. She is not rambling. These tid bits of her family life always contain extreme relevancy to the topic, and it pays dividends to listen carefully.  Sure enough, she suddenly began to relate the first six major chakras to that which embodies your family history, and the challenges of your current personality. Then came the important statement: “What is in your seventh, eighth and ninth chakras is what is in your distant past, and in your (impersonal) distant future.” Where the first six chakras are orientated around developing your shortcomings and growing as an individual, the upper chakras extend Rosalyn’s seven-colored chakra model into a Silver center and a Gold center, adding another intake and output chakra to her existing schema.

The importance of the chakras as alternating intake and output functioning is fundamental to Rosalyn’s way of working as an energy healer. For those of you interested in this I highly recommend you attend one of her Intensives and find out all about this directly from her. The gift you will give yourself is to bridge an intellectual understanding of the chakras and their function with a practical experience that to what is useful, not merely adding information to what you already know.

Then she is back to talking about brain research, as well as meditation states, and the importance of daydreaming. And, of course, she brings in the vital importance of humor. For the first time in twenty-two years of studying with Rosalyn it suddenly dawned on me the tremendous importance in the way she always uses humor in her teaching work:  her humor breaks up our studious egoic effort to stay in safe intellectual territory, and allows for the possibility of a brand-new insight, a life-changing understanding. As well as a delightful part of her personality, Rosalyn’s irreverent humor tips the serious mind off balance, so perhaps something new can come in, through the back door of your awareness.

“Let me tell you how I define neurosis: it’s the inability for us to learn from experience.” – Rosalyn L. Bruyere.

Rosalyn was now at the whiteboard, and drawing out the four directions, while stressing the need for equal personal development in mind, body, emotion, and spirit. The upper chakras extend this personal growth towards your own hidden potential, inclusive of service towards others. The upper chakras combine our highest nature (and what we create or attract into our lives) with a higher perspective: that which connects us to something greater than the personal self.

So, healing our neurosis (breaking apart intellectual stagnation and learning to move past our habits or family patterns) is the transformational work of the first six chakras. The practical uses of the seventh, eighth, and ninth chakras are a leap above the personal, into our higher consciousness. These higher chakras speak a different language to the first six chakras. How do I know this? Because Rosalyn has just launched into an entertaining tale about her pet parrot,  and the wild parrots now hatched in her front yard. This was going to be long – and fun – story …

8.00 pm

The afternoon segment of Day One, a few hours ago, was a stretching and exercise class with Ken. An integral part of Rosalyn and Ken’s Intensives is the emphasis on the physical development work of being a healer. For healers, exercise that stretches, strengthens, and integrates spiritual concepts into the physical world is not an option; it’s a requirement. It’s not enough to simply “intend” energy to move; one must actually move the muscle, the limbs, the breath. Only then can the prana flow strongly, and can change things.

Getting healers into their body and away from intellectualizing the material is far more than just an add-on addition to Rosalyn’s map; it is the foundation of it. One example of this came later during the evening segment when Rosalyn moved into a demonstration of how she and Ken work in a hospital setting. Avoiding any esoteric hand movements is an important part of working in any medical facility, or other public setting, Rosalyn stressed. Don’t scare people. Let me show you, she said.

Rosalyn took up a standing position behind a seated Ken, to demonstrate how to run energy into someone’s heart area. To most beginners it would look like a relaxed Rosalyn with hands resting lightly on Ken’s upper chest. But feel into the energetics of this demonstration and you become aware of Rosalyn’s strong rooting into the earth, with her casual hand placement energetically very active. Look and feel into the demonstration even closer, and you can perceive her auric field wrapping around Ken, first to make gentle and peaceful contact, and then to begin increasing the joined field strength. No theatrical gestures or statements here; just deep contact, caring, and the boosting of energy fields.

Rosalyn then made an almost imperceptible shift in her hand placement, her energy fingers deepening directly into heart tissue, while making a parallel movement in the upper part of her auric field. Now she seemed to be embodying the practical use of the material we were studying – the use of the upper chakras – in how to become available to a miracle happening, (i.e., a positive event outside of the healer’s design that occurs during the act of healing.)

Learning how to be available for a miracle happening for the client seems to be an important part of this Intensive. We are not so much “intending” or controlling the flow from the higher chakras (using our personal preference as to the outcome) as aligning ourselves in a balanced way, and  being open to a higher outcome to present itself to our client. Watching Rosalyn work I began to look at my own style of working, with its strong focus on energy flows, and astral clearing. I can begin to see where the next level of my development can start to open: for a miracle to happen for my client, something outside of my knowing or intention. And, something that I can never take credit for…

Yui and I have now shifted our position from our seats at the back of the room and closer to the action, so that we can more easily observe Rosalyn and Ken work on an intensive participant. I have been aware of the multileveled teaching style Rosalyn uses for two decades, and yet it still impresses me every time I see it in action. The best analogy I have is that of visiting an Egyptian temple, where ordinary people will only see the statues, the symbols, and perhaps listen to the stories. But look deeper, and you can feel how the statues run powerful energies, see how the symbols have multiple levels of meaning, and allow the stories to change your life. It’s up to the student, not up to Rosalyn, in deciding what to take away from each healing demonstration, or lecture. As students it is our job to pay attention, to strive to drop our intellectual rigidity, and to endlessly cultivate Beginners Mind. Only when we are willing to let go of what we think is happening can something new enter into our consciousness. Our work as healing students is the polar opposite of the Western way of accumulating knowledge; our work is to let go of what we know, again and again, and …. to wait for a miracle.

More questions from the group come, but it’s been a long day and I’m losing interest and getting sleepy, ready for my jet-lag induced sleep. As I leave the Pyramid Room I am grateful for being here, today. And, I note to myself, I have changed.

DAY TWO: Thursday, September 9 , 2010

8.30 am: A late breakfast, but I am feeling nicely rested today. The rain is clearing, and we will have a blue sky and some sun today. .

5.30 pm.

Looking around the Intensive, you know you are getting old when all the new participants look like babies.

“I want to remind you about our schedule … in the morning with do the technical material and in the evening we do the spiritual stuff…” So began Rosalyn on Day Two of the intensive. She continued, “ I can’t emphasize enough to energy healers that you must understand energy theory. Healing is not going to become more religious, it is going to become more technical. You have to be able to explain what it is you do…”

Rosalyn and Ken had started the day with questioning how fast thought is transmitted across space, before transitioning into talking out the various vibrational rates of the organs within the body. Then we jumped into a discussion about auric vision (more accurately, auric “perception”), and the necessary ability of healers to assess the energy body. These were connected discussions, linking in to  yesterday’s material (“don’t limit any outcome from your healing work”) and into the energy healer’s ability to know something about the client’s auric field prior to working on them.

Rosalyn chose a German participant from the front row and demonstrated basic hand scanning, and then did a drawing of what she had picked up, on the whiteboard. Fifteen minutes later we were all happily hand-scanning a partner, and then were instructed to use a specific energy healing procedure: running energy into the lungs. Finally, Rosalyn led the group through an intermediate-level organ-balancing protocol, giving all the participants a chance to work on their practice partner, and to learn something about organ vibrational states.

Yui and I worked on each other, and I was happy to feel my lungs quickly return to good functioning after our long trip from SE Asia.

There are multiple advantages to learning energy healing skills in any group setting such as this one. Firstly, the leader of the group energetically holds the skill as a template, and then transmits (“teaches”) it to attendees. The skill presented will be interpreted at multiple levels dependent, of course, upon the openness of the student. For the beginner student, it may be their first introduction to tangible energy work. For the intermediate-to-advanced practitioner it is a chance to upgrade what they already know. If we bypass our Western habit of exams (ie, performance for authority) this form of transmission teaching can move us quickly past the rational mind and directly into a significant energetic upgrade.

Rosalyn and Ken were now teaching the technical aspects of the higher chakras. The Seventh Chakra is the gateway out of the body, where we leave at the point of sleeping. The Eighth and Ninth Chakras are not fixed in permanent locations but move in specific ways, and relocate themselves according around the spiritual needs of the individual. The intake function of the Eighth (Silver) Chakra brings challenges and opportunities towards you that you are not yet ready to fully master. The output function of Ninth (Gold) Chakra is that state of highest resonance: your potential – and ultimate – future.

Rosalyn demonstrated the various positioning of the Silver and Gold chakras, leaving me both observing and to do my usual cross-cultural internal comparison of the material. It always helps me to understand new things by comparing it with something I know from another system. Rosalyn’s system of aura dynamics always hits me as hydraulic in nature (ie, practical, down-to-earth, extremely functional) rather than vague and New Age (as in “just set your intention”), while at the same time her teaching style always provides multiple access points to much higher levels of understanding. Remember my Egyptian temple metaphor from earlier in the article? Listening to the practical functioning of the Silver and Gold chakras began to lead me down some speculative paths.

One of the thoughts I had was a fascinating concept in psychology called Affect Theory, which is Tomkin’s idea of biologically-based motivators (See Donald L. Nathanson’s book, “Shame and Pride”). Affect Theory is one of the many recent paradigm shifts in psychology, suggesting that all human experience is filtered through nine discrete feelings (or affects), and that these all lead into a stimulus-response pattern. Therefore, a “crisis” is necessary to occur in the seeking of any emotional resolution, or personal growth-enhancing situation. This is how we evolve as psychological and emotional beings.

I began to wonder if the function of the Silver and Gold Chakras could be a variation on Affect Theory, if applied to soul development. The use of the Silver Chakra (that which pushes you towards what is challenging for you to experience – or to come to accept – about life) and the Gold Chakra (your potential and integral creative experience that comes along after the challenge is completed) suddenly took on a coherent meaning for me as I sat in the room. Perhaps the Eighth (Silver) Chakra attracts life lessons to us (or challenges), activating the stimulus-response pattern (of letting go of our habitual viewpoint and opinion so as to re-initialize the consciousness system with something new) via interaction with the Ninth (Gold) Chakra. So, we accumulate life experience and can choose to be stimulated into greater growth by confronting something that is uncomfortable (Silver Chakra), even though the process eventually asks us to drop everything we have accumulated throughout the learning process except for the distilled soul’s knowledge (Gold Chakra). Alchemy?  Perhaps. It’s very Hegalian, also. Hmmm, my jet-lagged brain is slow but happily chewing on all this new information. But I suspect that this may not necessarily be what Rosalyn is teaching or meaning here, so I will be staying open to other possibilities.

It’s getting late, and today the Intensive material has spiraled around the Higher Chakra teachings, dipping down into the foundations and practice of energy healing theory, swirled up through snippets of medical and scientific research, keeps shining a searchlight on miracles and on faith, before it once again has dived down into the physical body. And right now my own physical body is tired, but in a good way. Time to grab some rest.

DAY THREE: Friday, September 10 , 2010

In Day 3 we are transitioning from the Silver and Gold chakras into the practical uses of running gold energy with clients. Ken has been teaching some Qi Gong and martial art exercises to help develop the ability for participants to run this particular frequency, which is good for nervous system conditions.

Rosalyn has also been lecturing extensively on the gold frequency, and its uses, with almost no emphasis on the silver frequency. One of the things that strikes me about this particular Intensive is the time spent on the extremely practical application of energy healing. In other Intensives I’ve attended with Rosalyn there has always been a heavy weighting of the material towards spiritual development, with energy healing skills sitting on the sideline. Now I feel I’m taking classes at an energy healing school, with Rosalyn and Ken taking participants through both demo and practice sessions. This is great news for both new and experienced energy healers looking for quality training.

Rosalyn presented example after example of the uses of the gold frequency, from direct transmission to fine, laser precision work. While there is little time to practice every skill she mentions we are left inspired to learn more, and to study more. There is so much to learn.

“The most fun thing in the spiritual world is to take the spiritual and lofty and make it real practical” – Rosalyn L. Bruyere

Despite the rich material there is plenty of opportunity for questions, and  I am left feeling full and satisfied with the day. But we have a special evening planned tonight, as Rosalyn will be ordaining one of the German students. This is a rare and auspicious event, as ordination with Rosalyn is not just a case of a student showing up and doing a certain number of intensives with her; it’s about being ready to take a huge step into service for others.

DAY FOUR: Saturday, September 11 , 2010

We’ve listened to a lot of information about the Silver and Gold chakras, and experienced some useful practices that help a student healer channel gold energy into the top of the head. One student pointed out that he observed different colors of gold energy in the pyramid room as people worked, with which Rosalyn concurred. Just as there are different kinds of gold metal in the earth, so there are different colors of gold energy that each healer will run.

There was a short discussion about how to get gold energy to run, and more general questions around related topics. But it looks today like we are transitioning into another useful skill for healers: the brain balancing technique. Earlier in the week Rosalyn had taught us a simple but powerful breathing technique to open up the head, and the brain balancing skill seemed like a natural part of that sequence.

The group split up into pairs, and began to practice this most important of skills. Every energy healer will use variations of this skill on a regular basis.

Afterwards, Rosalyn talked to us about using crystals and certain stones for healing, as one way to boost the different frequencies available for healing. She related the qualities of minerals and chemical composition of stones to specific needs of the physical body.

Now we are back to our main topic: The Silver Chakra “pushes” you, and the Gold  Chakra “pulls” you. “Your best self pushes you towards your possible self”, said Rosalyn. “… and there is no end.”

But we were looping back to a familiar and important theme: the importance of developing and maintaining a strong physical body while also developing increasing chakra frequency versatility. In essence: practice. The more you do – either in the gym or in your healing practice – creates even more energy to be available. This is what we pass on to clients, to either reduce their suffering, or enhance their healing process. But we all need to work at it, we all need to study and practice.

In answer to a question Rosalyn pointed out that the rising of the kundalini is only a problem for intellectual people, as increased prana overstimulates the rational mind and can drive some people a little crazy. But if you are strong in your body, and grounded, you can increase your pranic level safely and get good results.

Looking around the intensive I can truly appreciate the strong community formed, here in Germany. I can only expect Rosalyn’s influence on European healers to grow in the future, given the richness and depth of the energy healing training she and Ken are offering here, with four Intensives each year in Germany.

But now it’s time to pack up our things soon, as we must leave the Intensive early. We have a flight to Tuscany in the morning, causing us to miss the group closure on Day Five. I do hope these few notes I’ve jotted down during this event have been useful to you, and perhaps even inspire you to study with Rosalyn and Ken in the future. There is no other teacher of energy healing in the West that comes close to Rosalyn’s skill, knowledge, and experience, and we are most fortunate that she and Ken offer these ongoing Intensives for us all. Please take advantage when you can, and I don’t think you will be disappointed.

For myself, I can most definitely leave the Intensive in a place of expansion and increased insight, especially around an increased appreciation of the practical uses of the higher three chakras. My main insight has been the importance of activating the “miracle” energy: supporting a client to move from ideal resolution towards the potential self. For this, we as healers cannot plan or even have an opinion for the client … we can only help them move from a painful or restricted place inside themselves, track where they are being pushed (Silver) or pulled towards an as-yet unknown expression of their Golden potential. This is our act of service with others: to help where we can, and to let the Gold – and God – do the rest.

Related post: Chakra Upgrade.

A recent interview with Rosalyn Bruyere.

Then it hit me. This Japanese Spa looked and felt like the great white hospital in the Astral World. A huge and brilliant-white building, the Astral hospital is one of the places that recently-departed souls may visit if they have undergone a traumatic or sudden physical death. If we are impacted by a rapid transition from the physical realm into the non-physical, or if we leave the material world disorientated or traumatized, we may find ourselves transported to a triage facility, for immediate help. But, soon after, we will be moved up into the Astral Hospital, for long-term recovery, and for necessary spiritual healing. Physical death can be tough on a soul; sometimes you need time to integrate the life lessons just learned, in preparation for your  return to your next physical incarnation.

The late Robert Monroe, a master in the art of Astral projection, had often referred to this facility as a “Way Station”, a place where souls transition from one life time to the next. I have spent time at this Astral Hospital myself, although I have almost no memory of why I was there. Today the impact of the DHC Spa architecture and ambience was evoking a powerful déjà vu experience for me. Something triggered my animal body to breathe deeper, and I dropped into the Astral Hospital altered state. No effort, no time, and no agenda were present, here in this bone-white healing space. Only rejuvenation awaited, only compassionate release from painful memories, and the preparation for a new adventure and a new body. It was delightfully familiar to me.

Three hours later, we had left the salt-water Spa for a traditional Japanese dinner, ending when our Kimono-clad hostess brought in the final course: fruit jelly, topped with a scoop of cream. The entire meal to that point had comprised of outrageously-fresh seafood, rice, and vegetables. As the dairy in the dessert hit my taste buds, my body woke up anew, joyously impacted by a familiar taste from the West. For the second time in the day I was shocked awake by a memory of the past. Once again my soul dropped unexpectedly into the place of wholeness, and the recognition of what we we gain when we choose to embrace life. In this moment of sensory delight, where novelty danced with the familiar, all was well. We are reminded, again and again, that the shock of any event we can experience in life can ultimately be healed, leading us to regain what we thought had been lost.

The Astral Hospital remains out there still, ready for any of us that may need it should this incarnation thing ever get out of hand.

He shook his head. “No, I not Malaysian. I am Dusun“, he said, referring to the local North Borneo tribe that makes up a third of the native population, the rest being ethnic Kadazan people.

There was something about the way he said it, and the way the Astral world suddenly shimmered around his auric field as he spoke, that deepened my attention. I asked about his family, and where in the world he would like to visit if he left Sabah. “I like see native tribes in America, in England. You have native people in England?”

Malay is a direct language that, when transferred to English, strips much of the flourishes we expect from a conversation. I do like the way it sounds, but I have to practice speaking in simple terms, in order to be clear. It’s not condescending; it’s joining the locals in their utilitarian use of language.

“No, native people no longer there… no tribal people left in England”.

He looked momentarily surprised at this information. Transferring his fingers from my toes to the arch of my foot I silently breathed out in relief. But more importantly I was increasingly intrigued by our conversation, and this rare chance to find out about Dusun people and their lives. I pressed him further about his culture, his traditions. “Young people not interested in Dusun traditions”, he said, as he prepared to move on to my other foot. “Only want TV and mobile phone”. He sounded troubled.

How many Dusun in Sabah? About three million, he replied. I found myself curious about his world, and wanting to know more about the Dusun. What about dialects? “Have many”, he said. “But understand each other”.

He told me about how he learned to hunt in the forest, with his father. “But not with…” he mimicked the action of using a blowgun. “With rifle. Not old way. My grandfather still hunt old way.”

The mystery of the Astral forces around him suddenly became clear. This twenty-something year-old man, working in a mall reflexology clinic, was one of the gatekeepers of his culture. He cared deeply about his traditions. They were in – and around – his auric field. For crying out loud, his grandfather still hunted in the forests with a blowgun! I felt a momentary pang of regret at the lack of such a vital cultural connection in my own life. And sadness, at not being able to have spent time with my grandfather before he passed away.

The session came to an end, and the young man finished by drying my feet with a towel. I gingerly moved to standing, grateful that I had survived the treatment. There was an important Harvest Festival coming up in May, dancing and music, he told me, as I reached for my wallet to pay him. The festival took place over the entire month. Wow. That’s my kind of party.

“We have strong drink”, he smiled, watching me squeeze my feet into shoes that were now uncomfortably tight.  “Local alcohol drink, very sweet. You try it”.

Yes, I replied. I will.

More photos of the Kadazan-Dusun can be found here in my FaceBook photo album.

All of us are here to develop our personal and spiritual lives but it is easy to be distracted in the hustle and bustle of our everyday life. In a Muslim country, such as Malaysia, they make it delightfully impossible to forget. The call to prayer is the first thing you hear every day, and then throughout the day. As a non-Muslim I find it inspiring, not invasive. The call to prayer opens my heart.

There’s a line in the pre-dawn prayer that is unique to the five other daily calls: “Prayer is better than sleep”. For myself, as a spiritual seeker, prayer is any decisive act that turns me within, away from mundane worldly distractions. It’s any act that welcomes the divine back into my life and awakens my  true nature. To help shake me out of the daily “sleep” state.

Last night I listened to a very different call to prayer; a strangely powerful song by Johnny Cash, “The Man Comes Around”, with its multiple references to the Biblical Book of Revelations, and the second coming. The ragged voice of the aged country singer, recorded shortly before he died, transmits a sense of the Christian apocalyptic vision. It looks forward, towards the ending of time, whereas the Fajr Adhan eternally embraces a new beginning. As the day approaches, the invitation for turning within is sent out, again and again. “Hasten to prayer”, the Fajr Adhan calls out. It’s a brand new day.

To most people this Ayurvedic Shiro Dara treatment is surprisingly pleasant, but for psychics it’s a unique opportunity. The warm and fragrant oil flows through Agnya Chakra ( aka Ajna), and creates a profound effect. The hour-long session was washing my third eye chakra clean of accumulated astral grime, seemingly penetrating deep into the energetic prefrontal cortex of my brain. Something in my Western mind speculated that the treatment generated a tiny electrical field through combining oil and copper with the kinetic energy generated by falling oil, but I choose to ignore myself and keep the attention on the clearing experience. Man, this feels so good.

In the map used in Relational Energy Healing Agnya Chakra is a part of the energetic structures of the prefrontal lobes of the brain. It allows the inner visual function of the evolving human being to place what is “seen” (or intuited) into a meaningful and relational context. We don’t progress in life if we just know a bunch of facts and memorized rules. We need human wisdom to sift through the raw data of our lives, and to recognize patterns and subtle nuance.  Only then can we practically apply what we see to what we do.  Agnya’s function is to provide us with that unique perspective: synthesizing the complex reality of the everyday world with the hidden realities of the spiritual realms. Everyone has an Agnya chakra, and uses it to some degree. The difference with psychics is that the “muscle” of Agnya – and the prefrontal lobes – are more heavily utilized. We all know any over-used muscle or body part is prone to tension and stress. It will need therapeutic aid, just like an athlete’s knee or a dancer’s ankle. Which brings me back to Shiro Dara.

As the oil swirling across my forehead dropped me deeper into meditation I had a momentary thought that I was in a psychic “Jiffy Lube” drive-in service station, getting my oil changed so I could run another 3,000 miles. Probably not too far from the truth.