Dean: “I have an approximate skeleton of work that I follow in the Six Session Series. As we go through the sessions we work on the knowledge that the chakra consciousness centers are inter-related, and that by clearing and tweaking each chakra we create a synergistic effect that enhances personal growth and healing.”

Client: “When I worked with another energy healer his work was completely different to you. He wasn’t working with cords; he was just finding out why the chakra was blocked, including emotionally”.

Dean: “Yes, that is the traditional way that other energy healers work. As an analogy, it is as though a healer sees your chakras as radio transmitters, which they then try to repair or energize.

But if we look at how the chakra system is connected internally (as the building blocks of our inner identity) as well as how the chakras are connected up to people on the outer world (through the medium of chakra cords) the type of healing work we can do shifts considerably. So, to extend my analogy, instead of seeing each chakras as a radio transmitter we also take into account the incoming signals, as well as the outgoing signals to those individuals who are significant in your life. That’s Relational Energy Healing, and this is why chakra cord work is important for system change, and also why Astral clearing has to be included during the work … because we are exploring both the transmission and reception of signals by the chakras, rather than only looking at the functioning of the chakra by itself.”

Client: “I am noticing that I am reacting to people slightly differently than is usual for me. Suddenly I’m getting unexpected offers from people, either to help me out or to accompany me on my hospital visits. It’s … amazing, really.

Dean: “Well, here’s the thing – part of what Relational Energy Healing does is that it works towards increasing options, to opening us up to roads that normally we would not travel down. Again, we are dealing with the transmission and reception of human consciousness, through chakra cord connections. And we know from our previous work together that one of the issues you, personally, are breaking open is how historically you have not accepted support from others, or have not felt support extended towards you. What in these previously sessions we have affectionately characterized as your Scottish stubbornness (which also has many positive qualities!) can lead to insulation or isolation from other people. And during this time of healing and potential change in your life you do need access to all and any support available from others. So, when you tell me, as you just did, that suddenly you are getting offers of support from others, and – even more importantly – you are taking them up on it, that’s a significant change for me as your healer because it shows that your consciousness system is now opening to new possibilities and original forms of other people working with you in this place of change.”

Client: “Yes … I am slowly and increasingly becoming aware of this.”

Dean: “The last thing I do want to say about this is (and this does not apply to everyone) is that often when the chakra system begins to open up to other possibilities there is the initial experience that is new, exciting, and wonderful. But it is possible to max out on, let’s say, too much change. There can be a reaction to the changes that could propel you back to your old habit or ways of being with others. Like a turtle pulling their head back into their shell, some people find themselves retreating from contact that is, historically, different behavior. So, please keep an eye out for any “pullback” that may happen.”

Client: “Yes… and if it happens, I should go against that pull?”

Dean: “My suggestion is not to see any pullback as necessarily a bad thing, but simply to bring your awareness to the point where you are going back to your old habit. And, additionally, personal work can be done by you to keep the new connections you have formed still open. The process, even though you are pulling back, is to still keep the door to others open; it’s part of the integration process.”

Client: “Yes … good…. so, today’s session is the throat chakra?”

Dean: “Yes: this is the Fifth Session of your Six Session Series, and so we will illuminate the functioning of your Throat Chakra, and the cords that flow into and out of it.

The Throat Chakra (Vishuddha) functioning consists not only of speaking but of listening…. and allowing ourselves to be changed by what we hear, or affected/influenced by what we hear. Listening deeply also helps me discern if I am being told the truth – or accurate information – by another person. Of course, sometimes the other is not aware that they are imparting wrong information, but the Throat chakra can still discern the difference.”

Client: “Yes, it’s not a judgement on them …”

Dean: “Right! People may tell us things that they truly do believe are the way things are, and in our best interests, but when this impacts your system you will know something is not right about it. And one of the reasons this is of importance to you now, personally, is that as treatment options are offered to you – both allopathic and alternative treatments – you will need to assess what is being offered to you.

So, the idealized goal of these Six Session Series sessions is to work with your auric energy system, to clear and tune it up, so that you can both perceive what are the best options for you (attentive listening) and communicate with others so they can help you (speaking out). I am not a medical professional and I avidly stay away from diagnosis or any recommendation of medical treatment. Instead, my work is to help your own consciousness system to function optimally, in both the listening and the speaking modalities. This is the arena of the Fifth Chakra.

The last thing to know about this session devoted to the Fifth chakra is related to the higher functioning potential of this center of consciousness.  Specifically: we have to be able to ask the right questions, and then be willing to hear an uncomfortable – or challenging – answer.  So, this applies to your practical situation in regard to your medical treatments; what are the right questions to ask, and can you then take in helpful or vital information in response to your question? The higher function of the fifth chakra is not to abdicate self-responsibility to any outer authority, but to speak up, to be pro-active, to become an active participant in the healing process.

So, what is it that you need to ask your doctor, your surgeon, your alternative healers, and how can you then make sense of all their input? This is the co-creative functioning of the healthy fifth chakra: communication and listening skills that interact successfully with others outside of our experience, so we can make better choices for ourselves, or assist in the exploration of outer (or inner) truth. And while truth may be seen as multiple shades of gray rather than black-and-white, there are some things that are more true than others. The throat chakra, when it is healthy and supported via dialogue and the critical thinking process, leads us through many of life’s challenges. It is not only there to help us speak out; it is also there to help us take in what we need…”

Related Post: Here is an edited transcript of a Skype Tutorial Session for Energy Healers

But energy healing is more than just a way to help heal the physical body. Many humans intuit that they possess a spiritual nature, and not just an everyday ego personality. This may be experienced during times of emotional stress, while moving through an ecstatic experience, or during meditation or prayer. We humans are more than just matter: we are beings of consciousness, of light, and as such unlimited by the restrictions of the physical body.

Energy healers, mystics, and shamans have many different names that describe the functioning and development of the human energy (or light) body, each according to their cultures. The European energy healer, for instance, may be a student of some esoteric or magical system, such as the Hermetic Order of The Golden Dawn, or the Kabbalah. Similarly, an Asian energy healer may practice a style of Qi Gong, based on Chinese energy healing principles. Traditional native peoples on different continents have tribal ritual elders called Shaman, who integrate cultural wisdom with natural curing methods. Modern-day American energy healers may combine emotional/belief system personal process work alongside energy healing. And there are medical professionals – physicians, nurses, research scientists – who seek to enhance their allopathic medical treatments with insights from energy healing. But these multiple approaches to bio-energy healing can be distilled down to one unmistakable conclusion: energy is the foundation of the human experience, rather than the material body.

There is another aspect to the coming into awareness of this, our light body. As we relocate our attention and identity from the egoic and material self, and into the energetic self, we naturally find ourselves questioning many of the assumptions we have made about the world, and about our shared reality. We find ourselves willing to see something radically new. Locked into the “normal” world view – as material bodies with egos, with social or family commitments, following careers and paying taxes – we can live a fairly predictable life. But once our energy body begins to wake up, the experience of “normality” usually changes. And may change fundamentally, to the very core of our understanding of the world. These internal paradigm shifts are always shocking to each human ego: an inner identity which, although accepted as “normal” by society and family, suddenly can seem incredibly limited and false to us.  Our true identity, as taught by many of the worlds wisdom traditions, is that of an energy body, imbuing the physical body with consciousness. Energy healing – when applied at the right time, and by the healer most helpful to you – not only speeds up any physical healing process you may need, but will also energize this, your light body.

If enough people begin to operate more from their authentic energy bodies rather than their egoic (i.e.,physically-based) reality, our species may be able to evolve beyond our often destructive animal roots, and past the challenges of tribalism. The realization of our body of light as our true nature is not just a personal goal; it has the potential to help others. One “en-lightenment” event can inspire another, and then another, like one candle lighting the unlit one next to it, or like a row of dominoes falling in sequence. Every “en-lightened” human (which I’m defining here as those who drop into deeper contact with their light bodies while also remaining fully present in the physical world) helps others awaken. And remaining in ignorance of our true nature – the light body – may no longer an option for our species. The world which we all share is growing small, and more crowded. Global dangers are brewing, and now threatening our survival as a species. We must evolve to a new level of consciousness. We must fully awaken.

While these three factors are important, the developmental underpinnings of the more sophisticated esoteric models of spiritual development of the past remain unknown to most people. Some healers even discount the need for any esoteric study, stressing only a spontaneous (and non-intellectual) act of healing. Many healers will say that all is needed is the correct intention/symbols/prayers, etc, and a healing force will automatically flow through them into the client.

But if we are truly to evolve Energy Healing towards its potential I would suggest building upon the new addition of Western psychotherapy while also reaching back towards the wisdom traditions of the past. Only one part of the human brain works with the rational or social norms; the other is deeply moved by symbolic reality in alignment with greater spiritual forces. Psychology speaks to the conscious mind, while esoteric healing speaks to the intuitive. Then we will find ourselves with a full spectrum approach to energy healing.

But we must also address the current and pressing problems of our present-day generation: denial of any obvious truth, and the passivity of opposition towards increasingly restrictive social change. At its core, Energy Healing, as a spiritual development tool, seeks to reveal the truth about ourselves and about the world. But I believe it offers far more than a simple pranic flow from our hands, more than sharing the knowledge of spiritual or personal development, and even more than the release from trauma in our bodies. It can also awaken us out of the disingenuous dreams foisted upon us by others, whether it is via our family heritage systems, or worldly corporate actions that affect our lives. These are the new enchantments: modern day “spells” cast upon us. We must awaken from them, and into ourselves, and not thoughtlessly embrace any agenda. And when we do awaken, our energy healing work can offer not only relief from suffering but also assistance in helping to evolve the client to a new level of awareness. Energy healing is not just about taking away pain; it is about taking away the ability of others to implement their hidden agendas upon our life force. It is about coming to truly live our own lives, rather than a life defined by others. It is all about our personal evolution.

In other words, psychic energy healing passes on life experience by upgrading your energy body via a direct interaction or your energy consciousness system with another. This teaching process occurs all the time in life. It happens when you are a baby, and your mother unconsciously passes on to you the life experience of being taken care of (mothering), and then teaches you how to take care of yourself (to become a young adult). It happens at school when you are impacted by teachers and school friends, gaining both practical information (language skills, social skills, and so on) as well as vital life skills ( interacting with individuals other than your family, including those that may mock you or attack you for no obvious reason.). The act of living is about gaining both bad experiences and good experiences. In the first, we are learning through trial-and-error: the hard way. In having good experiences we reinforce our ability to individuate (separate our psyches from the mass consciousness of family and society) and come to be able to have a good life – to make money, find companionship and love, express ourselves creatively, to have children of our own, and to grow as a spiritual being.

Psychic healing is the specialized skill or knowledge to be able to affect our consciousness … that which supports good experiences for us, and also which heals bad experiences. There are many relationships that do this: the mother, father, teacher, friend, lover, priest, or guru. Whenever someone helps you to understand your life, or helps you make better decisions for yourself, that individual is acting as a healer for you. They have something (life experience) that you currently do not have. And you do not have to reinvent the wheel, or build any software program of consciousness from scratch. You can learn it from another. Or, you can spend time around someone who knows something you need to understand, and hope that it is transmitted to you.

We learn about life from our parents. From our siblings. From our schooling experiences. From our relationships with others. And we learn from our mistakes. We search for information on how to live when we align with a religious path, or study with a spiritual teacher. We learn about life through falling in love with others, or by the ending of an important relationship. We may learn through reading a book, or listening to an educational lecture, or even through the impact of a psychoactive drug. Human beings are very versatile in gaining life experience from other people, or by joining a group of people such as a spiritual/religious community. Downloading life experience is what human beings do in order to progress themselves.

Psychic healing is a specialized form of this process of personal development. It deals by working directly with the human energy system: the auric field, the chakras, the chakra cords, along with the spirit (or Astral) word. When done correctly it makes the gaining of good life experience and the repair work of dealing with a bad experience (such as emotional wounding or relationship trauma) proceed faster, and with added efficiency. It’s analogous to when you need your car repaired. Yes, you can buy your own tools, and a book on how to repair the brakes on your car. You can learn to do it yourself, slowly, over time. Or, you can choose to take your car to the car mechanic. He may be able to repair your brakes quickly, so you can move on with your life. Psychic healing is the auto repair work of the human energy consciousness system. And it should effect a practical change in you.

Human beings all deal with similar issues: poor health, challenging relationships situations, personal growth concerns, and processing trauma or loss in their lives. The psychic healer’s work is to supplement the help of your physician by working with bio-energy to strengthen your organs. The psychic healer can supplement psychotherapy by opening your eyes to the hidden world of the astral, and helping to effect a necessary change in your inner world. The psychic healer can support your personal growth by helping you access latent abilities, or can help you understand your challenges from a new perspective. And, the psychic healer can assist you in letting go of the past so you can then move on, and create better a better life in the future.

Traditionally the psychic healer is an individual able to enter into the world of spirits, and who has experience in interacting with forces within the psyche that are usually hidden, or sometimes which masquerade as other things. The psychic healer should able to transmit (or direct) bio-energy that can upgrade your auric energy field. He or she may be able to see things in you that others don’t see: your potential. The psychic healer should be able to work with you as both a struggling human being and as an embodied soul. In that dance – between awakening of spirit in the body and sifting through life experience to evolve to our highest potential – we all need support.

We do not need to learn the dance of life alone. Other people can teach us all the steps, can train us how to move and flow. And then we can move on to have a full life, a good life. We can embrace  the life that we were always meant to live. We can be free.

Related Post: Energy Healing Speeds Up Personal Growth

My first interest in the chakra system came from my Indian spiritual teacher who taught me about the energetic consciousness system, and how the chakras were a map representing various stages along a continuum: birth through enlightenment. Development of each chakra was supposed to bring out exceptional qualities (or siddhis) within the individual. Through specific meditations, and transformational energy practices such as Yoga and Qi Gong, or the direct pranic transmission from a teacher, spiritual seekers could make rapid gains in chakra development.  The chakras, my teacher had explained, are the spiritual body’s equivalent of the physical nervous and endocrine systems, and are the vital links in manifesting our spiritual potential, or personal growth.

Choosing Your Path

I learned from subsequent teachers how each chakra effects our psychological and emotional development. A functioning chakra will help us become happy and effective adults, whereas a dysfunctional chakra will manifest as personality or relationship problems. We can now see how the lower chakras and their functioning easily fits with current Western research into human development. Similarly, the middle chakras clearly guide our individuation from narcissistic infant into a caring and mutually-aware adult. The transition from infant consciousness into adulthood is an ongoing journey according to many researchers and theorists. Ultimately, the fundamental basis of living is to be happy, and to learn to have nourishing relationships with others. A healthy chakra system provides us with many of the resources to attain those goals, because chakras grow and develop conscious awareness within us.

We can work with the chakra system as a map in how to develop conscious awareness, to heal trauma and other hindrances to awakening, and thereby live up to our potential. A part of this map includes the linking mechanism between chakras: the chakra cords, or non-visible connective filaments. Chakra cords transmit information from one person to another. And, as that individual is also connected to others (or to an earlier generation in our family) we are impacted by those connections. I have found that heritage cord healing work - the clearing of family patterns passed down to us – has much more personal growth value than past life healing work. With past lives healing we are separated from the trauma from which we wish to heal by time and space; with heritage healing work we are always plugged into the family system, which makes the material much more easy for us to access.

My work with clients often leads me towards supporting their process of spiritual awakening. After we have become individuated as adults, and we have learned to live happy and connected lives with others, there is a natural tendency to move towards awakening into higher states of consciousness. The upper chakras (and their associated neural and hormonal connections) are a part of our development into spiritually-based adults. But we cannot evolve alone. All of us need a teacher (or teachers) to help us find a plan or map for self-development. Choosing the right “map” is important, because when you follow the directions on any map you should arrive at a certain place. The map you choose should lead your soul where it wants to go.

Following Directions

Choosing your Teacher

Maps of personal development need teachers to help us make sense of them, and to help us navigate through each stage of the journey. But in choosing a teacher (or ritual elder) to help us with our personal or spiritual growth we must learn how to differentiate the problem teacher with narcissistic and ungrounded fantasies from the truly helpful teacher: one who possesses an authentic – or initiated – experience of the material. This is not an easy task; everyone of us has unhealed narcissism, but here we are talking about degrees of the narcissistic challenge rather than the presence of it.

We can use two tracking systems to orientate ourselves in our search for the helpful teacher:

*  Does a teacher’s spiritual awareness significantly rest on unhealed narcissism? Or, does is show up as the playing out of hidden agendas, leading to the exploitation of their students? You will need to study the basics of the narcissistic personality so you can recognize this major problem when you meet it.

* The teacher saying something impressive does not necessarily make it real; only observation and actual experience will provide us with verification that the teacher’s inspiring words – or their “map” of awakening – match up with their vision. The narcissist personality may dazzle you with descriptions of what they have done … but have you witnessed these results for yourself? Or, do you simply accept what they say, innocently, and at face value?

The good news is that we can learn from anyone, even from the problem (or misguided) teacher. But it is better to find teachers and ritual elders that are more healed than wounded, more educated than uninformed. In your search for higher consciousness and higher chakra development I wish you well in tracking down those who can help you flower into your potential, and I hope that you can avoid those who would waste your valuable time and money. Mae West, a famous actress from the last century, says it best: “I’ve been rich, and I’ve been poor. Believe me, rich is better.” Choose a spiritually-rich and generous teacher, a person who wants you to grow, and not someone whose actions exploit you for your riches.

Because it is multidimensional, the auric energy body has a more complex nature than the physical body, with a different relationship to linear time. Auric energy healing requires a sequencing of healing work in order for it to be truly effective; it does not rely on one simple event, or single surgical “operation”. In the physical world, a medical operation will remove a damaged part and close up the wound, thereby allowing the natural healing process to begin. But with auric energy healing it is the consciousness of the client themselves that evolves, from a lower stage towards a higher stage. Any development of consciousness requires time in order for specific stages to be fully completed. Time is also needed for the acceptance of what is true, which only then can lead to a sustainable internal shift in the self. This includes a change in the client perception of the problem itself. In other words, time plus integration of specific stages of development equals transformation of consciousness.

This is why I utilize the Six Session Series, a format for working with my clients which allows each healing session to build upon the gains of the previous one. So, what happens?

I will begin each Six Session Series by clearing and strengthening the client’s auric boundary, then moving on to enhancing their legs and feet into the local earth energies beneath them. The vital connections to Mother Earth – especially the chakra relational cord that connects us to the center of the living planet – are enhanced. Then, with this foundation energy flow in place, the client gains the prana and containment of energy that allows for specific chakra cord repair, and for astral clearing work.

The chakra cord work is only begun after the client and I have dialoged about the personal and health issues that now bring them to seek healing work. This dialog is an essential part of the process, almost equal to the energy work itself. Bringing consciousness to the client’s issue helps activate the necessary internal support that can be pivotal to their journey.

My assumption is always that my client is in the process of soul evolution: that they are facing the very challenge that can evoke growth (evolution) or healing (release of an incomplete growth stage.) Healing only has relevance if it puts the client back on track for their personal evolution. Of course energy healing should take people out of pain and anxiety, but it should not be minimized as a “complementary” health treatment.

The energy healer’s task is to help re-boot the client’s stuck “operating system”, so they can move on with their development. Chakra cord work can help clear away the numbed feelings, the suppressed emotion, the mistakes in emotional connection that we all make, and can reset the auric consciousness system back into a place where it can resume growth. We don’t need to bring everything into a rational, everyday consciousness state in order to do this. We only need to support the natural functioning of the auric consciousness system, and let it do its job. Shock, trauma, denial … all these things both stimulate and interrupt the natural growth process. Energy healing works towards resuming the forward momentum towards personal and soul development. While the soul is grateful for the learning process it must also learn to shed the toxic residue left by this same learning process.

The final week of any Six Session Series will include energy work with the upper chakras: Talu, Bindu, Agnya (Ajna), Crown, and the Guru chakras. By enhancing the flows and the connections we have with these higher centers we can come to understand many of the problems we struggle with, but in a new light. Insight is not just the gaining of a rational understanding; it is the connection formed from our everyday mind to our higher self.

This sequencing of Six Sessions (Auric container, Earth connections, chakra and chakra cord development, Astral clearing, upper chakra functioning) can loop again and again, each time differently deepening the overall process for the client. Always we will return to the auric boundary, to our supportive connections into the earth, to our relational cords, and to our growing awareness of our higher nature. Some of my clients have their Six Session Series back-to-back, preferring a sustained growing process, while others take a few weeks between one Six Session Series and the next one. The timing must come from within. Then, just as when we cross a river by hopping over the rocks already sitting in the stream, we can pass each developmental obstacle effectively. Healing (i.e., repair work) is only needed when we metaphorically slip off a rock and almost fall into the raging river below. Evolutionary growth occurs when we make it to the other side of that challenge, having grown into our full potential during the journey. When we arrive at the end of our journey, we find ourselves as both material and energy consciousness. We find ourselves whole.

To book a Six Session Series with Dean please go here for more information.

Human beings over the course of thousands of years have explored contact with the Astral world. Sorcererers, witches, priests and shamans have learned how to interact with these invisible realms. The modern-day energy healer will often come across Astral people or objects that have become attached to the etheric structure of a client’s energy body.

The Astral world is not always a toxic or evil influence. In actual fact, my current assumption is that the Astral world has always co-existed alongside our world, playing a major and beneficial part in the physical evolutionary process. In many ways, the Astral world may be the sentient yin to the material world’s yang: it is receptive and fluid in contrast to the structured boundaries and natural laws built into a material universe.

When an energy healer comes across Astral phenomena she may welcome such an interaction as an important entry point into understanding the client’s development, at a level deeper than the human personality. Astral influences often connect the client more clearly to their identity as a soul: our true nature as an energetic conscious being unlimited by physical death, unrestrained by organic entropy. Despite our eventual death as a body our soul nature absorbs all of our life lessons,  in order to evolve.

I see the Astral realm as a vital partner in our ongoing soul development, rather than a hindrance to it. To work with the Astral is to work with the forces that help develop soul growth because when we work with spirits or Astral energies, we are breaking out of the restrictions placed upon us by our short and limited physical life span. We are touching deeply into spiritual immortality, as our identity dissolves and reforms constantly across the time line.

Unexpected interactions with the Astral world can occur during any life-threatening event (such as a Near Death Experience), any form of trance-inducing spiritual ritual, or under the influence of psychotropic drugs (Ayahuasca, Peyote, Psilocybin mushrooms, etc.) But it is more commonly experienced in the dream state: either sleeping or the waking or hypnogogic state of consciousness. In contrast, the psychic healer learns to interact with the Astral while remaining in the waking state, which resembles a form of healing trance to the outside person. The energy healer acts as an organic bridge between the material world, the etheric world, and the Astral realms. This bridge allows for personal growth to occur by the healer supporting a shift in an individual’s perception of themselves, and of the nature of the world around them. When such a shift of perception occurs the old way of seeing “reality” will fade away, and a new and more integrated reality will supersede it. The observer will change or – more accurately – begin to remember their higher spiritual perception.

When that happens – the remembrance of your true nature – everything in your life will begin to change. You will awaken to new possibilities, and become aware of multiple hidden influences upon your life. With this experience you can begin to take charge of your life, rather than be a spectator to it. This changes everything.

Related Post: The Lower Astral

We are energy beings incarnated into a physical body. So the question is: why do it? What is the endgame of such a tremendous endeavor: the pouring of our multiple-frequency spiritual identity into low density matter? After all, higher-dimensional beings such as Angels are reportedly quite happy, as Baroque Angel paintings show. So, what do incarnating humans hope to achieve that can go beyond what the Angelic higher realms already offer?

Perhaps the answer lies in our desire to embrace a spiritual freedom. Freedom to create, freedom to explore, freedom to express all sides of the universal manifest reality. And the freedom to make mistakes. Lots of them. Even though such a freedom will bring with it loss, and release from old ways of being. More than one golden childhood will be lost to us in our lifetime.

Energy Healing can support spiritual freedom when it floods our undeveloped or traumatized systems with fresh and novel energy that leads us into becoming aware of things in a new way. It supports us in being willing to face ourselves – and the world in which we live – through a radically different perspective. Trained Energy Healing is the transfer of prana, and when this life force passes from healer to client it can be with the higher intention to awaken or support personal development in the other. This intention can help the client begin to question the fundamental assumptions of their problem, rather than to settle for an easy answer.

Freedom always questions authority. Freedom must never assume we (or another) have all the answers. Authoritarian control systems, whether internal ones (our critical voice within) or external ones (any political system) want us to take their answers, and their conclusions, at face value. These control systems tell us we are right when we accept their motives, their goals, their agendas. But inner and outer control systems have a vested interest in us remaining asleep, unconscious, repetitiously running on the same hamster wheel of denial. Good for them, but not so good for us.

Which means we have to start learning how to ask the right questions again, just like the inquisitive children we once were. We have to start thinking again, and thinking is hard work. But Energy Healing can direct the energetic consciousness of transformation to flow into those parts of our psyche, our feelings, and our body, that unconsciously resist recognizing meaningful truth. The truth we resist is like helium inflating a balloon; when it flows it enables us to fly.  Only by facing the raw, uncensored truth about our lives can we ever choose to change, and to evolve ourselves. Our inner Baroque Angel may find itself evolving into something even more magnificent: a free human being.

Then we can really fly.

But we must take care that such teachers don’t take our innocence and inexperience and use it against us. The hidden agenda of any populist teacher (often self-serving or financial) eventually conflicts with what students healers really need to learn: that their evolution as a healer lies as much in the transformational journey itself, rather than the following of a charismatic leader. It is the search itself – and not the leader – that changes us.

Learning to become a professional energy healer is neither simplistic (“No training required, everyone: just tune in!”) nor eternally solipsistic (“Just one more year of my training program, everyone, and then you will see the aura just like I do!). Energy healing training exists along a continuum of growth, only starting with simplistic methods. The “No training required” groups appeals to anyone who has neither the time, nor has glimpsed the dedication required, to enter deeply into the eternal mystery that is spiritual transformation. This is all in spite of our real-world wisdom regarding professional competence. Would you go for a root canal treatment if your dentist had only received a weekend of “channeled” guidance on dentistry? Would you go to a marriage counselor who had never been counseled themselves, or even been part of a long-term relationship? No, of course not.

But people do eventually catch on to the game. After time spent with the “no training required” teachers they wisely begin to look around for an authentic training program. During this phase it is common to jump from from teacher to teacher, from healing system to healing system, on a quest to find the “perfect” teacher: someone who is not just another egoist or a businesswoman, but who can really offer a quality service. Once you find your teacher, hopefully one who is at the other end of the populist spectrum, you may find yourself signing up for a long-term training program. Significantly better than the simplistic approach, an in-depth program provides a deepening of knowledge, and the all-important factor of community. We come to learn as much from our fellow students as we do from the teacher. But even long-term training programs in energy healing come with an expiration date. A training program must, eventually, graduate you, and release you to resume your quest for personal and spiritual development. You may find yourself staying around to serve your teacher rather than choosing to deepen your own soul growth. Again, I don’t have a problem with that. Because, you may need this additional time to release the idealization of the outer teacher, a necessary step in order to allow yourself to be closer in touch with your own, inner teacher. Of course, you may authentically resonate with your teacher’s world task, and feel the desire to be an on-going part of their community. In the end, only you can know which is true.

At some point on your journey you may arrive at the unmistakable conclusion that to learn energy healing is, truly, a lifetime endeavor. There are no “Masters” out there, with secret keys to the kingdom. Like professionals in other disciplines, dedicated energy healers continually learn, practice, consult with specialists or with others with greater experience, in order to evolve. It is this eternal dedication to personal development that defines a truly helpful healer, or a useful teacher. And when you emerge from your training experiences more aware of your connection to yourself, and you begin to share your specialized work with the world, a new shift can begin. Your Guru chakra – the center of consciousness that lies just above your head, and holds the wisdom of your soul – learns to speak more directly through you, and balances the learning you receive from the outside with that from the inside. You learn to connect to yourself, and to your own spirit guides, as a vital part part of evolving towards spiritual adulthood. Once you are free of becoming lost in the charismatic orbit of an outer teacher you will learn to make new choices: for yourself, as well as for your clients. Your training will continue, new information and skills will find their way to you, and the apparent complexity of what is energy healing will finally shimmer into focus. When you are listening within yourself, with at least the same amount of attention that you used to invest in any outer teacher, something wonderful will happen. You will no longer be thirsty for another person’s verification of your value as a healer. You will know it, and express it,for yourself.

Good luck on your journey.

The physical body lives within the limits of the three-dimensional reality of the everyday world. It can exist only in one location, and it follows an aging process where exercise and nutrition play vital roles in health maintenance. The Etheric body is impacted by these needs, but requires additional nourishment, exercise, and development. The Etheric body is not only the substrate for the physical body but is also a vehicle for consciousness expansion. The Etheric body can be released from its localization and attachment to the physical body, and can travel huge distances. It can also learn to interact with, and to affect, the Etheric body of another at a distance.

If you have ever experienced a lucid dream, where your body is flying effortlessly through space, that is probably your Etheric body having an out-of-body experience. OBEs (Out of Body Experiences) occur when, either spontaneously or through intent, the Etheric body detaches from being docked with its physical counterpart, shifting into either three-dimensional space (as in Remote Viewing) or into four-dimensional space (as in Distance Healing or Astral Healing). The lucid dreamer will usually experience their Etheric counterpart body as being noticeably different to their physical counterpart in that it is more youthful and agile, in contrast to their usual experience of an aged material body. Similar experiences are reported by Near Death Experiencers (NDEs).

Additionally, when you are traveling using your the Etheric body your human senses – vision, hearing, touch – are vastly heightened in comparison to your everyday experience. Vision, especially, often seems to function 360 degrees around you, rather than directly in front of your eyes. Finally, time in the Etheric body is extremely fluid; either running very fast, or slowing down to micro-seconds while retaining full awareness.

When you receive an energy healing, an acupuncture session, or any form of Prana-based therapy, its primary impact will be on your Etheric body. Acupuncture and other body meridian healing systems operate by returning the natural flow and healthy rhythms of the Etheric body into balance and effective functioning. Prayers and blessings, in combination with focused intention, also positively impact the health and vitality of the Etheric body. When a healing event such as one of these is set in motion the physical body can be encouraged to return health, as the Physical and the Etheric bodies are interdependent. The cooperative nature of the two bodies explains why, moments after physical death (at which point the Etheric body detaches from the Physical) the person you once knew so well looks different. The Etheric body (along with other higher aspects of that person’s soul development) of your loved one has departed. The life force of the person – the “driver” – has left the chariot of the body, and moved on to the next stage of their evolution.

In my second and upcoming posting on the Etheric body we will explore how the Etheric body can be developed and utilized by the energy healer who wishes to be of service to others, as well as touch on some of the implications such development offers those of us seeking further personal , or spiritual, development.