In psychic healing the healer is using their subtle sense perception to see what they determine to be blockages or irregularities in another persons energy field and then use whatever power they have to clear or balance these blockages. Though there may be benefit to this kind of work and the client may heal, I have never felt comfortable with it. It seems presumptuous to me to think that I can really know what is ultimately right for another person from my limited perspective, no matter how psychic I may be.

In what I think of as spiritual healing, there is a completely different intention. Rather than focusing on what I think is wrong with the person, I focus on the wholeness of their soul. I meet with them in the place where they are completely untainted by anything that might have happened to their bodies, minds or emotions and I witness the eternal purity of their spirit. I am not trying to fix anything or determine what needs fixing and there is no agenda or attachment to any particular outcome. I have no sense of knowing what is right for them or trying to make anything happen.

I simply open up to the Divine Presence or the Universal Energy Field. That serves to remind them of their connection to that presence and I offer that energy in service to their soul, however their soul deems fit to use it. I have no sense that I am doing anything, just supporting them to relax and open and surrender to their highest good and meeting them in the highest place I am capable of accessing in myself.

In this surrender I might find myself using techniques or doing things with my hands or mental intention that I feel guided to do, but the difference is that there is no sense of me doing anything, no perception of something being wrong that I am going to fix and no attachment to a specific outcome. It is just a way of playing together in the awesome beauty of their soul and surrendering to the Divine dance that is unfolding through them and celebrating the beauty of their soul, whether that means they ultimately get well or die.

In class I often say that if I think there is something wrong with someone I shouldn’t be working on them. I only put my hands on someone when my perception is clear enough to see their wholeness. I feel that that is the only way I am truly useful. Then if life uses me to move stuff around, that is fine. I do not claim to understand exactly how this happens, but my experience is that from the perception of the soul things are not that solid, more a vibrating field of energy that can change from moment to moment.

When we see things from this level and allow things to change, they can change quite easily (a great example is in people who have multiple personality disorder and one personality can have diabetes and another, in the same body, does not). Again I think the key is not having any attachment to how they change and to not have the idea that we are doing the changing.

The mark of maturity in a healer is the ability to let someone have their own experience and their own destiny, and allow that to include whatever it includes. There can often be a well intentioned tendency to take away someone’s pain without a deeper understanding of what purpose that pain might be serving.

We can  bypass this danger when our focus is on meeting at the soul level and surrendering attachment to how the story plays out on the physical. Many spiritual paths view the accrual of powers as a deterrent on the spiritual path and I would agree. I think as we progress spiritually we become more able to influence the outcome of things with our will, but I don’t believe there is ultimately benefit to this. Yet I do think that when we sit with another in the depth and truth of our being and see the eternal majesty of their soul, we can help them remember their own purity and wholeness and this in turn can facilitate transformation (or not). To me this is the true healing.

This past weekend we had the most beautiful silent meditation retreat at Diamond Light. Often people ask me what relevance a silent retreat has to massage therapy training and why we include these types of classes in our program. A meditation retreat can move our attention from the “story” of our lives, which occurs in our minds, to the actual experience of life; the immediacy, joy, passion, sacredness and love that exist in the present moment. As we learn to sift through the chatter of our mind to discover the silent undisturbed Source of Life that we are beneath our thoughts, we develop the ability to meet in this place of stillness with another, and with our presence, evoke the remembrance of the deeper, eternal aspect of themselves. As a result, our massage therapy work is subsequently no longer limited to only the physical, but can catalyze a profound shift in inner experience that becomes the precursor to multidimensional healing.

There has been some discussion on our forum recently about the fascinating bodywork technique called Ortho-bionomy. I had the great blessing of living with someone for a while who practiced Orthbionomy so I was able to receive many sessions. It is truly powerful work.

Here is an except from the website www.ortho-bionomy.org

Ortho-Bionomy is a gentle, non-invasive, osteopathically-based form of body therapy which is highly effective in working with chronic stress, injuries and pains or problems associated with postural and structural imbalances. The practitioner uses gentle movements and positions of the body to facilitate the change of stress and pain patterns. A strong focus is placed on the comfort of the individual, no forceful manipulations are used. The practitioner also suggests home exercises that individuals can do to further facilitate the neuromuscular re-education process begun in the session. Ortho-Bionomy is very effective in helping alleviate both acute and chronic pain and stress patterns by reducing chronic muscle tension, soothing the joints, increasing flexibility, improving circulation, and relaxing the entire body.

Ortho-Bionomy was developed by Dr. Arthur Lincoln Pauls, a British osteopath, who wanted to find a way to work with the body which honored the body’s inherent wisdom. From his experience as a Judo instructor and through his training as an osteopath, he found ways of working with the body by exaggerating the body’s preferred postures, thereby permitting the body’s self-healing process to create greater balance and alignment. He discovered that by working WITH the body and not against it, the body could find balance on its own without having to use force to correct it. Dr. Pauls began teaching this work in the US in 1976, and has taught Ortho-Bionomy extensively throughout Europe.

The term “Ortho-Bionomy” comes from “ortho” meaning correct or straight, “bio” meaning life, and “nomy” meaning the laws of or study of. Dr. Pauls defined the term then as “the correct application of the laws of life.” He stated “[Ortho-Bionomy] is really about understanding your whole life cycle. Naturally, we focus on the structure because that is the literal skeleton upon which our life is built. When your structure works right, your circulation works better, you feel better, you think better.” (Kain and Berns, 1992)

How does Ortho-Bionomy work?
Ortho-Bionomy stimulates the body’s self-correcting and self-balancing reflexes by way of the proprioceptive reflexes located in our joints and muscles. The practitioner uses movement and gentle compression to find positions of comfort which allow the body to change the stress and pain patterns which are causing the discomfort.

Ortho-Bionomy also employs the homeopathic concept that what cannot be cured from within cannot be cured from without. Using gentle positioning and light touch, Ortho-Bionomy stimulates inner awareness to awaken within the individual a sense of natural balance and well-being, both physically and emotionally. The inner wisdom of the body is recognized and affirmed. Self healing occurs as the person remembers their natural ability to move away from pain and toward ease.