Breaking Through The Healing Barrier
by Neil F. Neimark, MD
Within each one of us there lies a “healing system” capable of fighting off disease, combating infection and bringing us greater energy, vitality, and well-being. In any medical text we can read about the “digestive system,” the “circulatory system,” or the “nervous system,” but nowhere can we find a chapter on the “healing system.” Yet it is this very “healing system” which allows all our other “systems” to function with brilliant precision. Our healing system is the organizing force through which all our body systems function with a deep intelligence and miraculous sense of balance and wholeness.
Bernie Siegel, MD, the famous Yale surgeon and author, speaks of this healing system eloquently when he says, “As a surgeon, I cut into the body and I rely on it to heal. I don’t have to yell into the wound and tell it how to heal.” The body, in its own infinite wisdom, knows how to heal. The healing system lies within us. Our body has its own natural ability to heal. Though in certain situations, surgery or drugs may be life saving, it is our internal healing system which allows ultimate life.
We all know of patients who have lost the “will to live.” No matter how valiant the efforts of medical experts, how advanced the technologies, how genuine the prayers of friends and relatives, these patients will continue on a downhill course, until and unless they find within themselves some sense of meaning with which to embrace life and connect to something greater than themselves, something greater than their sense of illness or despair. It is this “will to live,” to prosper, to grow, to contribute, to engage life with passionate involvement, which most directly contributes to the overall health of our “healing system.”
Norman Cousins, the great author and humanitarian, says that “the highest exercise of a physician’s skill is to prescribe not just out of a little black bag, but out of his or her knowledge of the human healing system.” It is this knowledge of the healing system that distinguishes the technician from the healer. We recognize the doctor as “healer” by what we call “good bedside manner,” “compassion,” or “empathy.” It is in fact these qualities in the physician that reflect his or her intuitive understanding that each patient is an utterly unique individual, whose ultimate health and well-being depends upon their unique lifestyle choices, belief system and sense of purpose in life.
Cousins goes on to say, “The doctor has a role beyond the prescription pad to invoke the patient’s own bodily resources” for healing, the patient’s own healing system.
“Healing” comes from the root word “whole,” to be one. In searching out our own individual path for health and healing, we will inevitably embark on a journey that leads us into our own sense of wholeness, uniqueness and self-discovery. It is important to understand that no two patients are alike. In fact, two patients with the “same” diagnosis of migraine headaches will, in most cases, require two completely different treatments, based on their own unique stresses, genetic background and lifestyle choices. So, in reality, two “cases” of migraine are two different diseases. Healing, in its essence, is an adventure in self-discovery.
New Realities: New Capacities
One of the greatest discoveries of the human potential movement is that as new realities are demonstrated, new capacities come into being. How many of you remember Roger Bannister? He was an Oxford medical student who was the first person to run the mile in under four minutes. He broke the “four-minute barrier.” Until that time, it was believed that no human could break that barrier. No such reality was ever demonstrated. Now the most fascinating part of the story is that within 46 days of Bannister’s breakthrough, John Landing broke the four-minute mile. And now, at this time, literally thousands of runners have broken the four-minute barrier. So we see that as new realities are demonstrated, new capacities come into being.
The challenge for all of us is to open ourselves to the “new realities” that have been demonstrated through recent advances in mind/body medicine and psychoneuro-immunology. These new medical disciplines are beginning to detail the many ways in which our thoughts, our feelings, our psychological and spiritual beliefs affect our physical health. By recognizing these “new realities” of what is possible, we can begin to develop “new capacities” for health, healing and greater well-being. These new capacities can help us access our own healing systems.
In ending, I want to relate a story that Rachel Naomi Remen, MD, a physician and healer in northern California, tells. This is the story of the acorn. For one moment, imagine an acorn trying to make sense of itself, trying to understand itself, by describing itself. It might say, “I’m about 1 inch long, flat on one side, pointed on the other, brown in color, hard to the touch, etc. etc.” But this description fails to capture the true essence of the acorn. “It’s important to realize,” Dr. Remen says, “that an acorn cannot make sense of itself without knowing about the oak tree and without knowing that deep inside of itself, there is a mechanism waiting to unfold which knows exactly how to become that fullness of expression” of the oak tree. She says, “There is an impulse, a yearning in each one of us, towards our own wholeness,” our own fullness of expression. It is this impulse, this yearning towards our own wholeness, which leads us into the healing process.
We can access our healing system, and begin the adventure into self-discovery and wholeness, allowing us to fully realize our capacities for health, healing and a sense of well-being.
Neil F. Neimark, MD, is a board certified family practitioner with a family practice in Irvine, California. He is the author of Less Stress Surgery: A Guided Imagery Relaxation Tape, Contacting Your Inner Healer: A Guided Imagery Exercise and his latest book and audiotape: The Healing Power of Attitudes & Beliefs: A Journey Towards Self-Discovery. This article is excerpted from his newsletter Mind & Body: The Newsletter for Health and Healing. His books and tapes are available through his website. He specializes in the mind/body connection and he offers a free monthly newsletter on his website: www.mindbodymed.com
Source: http://innerself.com
Accessing The Healing Process
by José Stevens, PhD
It is important to realize that all healing techniques, whether they be physical, energetic, mental, or emotional, are an attempt to re-establish proper flow. Blockage or stoppage has occurred because somewhere, somehow, there has been limited perception. The direction of healing then always moves from the more limited picture to the big picture, from the personality to the essence.
The key behind all healing techniques is intention and focus of attention. Since energy follows thought, all dis-ease is a product of certain thought processes and healing is the result of certain balancing thoughts. Thoughts without the energy of emotion, however, are not result producing.
Some Steps to Self Healing
Being present
The most important element of self healing is the ability to be present with yourself. You cannot begin the process of self healing while you are preoccupied with mulling over baggage from the past or actively scripting the future. These activities scatter your focus and energy to the effect of rendering you powerless to alter your state. When your focus is blunted and your energy is dissipated by mulling and scripting, you lower your natural frequency in a way that makes you slow to respond. This often shows up as the pseudo emotion of depression or the non-emotion of apathy.
The path of healing requires your reorientation and focus on the present moment of aliveness. However, focusing on the present brings up the true emotion that was being masked or blocked. This usually represents experiencing painful feelings before the release to joy. Therefore it is usually avoided.
Being in the present moment means facing the pain that is based on fear. However, being in the present allows you to access the higher centers for energy and support that were formerly blocked. So, as you face the fear, you become privy to a most powerful set of supports that exists within you at all times.
To become present, pay attention to the sensations in your own body. Since your body is always present, you will be guided by it to be present also. You may not, however, like how it feels. It may be angry with you for abandoning it, or it may be petrified with fear. This you must face if you desire healing. In the event that you are in so much emotional or physical pain that you find it impossible to be present, then you need the support of another who can help you to become present more gradually. After all, after a long absence, becoming present can be a shocking experience.
Grounding
One excellent method of becoming more present is the process of grounding your energetic system to your immediate locale. Since your body is presently residing on the planet Earth, the Earth is the most expedient place to ground to. Here is how it is done.
a. Relax by sitting and sighing deeply several times.
b. Imagine a connection between the base of your spine, general area of your instinctive center, and the core of the earth.
c. Strengthen and clear this channel by following it slowly down and then up, once again using the power of your imagination.
d. Use this channel to drain away excess energy and any unwanted condition. Send it downward for recycling.
e. Next, concentrate on energy from the earth rising through openings in the soles of your feet, up your legs, into the base of your spine, and distributing gradually throughout your body. Since the Earth is always present beneath your feet, it will have the effect of immediately bringing you into greater focus through your body.
Establishing an Essence connection
After you have established a sense of grounding to locate and stabilize your body, you are in a position to bring into it a higher degree of essence. Bringing in greater degrees of essence accelerates spiritual growth and awareness, and promotes healing on every level.
Whereas it is not possible to squeeze the totality of your essence into your physical body, most people bring into their bodies only a fraction of the essence potential available to them. You can raise this amount with an act of will and concentration. However, it is important that you do this incrementally to avoid overwhelm. Your body, if habitually subjected to low levels of essence and energy, may regard increase of essence within it as an intrusion and a threat. It must get used to the increases gradually just as you must introduce food slowly after a fast to avoid nausea. Otherwise the body will react in fear and resist essence expression.
Here is a method to raise the level of essence within your body.
a. Imagine a ball of brilliant energy, perhaps eighteen inches over your head. Postulate that this represents the totality of your essence, pure potential and infinite energy.
b. Imagine that through a hole in the crown of your head, you could draw a brilliant beam or channel of this energy down into your head; gradually streaming through your head and face; down your spinal column, branching through your arms and out your hands; cascading down to the base of your spine, meeting the upwelling earth energy there. Create a mix and distribute this mixture gradually throughout your body.
c. Expel the excess energy and unwanted conditions through the base of your spine down into the Earth.
d. You have mingled essence here with the physical material that forms your body and comprises your personality. This is the marriage of the Sun and the Earth. The child is you.
e. As you reach greater levels of comfort with practice, bring in more and more of each stream until you are working with large amounts. Expect an emotional, physical, or psychological reaction, so do this slowly over a period of days and weeks or even months. Several times a day for five minutes or a longer sitting of twenty minutes is sufficient.
f. The increased streams of energy tend to dislodge blocks and obstacles within your energetic system. As they are dislodged and removed they come to the surface, so to speak, for review. You need not become overly identified with them, a simple acknowledgement will do. However, as these come up, there is a tendency for you to feel that all these old problems have come back to plague you. Many people discontinue the exercise at this point because they fear it is making them worse. Understand that this is part of the process. Presently you will feel better than you ever have before.
g. You may experience physical reactions such as trembling and shaking. If these become too uncomfortable, discontinue and breathe deeply a few times. Bending over from the waist and touching your toes, without locking your ankles, can be of some help. This helps to unblock the joint chakras and dissipate the accumulated energy. If you experience intense physical pain during the exercise, you are most likely trying to go too quickly. Discontinue for the time being and slow down.
h. This method was known to Egyptian spiritual practitioners who derived the technique from earlier forms used in Atlantis.
Calling for support
Power animals and helpers from the other planes are an important part of any healing process. Although all healing is self healing, you do not exist in a vacuum. You are intimately related to members of your entity, your essence twin if you have one, and the many teachers, friends, and students you have developed over your lifetimes. These relationships exist whether they are in physical form or not. When they are not in a physical body, they are in a unique position to help from within, because they are not distracted by the many challenges of the physical plane.
Therefore when you feel overwhelmed, ill, or imbalanced in any sort of way, it is appropriate to ask for help and support. You may not, however, have your lesson removed or resolved for you. What you get is perspective and guidance. The work remains yours to carry out.
To enlist the support of a spirit guide, do the following:
a. Ask for a spirit guide whom you know and trust, or one that is an expert in the situation you are trying to heal. Ask and you will receive.
b. Ask them to help you with some of the healing steps we have outlined so far. Ask them to help you with staying present, grounding, pulling in higher degrees of essence, clearing your aura and so on.
c. Ask them to help you with insights or clarity concerning the condition of imbalance.
d. Always remember to thank them for their help. Do not be concerned about directing their activities or taking charge of the healing operations. If you wish them to move out, simply state this.
Bringing in the higher planes for healing
When you have learned how to bring higher degrees of essence through your chakras and into your body, you have developed the ability to work with the higher planes.
ASTRAL PLANE: Provides help in the form of power animals, devas, and some guides that can offer support and guidance of a more practical nature. Help with emotions.
CAUSAL PLANE: Provides teachings and philosophies of a higher order similar to this teaching. Help with beliefs.
AKASHIC PLANE: Provides information about past lives, parallel lives, and future probabilities. Instinctive center healing.
MENTAL PLANE: Higher intellect. Intuitions about the nature of the universe. Understanding connectedness with all things. Perceiving the truth.
MESSIANIC PLANE: Higher emotional. Perceiving the nature and feeling of agape or unconditional love.
BUDDHAIC PLANE: Higher Moving. Perceiving and experiencing the nature of energy. Understanding beauty.
TAO: Connecting with all that is.
To contact the other planes for healing, all you need to do is to acknowledge them and ask to feel the energy of that plane. It helps to visualize the chakra that you wish to bring it through. For example, for a condition of severe self deprecation or depression, you may wish to visualize the fourth or heart chakra. Establish a connection from this chakra to a color or symbol of your own choice for the messianic plane, center for higher emotional healing. Channel the energy of agape from the messianic plane through the fourth chakra, for a period of one minute or less. A little bit of healing from these planes can go a long way.
If you are seriously ill or wounded you may wish to hook up your third or solar plexus chakra with a symbol for the buddhaic plane, center for energetic healing. Again, you need not hold the connection for longer than one minute.
You can see, then, how you can use each plane for healing in its own specific area. The upcoming section about chakras will explain which chakras to work with.
Very occasionally you may wish to connect with the Tao through the crown chakra on the top of your head for a few moments. This will give you a spiritual healing of the highest order. This is the healing of choice at the time of death.
In order to accomplish this, follow the same procedure described above. Visualize a symbol or globe of brilliant white light for The Tao. Draw a channel between that light and the crown of your head. Funnel that light into your crown for a few moments.
Healing with your hands
Your hands are magical instruments in that while they are quite physical, they have astral properties as well. This is because of the chakras that exist in the palms and at all the fingertips.
Your hands, then, are able to mold and direct energy just as they are able to mold and direct physical matter. They are most useful tools in the art and practice of healing. Your hands work in harmony with your intent and your will. Therefore whatever you intend through your thoughts and feelings can be channeled through your hands. This is the process behind the ancient art of laying on of hands.
Do not hesitate, then, to use your hands in self healing or when you assist another. Use your imagination and concentration to direct light and color to different parts of the body and through the various chakras. Use your hands to help the flow of energy through the joints or for clearing obstacles from the aura. Use your hands for soothing or for closing down that which is gaping too wide. Use your hands to send away unwanted thoughts or to help bring in desired beliefs or feelings.
Placing your hands over physical wounds has powerful healing properties. Unfortunately because of your culture’s fixation on germs you have been instructed to keep your hands away from injured parts. While it is unwise to touch a gaping wound, it is certainly helpful to pass the hands over it.
Many a doctor, masseuse, dentist, and even palm reader has effected healing through touch without the conscious knowledge of it.
Steps to healing others
Remember that all effective healing is an attempt to help people heal themselves.
1. The first step is to establish communication with the healee, mentally and emotionally. Note that they need not be present physically for you to accomplish this. If they are not present physically it helps to know their name, age, sex, and their address or location.
2. Establish a communication link with their first chakra (instinctive center). Greet them and ask their permission to work with them. Ground them and bring them into the present.
3. Assess the problem by posing questions and viewing the mental image pictures you receive. You may sense these instead of see them.
4. Attempt to see, sense, or feel the problem through the eyes of the client. Walk in their shoes for a moment without identifying.
5. Focus your attention on the area of difficulty, not with the intention of increasing its strength, but with the intention of understanding it more completely.
6. When you get a sense of the problem and have assessed it to your satisfaction, begin to use practical images to heal the malady. For example, if something is separated, use tape to fasten it together. If something is bloated or too full, open a faucet to drain it. If something is leaking, cork it up. Use your hands even if you are alone.
7. Next, channel healing energy from the various planes, not from your own personality. The best way is through inspired feeling and images of brilliant light. You can both visualize this and direct it with your hands if you wish.
Any tools or steps that you used for self healing can be applied to others. If you wish, with their permission, you can channel higher degrees of their own essence into their chakras or into their crown. You may wish to show them how to do this for themselves.
Excerpted from Earth to Tao, by José Stevens. Bear & Co./Inner Traditions International. http://www.innertraditions.com
José Stevens, PhD, is the founder of Essence Psychology and lectures internationally on essence and personality, shamanism, and prosperity. He is the author of Tao To Earth, Transforming Your Dragons, and co-author of The Michael Handbook and Secrets of Shamanism. http://www.pivres.com.
Source: http://innerself.com