By Jessie Stones
There are a lot of crazy and inexplicable things in this world, and one that I am becoming increasingly aware of is the power of human energy, whether conscious or unconscious. When the staff of the bar where I work suddenly feel a negative vibe, knowing the world is just going to suck tonight. I prove to myself there is such a thing as an energy field.
On night like that no one tips well, fights break out all over the neighbourhood (including on our pool tables) and gas stations get robbed around the corner. It’s as if some big finger points at the downtown core and decrees. “We shall all be pricks this evening.” So I looked into it.
Clairvoyant Dora Van Gelder sees the human body as expressing itself through a threefold mechanism: an etheric or vital energy field, an astral or emotional energy field and a mental field. She sees constant interaction between these energy fields and between them and universal energy field, hence the atmosphere of a bar suddenly changing to accommodate and influx of negativity by drunk, stridently heterosexual, faddish yahoos from Scarborough (for example).
The idea of a human energy field started 5,000 years ago in the ancient spiritual tradition of India. The universal energy called prana that was the source of all life . Later the Qigong masters of China called this energy Qi, the vital energy of the body. These masters also developed martial arts such as tai chi, akido and hung fu, in which the study and use of Qi is prominent.
According to Barbara Brenna, author of Healing Hands, our most powerful and profound human interactions take place in that field, the precursor and healer of all physiological and emotional disturbances. Most alternative healing methods try to balance the Qi, although their strategies for clearing the body and balancing the energy are different. Acupuncturists use this strategy to insert needles or put magnets at specific acupuncture points to balance the yin and yang of the human energy field. The equation is simple: when the Qi is balanced the entity has good health.
I figure that a lot of people dismiss belief in a human energy field as “occult mysticism.” But this, commonly considered a New Age theory, is not so recent nor so subversive after all. Scdientists, both ancient and modern, have embraced the human energy pervading all of nature could cure sick patients. Around the mid-1800s, Mesmer, the father of hypnosis, suggested that a field similar to an electromagnetic one might exist around the human body, and might be able to exert influence on the field of another entity. Dr. Wilhelm Reich, a colleague of the father of modern psychiatry Dr. Sigmund Freud, was also interested in the universal energy field he called “orgone”: He studied changes or imbalances in the flow in relation to physical and psychological disease. He implemented this research in his therapy, trying to release blockages in the orgone.
One development in the study of human energy is the work of Gustave Naessens, who is continuing his research in Canada. During studies in haematogoly, he saw tiny particles in blood samples, and soon developed a microscope he called Somatascope to better see the tiny lights around the particles. Naessens believes cell division cannot take place without this energy particle he calls the somatid, what he says “is the original spark of life, the pinpoint where energy condenses into matter. The somatid represents the manifestation of cosmic energy in a tiny moving dot of physicality.”
The Kabbalah, Jewish mystical teachings written about 538 B.C. calls this energy the astral light. In paintings, the haloes around the heads of Jesus and other Christian holy figures, which could possibly be considered a manifestation of the aura of energy field. Similar depictions of energy or light coming from the fingers can be seen in many images of Hindu gods. John White in his book Future Science, reference is made to the phenomenon of the human energy field in 97 cultures. And, in various verses in the Christian Bible, a phenomenon of healing known as the “laying on of hands” is discussed.
One form of alternative medicine is reiki a “laying on of hands” technique. The ancient Tibetan-Buddhist practice was rediscovered in the late 1880s by Miko Usui, a Japanese Buddhist. Reiki is derived from two Japanese words: rei meaning universal spirit, and ki, meaning life force energy. Treatments work by dissolving or eliminating toxic energy and substances from all levels, whether physical, emotional, mental, or beyond. As the patient is “opened up” through the attunement process, that person becomes an open channel through which the reiki energy can flow. Traditionally, reiki is taught in three degrees, and once learned can be used on oneself as well as others.
Another “laying on of hand” healing method is CranioSacral Therapy, which has a basis in the physical body involves the energy field as well. According to Alexandra Sellers, a student and practitioner of CranioSacral Therapy, it works with the subtle manipulation of the “the whole body, which is what connects, supports, and separates all the body systems.” The therapy claims to affect cerebral and spinal fluids while manipulating the positioning of small bones and brain tissues.
In my experiences with Cranio, I see it as a sort of divination. The practitioner “enters the system” of the patient to “divine” what’s going on. It’s a very physically psychic operation, as far as I can tell, because they can sense heat in regions of the body, and can feel how old each injury is, and especially important, what it connects to and from where it stems. Chiropractors use this sort of therapy because they can take this information and adjust more aggressively than a Cranio therapist, balancing the body structures through specific movements of the spine structures, and assisting the body to heal naturally.
Chiropractic works through restoring the normal function of the spinal joints of the body and allowing the body’s natural healing processes to take effect. Chiropractic is probably the alternative healing method most familiar to people; along with herbal remedies it is covered by OHIP or insurance policies. In essence, chiropractic removes the restrictions to healing, similar to reiki and acupuncture, although it’s hard to find a chiropractor who openly discusses the Qi for fear of sounding like a quack.
What alternative healers, clairvoyants and such believe — that our physical bodies exist within a larger “body,” a human energy field or aura, including health and illness — make me wonder how much garbage I have floating around in my system, and how my cluttered vibe affects those with whom I interact. It’s all very elusive, this theory, but I don’t’ think anyone can deny its potency, especially at last call. But then again, that could just be circumstance.
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