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with Chronic and Life Threatening Illness: Part VII

The fifth chakra is in the throat area which governs our ability to express ourselves, to speak what is truly in our hearts. Often there is a disconnect or block between the flow of energy from the heart chakra to the throat chakra. Leaks in the will center also can adversely effect one’s ability to assert oneself so it important to consider the interplay among the various chakras. There are many messages in our culture as to what is acceptable behavior and what our role should be depending on our class, gender and race. Often as children, we are taught that what we have to say is unimportant or we are unworthy of being heard. This belief and the energy connected to it may be carried with us deep into adulthood. Sometimes we overcompensate for wounding in this area and over express ourselves – dominating the room and taking up lots of space with irrelevant chatter.

Chronic physical conditions that are associated with the throat chakra are TMJ, stuttering, and chronic hearing and sinus infections. One can almost see a veil or vise over this area tightening as one struggles to bring to voice that which has been suppressed. As the desire to speak from the heart grows, the part of oneself that emerged in childhood to protect oneself from condemnation and ridicule, takes over blocking true expression, and at times, causing physical distress. When I have worked with someone who has TMJ, it is important to understand and release the beliefs that hold the energy of suppression in place or the pain may intensify. Thus in this situation it is best to employ both a cognitive and energetic approach. Sometimes fear of expression gets stuck in the throat area and a more acute representation of this fear emerges as a bad cold or sore throat keeping one from attending an important meeting or family event where what is expected of one is in conflict with what one truly feels. It is not uncommon for the block of what one truly want to express to be so entrenched that it is not even in one’s conscious awareness.

Working

with Chronic and Life Threatening Illness: Part VI

A successful business man in his early forties, married with three children was diagnosed with metastasized stage four lung cancer. In addition to doing a traditional cancer protocol, he did chi gong, meditation and shamanic work. When Bill came to see me, we first talked about key aspects of his life before doing the healing work. Bill’s dad had been a very successful businessman, but he was also angry, driven man and expected Bill to be as successful as he was. Bill had tried to chart his own path, but felt burdened by his father’s anger and expectations.

When I began to do energy work, I found this dark energy wrapped around Bill’s neck, permeating his heart and lung area. The energy was quite entrenched. As I worked to remove it, I could see that it was his father rageful energy. All of a sudden, Bill cried out that there were these two distorted eyes staring down at him. As he breathed into the image, he realized that his father was staring down at him. I asked if he was ready to let go of his father’s energy and he said yes. As I pulled it away, I handed the dark energy to my guides for healing so that they could give the healed energy back to his father. Simultaneously, Bill felt an enormous release and then was filled with warm healing light and energy. When I did a healing for the part of Bill that had carried his father’s energy, I saw that this part was filled with nothing but cancer mets. My guides put this part in a healing vessel; I watched as this part took on the form of Bill’s adolescent self while the dark mets turned to healthy cells.

Bill’s doctors have been impressed and amazed at his body’s ability to respond to treatment and to heal. It is impossible to know all the factors that have gone into this, but it is my belief that when we remove the toxic energy that provides fertile ground for the cancer to grow that the body has a better chance of responding to the various treatments as the energy that feeds the cancer is gone.

Working

with Chronic and Life Threatening Illness: Part V

The fourth chakra is the heart center or in allopathic medicine terminology, the cardiothoracic center. Most of us can relate to the joy that we feel when our heart chakra is wide open – when we first fall in love or meet our newborn baby for the first time. We can also relate to the incredible pain that we experience in the center of our chest when a relationship ends or a dear one dies. Most of us have known or heard of someone who literally died of a broken heart. When grief and sadness become stuck in our bodies, it can stagnate in the lungs causing all sorts of physical problems including bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma and even lung cancer.

The interplay between the energetic, emotional and physical aspects of health and well-being are uniquely illustrated in the heart/lung area. It is well documented that what we eat and drink, whether we smoke or exercise regularly can have an enormous impact on the health of our heart and lungs. All of us our susceptible to all the nefarious things that float around in the air often landing in lungs that make some of us sick. But why is that some of us our vulnerable to constant upper respiratory ailments or chronic heart disease while others struggle with illness in other parts of the body? Yes, our genetic make-up plays a role in where we are vulnerable physically, but as I wrote in an earlier blog, our energy system often activates or de-activates the specific aspects of our DNA.

When I do energy work on a person who has had a great deal of loss and heart break throughout her life, I often find large blocks of trapped energy over the heart chakra. Sometimes it appears like a dark scary creature, other times like a large rock, piece of wood, or manhole cover. It is energy that is stuck and needs to be healed and removed. Often I find a part of soul buried beneath this heavy energy that has been trapped, sometimes for years frozen at the age of the loss, that is waiting to be retrieved and healed.

Working

with Chronic and Life Threatening Illness: Part lV

The solar plexus, the third chakra, is our power center. Our will, or lack of it flows from this source. When we give our power away to another person or to a belief that keeps us in the one down position, there is an energy leak and we feel tired, listless and uninspired. Conversely when we push our will on others and demand to be in control, the third chakra becomes out of balance and suddenly we crash from over use of this energy stream. Physically these leaks and imbalances cause stomach and esophageal problems such as ulcer, acid reflux and eating disorders. Adolescents who have their life force sucked out of them by over demanding parents and friends and feel they have little control over their lives often stop eating both as a way to assert control and to lessen the energy available to be seized. The disempowered elderly often stop eating as well, the will to keep going gone.

Most of us our cognizant when we have had our energy drained and even speak of “being sucked dry”. There are ancient techniques that can stop the energetic flow from the will center to another, but first one needs to understand the extent to which the life force is dissipating, the reasons for this energy loss as well as believe that it is possible to regain control in one’s life. Unless a physician is sensitive to these issues, he can prescribe medication and discuss stress reduction programs, all of which can be quite helpful, but they do not address the underlying issues. If we are able to establish an integrative approach to health and well-being that involves western medicine, psychotherapy and ancient healing techniques that work with the energy flow within and surrounding the body, we could eliminate many of our chronic health problems.

Working

with Chronic and Life Threatening Illness: Part lll

The second chakra also holds the violence and trauma of sexual assault. Often the body speaks before a memory of a trauma rises to consciousness. One of my clients had been the victim of continual sexual assault by her father from the time she was a little girl. One day she came to see me doubled over in pain. She reported that the night before she had bled profusely even though she was two weeks away from having her period and was still bleeding. As the session unfolded, memories of being taken by her father to a doctor began to emerge. She was around 10. Her period had started the year before. It is common for children who have been raped to start their periods early. Slowly, sobbing, she began to describe what had happened to her. As I listened to her story, it became clear to me that she had been taken to have an abortion. Her body had re-enacted the abortion to bring the experience into consciousness. As is often the case of those who have experienced severe trauma, a body memory surfaces, then, gradually the psyche reveals that which has been protectively hidden from the conscious mind.

Often the energy of the perpetrator is stuck in the womb causing fibroids, irregular periods and, at times, infertility or in the case of male victims difficulty with sexual functioning. Harsh and punitive admonishments regarding sexual behavior can also be absorbed energetically into the body causing similar problems. Often there are not medical explanations for the extreme pain and distress that the patient is feeling. Thus she is left believing that “it is all in her head”. One client had endured several sexual assaults and experienced intense pain in her ovaries. After many tests, she was reported to be “fine” and was left feeling re-traumatized by the tests and not heard. If western medical providers are sensitive to the ways that trauma manifests in the body, they can guide the patient to the help that she/he needs rather than dismissing and minimizing the symptoms and perpetuating the self-blame that stalks many trauma survivors.

Working

with Chronic and Life Threatening Illness: Part ll

As I move up the chakra system from the root to the second, we delve into the emotional and sexual center and to the multitude of issues that are associated with the large and small intestines, the hips and the sexual organs. Five years ago I attended a conference where I was stunned to learn from a noted gastrointestinologist that there is no known biological basis for 75% of those who suffer from severe intestinal distress such as irritable bowel, colitis, and Crohn’s disease. For those who suffer from one of these disorders, the pain, distress and limitations on one’s life are real and sometimes crippling. People with these disorders endure a myriad of tests only to find that there is no known etiology and sadly little that helps to subdue let alone heal the symptoms.

I find that this area of the body is one of the most vulnerable to loss of energy and the taking on of other energies. It is also the center where we process and digest our feelings. Almost all of us can relate to having had intestinal distress when we are upset, excited or out of our normal routine. For minor incidences of distress, there are meditation, breathing exercises and dietary changes that can bring one back into balance. For more serious conditions, it is important to determine the source of the emotional distress, to see if there are leaks in the energy field and if energies from others are either stuck in or around the second chakra area that is causing serious discomfort.

Developmentally the second chakra is connected to the second and third year of life. Thus it is important to pursue a greater understanding of a client’s early childhood and if any difficulties from this period may be similar to challenges in one’s current life. If a small child was expected to “feed” and take care of a parent emotionally and energetically, that child not only endures considerable soul loss in the process of “feeding the parent,” but also absorbs the distressed energy of the parent and carries this toxic energy as a duty and a responsibility.

Working with Chronic and Life Threatening Illness: Part 1

Whenever someone comes to see me with a serious illness, I remember what my teacher said, “ all illness, whether emotional or physical, comes from two things: the loss of part of your soul or energy field and the intrusion of other energies to fill the void that has been left behind.” Often there is a traumatic link that weakens the body and allows the illness to arise. If a person has a serious illness in the bone or blood, it is often connected to something fearful and embodies a lack of safety and trust. In the chakra system the bone and blood are part of the root chakra, which is located at the base of the perineum. One person with whom I worked had a severe disorder of the blood and bone. Her mother had been emotionally ill in her early life and my client had been both neglected and abused. While my client worked with the most skilled doctors in the field, faithfully following the medical protocol, she and I worked to heal the early trauma through energy and emotional work.

Through advise from my guides, coupled with a psychological history which is interwoven with teachings from the chakra and other energy systems, a picture emerges regarding the core trauma that needs to be healed so that the body can return to balance. The energy work focuses on either healing and transforming the traumatic energy that is stuck in the field or in removing the toxic energy through a shamanic extraction. When the energy is removed via an extraction it is healed and transformed and sent back to whence it came. Then the part that left as a result of the trauma is called back. A healing is done for this part and then it is blown back into the body and energy field of the person. Although this may seem strange, it is an ancient practice that has been used for centuries. For the physical body to easily heal, the energy body needs to be as whole and clear as possible. When the toxic energy is removed, the body can relax and begin to allow the natural antibodies to take over. The challenge can be to allow the mind to relax so that it will not keep or call back the toxic energy.

Spirit Guides

For the westerner the concept of a spirit guide is at times challenging to grasp. I was recently in Vietnam and was visiting the great mother temple in which all of the different elemental aspects of the divine mother were represented as well as protecting guides for each representation. The tour guide said, “our country is quite different from yours in that we believe that there are spirits guides, protectors and ancestral guides everywhere and that we are never alone. We listen to these guides and make offerings to them on a daily basis. Our guides provide the foundation for the culture. It does not matter if you are Buddhist, Christian or Confucian, the connection to the ancestors and to our guides is part of these religions.”

The belief that we are not alone and have guidance and support from other realms is key in indigenous healing. One needs to quiet the mind to hear the great teaching that are available to us much like we do in prayer. In the major religions of the world there is a belief in a higher power, deity or God that we pray to for guidance, comfort and support so on many levels the concept of guides is not a foreign one. The form that guides take vary from culture to culture and they embody different energies or vibrations. There are guides from the divine realm and ancestral guides that are available for guidance and care. There are wise teachers, animal and winged guides, plant, tree, and elemental guides. All of these guides bring a vibration that we need to live our lives in balance and in health. When I first began to work energetically with cancer patients, I asked one of my teachers if it was safe for me to do this as I worried that I might bring the energy of cancer into my own field. I was told that cancer exists on every vibration so that I need to make sure that I had guides and protectors for each vibrational level. Sometimes we need a soft vibration; at other times a fierce and protecting energy. One never needs to feel alone if can relax into the comfort and protection of these great teachers and protectors.

Religion and Energy Healing

One of my readers inquired about the role of religion in energy healing, which is an excellent question. Shamanism has been a method of healing for at least 60,000 years. Anthropologist have found that although the rituals may vary from culture to culture that the core essence of shamanism is quite similar even when many cultures were quite geographically disparate. In shamanism there is a belief that there is unlimited healing energy available to us. Through the help and guidance of spirit guides, power animals ancestral guides we are able to channel and utilize the incredible healing energy that is available to us. Although there are some cultures in which shamanic practice is the underpinning of spiritual life, there are others in which it is viewed as a healing method while a major religion is the foundation of spiritual life.

There are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist healers. My first teacher, Ismail Daim, is Muslim and his practice is traced through the Islamic faith back to the Ancient Greeks. Another teacher, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, is from the Bon Buddhist tradition. Both traditions work with sacred prayers for bringing the soul into wholeness. In the Islamic tradition the prayers are written, then put into water for the person to drink. In the Bon Buddhist tradition they are chanted and blown into to water to drink. A translator of the prayers said that they evoke the power of love and the divine being to bring the soul into wholeness. When I shared the prayers with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, he placed the prayers over his heart, read them with his heart ( the Buddhist believe that the mind is in the heart) and then nodded and said that they are the same. Tenzin said that the energy of the prayers resonate on the same vibration, the divine frequency. The major religions of the world believe in either a divine being or a divine energy that is pure love. Utilizing this source of healing has been the foundation of well being for centuries.

Many believe that Jesus was one of the greatest healers of all time. His connection to the divine and ability to be one with the divine enabled him to not only be an incredible healer, but also to do miraculous things. There are other great spiritual healers throughout history and who walk the earth today that have the ability to not only channel, but hold the pure vibration of love from the divine. Unfortunately during the Spanish Inquisition, the Catholic Church decreed that indigenous healers were heretics and spawn from the devil as Jesus was the only true healer. Nine million healers were killed during that time and much of the ancient wisdom that thrived in Europe was either destroyed or forced underground. The belief that indigenous healing practices are evil still persists in some circles and as a result some remain wary of these practices, believing that they are witchcraft. In our attempt to be scientific and secular western cultures hesitate to bring spiritual or energetic practices into the healing process losing a powerful and beneficial aid.

Ancestral Imprints

Our health care system learns more each day about genetics and DNA. There is the new science of epigenetics. ¹ Epigenetics studies changes in gene activity that does not in essence alter the genetic code. It seems that there is an epigenetic mark, which can tell your genes to switch off or on. It also asserts that environmental factors such as stress, exercise, eating habits and even prenatal nutrition can impact genes that are passed from one generation to another. This theory is similar to Bruce Lipton’s work on DNA. In his book, The Biology of Belief, Dr Lipton presents research in which he demonstrate that our DNA is but a blueprint. Familial and cultural factors along with environmental stressors can determine which aspects of the DNA develop and come into prominence. If part of one’s DNA has the potential for great musical talent, but this is not nurtured or developed, it will lay dormant.

These scientific theories dovetail with what I have come to understand energetically. There is an energetic imprint that is passed from one generation to the next. The energetic imprint is both absorbed into the energy field and is superimposed over it. If the energy in one’s family is an anxious energy, this energy is absorbed into the field of the child. This energy will find the weak link in the physiological or genetic system and the anxiety will manifest itself there. If one’s genetic make-up is prone to gastrointestinal distress, the anxiety will show up there; it could also express itself through asthma, sleep disturbance, addictive behaviors, or emotional disturbances such as agoraphobia or obsessive compulsive disorder. Epigenetic scientists are learning to manipulate genetic markers through drugs that can silence the bad genes and jump start the good ones. Fortunately shamanic and energetic work can do the same thing by removing the energy that does not belong to the core system of a person, allowing space for the true essence of who one is to fill up the space. One of the reasons that alternative and complimentary medicine is growing so fast is that there are many folks who do not want to take a pill for everything and prefer a healing system that actually has the potential to heal the core issues that cause the symptoms in the first place.

It is important to note that the ancestral imprint also transmits positive energetic states that accentuate the genetic make-up. The sports prowess of the Manning family or the acting skills of the Bridges are cases in point.