Today we’re going to go over what energy healing is and a few of the foundational things that are important to understand about it. We’ll cover as much ground as we can bit by bit!
A Nod to The Healthy Skeptic (you’re very welcome here!)
It’s understandable – even reasonable – to have a healthy skepticism regarding energy healing: it’s something that is not easy to see and not easy to confirm based on our most common methods of proof and validation. If you are truly interested in proof through measurable, scientific methods then you will have to look carefully but there’s plenty out there!
Some people, and you may be one of these, have had direct experiences with energy work or energy in general in such a way that you don’t really question its existence yet you’re still not sure what to make of it or how to explain it. Many others are ‘on the fence’, open-minded yet unsure and we might call this healthy skepticism.
In this article we’ll thread through a number of different data points and ways of understanding the phenomena of energy and energy healing to paint a picture that broadens the ability for the healthy skeptic to become a little more comfortable, more open and possibly even convinced.
What is Energy Healing anyway?
Firstly, let’s define energy healing, which is also referred to as energy work or energy medicine. It’s a holistic method in which higher consciousness and energy flow through the practitioner to clear blockage and support the physical body’s natural regeneration.
So, it’s holistic – meaning that the mind the body and the spirit are included. When holistic or holism is being spoken of all three of those components are being addressed. Obviously, we know what our body is and to a great extent we all have a sense of what the mind is, however, there’s this thing called Spirit – it’s mysterious and may even be undefinable.
Lao-Tzu, the Chinese sage, is famously quoted as saying, “The Tao that can be spoken of is not the Tao”. He goes on to say the Tao is “eternally nameless”. Lao-Tzu is talking about Spirit, Source, The Whole, The Absolute, etc. The key to getting a sense of Spirit is to know that it is beyond and transcendent of limitation. It is a word and concept that points to the whole – which is where holistic fits in. Energy healing is absolutely holistic – it requires the integration and the use of higher consciousness which is what we’re pointing towards when we talk about spirit.
Ancient Practice, Modern Times.
Energy work is nothing new. It has been around for thousands of years and is just a modern term. In one way or another many ancient traditions and spiritual practices have integrated and featured forms of energy healing. What we’re calling energy work now is just the contemporary terminology. Luckily, science has provided us with a new language and concepts to understand how energy healing works within a modern framework.
Holistic healing is unlike Western allopathic medicine, which generally treats symptoms. Western medicine tends to work with things that have already become physical issues. This orientation comes with its advantages and disadvantages. As we’re establishing, holistic medicine would consider dysfunction in any aspect (mind, body, spirit) of a person a form of dis-ease.
Holistic medicine – of which energy healing is a part of – is ultimately about getting at the root of a problem, not symptoms. So, you can understand that working holistically can mean identifying problems that exist without having any physical symptoms.
Higher Consciousness & Russian Dolls
We already mentioned how higher consciousness is related to our sense of spirit. In energy healing – referring to our definition – higher consciousness is flowing through the practitioner. If you want to get a sense of higher consciousness, think of a Russian doll as an analogy. The Russian doll is set up so that there are shells or nested structures, one inside of the other. Here, higher consciousness would be the outer shell such that all of the inner structure is included in the outer. This is essentially termed inclusivity. It’s not that higher is better and lower is worse – it really means inclusive.
Some versions of higher consciousness are what’s often called your Higher Self (micro, personal) and also what is referred to as Source Consciousness (macro, universal). We can identify and understand the role of Source Consciousness wherein all other forms of consciousness are nested or included within it.
A Field-First Model
As a conceptual framework, to understand energy healing we use a field first model: which follows the logic that thoughts make things. It’s a model of causality and the creative process. Have you ever made something in the physical domain you didn’t think of first in the mental domain? Regarding energy work, it helps to understand what’s happening with the phenomenology inherent in the practice.
A field first model makes the most sense to explain the mechanism behind energy healing and for some seasoned practitioners this cause and effect relationship is directly perceivable: the body maps onto an energy field, a thought makes a thing, a mind makes a body – in a sense. This isn’t a strange idea – we could easily understand a framework wherein the physical body is derived from an informational, energetic blueprint existing at the EM field level first.
This causal relationship explains the phenomenon in energy dealing where blockages arising in the energy field can then manifest in the physical body if left unresolved. As mentioned, a seasoned practitioner may see this relationship quite directly. Consider for a moment, have you ever experienced or seen someone else go through a lot of psychological stress and then subsequently get sick? In that case, one explanation is that the stress-ridden mind resulted in a sick body. If there had been no mental stress would there have been physical illness? Is there not a clear mind-body connection here? If so, our causal relationship of mind to body is a very reasonable and demonstrable one. So clearly if something has an energetic pattern or imprint in the energy field and is not addressed, then the physical body may start having symptomology. This is a working model, a theoretical framework, so keep on your healthy skeptic hat!
A Universal Practice, not just for some.
Energy healing is a practice for everyone. There is no hierarchy regarding access to entry. Anybody can become an energy healer and practice on day. It’s great that it has this kind of intrinsic equality built into it! Of course, there are different practices and there is a large skill set in terms of development, but just like anybody can start playing music on day one, anybody can start practicing energy work on day one.
With Field Dynamics we welcome total beginners as well as seasoned professionals! You can develop an extensive and expert level energy healing practice because there is a huge range of technique and creativity available.
What is Energy Anyway?
The energy being referred to in energy healing is electromagnetic, but it’s gone by different names in different cultures, such as prana, qi (chi), subtle energy, life force, vital energy, etc. You can learn to see and feel electromagnetic fields – this goes under the general heading of extrasensory perception (ESP).
Some people have an intrinsic skill – which is great for them – but most people have to work to develop their sensory interface: how you take sense phenomena through the physical senses and then see how they sublimate into the subtle senses. All extrasensory perception is to some degree a learnable skill. They’ve been talked about for a very long time: the yogis used to call these the siddhis, the Buddhists called them the iddhis and in modern times they’re most commonly called the clair’s (clairvoyance, clairsentience, clairaudience, etc.) . Many people are quite interested in developing their psychic abilities, are you?
Electric Thinking
As mentioned, energy work is foundationally related to what’s going on with our electromagnetic self, our bioelectric self. This electromagnetic field surrounds and interpenetrates the physical body – the popular terms for this are the auric field, the human energy field, the light body and the biofield.
A more contemporary term we like to use in Field Dynamics is ‘multidimensional anatomy’ because the energy field is where we can understand ourselves from a multidimensional perspective. That might sound strange or futuristic yet understanding the energy field at a more subtle level is that it has a multidimensional nature and is organized as such.
This is extremely important to understand how energy healing works because multidimensionality refers to how information is embedded or encoded in electromagnetic phenomena or light. If we wanted to go way down the rabbit hole this connects into fractals, recursion, self-similarity and more, but this is a 101, not a 104! In essence, our electromagnetic, multidimensional nature explains how we are connected to and profoundly part of the whole universe.
The Healer Doesn’t Heal (it’s true!)
A key principle to remember is that the healer doesn’t heal! This might sound strange, but central to understanding energy healing is that the person doing the energy work isn’t the thing or aspect that is the primary aspect “doing” the healing.
The healer is actually a facilitator for the flow of higher consciousness. The quality of a person’s emptiness, spaciousness, or transparency is the developmental line towards a person’s healing ability. In this light, a proficient energy healer is actually a person who is really good at getting out of the way!
Be Here Now!
The most valuable skill for an energy healer is establishing a clear connection to higher consciousness, source, or spirit. In practical terms this just means becoming more present and grounded in the here and now. The present moment is a paradox: the very idea of nowness or can be understood as an analogue of what we mean when we say spirit. Think about it – the present moment is eternal – it’s always now! We can understand “being present” as the essence of spirituality. An energy healer’s greatest skill is developing their presence. Maybe you notice the direct link between traditional spiritual seeking and that of healing? We can see how both the healer and the seeker will find the culmination of their quest in the paradoxical, eternal present.
Going Deep…
Energy healing is a depth modality, meaning it works with the subconscious. By making use of forms of higher consciousness, energy healing enables you to engage the subconscious quite effectively and directly. This is a key underlying reason for the potency of energy work – deep healing requires working through our subconscious mind.
The goal is to make conscious that which is subconscious – effectively bringing it to the light of your awareness. Because of this feature whereby the subconscious aspects are engaged with quite directly, energy healing tends to bring about an accelerated transformational process either for healing work or self-realization.
Oh Hello Subtle Anatomy!
Obviously, we have a lymphatic system and a nervous system and an endocrine system, but we also have a chakra system and a meridian system and a nadi system. These familiar terms refer to our subtle anatomy and have extensive documentation in traditions such as Taosim and Yoga. Increasingly, science is picking up on this through various studies.
The structural integrity and the flow of energy through these subtle systems are very important for the overall functioning of our mind and body. Just imagine if your lymphatic system were malfunctioning, there would be significant consequences to your health! The same is true for the aspects of the subtle anatomy: their strength and energy flow is integral to your holistic health.
Feeling Stuck?
Energy healing is well known for removing energy blocks. You often hear someone say “I want to clear my blocks” or “I want to remove my blockage”. These energy blocks are often known as distortions or fragmentations. Different traditions have different titles for them, but the block disrupts the flow and function of the energy system. Imagine your energy system as flowing like a river and your health and vitality is determined by the strength and balance of the current. A block is akin to a rock in the river – causing disruption and imbalanced flow.
Interestingly, blocks are made of unresolved issues… surprise, surprise! When we say we’re working with a repressed emotion, a deeply limiting belief, a buried memory, trauma…. these things are actually sitting in the energy field and subtle anatomy. As mentioned before, these unresolved issues in the auric field can eventually manifest as physical symptoms, illness and even disease.
So, we have the energy anatomy – the structure – and then there’s the blocks – the issues. In energy healing you can choose to work anatomically but you could also work from an issue. Some common themes of energy blocks are identified as: the inner child, ancestral healing, traumatic life experiences and transpersonal healing to name a few.
But Really, How Can this Work for Me?
Let’s cover a few benefits of energy healing!
Energy healing promotes natural self-healing.
Simply put, the body heals itself! We all know that when you get a cut on your finger it heals itself. This natural regeneration is assisted by a number of factors such as environmental conditions, nutrition, etc. but energy healing contributes to stimulating regeneration of the physical.
Energy healing is a powerful method for transformation and self-realization.
Self-realization is simply about connecting to one’s true nature and their highest potential. Energy work provides unique and in many ways unparalleled access to the obstructions that inhibit the insight required to realize one’s deepest nature. Simply becoming aware of something is the foundation for change! Acknowledgment, insight and awareness are critical foundations in transformation and energy healing excels at breaking down these perceptual barriers and enabling consciousness expansion.
Energy healing offers an empowered management of one’s health and wellness.
This means that through preventative self-care we can develop and strengthen our non-reliance on external factors. Our field first model tells us how unresolved blockage in the energy field can eventually turn into physical symptomology… so if we can develop a practice that really prevents physical symptomology, then we’re really empowering self-management of our own health. Is it a replacement for doctors and medicine? Not at all. Rather, the empowerment is instead to gain non-reliance on external sources.
Energy healing increases or enhances one’s present moment awareness due to increased coherency.
Coherency is a measure of a systems’ organization and the energy field is a very complex electromagnetic web of information. As you develop your energy system, your field becomes better organized – more coherent – and this coherency results in more electrical conductivity, radiance and increased vitality. The more radiance you have in your energy field the more your focus of attention can settle into the present moment. This feeds back into why it is that energy healing is so useful in self-realization, because it really enhances present moment awareness.
The Meditator, The Yogi and The Shaman walked into a bar…
An important potential of energy healing is that for many people who are doing holistic work, it may be the practice which moves you into the next level of your process. Energy healing brings focus to the subtle energy and this practice combines the skill set and strengths of the meditator, the yogi, the shaman. It’s also complimentary and expands upon other practices for clinicians, talk therapists, coaches, bodyworkers, etc. For those interested in subtle energy, developing extrasensory perception, intuition, and deepening your current practice, then energy healing is something that is truly worth considering.
Take a look at what Field Dynamics has to offer.
Want to experience transformational energy healing directly? Check out our Private Session page for appointments with Keith or Christabel.
Looking to go deep? Field Dynamics sets the standard in energy healing training.
We offer comprehensive and professional certified training in energy healing via our EHT-100 and EHT-200 courses, currently offered LIVE online. Full details and a neat downloadable guide can be found on our trainings page! Applications are open for our next EHT-100 Hr.
