Archives: Healing

Hermetics: The Roots of Spiritual Healing

Transformational Healing with Sacred
Tibetan Instruments

The Healing Power of Prayer

Unique Body, Unique Healing

The Deeper Flow of Healing

Consciousness & Healing: A Personal Experience

 

Hermetics:
The Roots of Spiritual Healing
by Keith Sherwood

Hermetics is the foundation on which our understanding of spiritual healing is built. Originating in ancient Egypt, Hermetics was said to be given to human kind by Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom, whom the Greeks called Hermes Trismegistrus. Hermes was hailed from the earliest times as the "Master of Masters" and, if he did exist, he is truly the father of esoteric wisdom. The details of his life have been lost to us, but one tradition has it that he was a contemporary of Abraham. Perhaps he was the fabled Melchezidec, whom Abraham paid tithes to, or whom Jesus was compared to when he was described as "a priest on the order of Melchezidec." Whatever the truth may be, Hermes gave to humankind a set of teachings, or axioms, which has influenced philosophy and religion ever since. His entire philosophy hinges on seven simple principles and the practice of healing in its many forms is most clearly understood in Hermetic terms. This is most succinctly expressed in the Kybalian. The Kybalian was written in 1912 and has since become a modern classic.

The first Hermetic Axiom states, "The All is mind; the Universe is mental." This doesn't mean that what we see in the material world is an illusion, or what the Hindus call maya. When the Hermeticist or healer says that everything is mental, he means that the source -- the cosmic root of everything animate and inanimate -- is infinite creative mind. (This is succinctly verbalized in Sanskrit as Om.) Human beings, by being sentient and self-aware, can experience infinite mind as it manifests in their spirit through the I AM (or, what is called Atman in Yoga and Tantra), which is at the center of their being.

The second Hermetic Axiom states, "As above, so below; as below, so above." There are planes above us; these higher dimensions would be beyond our understanding, hidden behind the veils, if the second Hermetic Axiom, the Principle of Correspondence, didn't have universal application. Because the Principle of Correspondence applies to all levels at all times, man can begin to understand the higher planes by studying the lower ones.

The third Hermetic Axiom, the Principle of Vibration states, "Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates." Applying the Principle of Vibration to healing, we can see that not only does everything vibrate, but also everything that vibrates has a characteristic rate of vibration, which is its unique mark. This vibration can be influenced negatively or positively by other frequencies of energy within the environment. When a person's vibration is negatively affected, disease results. The process of healing is the process of correcting a person's rate of vibration. We can illustrate this by thinking of disease as a wobble or an unrhythmic vibration. It is usually a more dense vibration, and in a lower range of frequencies than a healthy one. For example, a wobble often develops in a car that has poorly aligned tires; this then affects the steering and, to correct it, a person must have the alignment checked and the wheels balanced. Once the wobble develops, its uncharacteristic vibration can adversely affect other systems in the car. The same thing can occur in the human energy system. Disease in one area can create disease in a related area or in a nearby system. A wobble also can begin on one level and be transmuted to the level adjacent to it. For example, an unrhythmic vibration on the etheric plane, if not corrected, will disrupt the flow of energy on both the astral and physical-material levels.

The fourth Hermetic Axiom is called the Principle of Polarity. It states, "Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled." From this principle, we can deduce that spirit and matter are simply two poles of the same thing and that everything between them has elements of both, varying from each other only in degree (i.e. vibration). If opposites are really the same, and if spirit and matter are the same thing (differing only in their rate of vibration), then they can be transmuted from one into the other, and spiritual energy can positively affect anything in the physical world, including the physical-material body. It then follows in the human experience that hate can be transmuted into love, pain into joy, and disease into perfect health. Because the healer understands the Principle of Polarity, he can transmute negative energy on each and every level and, in this way, heal the patient.

The fifth Hermetic Axiom states, "Everything flows out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall; the pendulum swing manifest in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates." The healer understands the law of rhythm and becomes attentive. He "pays attention" to the natural rhythms he finds everywhere, especially those within himself. He learns that rhythms compensate. Like the great physician Hippocrates said, "Opposites are cures for opposites." After compensating for his own wobbles, the healer can do the same for his patient by transmuting healing energy into the exact vibration or dosage that will compensate for the disease of wobble he finds in that patient.

The sixth Hermetic Axiom states, "Every cause has its effect, every effect has its cause; everything happens according to the law; chance is but a name for law not recognized; there are many planes of causation, but nothing escapes the law." The most important feature of this principle in healing is that nothing happens by chance. The root of every disease is a chain of events that the ill person participated in, even if his participation was largely unconscious. In the final tally, the ill person is responsible. As a result, he will eventually pay the price for past actions through present disease and pain. This law of cause and effect is also known as Karma. In the book of Galatians, the Apostle Paul tells us, "...God is not mocked, for whatever a man soweth, that he shall also reap."

The seventh Hermetic Axiom is the Principle of Gender. It states, "Gender is in everything; everything has its masculine and feminine principles; gender manifests on all planes." Gender, it should be noted, represents far more than sex, the differences between male and female that are quite clear to us on the physical-material plane. Gender manifests on all planes. On the mental plane, the masculine principle of gender is manifest as the objective, conscious, active mind. The feminine aspect corresponds to the subjective, unconscious, passive mind. On the emotional plane, the masculine principle manifests itself as assertiveness, anger and all extroverted emotions. The feminine principle manifests itself as receptivity, protection, and all introverted emotions. This duality is inherent in all living things, including human beings. It is the healer's job to integrate this dual nature first within himself, then within his patient, and to bring everyone he works with into perfect harmony and balance.

The importance of the hermetic axioms cannot be overstated. With them as a firm foundation, many a healer and student have avoided the false starts and pitfalls encountered along the trek inward through the dimensions of soul and spirit. With the hermetic axioms as their trusted guide, those fortunate ones have moved rapidly forward, becoming more skilled and growing in wisdom while many others with good intentions but lacking a firm foundation have floundered because they were carried away by theories and doctrines that were conceptual constructs rather than based on observable reality.

Keith Sherwood is the author of Chakra Therapy and The Art of Spiritual Healing. He is the founder and director of the Center for Inner Awareness in Anchorage. Visit him at www.wholelove.com.

 

Transformational Healing with Sacred
Tibetan Instruments

by Debra Denker
 
The very air seems to shiver and vibrate
as a multitude of harmonic tones reaches out
into an infinite universe

Sound can heal or harm the body and soul. Just as the jarring sounds of modern life can assault our soul and cells, so can the silence of nature or meditation calm us. The conscious use of sound for healing can even restore us to harmony.

From ancient shamanism to modern organized religions, all cultures have used sacred instruments, including the human voice, for prayer and healing. But nowhere on earth has the intentional use of sound for ritual, worship, and healing been developed to such a degree as in the snow-crowned peaks and windstruck plateaus of Tibet, origin of exquisitely resonant singing bowls, cymbals, and bells.

No one forgets their first experience of the sound of Tibetan bells. The very air seems to shiver and vibrate as a multitude of harmonic tones reaches out into an infinite universe. The essence of your cells -- your very being -- reacts, reorganizes, and harmonizes. The ever-questing mind finds itself at an unfamiliar peace, allowing the body to come into a natural healing state of equanimity.

For hundreds of years (perhaps millennia if one accepts the indigenous Tibetan Bon version of their history as going back 18,000 years), the uses of the resonant singing bowls have remained obscured. One of the gifts of the tragic invasion of Tibet by China has been the bringing of the Himalayan singing metal instruments to the West along with their underpinnings of Buddhist dharma and indigenous Bon.

The unique flavor of Tibetan Buddhism is a result of its influence by Bon, the original shamanistic religion of Tibet. Many Buddhist practices -- from prayer flags to worship of spirits of place, from fire ceremonies to the masked cham dances -- have their origin in this powerful tradition. The singing metal bowls and bells are probably no exception.

Many people are familiar with the use of the bell and dorjee in Tibetan Buddhist Tantric rituals. These two tools must always be used together, as the ritual is a bringing together of male and female energy. The sweet purity of the bell symbolizes feminine wisdom, while the dorjee thunderbolt symbol symbolizes masculine compassion.

Contemporary Bon-pos use a unique and rare flat bell, the shang, along with a chak-shing. The shang, which looks like a hand-sized cymbal, is always played or placed on an altar with the clapper upright. The chak-shing is a scepter with a double yungdrung (the Tibetan word for swastika, an ancient sacred symbol long before the Nazis misappropriated it). The Bon are known for their ability in exorcism, and the shang is a powerful spiritual tool for breaking up and removing thought forms that clog a person's auric field and life.

The ting-shas, palm-sized double cymbals connected by a leather cord, are gentle by comparison, but still very powerful. Each set of ting-shas is different in tone, quality, and note. I once sounded about 100 pairs in Kathmandu, Nepal, in order to match my energy field. Many were exquisitely beautiful, but not quite "right."

Traditionally, ting-shas are used in Tibetan rituals as punctuation for prayers. They welcome the spirit of the Buddha invoked, and are a sound offering to the deity. Today, many healers also use them for harmonizing the body with the spirit, diagnosing energy blocks, and clearing auric fields and living spaces. The pure sound of the ting-shas vibrates with a slight dissonance when passed over a disturbed or disharmonious area of a person's energy field, or when sounded in a living area permeated by distress. Often, additional sounding of the ting-shas is all that's needed to clear the imbalance.

Singing bowls further harmonize the auric field and promote healing on a cellular level. No one knows the true origin or history of the singing bowls. Some have suggested an extra-terrestrial origin of the secret of combining metals to create the pure harmonic overtones of these exquisite instruments, at once breath-taking and breath-giving. Some scholars believe that the modern Bon-pos still closely hold secret information about these instruments.

What we do know is that older bowls, bells, and ting-shas are made of a seven-metal alloy, the metals corresponding to the visible planets. A Tibetan friend who deals in singing metal instruments says that most of the best are at least 150 years old. She carefully tests the quality of each one she purchases, spending hours in bazaars in Nepal and India. She uses the bowls in her own spiritual practice, and draws no distinction between physical and spiritual healing: "Meditation is healing," she says with a smile.

The best quality modern instruments, made in exile in Nepal and India, are crafted of seven metals. Cheaper imitations, not nearly as resonant or long lasting in their tones, only contain five metals. The test is in the listening and the feeling. Which tones resonate with your body-mind? One can spend hours, even days, testing bowls and feeling their frequencies. However, as in the rest of life, there are no accidents, and you always end up with just the right bowl for that moment in your life, the one that produces the sound that opens your chakras and vibrates your cells to higher levels and dimensions.

Though no scientific research is yet available, there are many anecdotal reports of dis-eases being healed through the use of Tibetan bowls. People report long-held pains and congestion vanishing, and, in some cases, tumors have appeared to dissolve and pass through the system. Bones are said to knit more quickly, and people with back pain in particular seem to benefit. Many people use the bowls and bells to bring about a state of calmness when receiving medical treatments. One friend experienced a pain-free biopsy by asking the nurse to sound her ting-shas at regular intervals.

There is no doubt in the mind of anyone who has experienced the sound of Tibetan bowls first hand that the healing power is enormous. It is sometimes subtle, sometimes dramatic, but always very present and palpable.

One can increase the effect by actually standing inside large bowls, while smaller ones can be placed and sounded directly on one's chakras and body parts. Gently and steadily rubbing wooden mallets along the rims of these sacred instruments produces tones and overtones that harmonize with angelic beings and deity realms."

Bowls can also be used on the body, in patterns around the auric field, on the chakras, or in healing spirals. They can be used for shamanic journeying, or simply to transport one's consciousness to another place. Allow spirit to be your guide as to how to use the sacred singing metal instruments of Tibet for maximum healing potential and power.

Clairvoyant energy healer Debra Denker has traveled extensively in Nepal, India, and Tibet studying both Buddhism and indigenous Bon. She works and teaches frequently in Alaska. Voice mail (907) 222-5281, e-mail SWLight1@aol.com

 

The Healing Power of Prayer
by Richard Block
 
Heal consciousness and the body is healed. While there is new and
growing awareness of this principle, the principle itself is not new.

There are a growing number of people who find allopathic medicine, drugs and surgery, not fully responsive to their healing needs. Whether symptoms affect the skin, muscles, bones or organs, there is growing recognition that the source of disease is not in the skin, muscles, bones or organs; rather, the cause is stress, fear, ignorance, anger or hate – in other words, a disease of consciousness.

Heal consciousness and the body is healed. While there is new and growing awareness of this principle, the principle itself is not new.

As Jesus Christ said to those gathered on the Mount of Olives, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” What is this truth? In responding to that same question posed by Thomas, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” During his ministry, Jesus demonstrated the healing power of this truth over and over again, healing every manner of sickness and disease among the people.

This divine truth, this power of spiritual healing, is here today. It works today. It is healing today.

Mary Baker Eddy, who was ill much of that portion of her life from 1830 to 1866, engaged in a diligent search for more effective ways to heal than were offered by the practitioners of the then newly emerging practices of allopathic medicine. She explored hydropathy, homeopathy, various forms of mental and physical manipulation and many other techniques, all with varying degrees of relief. She was aware of the popular practices of mesmerism and hypnotism. In 1866, however, she suffered a serious injury from a fall on the ice and was declared by her attending physician not to survive more than a day or so.

Eddy called for her Bible and read an account of Jesus healing someone of a serious physical condition. Although she had read the Bible regularly throughout her life and was intimately familiar with these stories of healing, it suddenly dawned on her that the healing came because of a divine absolute principle and that the principle was universally and eternally applicable. The same principle that Jesus used could work in 1866. And it did! Eddy was immediately healed. The physician found her the next morning walking around in the downstairs parlor ready to take up her daily chores.

Mrs. Eddy then devoted her life from 1866 to 1875 to the fuller discovery of that healing principle. She wrote her findings in a book, which is now the seminal primer on healing through prayer and which sets forth a spiritually scientific statement of life and health. That book, Science and Health, With Key to the Scriptures, is read by millions who are finding their freedom from physical and mental illness. Hundreds of thousands of seekers are finding new insights into spiritual healing on the website, www.spirituality.com.

Healing through the divine principle which Jesus taught and demonstrated is available and working today. It is evidenced by the thousands of contemporary healings documented and reported by those healed. Everything from coughs to cancer has been healed spiritually, through prayer, applying the same truth that made men free in Jesus’ day, and without intervention of any medical procedure, drug or surgery.

I have been healed relying exclusively on prayer. A heart condition, a bronchial condition, severe toothache, and other sicknesses have all yielded to the healing power of prayer. Healings of other members of my family have been even more noteworthy. The prayer that brought about these healings included, in some cases, only simple affirmations of God’s goodness and care for his children. In other cases, prayers included deeper consecration and more careful study of the Bible and Eddy’s textbook on spiritual healing.

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures is available in commercial bookstores and on the web at www.spirituality.com. Those who engage in the full-time practice of this form of healing for others are listed in the yellow pages under Christian Science practitioners.

I can with confidence sing praise to the freedom gained by relying on this divine truth to heal.

Richard Block is a lifelong Christian Scientist and a member of the Christian Science Church. He is currently servicing as the Christian Science Committee on Publication for Alaska.

 

Unique Body, Unique Healing
by Francesca Fleming
 
We do not always respond to the most popular or most
generally-accepted ways of healing.

As a medical intuitive and energist, I have seen some amazing healing results. Different results stem from each person’s response to illness or dis-ease as well as each individual’s unique physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual make-up. This is why, I believe, we do not always respond to the most popular or most generally-accepted ways of healing.

The most remarkable healing that I have witnessed occurred over the time period of a year. A woman, body bent with pain that reached even to the soles of her feet, came to see me. Alice looked much older than her 50-odd years. Her hair and skin were dry and brittle, and she complained of fatigue and memory loss as well. Her doctors diagnosed her with severe neuropathy and gave her pain killers as treatment. Seeing me was her last ditch effort to find a way to heal.

Alice’s body demanded better feeding, more nutrition, and a deep cleansing. Her spirit demanded a release from the typical pattern of American life. Her emotional body was fine. Her course of action, as her Soul guided me, was to eat only protein and certain vegetables, take particular supplements and incorporate some of her family’s traditional foods into her life again.

The first signs of relief came in three weeks. Alice uncurled and had more flexibility. Each month, we used energy work and guidance as to what her body wanted in food, supplements, and exercise. The next month, Alice could clean house more often, walk and garden and, of course, cut down the pain killers. By the sixth month, she was no longer taking any pain killers and had begun to feel like herself again. Alice also lost 25 pounds as part of the detoxing effect of the body cleansing. At the end of the year, Alice complained only of a stiff shoulder and hip. On new directions, she went to see a chiropractor. During this time, she opened to greater spiritual awareness and began to more deeply honor her heritage and the earth. This continued to lead her and her husband to a much happier and healthier lifestyle.

Another client was a middle-aged man who came to see me with similar complaints to the woman with neuropathy. David was also depressed. The difference in what his course of action to heal entailed surprised me. His soul and emotions directed him to begin a mostly vegetable diet, with some fruit and small amounts of protein. He also used some supplements, but they were different than the woman’s. Mostly, David needed energy work to balance his brain and clear his charkas, aura, and past ties to people and places that were no longing serving him.

Intuitive guidance also suggested that David begin daily meditation. After seven months, David called to thank me for sending him on his spiritual journey. He felt better, younger and happier. Because he was so much healthier, I was fired – but I was happy about it, too!

In my view, the body and soul together form a unique pattern that determines the course of action for healing. Each individual’s response and ability to respond to their given guidance determines their healing rate and progress in health.

Francesca Fleming is a medical intuitive and energist. She will be visiting Wasilla in May. To contact her call 503-805-7403, or email: francesca@be-joy.com

 

The Deeper Flow of Healing
by Deborah Cottle

We can all join in the evolution of facilitation, allowing people
to own their healing, discover their inner power, and break
through the detrimental illusions of life.

We live in an age that now acknowledges the benefits of complementary medicine. Science has determined that everything is energy vibrating at different frequencies. Dis-ease comes from an imbalance in the vibration or movement of this energy.

As facilitators of healing, how do we help clients connect with their ability to heal from within and free themselves from their own dis-ease? By accessing the systems that already exist, we may allow clients to connect with their process, for only their bodies know where the seat of the problem resides and what created it. Their bodies contain the map that directs us to this destination. As facilitators, we shift from a space of trying to figure out what is wrong and how we are going to fix it, to an understanding. We accept that each client contains all the information and ability to heal. As a witness, we follow their pathway to healing instead of trying to lead them to health.

All techniques function with a goal that I call the 3 R's of healing modalities: Reaching, or connecting with the issue; Releasing, or working with the core of the issue instead of the symptoms; and Restructuring, or interactively integrating with our bodies' innate knowledge.

BE IT (Bio Energy Integration Therapy) accomplishes the goals of the 3 R's by using the principles of the 4 C's of healing: Containment uses our own energy to find the pathways to healing. Chaos tells us it is time for change to happen and facilitate that change. Collapse lets us step out of the game and into reality. And Continuity is the restoration of the proper energy pattern, allowing us to embrace and integrate.

BE IT is similar to an electro-current energy modality that flows like a river, clearing blockages existing in the surface levels and continuing down through deeper levels of the body. This energy is directed and structured, effectively reaching, releasing and restructuring the core of the blockage. It allows access to each individual’s blue print, the innate knowledge of the body, and provides interaction with the physical manifestation allowing the return of proper function once the disturbance or blockage is cleared.

We can all join in the evolution of facilitation, allowing people to own their healing, discover their inner power, and break through the detrimental illusions of life. Thus empowered, we can step forward together, with understanding and appreciation for the lessons our bodies provide for us. Our bodies can be our greatest obstacle as well as our most magnificent teacher, providing us with all the answers to the questions we dare to ask.

Deborah Cottle is an LMT and the developer of BE IT.

 

Consciousness and Healing: A Personal Experience
by Barbara Joyce
 
The work of consciousness must always begin with the self.

As a holistic nurse and practitioner of Polarity Therapy, I have long been a student and teacher of the unity of body, mind and spirit – so much so, in fact, that the words are actually one to me: bodymindspirit. Numerous ancient healing systems inform us that what goes on in the spirit, goes on in the mind, goes on in the body. Healing involves our conscious participation in this wholeness.

I conduct retreats and workshops and practice psychotherapy and energy healing with individual clients. My constant intention is to serve the highest good for all and to work for the expansion of human and planetary consciousness. The work of consciousness must always begin with the self. In this light, I would like to share a recent spiritual healing experience of my own.

In January of 2004, I was conducting a retreat for women’s consciousness in the mountains of upstate New York. Our work was to focus on an issue of importance in our life and allow the guidance of the retreat to shed light upon it. For myself, I wished to explore a conflict with one of my adult children that had been causing me to feel angry and resentful about his behavior. I was so angry that I felt estranged from him and was grieving this loss.

On several occasions earlier in the month, I experienced pain over my left kidney and frequency of urination. I had suffered from kidney stones many years prior and clearly remembered this pain! I had seen my Nurse Practitioner, who ordered an ultrasound. The report indicated possible calcification in the kidney. I was referred to an urologist but my appointment wasn’t scheduled until the week following this retreat. So, off I went to the five-day retreat praying all would be well and I would have no further episodes of pain. No such luck!

On the second night of the retreat, I was awakened by a triple knock on my door. When I opened the door, no one was there! Leaving on the light, I went back to sleep. The following morning, I asked if any one else had heard knocking. No one had though when she heard my story, one of the participants said, “It sounds like you had a visit from a knocking ghost!” (While I believe in the existence of spirit companions and guides, I had never had one arrive in my space quite so noisily!) She went on to explain that she and others had similar, verifiable experiences. After a lengthy discussion, I decided to smudge my room that night and pray for the ease of the spirit’s journey. I asked that the spirit move on but that if it had a specific message for me, would it please try to communicate it to me in my dreams. I then went to sleep.

In the early morning hours, I had a dream in which my Aunt Kay appeared. Because I could actually smell her, I wasn’t totally sure that I was dreaming. My Aunt Kay had passed on many years before, but during her life I was extremely close to her. She was one of the most non-judgmental people I knew. Others in our family actually used to get angry with her “naivete” in relationships, as she always saw the good in others. I loved her dearly and so when she appeared to me that night on retreat for the very first time since her passing, I wept with the pure joy of feeling her presence.

I heard myself saying out loud, “Aunt Kay – is that you?” as I became fully aware that the spirit knocking had been her. She greeted me in this altered state saying, “Oh Barbara, he is such a good boy!” I then awoke and began sobbing heavily. I knew she was talking about my son and I felt an enormous release of my anger towards him. The feeling was profound and I felt much better able to move towards understanding and forgiveness.

Sobbing on and off the entire day, I simultaneously felt the releasing of pain in my kidney. Although I did not seem to pass any stone, I felt the pain on all levels of my being cleared that day. Subsequent evaluation by the urologist found no stones, calcifications or cysts in the kidney; his exact words as he looked at the CT scan results were, “These kidneys are beautiful!”

According to the teachings of Polarity Therapy, the kidneys exist on what is called the air current. Energetically, they congest when there are unresolved emotional issues of anger and frustration. In Heal Your Body, author Louise Hay describes kidney stones as “lumps of undissolved anger.”

I am deeply grateful for the visitation from my aunt, for my own willingness to grow in consciousness, and for my deep communion with my body physical. It is my fervent hope that as we all work to grow in consciousness our healing efforts will manifest on personal levels as well on the planetary level, and that we will live in harmony with all that is.

Barbara Joyce, Ph.D., R.N., Creatrix of Hestia's Hearth - Center for the Conscious Creation of Unity in New York, offers retreats, workshops, counseling and energy healing for women's consciousness development.