When Glen Hoddle admitted that most of the England football had been consulting a spiritual healer the newspapers had a field day. Anyone would have thought that it was a trendy new fad. In fact, spiritual healing (sometimes called ‘natural healing’ or ‘faith healing‘) is arguably the oldest type of healing known to man. In various forms it has been practiced around the world for thousands of years. In common with many other age-old practices, it has been neglected in the West over the past century or so. Only recently has it been rediscovered.
Spiritual healing is not ‘done to you’. It is a two-way process and you, the patient, have to take responsibility for wanting to get better. The healer is sometimes said to act like a radio transmitter, pulling healing energy into his or her body and sending it out through their hands. This healing energy is described as a mix of ‘earth energy’ – the recognizable electromagnetic energy in and around everyone – and healing energy channeled by the healer from what they refer to as the Divine Spirit, God or Universal Energy. However, the patient does not have to follow a religion or, indeed, believe in spiritual healing to benefit.
Remember that this is called spiritual healing, not curing. A fundamental belief of healers is that, for some people, illness may form part of their karma (their spiritual life plan). Therefore, in certain cases, although the healing may alleviate the symptoms, it cannot promise to cure them. Healers believe, however, that healing can work on the hidden factors, emotional and otherwise, that may contribute to the illness. Having said this, documented instances do exist of healing working ‘miraculously’.
How Does Spiritual Healing Work?
Disease is an outward sign of inward imbalance. Spiritual healing works holistically, that is, on your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual parts. All these are interactive and often the real cause of an illness becomes apparent only as healing progresses. Healers subscribe to the theory that the body has seven major ‘energy centers’ (chakras), each of which responds to a healing energy vibrating at a different speed.
The chakras are known as the Base, Sacral, Solar Plexus, Heart, Throat, Brow (third eye) and Crown (you don’t have to know where they are to benefit from healing). While the Base and Crown centers have only one outlet each (at the base of the spine and the top of the crown of your head), the other centers each have a front and a back, running through your body. Each center relates to and vitalizes a different physical part of the body, and has different emotional, mental and spiritual functions. For instance, the Base center relates to the adrenal glands, kidneys, bladder, spinal column, colon and legs.
When people are ‘grounded’ or ‘well-balanced’, this is usually held to mean that their Base is in good working order. The chakra theory suggests that a balanced Base allows the whole body to operate more efficiently and cope better with stress; it gives you vitality, stability and a healthy sense of self-preservation. An ‘unbalanced Base’ implies that feelings of fear, lack of self worth or shame are held there, even if you’re unaware of the original reason. Physically this is believed to lead, among other things, to chronic constipation or spinal tension.
The aim of spiritual healing is to balance these centers so that energy flows through them and they vibrate properly. When energy is not flowing well, a center is said to be ‘blocked’. Healers assess how your centers are working by holding their hands near them and feeling the energy or lack of it. They can then help ‘remove’ blockages and feed healing into that center.
Healing also works on the aura – the seven invisible and overlapping layers of energy around the body. Each layer is fed by one of the seven ‘energy centers’ and has its own function. The aura is said to extend about three feet around the body and contain all the patterns of behavior, emotions and traumas that you have experienced in this life and, so healers believe, in past lives too. By intuitively sensing where any negative areas or disturbances are, they believe they can help deal with past traumas, even those linked to childhood.
Without realizing it we all use our intuition at its most basic level. For instance, our intuition gives us our gut feelings, every time we meet a stranger. Unconsciously, we are picking up messages from invisible bands of energy around them, in other words their aura. Similarly, negative or angry feelings from others can enter our aura – just think how you feel on a rush hour train. The reverse is true: good energy can help reduce the effect of or get rid of negativity. Use positive thinking or the exercise below to help you in everyday situations.
Protect Yourself From Everyday Stress
By helping you feel grounded and protected from negative energy, this ‘starter’ psychic awareness exercise can help you cope with everyday pressures. Practice it for three minutes, preferably each morning.
- Sit comfortably, somewhere quiet, feet flat on the floor, hands on thighs, palms uppermost. Close your eyes. Focus on a point in the middle of your chest – your Heart center. Imagine breathing into this point.Take several slow, deep breaths in and slowly release them, allowing tension to flow out of your body.
- Take your thoughts to any tense areas of the body and breathe out the tension from these areas in a similar way.
- Now, pressing your feet down on the floor, imagine long roots growing from the soles down into the earth. Picture the molten hot lava at the earth’s center and think of these roots reaching down deep into it. Now think of this red energy flowing up your legs to the base of your spine. Sit for a few moments, allowing the red warmth to fill the base of your body.
- Gradually imagine a bright white light completely surrounding you, like a bubble. Picture the light all around you. Know that you are completely enclosed in the bubble of white light, and that you are safe and protected from any negativity.
Practice these exercises during the day, too, if you feel anxious or stressed.
Spiritual healers are ordinary people who more often than not have experienced trauma or sickness themselves. Through training, they learn how to balance themselves and are then able to transform natural compassion into an aptitude for healing. Treatment is widely available but it is wise to check that your healer is a member of a recognized body.
Faith Healing
Unlike spiritual healing, faith healers believe that the recipient has to have a religious faith for their healing powers to work.
Absent Healing
This is a form of spiritual healing that is believed to act over a distance – the healer is not necessarily with the patient or even in the same country. However, it is believed to be lust as powerful and effective as hands on healing. Healers, anything from one to a large group, concentrate on the person and visualize that person being healed.
Ideally, the person receiving the healing should be asked if they are willing to receive it; failing that you should ask that it is ‘for the person’s highest good’. This can be done for individuals, families or even whole communities – all that is needed is the name. It is especially useful if someone is elderly, sick or injured and unable to visit a healer in person. Absent healing has been likened to people saying prayers; whatever the similarity, the results can be beneficial.
Try this exercise to send healing energy to someone. Focus on your Heart center and think with love or compassion about that person. Now imagine a rosy pink light encircling them with healing energy. Send love and healing from your heart into the light. After several minutes let the scene slowly fade.
Spiritual Healing Is Good For:
- Anxiety, insomnia and other stress related problems
- Depression and deep seated anxieties or traumas
- Lack of energy
- Lack of self confidence
- Digestive disorders
- Migraine
- Circulation problems
- Numerous physical conditions
Spiritual Healing
AVAILABILITY – Widespread
MEDICAL EVIDENCE – Limited
MEDICAL ACCEPTANCE – Mixed
SELF HELP – Possible