Chapter 11 Believe It Or Not!


Before a year had passed since my introduction to energy healing, I had spent a fair amount of time working with Robert Bruce’s New Energy Ways, going through the book and all the exercises at least a dozen times. I had also been working with Silk Reeling Qigong practices several times a week, I’d been instructed to not overdo the Silk Reeling routine but I was reading and testing some of the qigong material I’d found on the internet as well. 

    I’d also begun to integrate some of the teachings in the Pranic Healing book in my work. I wasn’t inclined to focus on any one teacher or teaching, rather I’d take what I could use from each. I was very cautious about indoctrination. Perhaps I was overly cautious. There were other teachings I borrowed from as well, but those few were the primary ones I was focusing on at that time.

Now since I didn’t have any teachers in my area that could train me in these things, I was being careful to test each technique until I felt comfortable doing it. I learned it before I integrated it into my practice. It may have been better if I could have gone into full-time training with each teacher, but that wasn’t possible.

I suppose I should mention that shortly after I did the Quantum-Touch course, I did a fast called the Master Cleanse. I’d heard several people mention it and thought it might be a good thing to cleanse my physical body. I had fasted for three days at a time in my late teens and early twenties when I’d only drink water for a few days to flush toxins out, but I hadn’t done any significant fasting for 25 years or more. 

The Master Cleanse calls for drinking lemonade made with freshly squeezed lemons, dark maple syrup, and cayenne pepper. You can also drink water on the fast, but you wouldn’t consume anything else. Supposedly you can do this fast for 40 days or more, but I only lasted 24 days on it. I shed 18 pounds and quit smoking. It was the end of a 33-year pack-a-day addiction. To the point that relates to energy healing; my lungs needed some special attention to help cleanse and heal them from the effects of all that smoking, and I figured my liver could do with some extra care.

I read some medical qigong techniques that I’d downloaded from the internet that I thought might help. One involved visualizing green energy moving into the big toe on the right foot, then up the liver meridian, an energy pathway associated with the liver, and through the liver, then further up the body and out of the eyes while making a particular sound like ssssssss. The other technique called for making a sound like shhu, or shhhh while visualizing the lungs clearing stuff out. 

I won’t go further into the details of those techniques here, mostly because I didn’t study them much, but I did find it interesting enough to give them a try. I did these sound techniques for a minute or two whenever I thought about them for a few months. Eventually while doing one of the exercises, I coughed up some black gunk and other stuff from my lungs. I feel sure the strange qigong technique caused that to happen. That was years ago, but now and then I will still open my eyes wide and imagine green light flowing out of them into the sky, and my eyes will feel a bit better and my vision will be a little sharper and maybe my liver is a little healthier. At any rate, it feels good to do it.

Other qigong healing sounds are used for other purposes. I haven’t done much with them, but I do appreciate that someone back in the mists of time had the patience to work these things out — very clever stuff. I’d like to know more.

Something I found about jumping from one set of teachings to another is I’d often find myself in uncharted territory. If you’re not following someone else’s map, sooner or later you’ll be on your own, lost in the weeds or maybe discovering some cool stuff. The saying goes, “If you’re not the lead dog the scenery never changes.” Well, the scenery changed quite a lot for me, and I’d find myself having to face the strange. Flying by the seat of my pants was common, and I often enjoyed it, but not always.

Many times I’d do healing work off the cuff. I’d meet with a friend, and they’d tell me they were hurting and I’d offer to work on them. I did a lot of that. No preparation, I just jumped in to help. I did one for a friend named Lynn. Here’s what she said about it:

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“Dear Steve, 

I want to thank you so much for working on my back. As I told you, I have had recurring low back pain for many years, due to a couple of disc injuries. I have a step down into my living room, so I am making that step up and down all day every day. Lately, it seemed that every few days, I would step up or down and something in my low back would almost send me to my knees. On one of these occasions recently, it created intense pain that continued day and night for two days. The pain was so bad that it kept me from sleeping through the night, and I would have a terrible time getting out of bed in the morning. 

Fortunately for me, you dropped by my house to discuss an unrelated project with me. When I told you how much pain I had been in for two days, you told me about the successes you had been having helping people with their pain. I was a little skeptical since I have had, in the past, experience with Reiki and Quantum-Touch therapies. I got no relief of pain from either one. But, I agreed to let you try to help me. I was amazed at the intense energy and heat I felt coming through your hands. I had never been able to feel energy like that from anyone else that had worked on me. As I recall, I didn’t feel a lot of relief while you were working on me. But, one or two hours after you left, the pain really started letting up, and the next morning, I had no trouble getting out of bed. The intense pain was completely gone. It was the first in three nights that I had been able to get a decent night’s sleep. 

I can’t thank you enough for what you did for me. I would strongly recommend you to any of my friends or acquaintances that need help with pain. I truly believe you have a gift for healing. I wish you much success in contributing to better lives for those people with whom you cross paths.” 

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That session with Lynn was one of the few times I’d seen the energy flowing in the space around us. It was interesting, but I’m not interested in seeing it all the time. It would be confusing. Maybe sometime in the future, I’ll be okay with it, but I’m fine with not seeing subtle energy for now.

~ S