Chapter 13 Bold As Brass


Sometimes the healing work jolts my sensibilities. Like with that first paying client, the one with the asteroid belt of dirty energy in the aura around her knees and the standing wave of energy a couple of feet behind her back. The fact I had a case that intense come my way at that early stage in my learning and having such a positive outcome still has me sit up a little straighter when I think of it.

At other times rather than doing the work, I have felt as though the work was being done through me. It goes beyond me. Something beyond my capacity is going on. I do my part, and the more substantial part comes from a higher power or a different plane of existence. I don’t even know if I’m yet ready to discuss some of what I’ve experienced or witnessed. I haven’t assimilated it all. Maybe I never will.

I grew up working on radios and televisions, bicycles, lawnmowers, motorcycles, and cars and then remodeling houses. It was all very practical, very grounded, physical stuff. Then this healing stuff shows up in my life, and I’m doing my best to stay grounded, to keep it practical, scientific, and mechanical, and trying to figure out the physics of it. I guess I was doing a pretty good job, but it’s like I’m working in a different octave of the universe and wonder about the natural laws involved in all of this.

I never take credit for the actual healing. As I said, I do my part, sometimes a higher power seems to step in, and then the body heals itself, but the language we use has me saying things like “I did some healing work on a guy and such and such happened.” I assume that everyone understands that the energy isn’t mine anymore than the air in the room is mine. On the other hand, the energy and the air is mine, just as much as it is yours.

Sometimes when I say something like I did some healing work someone will tell me I didn’t do the healing, God did it. It makes me wonder what they say to the dentist, or the surgeon, or the car mechanic. 

Some people are prone to challenge you over the slightest provocation. It gets ridiculous. Some folks want you to hide your light under a basket, but sometimes, come what may, you have to be bold as brass and shine! Shine like the sun and if it hurts the eyes of those who prefer darkness, let it. 

Scientists used to cross swords with the church quite a bit. Galileo went to prison for suggesting the earth revolves around the sun. So even today there are people who believe the earth is flat. Having that stuff thrown in your face lets you know the people doing it have fixed ideas they aren’t willing to question. I don’t have time for that. I’d like to see energy healing become much more available, to help others, and expand our understanding of the world in which we live. 

I think it’s going to take a scientific approach to do this. Even people taking classes in various healing techniques can fail to ask enough questions. Too much gets taken on faith. Questioning authority can be quite bold, but it is necessary.

One day I was having lunch with an acquaintance who had recently taken a Reiki course and was telling me if it was up to her, she would just tell a student to get out of the way and let the energy flow through you. Well, I guess I was provoked and challenged her. I asked her to put her hands on the table between us, palms up. I then held mine about a foot or so over hers and sent a pulse of energy into her hands. Her eyebrows went up, and she blurted “Did you feel that?” I told her, of course, I felt it, I caused it to happen. She recovered quickly from her surprise, and I suggested it might help to give students a demonstration and teach them how before telling them to just do it. 

Maybe I was a little cocky when I did that, but I could do it, and she was boasting about how she would instruct others on how to do it but she couldn’t do it herself. That annoyed me. 

Another time I gave a more or less grandiose display of this energy I was at a local new age bookstore. I was looking at crystals and wondering about how you might go about using them in healing, but it seemed like a vast and potentially confusing subject that could be rife with misinformation and plain old baloney. It seemed like a big course of study that I wasn’t ready to take on just yet.

I overheard the manager of the store saying she was a Level Three Reiki master and had taught hundreds of students over the years. She’d said it rather loud as if announcing it to the few of us who were in the rather small store, so I didn’t feel self-conscious about picking up on her conversation. A moment later she was passing nearby, and I asked if she would hold up her hand and I held up mine like I was going to do a karate chop and she did the same. I put my hands about 8 inches away from each side of hers and let some energy flow between my palms into her hand. Her eyebrows went up, and she said she’d never felt that energy before!  

I’m sure there are outstanding Reiki masters and practitioners, but I don’t know enough about Reiki to comment on it. Maybe strong energy flows aren’t a part of Reiki. I don’t think they are necessary but even soft energy has a similar feel about it. I don’t mean to disrespect Reiki in any way, but I am very sure some people just pretend to know about subtle energy.

I don’t perform such displays on the regular, but I was exploring at the time and sincerely wanted to know what the local Level Three Reiki master had to say about the energy. I wanted to find other people that I could talk to about this energy work at the level I was experiencing it.

A weekend course now and then wasn’t providing enough camaraderie. It might have been helpful to share insights, but then again, I’ve seen too many people afraid to explore on their own, to come up with ideas of their own and test them out. 

I like to learn as much as I can, then throw dogma out the window. I respectfully set any gurus to the side, and make my way with it. I suggest not being afraid to make mistakes unless the mistake is to pretend you are getting results you aren’t. This is like the King’s new clothes. People may be polite to you about it, but you aren’t fooling anyone but yourself. 

Many people lack the discipline to stick with a course of study long enough to make it their own. I think it’s common for people to pick up a smattering of a few simple healing techniques then modify them and call them their own. Then they mix in some intellectual understanding without knowing how to do the work. It’s also common for people to psychologize about a person’s illness, on why it’s not improving, or how it came about, which has nothing to do with energy healing. Psychologists, therapists, and counselors get paid to do that sort of thing. Energy healers who are prone to psychologize should shift to doing healing work on animals from a distance. That way they won’t mistakenly believe they are doing anything beneficial by doling out “lofty words of wisdom” on how the animal may have become ill or why they aren’t healing, etc.  

As a general rule it is wise to cultivate enough discipline to stick with a course of study until you know it very well, and then step out of the constraints of dogma and make your way with your own understanding of the subject, but not before. Bruce Lee studied many forms of martial arts under many masters, then synthesized his own. Bruce Lee may have worked harder at martial arts than anyone before him. Even though he studied many forms, he was by no means a dilettante. He didn’t dabble. Bruce Lee committed himself to learn techniques very well before moving to the next. He developed his own style after learning as much as he could from others, not before.

~ S