I've never gone to anyone else for any kind of alternative medical treatment other than chiropractic care. I'm too much of a do-it-yourself person.
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/77smile.gif)
Plus, the thought of letting a stranger that
close to me (mentally/psychically speaking) is intolerable.
I looked into Reiki once, actually contacted a local practitioner and was considering taking lessons in the technique- but after reading a book about it, I couldn't stand the thought of someone
messing with me that way! I don't have so much of a fear of scam artists as a sort of screaming heebie jeebie reaction to the thought of someone getting that close.
So, I read lots of books on the subject of energy healing. The styles I found most effective on myself were "pranic" "reiki" and "kiatsu" healing. I couldn't just stick to one, of course!, but found elements of each that worked for me.
I'm still too "shy" to effectively work on anyone other than my husband, but I have been able to help him with several times over the past couple of years since he had Lyme disease. My kids are too skeptical to take anything I say on the subject seriously, but I do try to help them occasionally without explaining what I'm doing. It helps them some.
Mind over Matter-
I've always been able to "turn off" tickling. If someone tickles me, I'll be tickled for a split second or so, but then I can literally turn off the feeling. I'm not just holding still and enduring it. I can literally turn off something to where the touch does not tickle. I've been this way almost my whole life.
A couple of years ago, on TORC, a thread by Dazzling Moonlight finally convinced me that various aspects of "chi" might be real, and I started investigating the possibility of self healing. As I was starting to look into this, I had a wisdom tooth that was starting to cause trouble. It hurt a lot, but the only appointment with an oral surgeon I could get was a month away. I decided to try to stop the pain as an extension of the anti-tickle ability I seemed to have. I'd imagine my finger glowing, and then I'd touch my jaw where it was hurting, and then my jaw would go numb for hours at a time. After doing this off and on for a few weeks, by the time I went to the oral surgeon, it had stopped hurting at all, and he said it was unwise to take the tooth out at this point if it wasn't hurting me, because it was so big that getting the roots out could damage nerves that controlled my face! I agreed and left fast. (I have a horror of surgery.) I still have all my wisdom teeth, some impacted. That one acts up once in a while. It is easily dealt with.
So, that was a resounding success.
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/77smile.gif)
At that point in history, I was trying to get into shape for all the walking I'd be doing when I went to The Gathering in Toronto. I decided to apply this new anti-pain technique to my stretching exercises I was doing before walking. I'd go into a stretch, hold it until it started to hurt, then numb it and continue stretching for a couple of minutes. After a couple of days of this, the soles of my feet started hurting terribly. I found that I'd injured the fascia on the bottoms of my feet. It was the most painful thing I've ever experienced. After talking to a doctor (and rejecting most of his suggestions) I decided NOT to numb the pain mentally or take pain killing drugs, as this could cause me to damage myself more. I used energy healing techniques (not the painkilling kind) and got better in two months instead of the 4 or 5 that the doctor had predicted.
I was fascinated with this new ability. After I got over the foot thing, I had my first "over 40" physical done. As my mother has osteoporosis, I figured I'd better get a baseline test done, for comparison when I started to degenerate later on. The test showed I had the bones of a 56 year old, at 40!
![Crying or Very sad :cry:](./images/smilies/icon_cry.gif)
For the next year, I did various energy healing techniques on myself 2-3 times per week, but didn't change anything else about my diet or exercise level. One year later, I had the test done again. My bones were normal for a 40 year old!
I think I was able to help my kid when he had severe appendicitis (or he might just be a really tough kid!). I
know I helped my husband overcome the Lyme disease, after 3 rounds of strong antibiotics failed. I've helped him with minor things since then. I'm helping myself on the diet I'm on now, by daily visualizing the fat cells being accessed properly when there is an energy shortage, rather than slowing down my metabolism to compensate. When I forget to do this, my weight plateaus.
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)
When I start up again, it starts dropping again. I guess that's a safety mechanism so I don't keep dropping weight forever until I waste away!
The mind controls the body, if you can just clear away the "junk" and focus on what you really want to happen, the body will make it real. A strong intent and belief that it WILL happen is very important.
The thing I
don't know is that if I really helped my husband, or if I just guided him into helping himself. He knows the techniques now, but sometimes can't do it by himself and asks me to help. I don't know if I really can transfer energy from me to him and do him good, or if his
thinking I am allows him to fix himself? At first I was sceptical, and figured that he should be able to do this himself as well as I could... but it isn't the sort of thing his personality type is prone to do, and it could very well be harder for him than it is for me. We are dealing with forces that cannot be measured, so there's really no way for me to know.
So, I help as I can, not knowing if I'm just helping him focus his thoughts to do it himself, or if I really am opening up a conduit to Universal Energy and flooding him with the energy he needs.
I DO know that when I first tried to help him with something, a bad heat rash, I was so self conscious that I didn't open up to the outside energy properly, and just transfered some of MY energy to him, and got a backwash of HIS energy onto me. I got the same heat rash within an hour, although I wasn't in the heat at the time.
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)
The books warn against that.
![Embarassed :oops:](./images/smilies/icon_redface.gif)
I'm still not convinced that there is actual energy flow, or if my nervous system just tuned into his sufficiently to cause the same reaction on my body. Either way, it was a good lesson. I never attempt to help someone without making SURE the flow is one way-- towards them, and the only way to do that is envision that you are tapped into an infinitely huge, beneficial energy source, and not giving your own personal energy.
If you are really interested in this stuff, read lots of books! The particular techniques that *work* for me, might not be the ones that work for you. It's all mental, and what amuses me might seem stupid to you, and unusable.