21. Energy work
Wednesday Sept. 28, 2005. We’ve been friends for half a century, my brother and I, and with time and change our friendship has only deepened. Over the years, we have continued to introduce each other to whatever new we find that is of value, and it becomes a part of us both, and we therefore relate in yet another new way, on another new level. I have found it particularly satisfying that he – and our sister Margaret – listened with interest to my early explorer’s tales, at a time when no one else would. And in turn, he made and communicated his own explorations and discoveries, including two friends with highly developed psychic abilities.
One of those friends, Don, lives in San Francisco, and so these days, when Paul meets me at the San Francisco airport, it is common for us to proceed to Don’s flat so that the three of us can spend some time hanging out together.
Often enough, part of that time is used in energy work of one or another kind, and this time was no exception. Don was trained at the Berkeley Psychic Institute, and so to his natural abilities has added defined techniques and what might be called the second-hand benefit of other people’s experiences. He is very good at seeing the state of one’s aura, and cleaning out the psychic junk one accumulates. I’m not good at seeing things; I tend to work in the dark, so to speak, not only because I “know” things rather than receiving visuals, but also because I am highly intuitive, and well connected, but not well trained. I cannot lean upon an established way of doing things. I have to make it up as I go along. And Paul is somewhere between the two extremes.
The plane got in at mid-day. Don had another guest for a while, an old friend in from Boston whose plane had arrived not long after mine. Don, who is an excellent, innovative cook, had made us a fabulous lunch (and I ate more of it than I was strictly required to do!) His other friend left soon after lunch, and after we had digested a bit, we set out to do some energy work.
Not much point in trying to describe it. I think we were all pleased. Later, Michael’s sister Pat came up, and we worked on her as well, I working on her emphysema and cough, then Don working on specific problems concerning her general energy level. Again, a good feeling, as energy work benefits those who give, as well as those who receive. Plus, it’s always nice to be able to help.
Friends and food and shared tasks and a new acquaintance who promised to become a new friend. Not bad, for half a day in the city. But then, our time together is never dull, never stagnant. Fifty years of shared experience is like sedimentary rock, built up over time by continual additions of small amounts of new material. You can build some pretty nice rocks that way, given time and perseverance.
22. Little healings along the way
Not the least satisfying part of my time in Oregon and California was that from time to time I got a chance to do a little healing work. Thinking about this piece, I counted seven incidents. All of it happened between the lines, not front and center, and none of it took very long. But I jumped at whatever opportunities arose, for there isn’t anything that I find more satisfying, especially when two or three of us are working together.
Michael. For some reason, his right arm and shoulder were hurting, and his thumb had numbness in places. It bothered him enough to interfere with his sleep. Sounded like a pinched nerve somewhere, to me. I did some work on his back and shoulders and arm and hand, letting the guys upstairs direct my hands as usual. That is, I did whatever I felt inclined to do, so long as it wasn’t something that I thought might be harmful, not questioning why. This was somewhere between massage and straight energy work, and it did seem to help. He got a better night’s sleep that night, waking only once, rather than about once an hour. But we never did discover the non-physical cause – the “why” of it rather than the “how” of it – and so we weren’t surprised, though disappointed, when the recovery didn’t stick. Only fleeting relief, here.
Dirk. Years ago, as a complication of severe arthritis, Dirk’s neck locked up, and he lost most of the mobility of his head that we take for granted. To look to one side or another, he had learned to move his whole upper body, and he had developed phenomenal peripheral vision. But he and I had begun to work on this two years ago when we first met, and had made some progress. This is straight energy work, a form of “seeing the condition not there” as Bruce Moen would put it. In other words, he worked on regaining mobility by visualizing his neck as normal (“not like I saw in someone else’s x-rays,” as Dirk wryly said). Since he couldn’t safely move his upper body and head, we settled instead for his moving the energy-body equivalents strongly, even violently, again trying to get the subconscious mind to respond. Don’t tell his doctors: It’s a slow process, but it’s working.
The waitress. As I was at the cash register waiting to pay for breakfast, the waitress was fooling with some ice. She explained that she had picked up a plate that was too hot and had burned her four fingertips and thumb. I somewhat hesitantly asked if she would be open to a little energy work, and she was, though she didn’t know what I was going to do. I could see her flinch as I reached toward her hand, thinking I was going to touch her fingers. I didn’t, of course, instead putting one hand beneath hers, steadying it, and using my left hand to sort of stroke the energy of the burn away. Easy to do, hard to explain. (In the four years that I lived in a house heated by a woodstove, I’d burn myself every so often, and I got very good at taking away burns! Nothing beats incentive.) She must have been very open to it, because in seconds she said, “the throbbing has stopped!” I had to leave – my friends were already in the car – so I had to hope for the best. I showed her how to do the energy thing for herself, but I expect that after a few minutes the throbbing returned and she had to use more ice (which would be a good idea for her in any case). At least now she knows that she isn’t as helpless as she had thought.
Dave. While we were sitting at the table in a restaurant in Bend, I noticed Dave fooling with his hand. He said to his daughter that he had cut it, and it was bothering him. Without thinking about it, I reached out with my left hand and made a circular motion that I have learned, a clockwise motion that often helps. I knew it had worked when he suddenly turned to me, his eye wide and incredulous. A minute later, he looked at me again, same expression. Funny.
Karis. As Keli was taking Karis to meet the school bus (and I was tagging along for the ride) Karis said she had cut her ankle and it was bothering her. I did the same thing for her ankle that I had done for Dave’s hand, and in a few seconds she said it was fine.
Pat. Pat’s case was the most serious, but here I had help from my brother Paul and our friend Don. I concentrated on helping her with her breathing. (She has emphysema but she smokes, and the combination is pretty debilitating.) I concentrated on teaching her how to visualize her way to energy assistance using the “waters of life and health” meditation that we were given years ago. It didn’t take her long to feel the difference. For one thing, her chronic cough departed (temporarily). But Don was the prime energy guy – he’s a graduate of the Berkeley Psychic Institute, and what he knows is a lot. His work was fascinating and impressive, but I can’t summarize it here. Suffice it to say that he restored a lot of the lost energy of her psyche. We could all see, and she could feel, how vastly greater her energy level was after he had done his thing.
Me. And, of course, there was me: Keeping myself healthy without medicine seems like a full-time job, sometimes. I did bring my asthma spray to Oregon, as otherwise I was performing without a net, but if at all possible I wanted to avoid using it. I did have to use it once or twice, but mostly I avoided it by a trick I was given pretty recently that stops the wheezing and thus stops it from developing into a full-scale nuisance. Partly this involves the “waters of life and health” meditation, but more immediately it involves pressing with fingers and thumb on the breastbone in certain places. Believe me, to find something that works, without medicine and its attendant side-effects, is very comforting. Whether it will continue to work all winter, and for the rest of my life? Stay tuned.
Now, please don’t make the mistake of thinking that any of this is a big deal. The point is precisely that it is not a big deal. If you haven’t guessed, a major reason for writing about this is to encourage you to consider how much more you could be learning to do. Consider these little anecdotes as teasers to encourage you to look into it a little more. They make for happy memories, too.