Why it's time to truly mainstream alternative healthcare
My early story is that I was raised in Christian Science. Actually my parents were opera singers and theater heads who earned money by singing solo in Christian Science churches, who actually pay for that to happen. I went to Sunday school there most of my young life, and the teachings and precepts of Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science went into my ear early on.
Mary Baker Eddy was a no-nonsense New Englander of Scottish descent, and her spartan Massachusetts upbringing is reflected in the teaching. Mrs. Eddy had a difficult childhood, with great conflicts with her father, and was physically frail to the point of being bedridden for periods of time. She was part of a metaphysical and spiritual blooming that took place in the North East United States in the middle-late 1800s. In a constant search to find healing for herself and others, she discovered what she called Christian Science, and in 1879, founded the 1st Church of Christ Scientist in Boston, where the Mother Church remains to this day. Mrs. Eddy had hundreds of documented healings in her long career, using what was called “Spiritual mind treatment.”
“Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.”
“To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, today is big with blessings.”
Mary Baker Eddy
She wrote copious and beautiful poetry, and the songs and texts of the CS hymnal return to me often, even though it has been some time since I myself was a Christian Science soloist. It all formed a solid foundation for my further explorations of metaphysical and philosophy and healing techniques. The great spiritual minds of her time and after, Walk Whitman, Dr. Ernest Holmes who founded the Religious Science movement, Joel Goldsmith, Edgar Cayce, the Fillmores, Carl Jung and more all spoke similar ideas. That mind can do anything, including heal sickness, and that there is a Divine intelligence and presence that we can call upon. Go all the way back to Plato and Pythagoras to see that this thread of belief has come through the ages, dimmer and brighter, but intact.
Come further forward and see that this concept has flowered even more fully to transcend mind into the world of the soul. Wonderful teachers, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Caroline Myss, and my own teacher, Dr. and Master Zhi Gang Sha, are illustrating powerfully that it’s the soul, our infinite eternal self, that is the boss. The mind can be a wonderful tool, it can also be a wild horse that takes us to dark places. Soul….we can trust.
Actual scientific data now emerges that prayer, spiritual blessing, and energy healing modalities do actually work to bring balance, healing and overall wholeness. Yes, miracles.
Miracles do not, in fact, break the laws of nature.
C. S. Lewis
Those who understand advanced physics say that it is incomprehensibly weird, and even throw the God word into the stew more and more. It’s not such a hard step to say that physics and spirituality are not only coming together, but have BEEN together all along.
“The unification of science and spirituality is urgently needed. It will help save humanity from more suffering. It will take both science and spirituality to new heights. Our dream is that science and spirituality can join as one to enrich each other and uplift each other.”
Master Rulin Xiu from the book, Tao Science
My first foray into energy healing was to learn and become attuned to Reiki. The word means Divine Energy in Japanese.
Dr. Mikao Usui, or Usui Sensei, discovered Reiki in the early 1900s, during a retreat meditation on a mountain in Japan. During a waterfall meditation, when water falls vigorously onto the crown chakra, he felt the power of Reiki energy pour into him, and realized it could be a way of offering healing without depleting the self, by being a channel for the energy.
During my time as a certified Reiki Master Teacher I had many lovely experiences with my clients. At that time it was permissible to do a hands on form of Reiki which I enjoyed tremendously, feeling the energy flowing through me gave such a feeling of connection and spiritual intimacy that I received as much healing as they did. Animals benefit greatly through energy work. They often drop off into what I called the “Reiki coma” afterward, a deep healing sleep that can last for hours. Humans do it too. Even though I have gone on to some different and powerful modalities I greatly value Reiki and my experiences with it. Sometimes it’s valid for me to use, with older, sick animals and young children. There’s no question that the energy that expressed through me accomplished healing, physical, mental and emotional. My mother became attuned, and treated herself and her animals regularly.
“A healer’s power stems not from any special ability, but from maintaining the courage and awareness to embody and express the universal healing power that every human being naturally possesses.”
― Eric Micha’el Leventhal
We all have that healing power to some extent. It is, or should be, our nature to offer comfort, love, healing, blessing. Mothers certainly have it, doctors in their way, nurses…surely. I have been blessed to go on with my healer’s career with less famous modalities. Through my teacher I am a Divine Healing Hands healer, a Tao Hands Healer, a Tao Calligraphy practitioner, and Guan Yin Lineage Holder. All of that is powerful and effective and food for another discourse. Where I am going with all this is that there an abundance of healing powers and techniques that are available to us that are non-invasive, that work, and don’t cost the house, the car and your firstborn to utilize.
Acupuncture. Ayurveda. Homeopathy. Naturopathy. Traditional Chinese medicine. Herbalism, old as time. Chiropractic. Reflexology.
Don’t get me wrong, western medicine certainly has saved countless lives. If I had the misfortune to be in a car accident or fall off a cliff I would be happy for a first-rate ER. But western med IS invasive. And toxic, and unbelievably expensive. Back in Mrs. Eddy’s day she was saying, “Look out for medicine hucksters, you’re better off with the power of your mind.” Seriously! Have you really looked at the pharmaceutical advertising on television? They WANT you to be sick so then can sell drugs to you, and rake in billions doing it. If you’re not sick they insist that you will be soon, and they will be there to aid you. Those ads are criminal. The side effects descriptions can be pretty entertaining, but honestly. How do they sleep at night.
My father-in-law was a death’s door some years ago, and his doctors finally cross indexed all the medications he was on, upwards of 20. They took him off of everything but hypertension meds and he lived another 15 years. Ornery as hell, but healthy.
What if an event on mother earth led to the failure of even one major infrastructure? Power? Water? Banking? Communication? Food chain? If we as a culture are so dependent on western medicine and all that it entails, what happens when it isn’t there?
If you fall ill or hurt yourself and suddenly your phone doesn’t work and you can’t get gas for your car, wouldn’t it be handy to have a healer in the house? I’m not a doom crier. These things are not only possible, they’re frightening possible. The electrical grid in this country is so outdated and overburdened now that it’s a matter of time before there are potentially massive outages. Natural disasters have the look of ramping up. There are groups of people on the planet who do not wish us well. It may be truly a matter of life and death for humans on this rock to have real tools for wholeness in their pocket if mother starts a serious shake.
The challenge as I see it, is mindset. Some of the western medical establishment are starting to integrate alternative modalities into practices, but not enough, and not quickly enough. People sometimes still have the “Doctor as a god” sort of mentality, and anything less than doctor can’t possibly work. Alternative methods sometimes take a gradual path, one doesn’t always see the outcome right away, though the action is taking place.
As healers, we must go ever deeper within, to access the great power of our true self hood. We must also speak out our voice into the world to help people know that we healers are readily available, happy to serve, teach, and offer what we have. But also that THEY can do what we do, to bring wholeness and balance to themselves and their families, to the animals in their care, to their neighborhoods and towns and cities and countries.
As my dear teachers tells us,
“I have the power to heal myself. You have the power to heal yourself. Together we have the power to heal the world.”
Kristin Strachan
compassionbuddha.net
