Learn Energy Healing
and Really Help Your Family

All healing is really a form of energy healing and begins with the breath, known as prana or qi (chi; ruh). These words are much more expansive than “breath.” Without good, deep breathing, no matter what we call it, none of the other modalities work effectively. When it comes to the body itself, and the two- to four-times a year body detox that many healers do, the breath is the first food and the first drink of energy that is healing to the body. The origins of pranic healing, or breathing for health, are discussed here.

As an energy healing practitioner, I do a form of hands-on-healing, reiki which is the Japanese word meaning "spiritual healing energy." It is a generic term in Japan, just as holistic is a generic term here. This is why people distinguish the type of reiki they "have." It is about helping the stressed-out and unwell; people feel better when practitioners transfer or release energy through their bodies and their body space.

The evolution of spiritual healing using reiki has included its penetration into hospitals, where a different form, therapeutic touch, has taken hold. There is also Touch for Health, another descendant of the Japanese form. These forms are unlike massage in that they do not involve manually working the muscles, tissues and organs. Both techniques work wonders for a stiff neck, however, just as massage does.

Energy is not so much about a capacity to perform work as it is the substance that inspires body movement and dance. It is not so much the strength and vitality required for sustained physical and mental activity as it is the substance that propels the flow of qigong and tai chi both of which entail the movement of the life-force (origin of breath). The subtle benefits are almost priceless, for example, the unity presented by the image of people performing tai chi all together. The graceful movements mean so much to health; the patience, care and attention paid to the movements is a boon to harried and hurried people who need to slow down.

Another universal point about passive energy work is that each person gets exactly what they need. For each participant, of course that need is different. This principle is also present in All Love, which is a heart-centered approach to the whole person, characterized by loving speech to ferret out the emotions. What is beautiful about All Love is that it honors whatever comes up for the participant. So people scream, shout, dance, jump, hop, lay down, laugh hysterically, om, chant and basically get it out of their systems--what It is for them. For reiki practitioners, All Love allows space for chakra balancing and other kinds of energy work techniques.

The founder of All Love, Patrick Zeigler, began as a reiki teacher, as did Frances Fuller, the founder of the Rainbow Healing system, which is discussed on the color page.

Speaking of color and energy, the women's dances for womb health are excellent ways for achieving optimum health. The Het Heru dance promoted by the Ausar Auset community is depicted in a wonderful video in which all the women are dressed in yellow and green, ancient energy healing colors. Queen Afua and other women around the country have also devised womb dances for optimum health. These are today's version of the energy healing belly dance, which is also experiencing a revival. These dances give women's reproductive organs a workout AND a work-in.

Energy movement within and around the body is dynamic and ubiquitous. It moves and is moved. It can be concentrated, tightened, lightened up, released and cycled all over again. It can even be sent places.

When focused in the heart as in All Love, or the womb as in the Het Heru dance, a boost in energy level delivers far more benefits than a gym-oriented physical fitness regimen could ever promise.