Hi Anita and Kylin,

I only recently read a book which referred to “The Pain Body” so it was a term that I was not really familiar with.  I am more comfortable with referring to it as “The Emotional Body”.  Healers think of the body as being surrounded by seven levels of energy fields, the first level relates to the physical, the second level relates to the emotional.  All healers find the way of healing that suits them best but I probably work at about 9″ from the physical body and can detect an imbalance either through a feeling of “heat” or “cold”.  If you think of your energy field like a giant egg surrounding your whole body, the blockage could exist potentially at any point on that sphere where the emotional/pain body exists.  I would either introduce heat into a cold spot or draw out heat from a hot spot.  In practical terms, this is all done with my hands.  However, intuition, sensitivity, experience, belief, intent and knowledge all play a major role in achieving a successful outcome.

If someone was to physically injure themselves or have an operation, I would then be working closer to the body to speed up wound healing and similarly, if someone was in low spirits I could be working an arm’s length away from the body.  It is frequently necessary to work on more than one level during the same treatment.

It is never easy to describe how exactly healing works but healers seem to have found a way of tapping into an electrical frequency conducive to healing (7-8Hz typically).  I am quoting here “when a person is sick, one or more of the organs of the sick person’s body will have biomagnetic frequencies not in the healthy range for those organs”.

I hope this goes some way towards answering your questions.  I will do my best to answer any more that may occur to you.

Peggy

Hi Anita,

Depending on how Reiki is taught, the system allows for the placement of several hand positions on the body which would run from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet, both front and back, whilst the client is fully clothed.  As a healer becomes more experienced they may chose to select which hand positions they believe would have the optimum effect.  The client, however, may prefer not to be touched and all healers should respect that and work with their hands away from the body.  Also, I find that if the hands are placed directly on the body, there is less awareness of what is happening in the auric field where the seven different levels are present.  Disease (ill at ease) can happen in the auric field long before it reaches the physical level and becomes a medical condition.  I would normally commence a treatment by putting my hands on the client’s shoulders for a couple of minutes to attune myself to their energy field and work from there, sometimes with my hands on the person and sometimes away.

Every body is different and every energy field is different so I was giving a general indication of where the emotional body may exist in relation to the physical body and how I would detect and treat imbalances on that particular level.  I would look to treat my clients on all levels, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual as everything that happens to us has an impact on all levels even if we are not aware of it.

Healers have a code of conduct to abide by and they are not allowed to diagnose conditions or promise cures.  If medical evidence is presented then the healer would have a clear indication of main areas to be treated but would not necessarily only treat those areas as there could be other weaknesses that have not been detected.

I need to come back to you on the subject of emotional energy when I’ve had some time to put this into some form of logical context.

Peggy

Dear Peggy:

What I sense from your reply is that you care a lot about the ethical part of your profession, that is, you are an ethical professional.

So it is news to me: Reiki healing does not exclude physical touching of the client’s body. I know that touch is so very healing for all social animals, it is something we all need- it quiets the energy of distress, discomfort, that unsettled feeling, neutralizing negative energy. As I read “the placement of several hand positions on the body which would run from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet”-I wanted to be that person getting this kind of touch- attention head to toe, ethically, of course.

Regarding the auric field that you as a Reiki Healer can access without touch, by placing your hands above the client, accessing it more so without touch than with touch, that is beyond my understanding, but… I don’t understand everything.

“Disease (ill at ease) can happen in the auric field long before it reaches the physical level and becomes a medical condition” – that makes sense to me. I believe an emotional tumor, so to speak, can bring about a medically identifiable physical tumor. A tension in a part of the body, a chronic tension in a certain location is an invitation for a medical condition developing in that location and spreading from there.

“I would normally commence a treatment by putting my hands on a client’s shoulders for a couple of minutes”- this is where a lot of tense muscles are, for a lot of people. I wonder if you can sense those tense muscles. It is the tension, is it not, the tissues holding on the energy, that is what ill-at-ease is about, isn’t it?

How I wish that my energy, my energy-in-motion will flow through me and leave me be, calm, relaxed. Millions of people now sick would be healthy if emotions, primarily fear, wouldn’t get stuck, or lodged in their bodies.

Thank you again for your thorough response. If you still want to come back to me on the subject of emotional energy, please do.

anita

Dear Peggy:

“The majority of tension is held in the head, neck and shoulder areas”- it happens though, for some people, the majority of the tension is held elsewhere, correct, such as in the stomach or the intestines. I wonder if you worked with a client or clients whose tension was mostly in their gut?

“being ill at ease affects our posture, the way we walk, the way we carry ourselves”- neck bent and curved forward, shoulders curved forward… this is why the yoga “chest opener” postures are so invigorating, such a wonderful feeling, like breathing again. My posture is such that deep breathing is limited, shallow, restricted, it is like the shoulders closing in on themselves. Closing in, away from air, away from life.

“If we were able to release all of our negative emotions, we would be a lot healthier”- problem is those negative emotions are closely tied to negative thoughts, patterns of thought, and the two, negative thoughts and negative emotions feed each other. How can your hands touching or above a client, possibly change the thoughts which are imprinted in thousands of neuropathways in the brain, formed there in childhood, repeatedly activated throughout  the day?

“With regard to emotions, everything is energy. We are always in a constant state of movement”- a constant state of movement, yes.

“At this level (The Sacral Center) we have the experience of fluidity in ourselves… the element of water”- the fluidity of water in the context of emotional movement, or fluidity- is that a more solid, slower fluidity than that of air, safer perhaps. My goodness, it just occurred to me, connecting the stress in my gut and fluidity, when I forget to drink enough water first thing in the morning and through the day, the stress increases many times over. We do need to hydrate ourselves, to not forget how necessary it is.

I read your post part by part and add my thoughts, and here I now read your mention of the digestive system, but in regard to “comfort eating as a way of dealing with our feelings”- more as a way of not dealing with our feelings, not having our feelings in our awareness. Instead, we mask the discomfort of such awareness with flavor, with the excitation of eating… that inborn draw to food. For a baby, all her needs are in that milk/ food. As we grow up (grow-in, too often, as in shoulders curved forward, closing the chest), we shut down so much of what we are, of what we need, that the only thing we still reach out to, open to is food, the earliest and most basic, instinctive need of all living things.

“The fight/flight/freeze response”- it is activated whenever we perceive danger, which can be this thought:  what is this or that person thinking about me? This very thought, italicized, is a perceived danger for so many. This thought activates adrenaline which prepares for the two common reactions to perceived danger: fight or flight, both demanding a quick and massive energy output.

“The energy in motion which creates feelings of calm and relaxation is the breath”- yes, the open-chest yoga postures, the opening of the chest, allowing breath. Every guided meditation I know about starts and ends with the breath.

“This is the air element which relates to the Heart Center… Too much energy in the heart center creates anxiety”- too much of anything does, doesn’t it, moderation is key, not too much, not too little.

“Energy follows thought.. Thought creates”-  only if movement follows the thoughts: if the thoughts remain in between our ears with no expression in movement aimed at materializing the thoughts, then there is no reality to the thought outside that short distance between our ears.

“The lower the vibration, the denser the matter (teeth, bones, nails)”- yes: molecules in air move a whole lot, vibrate. Molecules in solid move less, vibrate less. I wonder how this relates to thoughts, emotions, and actions.

Thank you so much, Peggy. I didn’t expect to get so much out of communicating with you. This is fascinating to me, to use my “beginner’s mind” as I read your posts here. “Awesome” indeed!

anita

Dear Peggy:

I want t0 take in your recent post sentence by sentence, the way I processed your previous post. I will be able to do so tomorrow morning, when I expect my brain to be fresh and ready. If you add a message for me before I return, I will read and process it as well. I may reply shortly to other threads before I get away from the computer but will be back to this thread and our communication (for which I am grateful) in about 18 hours from now.

anita

Dear Peggy:

Once again, I thank you for your time, your efforts, your generosity.

The reason I type your first sentence, then type my thoughts about it, then go to the next sentence that stands up for me, type my thoughts etc., is that this is how I process information, it sinks this way better and connections are made in my brain with prior information or experience. It gives me an opportunity to see things as if for the first time, so I may read material I read before, even studied, but see something new in it. In addition, here, I will look up info regarding certain things and add it here, make it my study this way. I hope this is okay with you, please let me know.

“For most people, the majority of tension is held in the neck, shoulders, head… constricted blood vessels leading to headaches. Some people may begin with tension predominantly in their abdomen”- I thought about this, in relation to our communication-

-the diaphragm, this is where the tension is held primarily for most people, isn’t it. I looked up Wikipedia, it reads: Shallow breathing, or thoracic/chest breathing is the drawing of minimal breath into the lungs.. using the intercostal muscles (several groups of muscles that run between the ribs.. They are mainly involved in the mechanical aspect of breathing). On the other hand deep breathing, or diaphragmatic/ abdominal/belly breathing also known as eupnea, is using the diaphragm (a muscle located horizontally above the abdominal cavity), it is a natural and relaxed form of breathing in all mammals. It occurs in  mammals “whenever they are in a state of relaxation, i.e. when there is no clear and present danger in their environment. When a mammal perceives a potential danger, eupnea stops, and a much more limited and labored form of breathing occurs. Elsewhere I read: “Chest breathing causes an upset in the oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the body resulting in increased heart rate, dizziness, muscle tension, and other physical sensations. Your blood is not being properly oxygenated”

– so breathing has to be a first priority thing to attend, just as we hold the majority of tension (back to your words) in the neck, shoulders, head, we also hold it in the diaphragm, meaning it is not relaxed, meaning we don’t breathe deeply, and when this happens chronically we suffer from a chronic state of lack of upset in the oxygen/ CO2 levels. We have to relax all these constricted, tight muscles, including and probably beginning with the diaphragm.

“Some people may begin with tension predominantly in their abdomen but eventually.. any and all areas of the body can be affected once areas of tension have been established”- you can tell a whole lot about a person’s chronic stress levels by looking at them then, the body posture, I imagine this was part of your studies, yes, I am sure of it, studying shoulder posture/ alignment of the head-neck-shoulders-back as evidence of where the tension is.

“Negative thoughts create negative emotions. Positive thoughts create positive emotions.. abstract thoughts.. without having any significant impact on the body because they are neutral”- yes. Let’s take a situation: a person looks in my direction, one person may think: he/ she is looking at me because I look attractive (positive thought), another thinks: he/ she is looking at me because I look repulsive (negative thought). What happens is that the same situation brings about positive or negative thoughts depending on Core Beliefs, these are thoughts energized by emotions formed early on and are the basis of interpretation of many observations we make, events in our lives.

“Ultimately, we need to be aiming for balance so wherever we are on the positive/negative swing, it is relatively easy for us to  return to the state of equilibrium”- this state of equilibrium requires for many a changing of Core Beliefs, the basis of many thousands of thoughts every day, because incorrect and distressing core beliefs keep generating that negative energy all through the day. In addition to correcting core beliefs, muscular habits need to be changed, chest breathing changed to belly breathing, shoulder muscles relaxed and so forth.

“Thoughts (Brow Center) vibrate at a higher rate than emotions (Sacral Center) and .. physical action.. (Root Center (lowest vibration)”- I think it means, at least partly, that thoughts come and go quickly (like air moving through, a wind), emotions stay longer (like water) and physical actions are most solid, visibly there. We do have to mind our action because it is solid, next priority of mindful focus- our emotions, they are powerful, and lowest priority of mindful focus, perhaps, our thoughts, because they are like air.

“Healers are really just facilitators of the self healing process… by the intelligent force operating within”- I noticed this in nature, I live in a wooded area, lots of trees, plants animals all around me. I noticed the trees, how when injured, they keep growing in alternative directions. I noticed how strong Life is, how persistent it is, how creative, stubborn, resilient.. and yet, every individual animal dies sooner or later. But life keeps going.

“One of the primary functions of healing is its ability to induce a state of relaxation, albeit a temporary altered state.. a state similar to sleep but with more awareness.. a state which felt comfortable, safe… a state from which you were reluctant to return, how easy do you think it would be to relinquish any thoughts that were going to disturb you..?”- safe is what we all want, it is the lack of it, the perception of lack of safety that keeps us in this chronic alert state, anxiety, shallow breathing, tense shoulders, headaches and many other symptoms and illnesses. Safety= no disturbance.

“Healers are creating the conditions where the release of such unwanted thoughts pattern becomes easier”- healers produce relaxation then, an awareness of safety, calm, and in that state those thoughts don’t get activated.

“You, the client, have already shown your willingness to be healed and,  in so doing, you are surrendering to the healer. The healer in turn is surrendering to the force of healing. This all takes a great deal of co-operation, trust and belief. The client is not ‘done to’ as such but is an active and willing participant in the whole process”- in this very paragraph, articulated so well, you explained very well, to me, what your profession is about, this very co-operation, this surrender. I will think further about surrendering, I feel that there is something there for me to understand more of, in this context.

“the closed-in posture you say you have adopted and I was wondering if this might be a sub-conscious desire to return to the womb (taking up the fetal position). The womb might be seen as a safe place to be where all our needs met.. surrounded by fluid, having the rhythmic sound of a heartbeat”- as I read these lines, I thought: no, not to my mother’s womb, not to  her womb, no. Having been in her womb, born to her, was a misfortune, a curse, really. Perhaps a point of interest, she was anorexic or bulimic when pregnant with me, I was born breech, legs first (didn’t turn) and was underweight all through childhood, late to develop.

“The Sacral Center is also seen as the Creative Center for the obvious reason that it houses the reproductive organs”- interesting you ended your most recent post with this- about ten days ago a tumor the size of a lemon, so I was told, was discovered in my .. Sacral Center, I suppose, by the right ovary. A blood test for cancer markers came out negative. An MRI is scheduled for next week. a surgery is probably next.

I am looking forward to your new topic/ thread and to read the poem you intend to forward.

anita

Dear Peggy:

I am again not very focused at this time of the day, so I will re-read your recent post tomorrow. I want to google and see the location of the solar plexus. I placed my hand below the ribs, at the top area of the abdomen, it is helpful, good suggestion. I think that this practice will get me to a better awareness of what is adequate breathing, as mine is definitely inadequate, shallow.

I noticed you started your own thread and will go there next. Would you like me to continue to communicate with you here on this thread?

anita