Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Life in the Past lane

A client says "My xxx-practitioner says I'm suffering from chronic kidney deficiency" while their exhausted eyes show the struggle to overcome yet another therapist-induced condition.

What is going on in this world of holistic alternative complementary healing? Now one of my students has been told that she is suffering the effects of past-life wrong-doing. She came away from the reading feeling helpless.

Do we really have to show people how clever, insightful and enlightened we healers are - and without fear of contradiction? I had always thought part of the job was to help others get into their power, to draw on the deep well of self-healing power that lies deep within each and every one of us.

We are raised to respect health professionals. Healing professionals get the spin-off benefits. Are there more ethics in Health than in Healing?

Please, I am not knocking the healers. I am one. I'm saying that before using our powers of suggestion to condition a patient into believing they are powerless to change we could consider convincing them of the converse.

Simple use of language can help. An accomplished healer friend, whenever a client says they are suffering from this or that illness, asks
"Are you suffering? Do you see yourself as one who suffers, a sufferer?" sowing a seed of realisation that to see oneself as a victim is to fertilise an environment which allows conditions to take root, grow and flourish.

You cannot change the past. You can change the way you see past events, whether in this life or another.

What about someone else's view of your past lives? Can you check it out, or must you take what they saw, interpret and say, as gospel?

Some years ago I went to a shamanic practitioner for help in letting go the ties to a former partner with whom I had done sex-magical bonding. When I was drummed into trance I saw visions of a past life. Later the practitioner handed me pen and paper to write down all I had seen, and did the same herself. Our accounts were not identical but so similar as to convince me the experience was valid. To me, that was clarity. She made no suggestions, imposed no "inside knowledge", claimed no psychic powers and simply helped me see myself.

I understood myself better, got something to work with and, since then, have devoted much of my present life to cleaning that karma.

This was a beneficial side-effect: the bond, though weakened, would not break. But maybe I didn't really want it to and was only going through the motions.

Everything is perfect. See it so, and so it is.