My Healing Cottage
"A Sacred Place to Reflect and be Revitalized"
Your Subtitle text
Energy Medicine
& Energy Based Therapies
& Energy Based Therapies
A BRIEF HISTORYWhile the modern world attempts to define the vital life force that is contained in all things, the ancient world provides us with evidence of how energy medicine, in the form of hands on healing, was a part of everyday life.
- Pyrenees' cave paintings from 15,000 years ago (show laying on of hands helping the sick)
- Ancient Egypt rock carvings from 2700 BC (show laying on of hands helping the sick)
- Ebers Papyrus writings from 1552 BC (describe hands on healing)
- Aristophanes of Ancient Greece during 450-385 BC (wrote of energy healing)
- Ancient Greek manuscripts of 400 BC (describe laying on of hands in Aesculapian temples)
- Hippocrates writings of 460-377 BC (described energy as "the force which flows from many people's hands"
- The Yellow Emperor of Internal Medicine by Huang Ti Nei Ching Su Wen dating between 2500 to 5000 years ago (references the therapeutic use of hands to heal)
- Historic records from China & India contain energetic healing practices (traditions passed from Master to student for centuries)
- Early Christian history considered hands on healing as much a part of the ministry as preaching or administering the sacraments
- The "King's Touch" or "Royal Touch" became well known phrase from 69-1108 AD (Roman emperors Vespasian and Hadrian, and King Olaf II of Norway and King Philip I of France ministered to the sick using energetic healing)
- Paracelsus, iof Germany, n 15th century, theorized the act of healing from laying on of hands emanated from the magnetic nature of energies
- Franz Mesmer, of France, in the late 1700s claimed that a subtle life-energy of a magnetic nature was exchanged between healer and patient during the laying on of hands
ITS DISAPPEARANCEHealing through the use of touch was common practice in Europe until the 1600s. The rise of the Pruitan culture brought the discouragement of touch due to its association with sex and sin. Puritan influence continued in Europe and America in the 18th and 19th centuries as energetic practices faded with the rise of Western scientific medicine.
REBIRTHThe United States was reintroduced to energy medicine through Reiki in the 1930s. This form of healing touch was developed in the 1800s in Japan by Mikao Usui when challenged by his students to explain how Jesus and Buddha were able to heal the sick. In the 1960s Bernard Grad, a Canadian biochemist, and Oskar Estebany, a healer, began double-blind studies on wounded mice using laying on of hands. Results showed that the healing rates of the mice who received healings was accelerated compared to the controls. Dolores Krieger, PhD, RN, Professor of Nursing at New York University, along with Dora Kunz, a well known healer, conducted controlled studies on humans in 1971 and 1973. The experiments showed patients' hemoglobin levels significantly improved following energy treatments.
ENERGY BASED THERAPIESReiki was brought to the United States by a Hawaiian woman, Hawayo Takata. Unlike other energy based therapies, Reiki practitioners use Japanese symbols and hand positions to transfer energy to the client.
In 1972 Krieger and Kunz developed Therapeutic Touch, "a technique based on the laying on of hands with the intent to help or heal, independent of religious or spiritual belief." Rosalyn Bruyere developed Natural Healing in 1974. Barbara Brennan developed Healing Science in 1978 and opened the Barbara Brennan School of Healing in 1982. In the 1980s Janet Mentgen developed Healing Touch by utilizing techniques from Krieger, Kunz, Bruyere, Brennan, and others. (please see the note below for a more extensive history) Because of its popularity with health care professionals, extensive research documentation, and published results in peer-reviewed journals, Therapeutic Touch training classes are offered at many colleges and universities and recognized by the American Nurses Association (ANA), American Holistic Nurses association (AHNA), and the National League of Nursing (NLN). Healing Touch is also recognized by the AHNA and is offered as a part of continuing education in nursing. It may be interesting to note that the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA) added "Energy Field Disturbance" to its classification of nursing diagnoses in 1994.
Energy based therapeutic techniques are based on the following:
- Energy moves through and around the human body
- Every individual is surrounded by an energy field
- The energy field is dynamic, it moves and flows
- The energy field can be perceived, and the ability to perceive energy is a learnable skill
- Disorder or imbalance of one's energy field is associated with disease
- Orderly re-patterning of one's energy field restores balance, creating an improved environment in which healing can occur
- One's energy field exists within a universal energy field
- The patient and the practitioner are not separate but are interconnected and integral with the universal energy field
Resource for the above information:
Hurwitz, W.L. (2001). Energy Medicine. In Marc S. Micozzi (Ed.), Fundamentals of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Churchill Livingstone.
Hurwitz, W.L. (2001). Energy Medicine. In Marc S. Micozzi (Ed.), Fundamentals of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Churchill Livingstone.
HOW IT WORKS?Energy based therapies involve hands on healing techniques performed within the client's energetic body, either lightly touching or immediately off the physical body. These techniques are designed to effect change in the energetic body, which in turn creates change in the physical body.
Energy flows through our bodies the way water flows through a hose. Ideally, a free flow of energy is desired. Physical and emotional trauma, some of which we don't even realize we carry, can disrupt the flow of energy the same way a break, bend, or clog in a hose can interrupt the flow of water. Energy flow can be disrupted in many ways; it can be blocked, out of balance, split, undercharged, stagnate, torn, or held. When this happens a dis ease will result. When a dis ease occurs it can manifest into the physical body in many forms--disease.
A practitioner employing specific techniques can balance, charge, re-pattern, clear, and strengthen a client's energy field, thereby reestablishing the flow of energy. Techniques vary between energy based therapies and results vary because each client is unique. Typically reported results include:
- Acceleration of healing
- Reduction or elimination of pain
- Alleviation of physical symptoms
- reduction of stress and anxiety
- Release of held emotions
- Relaxation
- Sense of peace and well-being
Energy medicine is not intended to replace traditional
health care treatment, but rather be incorporated into a person's wellness plan. It should be considered as important as eating healthy, exercising, and getting enough rest.
health care treatment, but rather be incorporated into a person's wellness plan. It should be considered as important as eating healthy, exercising, and getting enough rest.
