What is Energy & Crystal Healing?

Spiritual Healing and Crystal Healing are much like other therapies and types of healing in that the aim is to create balance or homeostasis in the body. The approach is holistic, meaning that it incorporates the whole being; mind, body and spirit. Spiritual and crystal healing are both complementary therapies meaning that they are complementary, not alternative to orthodox medicine.

If I were to compare life to a badminton match, the importance of being balanced energetically is comparable to making sure you return to mid court after each play. By doing so you put yourself in the best position to receive and return the next shot. In the same way, by recognising and healing each time your energy field becomes unbalanced you are better prepared to deal with the next thing that life throws at you.

Before discussing how spiritual and crystal healing work I feel it is necessary to explain why we need healing in the first place and how dis-ease or illness occur in the body.

Everywhere there is energy, we are surrounded constantly by vibrating atoms in air, liquids and solids. We too are made up of billions of tiny vibrating atoms, each with their very own electromagnetic field. It is impossible to escape this intricate web or grid of energy because we are part of it, we just sometimes don’t notice it. Does a fish notice the water? Changes in the energy in our environment affects our energy, even if it is so miniscule that we don’t recognise it. Conversations and interactions we have with other people involve an exchange of energy. We give energy and we take energy and it is infinitely recycled in this way.

“Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, merely transformed."

Some people take more than others. Some people give more than others but there is always an exchange because energy never stands still. Even at absolute zero temperatures, atoms continue to vibrate.

Human energy fields have an anatomy all of their own. The process of giving and taking energy requires us to have this. Emotions and thoughts are a form of energy and are unique to each individual. These emotions and thoughts are part of our energy field. Some people find spending time with certain individuals ‘draining’, some people like the ‘atmosphere’ at concerts, some people get a ‘lump’ in their throat when they are upset, some people feel the pain of a ‘broken heart’. All of these expressions have been around for many years and people say them as part of daily conversation but not all people realise that what they are talking about is the human energy field and how energy is exchanged.

“Your biography becomes your biology” – C. Norman Shealy, M.D., P.H.D.

The types of things that can cause your energy field to become unbalanced or even blocked are many, and quite a number of books have been written on the subject. It is almost impossible to give a general or brief description of the circumstances in which these energy imbalances occur as each person is individual and what might affect one person may not affect another based on their life experiences. The depth at which any given experience can affect you is also dependent on your age at the time of the experience and your ability to understand and cope with the experience. Sometimes the smallest thing, such as a child seeing a spider and being afraid of it because they don’t know what it is, can metamorphosise into a life-long arachnaphobic affliction. Had the fear been dealt with accordingly at the time of the incident the phobia may not occur. Therapists who work in the area of phobias and other such afflictions generally resolve the issue by getting the patient to back track and find the root of their fear. Other examples of things which can affect your energy field in a negative way are; stress, a harsh working environment, criticism from other people, arguments, geopathic stress, drugs and alcohol, abuse. Depending on the severity of the incident, the energy field becomes depleted or traumatised. If not healed accordingly, this can percipitate down through the layers of the aura to eventually affect the physical body in the form of illness. The more an undesirable experience occurs or is compounded by other experiences the more long-term effect it has on the energy field and the severity of the illness is usually relative.

There are many different systems that are referred to when describing the workings of the energy field, some are relatively new and some are from ancient times. All of these energy systems are interconnected and one does not discount another. Examples of such energy systems would be the meridian system in Traditional Chinese Medicine, the ten longituidinal zones in reflexology, the chakra system in the ayurvedic tradition, the different levels/layers of the aura.

Part of spiritual and crystal healing is assessing one or more of these systems and working out whether or not there are any blocks, underactive or overactive areas of energy and if so, how to treat them so that the entire energy field can be restored to a state of balance.
Once the energy has been assessed, the healer then works out, either intuitively or intellectually (ideally both) how to treat the individual.

In the case of spiritual healing, the healer works with their hands in the energy field around the body. The healer themselves must become a clear and pure channel so that they may clearly interpret the clients needs and fulfill them accordingly. The healer tunes in, not only to the client but to the universal energy field, which is all the energy that surrounds us, and channels energy through themselves to the client. Based on where the healer finds the imbalances to be, they will place their hands accordingly and channel energy to that area until the energy becomes more balanced. This is sometimes coupled with a release in the client, where they may become emotional. The healer assesses the energy based on how it feels, how fast it is moving, the temperature, the consistency, the direction and manipulates it with their hands at all times paying close attention to any Divine or intuitive guidance they are receiving. It is a positive energy exchange where the healer becomes a ‘fountain’ of pure energy and pours it into the client. The healer does not use their own energy but rather channels it from a greater source. As the healing takes place, the energy vibration can become quite high and it is essential that the healer ‘grounds’ the client afterwards.

Crystal healing is much the same except that the healer uses crystals as tools to manipulate the energy around and through the client. Due to their perfect geometry, crystals have an innate ability to both capture, and focus energy. When used correctly, the healer can channel energy through the crystals for very specific intent. Depending on the energy system the healer is using, the crystals can be placed or moved around the body to move and manipulate the energy field. Each crystal has its own unique vibration which is the combination of the crystals inner geometry, form, chemical composition and vibration. The vibration and frequency of the crystals resonate with our own energy and crystals can act as catalyst when it comes to moving or unblocking energy. It is highly important that the crystal healer knows the properties and energy pattern of each of the crystals they are using because, used incorrectly a crystal may aggrevate or even amplify an existing problem.

Sadly, healing is an area that is not always given the credit it deserves. There are many sceptics out there who do their utmost to disprove any theory healers put forward. What I have discussed so far in this essay requires somewhat of a leap of faith. It is true that there are many charlatans out there in the healing profession but those people exist in almost all professions. The reason that healing is looked upon with such great cynicism, I believe is because a lot of people don’t necessarily want to accept responsibility for their own healing. People sometimes like to externalize their issues and blame illness or sadness on other people. Although, it is true that negative interactions with other people cause our energy field to become out of balance it is ones reaction to any given situation, which truly causes the affliction. I believe society is slowly beginning to realise this and positive messages in the media, healthy eating and living can help our species to evolve to a more enlightened state.

Until this mass enlightenment occurs however, we need to find other ways to inspire people to take responsibility for their own healing. One method is to turn to science. Surely, if we could prove the effect of healing scientifically then people would not be able to argue and would eventually concede. I have had this conversation with many people and have been told many times that I should not care so much about what other people think, that, it doesn’t matter if all people believe in healing so long as I can help a few people. I disagree. I think it is very important that healing be brought into the mainstream and if science is the way for people to accept it then that is how we should proceed.

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift.” - Albert Einstein

There are now, thankfully, many devices which can measure the electromagnetic field which surrounds our body. The electroencephalograph (EEG), the electrocardiograph (ECG), and the superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). Although they may not be shown in the six o’ clock news, many experiments have also been conducted to show how disruptions or dysfunctions in the energy field can leave us susceptible to disease.

“Dr. Harold Burr at Yale found that by measuring the energy field of a seed, he could tell how strong the plant would be. He found that a weakness in the life field of a living creature would predate disease. … Dr. Robert Becker, an orthopaedic surgeon in New York, showed that the pattern shapes and strengths of the body’s complex electrical field change with physiological and psychological changes. … [Dr. Valerie Hunt at UCLA] experimental results show direct correlations between the frequency and wave patterns of alternating electrical currents measured on the body surface and specific colours perceived by an “aura” reader. … Dr. Andria Puharich was able to consistently measure an 8hz magnetic pulse coming from the hands of healers. … Dr. Robert Beck, a nuclear physicist, found that all healers exhibit the same brain-wave pattern of 7.8 – 8hz during the times they are giving healings, no matter what their customs or how opposed to each other their customs were.” - Excerpts from Light Emerging by Barbara Ann Brennan

This frequency of 7.8 – 8hz is the rate of fluctuation of the earth’s magnetic field, also known as ‘Schumann resonance’. This would infer that the healers were able to tap into the energy of the earth’s magnetic field to use it for healing using a process called field coupling. Dr. John Zimmerman later found that once the healers had linked up to this energy the left and right hemispheres of their brains become balanced at this frequency. He then also showed that the patient’s brain waves also become “phase-synchronised” with this frequency. This would infer that the healer has acted as a channel to connect the patient with the energy of the earth, which would be a “tremendous energy source for healing”.

“The art of healing comes from nature, not from the physician. Therefore the physician must start from nature, with an open mind.” - Philipus Aureolus Paracelsus (Swiss physician, chemist, alchemist, one of the fathers of modern medicine.)

We sometimes forget that our bodies are perfectly capable of healing themselves. When we cut ourselves, it is not the bandage that heals us, it is our blood’s innate ability to clot and heal.
Homeopaths rely on these self-healing mechanisms in order to get their patients to heal themselves. They believe in ‘like cures like’ and prescribe substances, which trigger the body’s natural healing response. That is why homeopathy is alternative to orthodox medicine, a.k.a, allopathy. Orthodox medicine treats disease with remedies that produce effects opposite to the symptoms. This is why so often people experience side effects from orthodox medicines.
Another type of ‘medicine’ used to treat illness is the placebo. Many people believe that types of healing are placebos and depending on whether or not the person believes the healing is working affects its potency. They say it’s mind over matter. But what is mind and what is matter. The majority of the cells in your entire body are completely replaced in the space of 15.5 years.
An example of just how powerful the placebo effect can be is the following story:

In World War II morphine was in great demand in military field hospitals. Sometimes demand would outstrip supply and operations had to be performed without.

“Henry Beecher, an American anaesthetist, was preparing to treat a soldier with terrible injuries. He was worried; without morphine, not only would the operation be extremely painful – it might even induce a fatal cardiovascular shock. But then something very strange happened, something that was profoundly to alter Beecher’s view of medicine for the rest of his life. In desperation, one of the nursing staff injected the patient with a harmless solution of saline. To Beecher’s surprise, the patient settles down immediately, just as if he had been given morphine. Not only did the soldier seem to feel very little pain during the subsequent operation, but the full-blown shock did not develop either. Salt water, it seemed, could be just as effective as one of the most powerful painkillers in the medical arsenal. In the following months, when supplies of morphine again ran low, Beecher repeated the trick. It worked. Beecher returned to America after the war convinced of the power of placebos, and gathered around him at Harvard a group of colleagues to study the phenomenon.” – excerpt from Placebo by Dylan Evans

It has been known for many years that endorphins, hormones which occur naturally in the human body are also known as ‘endogenous morphine’ and have a painkiller effect. In addition to this, just last year, another chemical has been found in the human body, opiorphin, which has been proven to be six times stronger than morphine. It is mostly found in saliva, which may be why we are inclined to “lick our wounds”.

It would seem as though nature is taking care of us and deep down each of us has an innate ability to heal.