Balance Your Chi

A look at some of the more popular subtle energy healing practices -- from Reiki to Therapeutic Touch.
By Diane Goldner

Whether you can feel your own subtle energy or not, you can find someone who does. An energy healing session can make you feel more relaxed than a massage and the effects can last for several days. A highly trained practitioner can support you through a deep transformation. When you are in balance, you can heal more quickly and everything in your life can go more smoothly. You can have greater insight and clarity about your path, as well. Here are some popular systems of subtle energy healing.

Acupuncture is probably the most popular form of traditional Chinese practice used today in the West, but has been an integral part of Eastern medicine for thousands of years. Illness, it is believed, is the result of an imbalance in the flow of chi through the body's pathways, or meridians, which correspond to specific organs and functions. Through the precise insertion of needles, acupuncture attempts to correct this flow of energy and restore balance to the body. See also: American Academy of Medical Acupuncture

Reiki (pronounced ray-key) which means Universal Life Energy in Japanese, was developed in the 19th century by a spiritual seeker who pored over Sanskrit and Buddhist documents for the secrets of healing and emerged with the Reiki symbols used today. The technique itself involves hands-on energy healing. The healer must be initiated into Reiki energy. Initiation can happen in a single weekend for first level and a second two weekends for second level. Reiki masters are usually deemed "masters" after a year of study and supervision. See also: The International Center for Reiki Training

Chi Gong is an ancient Chinese system for balancing subtle energy. Chi Gong masters are usually trained over a long period of time, and are required to practice chi gong exercises to build up their internal chi. A good chi gong master can charge your field even with you standing at a distance. See also: Feel the Qi and Qi: The Journal of Traditional Eastern Health and Fitness

Jin Shin Jyutsu employs twenty-six "safety energy locks" along energy pathways that feed life into our bodies. When one or more of the paths becomes blocked, the resulting stagnation can disrupt the local area and eventually disharmonize the complete path of energy flow. Holding these energy locks in combination can bring balance to mind, body, and spirit. See also: The Art of Jin Shin Jyutsu

Chakra Healing. Many different American schools of healing use the chakras to balance and charge the energy field. True chakra healing involves a detailed understanding of subtle energy anatomy and a healer who has done a lot of deep inner work. Top schools with listings or referral services for healers include the Healing Light Center Church and the Barbara Brennan School of Healing and Roselight University.

Soul Retrieval. Shamanic healing will often involve "soul" retrieval in which the healer journeys into the subtle realms to find parts of a client's soul that have been lost, usually as the result of a trauma. The soul energy is then reintegrated into the client, usually through one of the chakras, particularly the heart or crown. See also: The Foundation for Shamanic Studies

Kabbalistic Healing. Healers can access the ancient energies diagrammed on the Tree of Life, as taught by the ancient Jewish and Christian mystics, to create profound healing. See also: A Society of Souls.

Therapeutic Touch is primarily used by nurses and is taught in nursing school. This basic practice, in which the practitioner smooths out your energy field without actually touching the physical body, can be highly soothing and supportive of healing. See also: The Colorado Center for Healing Touch and the Nurse Healers Professional Association.

Diane Goldner is the author of 'How People Heal: Exploring The Scientific Basis of Subtle Energy in Healing.' She has a hands-on healing practice in New York, the Hamptons and Los Angeles and also does long-distance healing work.

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