Layers of Healing or why sometimes taking
a pill or cutting it out doesn’t work:

As one works with the subtle energies of the human body, it becomes clear that a healthy human energy system has the following five characteristics:

• The ability to relax and activate the healing nervous system (the parasympathetic system)

• The ability of energy pathways to flow freely.

• The ability of the “doing” nervous system
(the sympathetic nervous system) to pulsate freely

• The ability of our fluid body to sustain the vital centers in our tissues

• The ability of our physical body to move fluidly and
symmetrically relative to gravity

For those of you who know the Polarity Therapy paradigm, you will recognize that these characteristics align with the 5 polarity elements of Ether, Air, Fire, Water and Earth.

If any one of these systems sustains damage or is overridden, we experience pain, discomfort, a variety of symptoms and disease. Restoring these systems to health from an energy healer’s perspective is a process that moves through 5 stages of healing, one for each characteristic. The five stages of healing are:

1) General Relaxation

2) Energy Cyst Removal

3) Nervous System Pulsation

4) Vital Center Hydration

5) Structural Balancing

The First Phase is General Relaxation

First I evaluate whether a person’s healing mode of the nervous system is online and functioning. This is called the parasympathetic nervous system. As this system is the one responsible for healing, pretty much nothing can happen until the body brings that system back online. If this system has been suppressed or overridden as is often the case in our never-stop-moving culture, it can take between 1 and 6 sessions to get this system back online. In rare circumstances it can take longer.

The Second Phase is Energy Cyst Removal

Once the body can move into relaxation mode, the energy field is evaluated and cleared of “energy cysts” or “air” bubbles in the field. For any of you who have ever experienced a blocked fuel filter, you will know that with no fuel, all power to the engine sputters and dies. Likewise, the energy field in its healthy form is a continuous flow of moving energy. If you get a bubble in it, everything down stream just dries up. With less or no energy flow, injuries occur more easily to the weakened area or injuries just never seem to heal. Once the bubble is cleared, healing energy flow baths the area and a person will see the healing process begin in earnest with measurable results.

Dr. Randolph Stone, founder of Polarity Therapy, gave this process the unglamorous name of “gas releasing” due to the side-effect of this healing stage, namely burping and flatulence. Once identified, these bubbles tend to clear quickly, usually within a few sessions. This type of healing is the one that produces the “miraculous” type healing, where people are amazed that things can change so quickly.

The Third Phase is Nervous System Pulsation 

The third stage of healing is restoring the free pulsation of the sympathetic nervous system, the Doer of the human body, that’s with a capital D. This system is basically responsible for sensing and responding to the environment. A healthy cycle has 3 phases: sense, respond, settle back into neutral.

Throughout life, most people experience situations that to some degree or another are “unsettling”. These situations are ones that we think are “stressful”. If we encounter such situations, we either “sense and freeze” or “sense, respond but don’t settle back into neutral”.

More or less, anything that we haven’t come back to neutral around hangs out in our nervous system causing varying degrees of physical, emotional and mental discomfort until we find a way to complete the 3-phase cycle for each unsettled experience.

Settling the nervous system is a very unpredictable process, as it depends on a variety of things, such as how much the nervous system is holding to begin with and how long it has been holding the unsettledness and whether it is expressing as physical, emotional or mental symptoms. This level of healing may also require multiple levels of support to completely integrate. Clients I am working with at this level of healing will often work consciously to alter their diet or lifestyle and/or see other alternative healers, talk therapists or medical doctors simultaneously.

Consequently, this stage of healing tends to have a duration of several months to several years.

The Fourth Stage is Vital Center Hydration

As the nervous system integrates, vital center hydration takes place. This often happens automatically as the interference from the nervous system is removed. Or, fluid potency can be directed to refresh exhausted areas of the body. As fluid hydration occurs, potency and a sense of vitality and well-being begin to permeate your being. (Note: This is a process connected to the cerebral spinal fluid and interstitial fluid flow, not water intake)

The Fifth Stage is Structural Manipulation

At this point, one looks at the physical body in relationship to gravity, repetitive and habitual motion to see if there is yet anything to balance to bring about full integration of a person’s system and fully produce a sense of inner balance. This phase might include simultaneous work with chiropractors or movement experts like Pilates instructors, yoga teachers or physical therapists to fully address a person’s needs. If all the previous 4 stages of healing have occurred, this stage can happen quite quickly and painlessly with if any relapses. If, however, there are still issues in the previous 4 stages, this stage will feel like a huge struggle and relapses are likely.

In Sum

As you begin to understand the functioning of a healthy system and what can go wrong, it becomes clear why sometimes “taking a pill” isn’t going to solve all your problems. There is much about movement and process in the return to health.