‘Teaching classes in Energy Medicine throughout theUnited States, South America, Europe, and Australia these past years, it has been incredible to watch how quickly and eagerly people are learning to work with the energetic dimension of their physical body. Everything shifts as you use energy techniques that not only keep you healthy but can improve your well-being in every aspect of your life: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Learning to tune into this neglected dimension of your being empowers you immensely.’

“Energy medicine is the last great frontier in medicine.”

                     — Mehmet Oz, MD

Teaching classes in Energy Medicine throughout theUnited States, South America, Europe, and Australia these past years, it has been incredible to watch how quickly and eagerly people are learning to work with the energetic dimension of their physical body. Everything shifts as you use energy techniques that not only keep you healthy but can improve your well-being in every aspect of your life: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Learning to tune into this neglected dimension of your being empowers you immensely.

Energy Medicine is based on the understanding that any physical, mental, or behavioral problem has a counterpart in the body’s energies and can be treated at that level. Every conceivable health problem, psychological challenge, or dysfunctional habit can be improved if not overcome by intelligently shifting the energies in the body that are maintaining that condition. This extends from treating cancer or multiple sclerosis to losing weight to increasing your vitality to improving your performance at something that really matters to you. And in the process, you become more consciously, intimately, and joyfully involved in the deepest workings of your physical body, a journey that extends down to your soul.

One of my first clients, from three decades ago, showed me the power of working with a person’s energies. A woman with ovarian cancer came for a session with the hope that I could help relax her body and prepare it for a surgery that was scheduled in five days. She had been told to “get her affairs in order” as her immune system was so weak that her chances of surviving the surgery were limited. Metastasis was also suspected.

From looking at her energy, I was certain the cancer had not metastasized. While her energy was dim and collapsed close to her body, the only place that looked like cancer to me was in her left ovary. In addition, the texture and vibration and appearance of the energy coming up through her ovary was responsive to my work with her. I could see and feel it shift, and by the end of the session, the pain that had been with her for weeks was gone.

I told her that her body was so responsive to what I had done that I wondered about her plan to have surgery. I was concerned that her immune system was, indeed, too weak, and I was confident that by working with her energy, not only would her immune system be strengthened, the tumor’s growth could be reversed. While I made my statements with the strong disclaimers required to avoid immediate arrest for practicing medicine without a license, she responded to the implication that she cancel the surgery with horror. I suggested she at least delay the operation for two weeks. She scheduled a session with me for the next day and said she would discuss the surgery with her husband.

That evening I received a call from her husband. He was outraged and threatening. He called me a “quack.” He said I was putting his wife’s life in jeopardy by giving her false hope, and he told me I would never have another chance to confuse her like this. He made it clear that she would not be coming back. When I began to respond, he hung up. I called back a short while later. She answered. Talking in hushed tones, she was clearly uncomfortable speaking with me. I said, “Okay, don’t postpone the surgery, but please keep your appointment tomorrow. You don’t have to pay. You have nothing to lose. I believe in what I am saying. In fact, I want you to bring your husband in with you. Find a way!” She did not believe he would come in, but the next day, they both arrived for the appointment.

I had her lie down on the massage table. My hope was to find a way to give this traditional and skeptical man, so poignantly fierce in his protection of his wife, an experience of healing energy that his senses could not deny. I could see a dark, dense energy at the site of his wife’s left ovary, and it felt like my hand was moving through a muddy swamp. I asked the husband to place his hand a few inches above the area and begin to circle it, using a motion that tends to draw energy out of the body. To his great surprise, not only could he immediately feel that he was moving against something, within two minutes his hand was pulsing with pain. To his utter amazement, his wife reported that her pain diminished as his increased.

By the end of the session she was again pain-free, felt better, and looked better. I had also been able to show them both, through the use of “energy testing,” that we had been able to direct healing energies from her immune system to the area of her cancer. I taught him a set of procedures to use with her every day. They decided to temporarily postpone the surgery and ask for further medical tests prior to rescheduling it. After about ten days of these daily treatments from him and three more sessions with me, she went through the additional testing. The tumor was gone.

I have in the thirty-four years since that early experience taught literally tens of thousands of people how to manage their own energy systems. I do not know of a more important skill to develop. The first practitioner of energy medicine is you. We are required today to live in conscious partnership with our body’s energy systems if we are to live fully. And it is easier than you might imagine to learn how to mobilize inner forces that enhance your health, empower your mind, and brighten your spirit.

* * *

Donna Eden, a pioneer in the field of Energy Medicine for more than three decades, is among the field’s most sought, most joyous, and most authoritative spokespersons. Her book, Energy Medicine, was the Health Book of the Year at the prestigious Nautilus Book Awards and it was the U.S. Book News Self-Help book of the year. Translated into 15 languages, it is the classic in its field.  Its sequel, Energy Medicine for Women, also won golds in two national competitions.  Donna has trained hundreds of practitioners who are now certified in her approach to Energy Medicine.  According to Christiane Northrup, M.D., “Donna Eden is one of the most joyous and effective pioneers in the rapidly expanding and vitally important frontier called energy medicine.”  Learn about Donna’s books and DVD’s, her upcoming classes, and her 2-Year Certification Program at www.LearnEnergyMedicine.com

This time around we’ve given the page to Chrissy Holmes, who runs healing trust courses for developing practitioners under her ‘wholistic healing & teaching’ brand. Chrissy has written an in-depth article outlining her practice, the structure of her courses as well as showcasing some of the praise she has received from inspired clients.

Whether you are interested in training with Chrissy or would simply like to know more about wholistic healing, Chrissy’s article can be found by clicking this link, which will take you to the Link of the Moment page. Her article contains links to her personal website as well as contact information.

Chrissy Holmes is also featured in our Knowledge Hub under ‘well-being’.

If you would like a free listing in the Knowledge Hub, our growing umbrella resource of links and information on well-being, peace and sustainability, please get in touch today.

One of INaSENSE’s correspondents will be a key speaker at the Light on Parenting Conference, taking place at the Institute of Child Health, London, on Saturday 5th May and Sunday 6th May 2012. Julie Gerland is an expert in the field of consciousness and early parenting and a pioneer in the field of prenatal life. She founded the Holistic Parenting Programme: Preconception to Birth & Beyond.

The Light on Parenting Conference will feature fifteen other speakers from around the world. The conference focuses on early parenting from the neonatal period through to birth and the early years of childhood, and is for parents, and those who are passionate about their work with parents, children, and around pregnancy and birth.

More details can be found at www.lightonparenting.com/.

WHAT DO THEY ALL HAVE IN COMMON?

THE INCREDIBLE TRUE STORY of a single mother and her three differently gifted children, and their twelve-year journey through the highs and lows of a narrow minded education system.

Susan Wilmot-Josife scoured the country for the right school for her dyslexic son, schooling all three of her children in private education at no less than 18 schools from north to south, including a year where the school run was a harrowing 750 miles per week. The mission became more than personal as she began to understand that her and her children’s story was mirrored by many others, and she became a crusader for Soul-centred education in an extraordinary circumstance that would come to define the next decade of her life.

Susan was told in a dream to “make a school” – a message that repeated itself until she became certain that she had touched upon something larger and more universal than just herself. The school would pioneer a form of learning that put personal choices before imposed directives. Empowered by her vision and determined to share it with others, she gathered a team of like-minded educational experts around her and set about turning the dream into a reality.

With a business plan in 2001 that attracted a waiting list of 1400 students and £2 million in funds raised from capital investment, it seemed impossible that The Gregory Academy could ever fail. However, Susan experienced the heartbreak of her vision crumbling in the most frustrating way, outbid by property developers on no less than six viable sites that would have been the Academy’s headquarters.

Moving forward despite such a steep setback, Susan and her colleague, author Christopher Gilmore, pioneered a pilot scheme called My Identity Audit (MIA), a questionnaire which went out to 200 children in state and private education. Designed to get to the bottom of what young people understand about themselves, MIA revealed some hard-hitting truths – that there was a lot of anger, apathy and disillusionment amongst these teenage students. Current statistics in mental health issues for young people further corroborate this.

Susan and the team, encompassing many educational professionals, are all too aware that children are trained to be over-dependent on the opinions of others – be they parents, teachers, doctors, therapists or their peers. They lack an inner sense of self, and the confidence to become self-directing and regulating. How can an entrepreneurial spirit be nurtured if the student is not allowed more autonomy early on?

In October 2011 they launched INaSENSE, a social enterprise not-for-profit organisation. This evolving online umbrella resource aims to stay at the cutting edge of education, wellbeing, peace and sustainability.

“We created INaSENSE with the aim of becoming a fantastic search engine in the future that will help any parent avoid some of the huge challenges and painful experiences my family have endured,” says Susan. “If I had been aware of any one of the experts we feature, over these last twelve years, things could have been very different for more than just my family.”

Susan and the INaSENSE team offer many ways to steer each seeker to the centre of their own success story. Her own story appears in full in the book FREE SCHOOLS??? – That’s the Spirit! by Christopher Gilmore (Pegasus/Vanguard) and on the website INaSENSE.co.uk.

The back cover blurb reads:

“Vital personalised choices are at the heart of Free Schools??? initiatives. Christopher Gilmore and Susan his visionary colleague and single mother of three, have developed a cutting-edge à la carte curriculum complementary to most prevailing systems. After successfully piloting ‘My Identity Audit’ in public and private schools, they developed a rich range of innovative educational exercises. This book teems with well-argued and refreshingly provocative ideas appealing to all optimists who see life as our best teacher.

Consider those who leave education without qualifications only subsequently to excel in the arts or business. Others with degrees stack supermarket shelves – if they can get a job at all. Not an entirely new approach yet woven throughout are radical insights inviting adventurous breakthroughs…!

Christopher and Susan present scores of multi-dimensional strategies to stimulate the love of learning in each spirited individual, with an emphasis on wellbeing, peace and sustainability. Th eir innovating team of experts now offers training and courses under their rainbow umbrella of INaSENSE Ltd (www.inasense.co.uk).

By putting a happy heart before a hurting head, Free Schools??? places students of all ages at the centre of all their learning choices. While calling for fellow travellers, Christopher shows how independence of Spirit guides us quicker to the goals we wish to achieve. So let’s feed all of our unique gift s, he says, and daily uplift ourselves with the desire to explore and ever improve our true inner Self (with a capital S!).”

FREE SCHOOLS??? will be published by Vanguard Press, an imprint of Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie. Watch this space for more details in the following weeks!

If we stop playing the piano or the violin, we lose touch with it. In the same way, our muscles lose their tone and function if they are not flexed. Financial advisers also advise that wealth should not sit in a ‘safe’ deposit box and depreciate, but that it needs to be reinvested for it to give a greater return.

Gerontologists visiting a nursing home gave certain exercises to the residents and within eight weeks, wasted muscles had come back by 300 percent, plus coordination and balance had improved and overall a sense of active life returned. The moral here is to remain active.

The mind is no different. If we just let our mind run wild it actually becomes weak. If we are distracted by everything we see, hear and touch, then the muscles of the mind become ineffective; meaning, we have no control over the mind and no power to do the things we really want to do. It is no wonder that we then complain that our mind is ‘driving’ us mad, or that we are ‘losing’ it, or worse still, we are ‘falling’ into depression! A depressed and wasted mind is indeed a paralysed mind.

Those who succeed in life are those that make a decision to do so. They use their mind to consciously create thoughts of abundance and gratitude. They exercise their will power to manifest productive results. They get what they want rather than leaving it to life to deliver the crumbs!

Think about it, it’s also when you use a tool that you realise its value. Different people have different tools at their disposal or for their convenience. To another it may be a piece of junk, but once we realise the potential of an item, we value it, protect it and look after it.

The same can be said of the mind. For those who use the mind and the power of their thoughts to manifest success know how powerful a tool the mind really is. Native Indians had mastered this technique for many years to change weather in their favour, to help crops grow and to aid fertility in women.

The mind is also as slippery as mercury – hard to contain and manage, some say. But with a little practice and focus it’s possible.

Why should we allow triggers from outside ourselves to determine the course of our thoughts and change the landscape of our inner world from a peaceful serene lake into a wild storm?

Know and understand that you have all the powers within you to control your mind and your thoughts and thus your actions and your destiny. Don’t leave it to chance!

To create abundance, it’s an irony, but you will first have to ‘s(p)end’ your wealth in the right direction! Abundance is a spiritual energy that is created through pure intention and a higher purpose. If you use your wealth in the right way, you will not have lost it but gained it in other ways such as blessings, trust, confidence and loyalty of others.

The same can be applied to time energy. The more we use time wisely and don’t waste it, the more we will then find that we have all the time in the world! We won’t feel rushed nor will we be running after time.

There is so much soul energy yet untapped. Just as there is so much mental energy not utilised. Scientists believe that we humans use only about 10 percent of our brain! Make a point of thinking something positive on a daily basis. Of giving some positive energy on a daily basis. It could be a relationship or a project or your environment. If we maximise this soul energy, then we will reap returns on many levels – mind, body and spirit.

It’s time… to tap into the soul energy and begin using all your resources in a worthwhile way. Make a concerted effort to create the reality you want by focussing all your energies in the right direction – be active but in a positive direction! The mind is a powerful tool, and with a little polishing and sharpening you will realise the other 90 percent and then wow, watch out!

©Aruna Ladva

This is the model that the Findhorn Foundation has adopted for pioneering ways of sustainable living. The Findhorn Foundation is built around the cornerstone of sustainability, and INaSENSE is proud to offer details of Findhorn’s varied training programmes on ecovillages in our H.E.A.R.T. Centre.

Find Findhorn in our H.E.A.R.T. Centre.

Sound healing is fast becoming the “new” medicine of today. The ancient art of sound healing is re-emerging across the globe. Sound can be used to help anyone tune themselves in to find a balance in life and new research is highlighting amazing benefits.

Most people listen to music for relaxation, to help invigorate or uplift them or simply to move the body into dance. We use it as a means to establish moods, however few people realise how powerful music and sound is for healing.

Indigenous peoples the world over have used sound to heal and bring life into balance – something that modern science is now re-discovering. It crosses many cultures – Aboriginal peoples in Australasia used music as part of their healing rituals, and in the 9th and 10th Centuries a series of Islamic scientists and doctors developed musical medical treatments, especially for psychological disorders.

Special tunes – makams – were composed for different treatments and were commonly used throughout the Ottoman Empire until the 18th Century. Now modern Turkish doctors at Istanbul’s Memorial hospital have revived the practice of playing traditional Arabic and Turkish healing tunes and seen positive effects on their patients.

In this country the NHS is also re-discovering the benefits sound and music can have on patients – in 2007 Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool worked with the BBC to bring the outdoors inside by recording the dawn chorus from a local park which patients can listen to on the wards.

The hospital has now extended its music therapy programme – working with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic – with instrument trolleys which tour the children’s wards so young patients can make their own music.

Sound is being used in a variety of ways – by medical staff for treatments, by alternative practitioners as therapy and by artists and performers where music is just one of a variety of arts being used to aid healing.

On a scientific level, there is now a mass of research into the healing benefits of ultrasound – a very high frequency sound vibration inaudible to the human ear. Commonly used for scans for pregnancy and to detect abnormalities, ultrasound is fast becoming a very flexible treatment for many conditions.

It is used widely for lithotripsy – a way of breaking up kidney stones and even shrinking tumours – but ultrasound is now being used to treat many conditions including cataracts and varicose veins, and it has even been found to work with antibiotics to kill bacteria.

A surgeon in Glasgow, the city which pioneered the use of ultrasound for diagnostic use in the 1950s, is now using it to help heal broken bones. Orthopaedic surgeon Angus MacLean has found it stimulates bone growth and speeds up recovery time by more than a third.

Musicians can also increasingly be found in hospitals. Vital Arts, a charity associated with London Hospitals such as Barts has an extensive programme. It has seen harpists playing to patients awaiting surgery at the Royal London Hospital, and has drawn on the talents of top musicians from the London Symphony Orchestra and City of London Sinfonia.

And somewhere between the doctors using sound for treatments and the musicians calming the stresses of anxious patients, sit the alternative therapists – commonly called sound healers. They likewise use sound and music but what differentiates them from the medics and musicians is intention.

It was American sound healing pioneer Jonathan Goldman who penned the phrase “sound plus intention equals healing”. Jonathan has been a visionary pioneer for more than 30 years to bring the healing nature of sound into mainstream awareness. He sees intent as a prime ingredient to the success of sound healing, and by intent he means consciousness.

“A more advanced understanding of intent involves what may be understood as alignment with the purpose of our higher selves, or the ‘Divine Will’. It is that aspect of consciousness that is able to align with the sacred energy of sound,” he says.

“For many people, the initial understanding of intent is a major stepping stone in using sound as a transformative and therapeutic tool, for most of us have never created sound with conscious awareness and purpose.”

In the UK many sound healers are members of the the College of Sound Healing, a non-profit organisation, dedicated to promoting sound healing, organise training and accrediting therapists who wish to practice sound healing.

They often work in the community, but have also carried out projects in the NHS like the Soundscape project at Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny where they created a therapeutic wall of sound using instruments like gongs and Tibetan sound bowls.

The College defines sound healing as the therapeutic use of sound and music for healing or “whole-ing”. Internationally known sound healer Simon Heather, founder and principal of the College, explained: “It offers a pathway to a drug free approach for treating pain and illness with no harmful side effects.”

Simon, who has written eight books on the power of sound and its healing qualities, said: “It can also be used as a preventative system to help a person stay in balance and ward off illnesses by helping them to stay “in tune” with themselves.

“Every organ, every bone, every cell in the body has its own resonant frequency. Together they make up a composite frequency like the instruments of an orchestra. When one organ in the body is out of tune it will affect the whole body.

“Through sound healing it is possible to bring the body back into harmony, hence avoiding the need for drugs or surgery.”

In its first year of operation the 250 kW boiler, which is fuelled by woodchips made from waste wood from a local sawmill, saved the equivalent of £15,000 in fuel costs while reducing carbon emissions by an estimated 80 tons.

Project Manager Graham Meltzer

The saving in emissions equates to taking 50 average-sized vehicles off the road and is seen as a worthy contribution towards the UK government’s ambitious targets to reduce carbon emissions.

The biomass boiler replaced gas and oil-burning units in the Universal Hall, Community Centre, Park Building, Laundry and eight of the residential bungalows that were built during the early days of the community’s expansion and long before it became an internationally celebrated ecovillage with one of the lowest recorded ecological footprints in the developed world.

An added bonus is that hot water is also supplied to the popular outdoor Hot Tub that is made from recycled whisky barrels and previously depended on electricity for heating.

Project manager Graham Meltzer of the Foundation’s Asset Development Group says: “It’s been running a year with great success. It’s working well and requires little looking after.

“We also could not be happier with our choice of biomass fuel supplier and were very fortunate, following a wide geographic search and protracted tender process, to secure a nearby source with the woodchips coming by tractor and trailer from a sawmill just 10 miles away.”

A Woodchip Delivery

It is anticipated that the biomass boiler will have a useful working life of around 20 years and as fossil fuel prices continue to soar the savings in coming years will more than justify an investment of around £350,000.

Additional long-term benefits are also likely from the government’s Renewable Heat Incentive that replaces grant funding and promotes the use of renewable energy sources in place of fossil fuels. Over 20 years the rebates could equal the total initial investment!

With the success of the The Park’s biomass boiler, the Foundation is now investigating a similar installation at our Cluny Hill site in Forres to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions in the Victorian residential complex that was once a popular hotel.

Graham Meltzer with Park Maintenance focaliser Jim Brown

Graham Meltzer has echoed the gratitude of the community to the Scottish Government which made the investment possible through a £150,000 grant from its funding instrument, Community Energy Scotland (CES) along with an interest-free loan of £100,000 from the Energy Saving Trust, which will be repaid over eight years.

“The Foundation is very keen to share its experience with other community groups who are considering biomass heating. We see it as one way we can show gratitude for the support we have received along the way and make an ongoing contribution to fighting climate change and environmental degradation,” he said.

“Every year our ecovillage hosts thousands of guests from around the world, many of whom come specifically to learn about sustainability. In summer thousands more day visitors take tours of The Park where they can view, not only the biomass boiler, but our electricity-generating wind park, ecological architecture, food production, sustainable forestry and our biological sewage treatment system called The Living Machine.”

The Findhorn Community Visitor Centre for further information.

A full report on the performance of the biomass boiler is available here.

Story and photos: Geoff Dalglish