by Linda Sechrist

In William James’ famous hypothesis, “A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous, and then dismissed as trivial, until finally, it becomes what everybody knows.” In the field of energy medicine, the experiences of pioneers such as medical intuitives Caroline Myss and Donna Eden, natural healer Dr. Carolle Jean-Murat and Doctor of Chiropractic Eric Pearl validate James’ postulate.

Initially disregarded by allopathic medicine, the energy medicine these healers practice operates on the belief that changes in the “life force” of the body can affect human health and healing. They maintain that applying this energetic perspective allows them to clinically assess and treat what they refer to as the body’s electromagnetic fields, in order to achieve a healthy balance in the body’s overall energy system.

The modality has to do with energy pathways, or meridians, that run through our organs and muscles. The idea is to uncover the root causes of imbalances and harmonize them at an energetic level before they completely solidify in the physical body and manifest as an illness. Such imbalances may be brought on by, for example, such things as emotional stress and physical trauma.

Aid to Conventional Treatment

As recently as 1990, the idea of using any form of energy medicine, such as acupuncture, Reiki, Touch for Health or the services of a medical intuitive in a hospital setting would have been considered preposterous. Today, however, more medical institutions are combining these types of treatment with traditional allopathic medicine.

For example, Children’s Memorial Hospital, in Chicago, a research-oriented emblem of Western medicine, now employs a Healing Touch therapist. The hospital, which perennially ranks among America’s premier hospitals, is the principal pediatric teaching hospital for Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, a leading U.S. cardiovascular surgeon, was the first to include a Reiki practitioner in his department at Columbia University Medical Center, in New York City. The New York Times reports that Oz allows the use of Reiki during open-heart surgeries and heart transplant operations.

More Insight

Medical intuitives say they can recognize problems in the flow of the body’s energies and are able to accurately predict the kinds of physical problems that are likely to emerge before any symptoms are detected. Eden, who has had a lifelong ability to make health assessments that are confirmed by medical tests, can look at an individual’s body and see and feel where the energies are not flowing, out of balance or not in harmony, then works to correct the problem.

“I was 22 before I discovered that everyone didn’t make their decisions after first seeing and sensing energy,” says Eden.

Carolle Jean-Murat, a California licensed obstetrician and gynecologist who now practices as a medical intuitive and healer, left her 30-year allopathic practice to focus on natural healing. Today, the native of Haiti specializes in helping women restore their mental, physical and spiritual health. “I am a healer who has the capacity to see, feel and hear whatever a client is going through, because I see them as a whole: energy, body, mind, soul and emotions,” says Jean-Murat.

Dr. Eric Pearl, author of The Reconnection: Heal Others, Heal Yourself, demystifies the healing process. He teaches others (75,000 and counting) how to activate and use what he refers to as an all-inclusive spectrum of healing frequencies.

“Reconnection teaches people how to transcend the ego and its judgment, and reach a state of non-judgment observation,” explains Pearl. “Many of them describe their experience simply as an internal activation of an advanced level of consciousness, in which awareness allows the perception of a multi-dimensional universe.”

Pearl posits that as part of our growth as human beings, “We not only discover that we have become more, we understand that we can’t stand in fear, lack and limitation, and we can only offer ourselves as a vessel for healing for ourselves and others when we reside in oneness and love.” Pearl believes that it is part of everyone’s life journey to discover that they are an empty vessel, born to be filled with Spirit. By letting go of beliefs that block our ability to deeply understand this, we can harmonically converge with the lives of others at the level where we are all energy, as physics indicates.

These practitioners agree that, while we all have some subtle sense of an animating force within us that is pure energy, we often ignore it. We go about our daily lives using this life force to perform our activities until it becomes depleted and illness manifests in a physical or emotional imbalance. While professional energy medicine practitioners are specifically trained to sense and honor the body’s animating life force and recognize its excesses and deficiencies, they also believe that we can all learn how to work with this important facet of our being. It is our birthright to realize balance and harmony, and we can do this by learning to re-establish a healthy flow of communication within the body’s subtle energy system.

Linda Sechrist is a Natural Awakenings editor and freelance writer.