Session 1: Energetic scar dissolves in river of light

In this session, the client was listening to an EMDR tape with headphones. The session illustrates how intelligent subtle energy moves through the body to bring about healing. The client,'Emma', was a woman in her early forties . She had been in therapy most of her adult life, recovering from sexual abuse by her father throughout her childhood. She worked with me for more than a year before she gained enough trust and ego strength to be able to do this type of work. Her stated 'target' for this session was to heal the trauma in her body from her father's abuse.

      "It's cold; dead, layers of it in my body. It's like scar tissue all over my body... on my Third Eye—so I can't see... in my gut, over my hands, feet, legs. It's an energy of hopelessness. The scar is hiding something, guarding something. It's hiding love, cutting me off from love. From active loving, from vibrancy. It's like a deformity, like not having legs. It's the psychic waste from all the abuse."
      "A subtle river of light is coming. Oh my gosh!" Emma was sobbing deeply. "The scar is being replaced by the light. It's flowing into my jaw and my throat. This is enormous! This is the scar that kept me from playing music, from writing."
      "The light is going to my nose now. Black oozing stuff there is being replaced. There is something putrid in my chest, a swelling... grief. It's connected to the lumps I keep growing in my breast. It's betrayal. The smell is of the sexual abuse. Shame. Self-pity."
      "Now the River of Light is going into the volcano place. I feel a huge release—my whole left side. Now the river is more whole, more flowing. It's still blocked at my throat. There's some resistance. I don't want this to be true... I just let go. I will let it be true. Big opening!" Emma breathed into the blocked area. "My throat is fully open now."
      "There is still scar tissue at my knees. Being cut off at the knees. Crippled. Mother's demand that I not reveal the truth, that I not exist."
      "I don't know how to release what connects me to her in a negative way." I suggested that she target this by holding the question and noticing what came to mind. "It's my belief that I have to get love from her. Now that I know about the River of Light, I can release this. The light is going down to my feet, to my calves, to my knees. It's like breaking a dam. The light is gushing through. It's like I'm going home. This is so amazing! The scar tissue is all gone now."

Emma felt light and peaceful at the end. This session released a long-standing blockage in her body that had interfered with her ability to play music—a skill that she needed to earn her living. It is interesting that she had an intuitive sense of what the blockage meant in the various parts of her body. For example she sensed that the throat chakra blockage was related to not allowing herself to know and speak the truth. Meredith Young-Sowers, Director of the Stillpoint School of Advanced Energy Healing, believes the throat center is concerned with sensing one's truth as well as with speaking it (Stillpoint, website). This is consistent with Emma's experience. At first it was too painful for Emma to allow herself to fully know and accept the enormity of what had happened. When she came to terms with this and was able to say, "I will let it be true," the blockage was released. The body metaphor of "being cut off at the knees" also reflects an energy archetype. When one's efforts to speak the truth are denied, it is as though there is no ground to stand on.

The phenomenon of intelligent energy moving through the body to bring about healing is a fascinating feature of this type of work. I had not experienced it until I began to work in this way. The first reference I saw to this phenomenon was by an energy healer named Irving Feurst who used the term 'shakti' in referring to this form of subtle energy (Essene and Feurst, 1998). Feurst says, "A shakti is a subtle energy which has been programmed directly by God or indirectly by an intermediary... who is so spiritually evolved that they can act as a pure pipeline for the divine mind." He goes on to say that "many prayers are answered on God's behalf by spiritual beings (such as angels) using shakti." Feurst describes many different types of shaktis, each having specialized functions. Some work with the chakra system or with particular chakras. He says "a shakti can act more quickly and can access more information about the structure of chakras than any individual working alone." He further states that shaktis can help us with our blind spots, sensing areas where healing is needed that we may not be aware of.

In this paper I have adopted the term 'shakti,' as used by Feurst to refer to this type of seemingly intelligent subtle energy. While Feurst's description of the phenomena is consistent with my own experience, I have no way to verify his speculations as to its sources. Other explanations are certainly possible. Many theorists in humanistic and transpersonal psychology have spoken about the organism's innate tendency toward healing and evolutionary change. Psychosynthesistswould likely view such experiences as originating from the client's Self, the postulated source of inner healing. Whatever their source may be, apparently intelligent energies intent upon healing are of great interest and offer a promising topic for research.