Session 2: The war is over

A different type of shakti is evidenced in this session. This session took place over the telephone and without the use of consciousness technology. The client, 'Hans,' was a man in his sixties living in Germany. He was a therapist himself, seeking help to recover from the 'physiological/neurological residue,' as he put it, of the Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) he incurred as a small child during the bombings of the World War II. He was sent to the countryside, away from familiar surroundings, to live alone with his mother, who was constantly threatening suicide. He believed that this trauma continued to keep him immobilized as an adult, unable to move toward positive goals in his life. Though I felt cautious about undertaking this kind of work at a distance, he was confident he could handle it. He assured me he had local resources available if needed.

We began the healing phase by helping Hans to enter the Witness state and become present to his bodily experience. He described discomfort in his chest and his knees, and chose to begin by focusing on his knees. He felt a chain around his knees that cut off the flow of energy between his lower legs and his body above the knees. It felt like there was a ball and chain on his lower legs like prisoners have.

      "I can't move my legs. The lower legs are heavy, fixed to the ground. Now there is more pain. I want to move but I'm unable to. The pain of wanting to change and not being able to. I'm now exploring trauma. I know that my immobility is a symptom of this." The chain is still there. I invited him to go to the energetic root of the chain. The chain became thicker and stronger. "Like someone is holding my knees so I can't move. There's an impulse to liberate myself from this captivity. I can do that." (Hans started to shake and breathe heavily). "It's still there somewhat. The other side said , 'I'm stronger than you.' It wants me to believe I'm a victim, powerless. When I see this belief I can put it aside."

      Hans returned to his legs and felt the part holding his legs. "It's impersonal... the body's reaction... a mechanism. Some part of me is frozen in my legs. I can feel the condensed, frozen energy. A beginning of unfreezing comes. The war is over. Some danger is over. I'm not talking about the World War. It's my internal war. A huge wave of warmth and salvation is coming toward me now that the war is over. A voiceover says, 'You haven't realized yet that the war is over.' I sense the knowledge of this, but it hasn't penetrated my body." I suggested that he invite that knowledge to penetrate every cell of his body. "It's like melting. Slowly melting. I feel a Divine Presence. Energy is flowing into my legs now. It's like a stream. My hard muscles are becoming softer."

      The "voiceover" said, "Believe it, allow it. I present my open knees to be healed. Just like when you open your hands. The knees believe it now. They are like an open vessel. My consciousness is in my knees. They are more penetrable... . like space is opening up between the cells. I'm still presenting my knees to the Truth. " Hans allowed this process to continue for some time on his own after our session ended. He reported to me in our next session that his sense of powerlessness was gone and he felt more able to take action on his needs for friendship and love in his life.

In this session the shakti took the form of a sense of warmth and Divine Presence. These are other variations of shakti also described by Feurst. In both this and the previous session, clients who had been severely traumatized experienced major relief from energetic blockage caused by their trauma. In Emma's case the traumatized condition was represented by scar tissue. In Hans' case, it was frozenness and immobility. The speed at which healing occurs when 'shakti' intervenes is striking compared to traditional trauma treatment modalities. This was particularly significant as Hans had been working with therapists in Germany for some time, attempting to gain relief, without much success. It is interesting that he described space opening up between the cells. This phenomenon is commonly reported by energy healers when physical healing is occurring. A certain period of time is usually required for energetic healing to complete itself or for spiritual 'treatment' (the term used by New Thought practitioners) to take effect at the physical level (Barker,1966,1988).

Though the healing of Hans' knees began during our session, he sensed that more time was needed to complete the process. I therefore suggested that he continue to hold his focus and attention there after our session until he sensed the healing was complete. When clients are finely attuned to energy, as Hans was, they are able to participate more effectively in the healing process.

This session beautifully illustrates the mode of the will, which George Leonard described as 'focused surrender.' In presenting his knees to be healed, Hans was highly focused and intentional. He held his awareness on his knees until he sensed that this was no longer needed. Yet he was simultaneously in a surrendered state, allowing the healing to take place in its own time and in its own way. He was aware that a Divine Presence was guiding the process. This brings to mind another of Rumi's poems, reflecting profound insight into the spiritual healing process (excerpted from 'Zero Circle'):

Be helpless, dumbfounded
Unable to say yes or no.
Then a stretcher will come
from grace to gather us up....
So let us not be sure of anything
beside ourselves and only that, so
miraculous beings come running to help.
Crazed, lying in a zero circle, mute,
we shall be saying finally,
with tremendous eloquence, lead us.

I would like to address now some other aspects of psychoenergetic healing and share some sessions to illustrate these points. Though the previous two sessions moved very quickly into the phase where healing energies were activated, in many sessions a cathartic phase precedes this. In such cases the client, when possible, stays present to the pain, allowing emotional release and insight to take place until a 'turnaround' occurs. It is as though the person 'hits bottom' in Alcoholics Anonymous terminology, and begins to bounce up. EMDR speaks of 'positive cognitions' arising after reprocessing traumatic experience and clearing associated channels. In working with EFT, a similar phenomenon occurs, though generally with less catharsis. A client may suddenly shift from experiencing painful or negative thoughts and feelings to an opposite state. For example, a person targeting feelings of powerlessness may shift to feeling empowered. In Depth Energetic work, the person sometimes needs to reach a core place of pain or despair, shining the light of consciousness on this place, before the turnaround happens. The following sessions illustrate this process.