You’re not broken – but healing can still help you!

One of the frequent criticisms of energetic clearing systems, such as my own Soul Lab, is that they have a tendency to reinforce the subconscious idea that we are broken. If we’re constantly clearing negative energies from ourselves, seemingly without end, we may unwittingly end up creating a powerful subconscious belief that we are deeply broken. We are bottomless wells of negative energy, we tell ourselves, and it may take months or years of clearings to be rid of it all.  Of course, if we accept that belief then chances are we will never be rid of it all. The body will simply continue to create negative energies in excess of what we’re capable of clearing – or even if we succeed in draining a large part of the swamp, our belief in our brokenness will keep us trapped in our old patterns.

It’s an absolutely valid point, but certainly not one that should prevent you from using such clearing systems – provided you use them correctly and avoid “getting addicted” to clearings.  Most people who raise such criticisms only do so because they’re promoting some competing system of healing that doesn’t focus as much on negative energies. All these systems have their place, and all have their advantages and disadvantages.

Reconnective Healing, which I also offer, is an example of a fast acting healing system, which can change people’s lives instantly, often from one session, without needing to delve into all the negative energies a person may be harbouring. In fact, about 70% of people notice instant, profound changes. But what about the 30% who experience nothing? In my experience, these people tend to have negative belief systems telling them that instant healing is impossible, and that such profound problems as their own can only be remedied by a long, arduous process of healing. In other words, they already believe they’re broken. Soul Lab can help to clear the feelings and beliefs that support this sense of brokenness.

As with this and any other situation where energetic clearings are used, it is important for the client to do their part and begin to retrain their thinking from a state of brokenness to a state of empowerment. Soul Lab cannot instantly fix people who are deeply convinced that they are broken. But it can clear the supporting energies and patterns, giving them just enough of a peek over the fence to enable them to see what things can be like without so much negativity holding them back. From this elevated platform, it’s much easier to begin to form positive thought habits and empowering beliefs. Once a person realises they’re not broken, every subsequent healing empowers them. The subconscious message turns from “There’s so much negativity here – how will I ever get through it all?” To something like “One more barrier gone! I’m getting more and powerful every day!”

I’ve also noticed that among the 70% of clients that respond to Reconnective Healing, many go on their merry way, completely transformed and never needing another session. But some find their problems returning after a period of time. Again, limiting beliefs prevent them from accepting that permanent healing could be possible.

In summary, all types of healings have their place. No approach is better than the other, and no healing system on earth can entirely transform someone if they’re subconsciously determined to remain “broken”. The client must do their part and meet the healer half way, so to speak. By clearing negative energies – as in Soul Lab – or instilling the client with a powerful positive energy – as in Reconnective Healing and other systems – it becomes much easier for the client to do this. This is where the real healing takes place – when the client wakes up to their true, perfect nature as pure spirit in individualised form and takes on a new identity as a perfect and perfectly whole being.

Reconnective Healing vs. Reiki: What’s the difference? Which is better?

As a Reconnective Healing practitoner, one of the questions I get asked frequently is: “oh, Reconnective Healing? Is that like Reiki?” The answer is a resounding “not really”.

Qigong, Reiki, Pranic Healing and others share many similarities – usually to do with a practitioner activating their own energetic system and then transmitting the energy to a client, either through touch or purely through intention. Each modality varies in its approach, but the basic concept and the effectiveness of each is roughly the same.

Reconnective Healing may look superficially similar, but the differences are immense. The biggest difference is that in RH, the energy does not go through the healer before it reaches the client. The Reiki practitioner uses his body like an energetic cauldron, cultivating and strengthening the energy and then transmitting it to the client. The RH practitioner simply steps out of the way and connects the client directly to the energy field. The healer is merely a catalyst, not a conduit.

The first reason that makes such a big difference is obvious – the energy is not filtered through the healer’s energetic system, which means it’s immensely more powerful. In fact the difference in the strength of the energy is palpable to the client as well as measurable by science. See, for example, Dr. William Tiller’s experiments measuring the amount of thermodynamic energy in the room at a Reconnective Healing seminar.

The other important advantage of receiving the energy directly from the field is that the client cannot pick up anything negative from the healer’s energy field. Such an occurrence is rare because the healer will typically cleanse the energy before performing a healing; however this introduces additional complications that further reduce the effectiveness of the energy.

Early in the development of Reconnective Healing, the founder Dr. Eric Pearl consulted with some well known healers in his area. He was advised by the healers that he needed to use a cleansing ritual when dealing with this strange new energy – which was reasonable advice from people who had only ever dealt with more traditional healing methods. As Dr. Pearl had not yet discovered the true infinite nature of the RH energy, he followed their advice and began to include elaborate cleansing procedures in his healings. He has some amusing stories about the absurd rituals he was expected to perform. But however absurd, he tried them all – and the effectiveness of the healings decreased.

The conclusion is obvious – when you’re dealing with the infinite energy and intelligence of the universe, there is nothing that can be added to it. Dr. Pearl likens it to a jug that’s full to the brim with water – there is absolutely nothing more that can be added to it – and attempting to do so can only mean that there’s less room for the water. So adding cleansing rituals, intercessors, crystals, or specific intentions to our healings simply means there’s less room for the intelligence to do its perfect work. Nevertheless, the Reiki practitioner is forced into performing these rituals because of the possibility of transmitting negative energy to the client. The Reconnective Healing practitioner is not.

While all of this sounds nice in theory, it’s meaningless unless there’s solid evidence to support the increased effectiveness of RH over other modalities. In addition to Dr. Tiller’s research mentioned above, controlled studies on patients with frozen shoulder, and a study of severed leaves kept alive in a lab compared RH to other modalities. Reconnective Healing was the most effective modality by a considerable margin.

Dr. Pearl likes to say that if Reiki is R, Qigong is Q and Pranic Healing is P, Reconnective Healing is the alphabet.

Is Reconnective Healing evil?

I find it somewhat flattering that the title of this article is one of the most googled questions about Reconnective Healing. No-one asks the same questions about reiki or qigong, because neither of those modalities have RH’s reputation for instantaneous, seemingly miraculous healings. Given that the old spiritual paradigm only allowed for such healings to occur when some conscious spiritual or divine entity granted leave of the rules of nature, it’s not entirely surprising that Reconnective Healing’s incredible record of instant, profound healings has caused some people to ask – who or what on Earth is behind this?

Let me reassure any concerned readers that one of the main factors that attracted me to Reconnective Healing in the first place was its complete avoidance of intercessors and rituals. There are no spirits invoked or prayed to, no incantations or talismans – not even crystals or gemstones. Not only are all these things completely superfluous when performing Reconnective Healing, they are expressly forbidden to any certified practitioner. That’s right, every practitioner must sign an agreement before they are given their practitioner’s certificate agreeing that they will not perform any rituals as part of the healing process.

The reason for this is because, firstly, intercessors and rituals are unnecessary when performing Reconnective Healing. The healing is not the work of some entity – it is the work of the infinite intelligence of the universe. More to the point, the founder of Reconnective Healing Dr. Eric Pearl discovered early in the development of the modality that invocations and rituals actually decrease the effectiveness of the healing. The energy we access when we perform a healing is the infinite energy of the universe – therefore, there is nothing that can be added to it. Dr. Pearl likens it to a jug full to the brim with water – anything we add to the jug can only reduce the amount of water; it cannot make the jug more full. If the healer adds rituals and precise techniques of his own devising, he’s bringing his ego into the equation, leaving less room for the energy in the process. If he invokes intercessors, he’s bringing the collective consciousness energy surrounding that intercessor into the equation. In both cases, there is less room for the energy to do its work. All of this is to say that the invocation of any evil entities is strictly out of the question when performing Reconnective Healing work.

But another aspect of RH that sometimes concerns potential clients is anecdotal reports of flickering lights and electrical equipment malfunctioning after a client receives a healing. This does happen on rare occasions, which is understandable given that Reconnective Healing has been scientifically shown to increase levels of thermodynamic energy in the room where it is performed. It should come as no surprise that when these levels reach a certain point, electrical equipment can be affected by it. It’s also understandable that this could be frightening to the person experiencing it – but to date there have been no reports of any genuinely inexplicable supernatural phenomena occurring due to healings. We also lack any logical explanation for why an evil entity would wish to physically and spiritually heal a person and then fool around with their washing machine while it’s in the middle of the spin cycle. If frightening the client is the end goal, why would the entity choose electrical appliances as its sole method of terror? Why not apparitions or noises? And if Reconnective Healing is an insidious means of hijacking a person’s soul, why scare them off it?

In short, Reconnective Healing is not evil. The healing energy is simply there – all the practitioner does is tune into it and convey that energy to the client. If there were anything evil about the energy then we ought to be very concerned, because the energy is everywhere. The practitioner does not need to consecrate a sacred space to perform a healing – it can be done at a bus stop, in an aeroplane or down a coal mine.

Reconnective Healing truly is a quantum leap in healing, and all discoveries of such a magnitude are fated to meet with suspicions of evil. I could write pages more on this topic, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating. To date there have been countless reports of healings from every affliction imaginable – arthritis, depression, ADHD, cancer, PTSD – if you name it, Reconnective Healing has probably cured it. Has there been a single report of a demonic possession, a haunting, or anything more sinister than some electrical appliances turning off? Certainly not to my knowledge. But rather than taking my word for it, why not try it for yourself and see?

What is spiritual bypassing? Does it really exist?

Spiritual bypassing is a term used by people who advocate shadow work, to describe the act of attempting to paper over our gaping emotional wounds by means of a pretty, vague sense of outward spirituality. It certainly does exist, but sometimes the term gets used inappropriately, as I’ll explain in a moment.

If you’ve been around enough spiritual people, you’ve probably met some good examples of true spiritual bypassing. These are the people who post inspiring quotes on their Pinterest and Facebook pages, make frequent reference to the wisdom of the universe, carry crystals with them and perhaps read the occasional spiritual book recommended by Oprah, but never make any serious attempts to grow. They never set aside dedicated time for spiritual practices, never pursue any one spiritual practice with any tenacity, and never undertake any serious self-examination.

In short, they’ve adopted spirituality as a facade – an identity, and nothing more – and they expect their lives to improve simply by giving emotional assent to some vague higher power. This is true spiritual bypassing, or as I prefer to call it – fake spirituality.

Unfortunately, as it is a term primarily used by shadow work advocates, sometimes the definition gets broadened to include everyone who does not believe it is necessary or helpful to probe around in the past in order to find answers in the present. People who believe that negative thoughts, feelings and patterns can be changed and released without excessive analysis or acknowledgement of them.

Shadow work advocates claim that all emotions have a meaning and purpose, and if we don’t understand the purpose then we’ve missed the lesson. Even if we clear the emotion or change the thought, if the original cause of the thought or feeling remains then it will simply reassert itself in a different form. And the longer it’s repressed, the more malignant it becomes, they claim.

Study the teachings of Christ, Buddha and Lao-Tzu and you will find that all of these sages belong to the former school of thought. Nowhere in any of the Christian, Buddhist or Taoist philosophies is probing into the past recommended as a legitimate form of self-analysis. Nowhere in the Hindu-Yogic tradition is this recommended, either. In fact I’m not aware of any traditional school of spirituality that recommends this. Thoughts and feelings are just energy – but because they create our reality, sometimes we mistake them for reality itself. The true nature of our existence is absolute perfection, but because we were given the creative faculty of free will, it is possible for us to misuse that free will and create problems and suffering for ourselves.

If we truly dedicate ourselves to a particular spiritual path with devotion, persistence and realistic expectations, in time our consciousness will ascend to a state where negative energetic residue like traumas and trapped emotions begin to clear from the body automatically. The only thing that caused this negative emotional baggage in the first place was the misuse of our thought, not some complicated emotional damage that requires analysis and drawn-out healing. Even traumas are ultimately caused by our conscious misapprehension of a particular experience as being a threat to our safety. As our consciousness ascends, these thought systems begin to rewire themselves and become more healthy, also. Hence, a higher level of consciousness is a remedy for both the effects and the causes of our emotional baggage.

In addition to following a dedicated spiritual practice, it is also possible to use energetic techniques like EFT, The Emotion Code, The Body Code, The Sedona Method and so on in order to compel the body to clear trapped energetic residue. As we let go of these lower energies, we assist ourselves into a higher state of consciousness, and as our consciousness ascends, more of the lower energies automatically clear – so the process is reciprocal. Shadows simply cannot exist when exposed to the light.

The great enlightened lecturer, Sydney Banks, founder of the Three Principles philosophy – the “sage of the common people” as I like to think of him – described it thus:

“When illusionary sadness comes from memories, you don’t try and figure them out – please don’t try and do that. You’ll get yourself in trouble. All you have to do is simplicity again – is realise that it’s thought. The second you realise it’s thought, it’s gone. You’re back to the now, you’re back to happiness. So don’t get caught up in a lot of details.”

Of course, Banks is here referring to a deep spiritual understanding of the roles of mind, consciousness and thought – not the superficial intellectual understanding that most of us have of these matters. Only a deep spiritual knowing, of the kind that Banks himself possessed, has the power to instantly liberate us from all problems. The attainment of this deep knowing has been the object of all significant spiritual teaching throughout the centuries. Cultivate a true, enlightened understanding of the way things really are, and all your problems will vanish as shadows exposed to the light. The idea that we ought to examine the shadows instead of simply turning on the light is a by-product of 20th century psychotherapy, which has no spiritual precedent.

Proponents of shadow work sometimes like to claim that following the orthodox spiritual path of seeking enlightenment is attempting to find a shortcut to freedom. We’re ever searching for that elusive magic thought that will open up our spiritual understanding and collapse all our problems in an instant. That’s too simple, they claim, and the only path to freedom is to put in the effort and do the dirty work down at the coalface of our subconscious; understanding what made us the way we are and healing each individual hurt. On the question of impatience, I’ve often found the opposite to be true, though – that is, if someone is deeply hurting now, it can be very tempting to attack the problem directly by trying to understand and heal the causes – whereas searching for a comprehensive liberation from all suffering is often too vague, distant and elusive for the impatient. But note, of course, that the process of earnestly seeking enlightenment almost always leads to a measurable increase in a person’s consciousness and a corresponding decrease in suffering – so even if we never reach the enlightenment threshold, our search is certainly not wasted effort.

Many people who have experienced Reconnective Healing will tell you that their lives changed for the better overnight, due to the massive jump in consciousness caused by the healing. Things that previously bothered them no longer did, and they viewed life with an entirely different perspective. For many of them, the changes are permanent or at least long-lasting. For a few, however, things return to their usual negative state within a few days or weeks after the healing. This is not because the healing energy is in any way deficient – it’s because, unfortunately, they allowed their pesky thoughts to get in the way again. We’ve been told for such a long time that we’re broken, and the only way to return to wholeness is through an arduous process of self-examination and repair. The more deeply this lie has permeated our consciousness, the harder it is to accept that healing could be so simple. Consciously or unconsciously, such people will tell themselves “this is too good to be true…It can’t last!”

Our true nature is one of complete perfection and harmony, and Reconnective Healing – being the unfiltered source energy of the universe – simply allows us to get back to that state. But if we tell ourselves it’s too good to be true – that we need to struggle through the murky depths of our childhood and our programming in order to liberate ourselves permanently – then our thoughts will come true, since they are our creative faculty.

Understanding the programming may actually provide some relief from it for certain individuals – so by all means, if shadow work helps you then it may be a legitimate part of your spiritual journey. It is not something I can ever proactively recommend, but it is not up to me to direct your spiritual path for you. But please realise that identifying with your programming is not the road to enlightenment, and people who choose to walk the higher path of dissociating with their programming and embracing the higher truths of our eternal, perfect existence are not “spiritually bypassing” by doing so.