Healing - The levels of the energy field - 5 & 6
The fifth level of the
energy field is what I call the level of Belief Systems, and the sixth
level is the level of Spiritual Belief Systems. These sound very
similar and indeed they are, from my perspective. One of my healing
teachers called the 5th level "who you think you are in relation to the
Universe". Any deep seated beliefs about who you are can be found
here. Beliefs are formed on the basis of interpretation of a traumatic
event. It's trying t make sense of it, trying to find a way to prevent
ourselves from feeling the same shock or painful emotion ever again. If
a child falls into a lake and nearly drowns, there might be a belief
system that water causes death and is to be feared at all costs. If we
were tortured in a previous life, the belief might be that life is
painful. If we believe that life is painful, we'll avoid expectation
that it should be anything else, thereby sparing ourselves the
possibility of an unexpected painful experience. It also shuts off the
possibility that life could be joyous, delightful or beautiful.
A belief system is a false belief formed by a misinterpretation of an event which causes us to react in the same way every time a similar event happens in our lives. The original event does not have to be abusive or traumatic, but it's all in how we interpret it. Many belief systems were formed in childhood. In the eyes of a small child, something that seems uneventful can be misinterpreted in such a way as to seem hurtful. I remember saying to one of my daughters when she was small, "I love you madly". Somehow later it came out that she thought I was angry with her. I don't even want to think how that particular combination of love and anger ended up in her young mind.
Some common belief systems are, "I'm not worthy", "everything turns to crap in the end", "life is struggle", "I don't have what it takes", or many, many other permutations of unreality. With a belief system, there are often other associated beliefs. When one is triggered the whole bunch comes up. There are also associated mental patterns. These are the grooves your mind runs in according to the belief system. Mental patterns occur before thoughts. If they are the grooves or ruts, thoughts are the wagons that run along those ruts. And then there are the supporting saboteurs. Saboteurs are the mechanism by which we make sure that the phenomenal world gives us proof that our belief systems are real. Belief system (BS for short) - "I'm unlovable", mental patterns - "It's a given that I'm unlovable"; thoughts - "I know that person won't love me"; and saboteurs cause behaviors that ensure that the person won't love you, thus reinforcing the belief system.
So as you can see, changing our thoughts doesn't really change the belief system. Certainly it can help. Wallowing in negative thoughts also reinforces the belief system. However, the way to really clear them and release them is to begin to see clearly what they are. What's running the show? Once you know what the BS is, it's easier to recognize it when it shows up. Oh, I'm feeling this way, I'm thinking these things, that BS must be running. We'll often say things that provide clues to the belief system. "Life sucks". "I'll never have any money". The Journey has a fabulous belief change process that takes you to the time and place where the belief was originally formed, and takes you through a process to completely clear and release that, and cut negative ties to the situation and people involved with its formation.
Spiritual Belief Systems are belief systems with more emotion, more investment, perhaps more trauma. Often the belief is of a spiritual nature. Or it's on such a deep level that it feels spiritual. Many of us have belief systems and spiritual belief systems that were formed in previous lifetimes. Essentially, we come into this life with them. Looking back over the course of a lifetime we can't find their origin. It feels like we've always believed that, we've always thought that way. Regardless of when these beliefs were formed, they can be worked with, they can be released and cleared. This is not always easy or quick, but it is workable. It takes a real commitment to consciousness and to waking up, and a willingness to see what's really there. The "reward" is to be able to see things as they are, to open into the delight of our own beingness. To experience our own Buddha-nature, or shining diamond.
A belief system is a false belief formed by a misinterpretation of an event which causes us to react in the same way every time a similar event happens in our lives. The original event does not have to be abusive or traumatic, but it's all in how we interpret it. Many belief systems were formed in childhood. In the eyes of a small child, something that seems uneventful can be misinterpreted in such a way as to seem hurtful. I remember saying to one of my daughters when she was small, "I love you madly". Somehow later it came out that she thought I was angry with her. I don't even want to think how that particular combination of love and anger ended up in her young mind.
Some common belief systems are, "I'm not worthy", "everything turns to crap in the end", "life is struggle", "I don't have what it takes", or many, many other permutations of unreality. With a belief system, there are often other associated beliefs. When one is triggered the whole bunch comes up. There are also associated mental patterns. These are the grooves your mind runs in according to the belief system. Mental patterns occur before thoughts. If they are the grooves or ruts, thoughts are the wagons that run along those ruts. And then there are the supporting saboteurs. Saboteurs are the mechanism by which we make sure that the phenomenal world gives us proof that our belief systems are real. Belief system (BS for short) - "I'm unlovable", mental patterns - "It's a given that I'm unlovable"; thoughts - "I know that person won't love me"; and saboteurs cause behaviors that ensure that the person won't love you, thus reinforcing the belief system.
So as you can see, changing our thoughts doesn't really change the belief system. Certainly it can help. Wallowing in negative thoughts also reinforces the belief system. However, the way to really clear them and release them is to begin to see clearly what they are. What's running the show? Once you know what the BS is, it's easier to recognize it when it shows up. Oh, I'm feeling this way, I'm thinking these things, that BS must be running. We'll often say things that provide clues to the belief system. "Life sucks". "I'll never have any money". The Journey has a fabulous belief change process that takes you to the time and place where the belief was originally formed, and takes you through a process to completely clear and release that, and cut negative ties to the situation and people involved with its formation.
Spiritual Belief Systems are belief systems with more emotion, more investment, perhaps more trauma. Often the belief is of a spiritual nature. Or it's on such a deep level that it feels spiritual. Many of us have belief systems and spiritual belief systems that were formed in previous lifetimes. Essentially, we come into this life with them. Looking back over the course of a lifetime we can't find their origin. It feels like we've always believed that, we've always thought that way. Regardless of when these beliefs were formed, they can be worked with, they can be released and cleared. This is not always easy or quick, but it is workable. It takes a real commitment to consciousness and to waking up, and a willingness to see what's really there. The "reward" is to be able to see things as they are, to open into the delight of our own beingness. To experience our own Buddha-nature, or shining diamond.
Healing - The levels of the energy field - 3 & 4
The third level of the energy field is the mental level. This is where you find thoughts - the ordinary discursive ones, as well as mental patterns and saboteurs. If someone is very mentally active this level will have a lot of energy. Belief systems - in levels 5 and 6 - have a lot to do with the nature of these thoughts. Using the example of victim mentality again, if the belief system is "Bad things always happen to me" or "Everything turns to crap in the end", the thoughts running will reflect that. You will find thoughts like, "they don't like me", or "this isn't going to turn out well", or I can't make it through this on my own". In order to clear this type of thinking, it's necessary to go to the belief and clear that. We'll get into that when we talk about levels 5 and 6 next month. And here's the interesting thing - even though the thoughts may be spawned by the belief system, they also act as the glue that holds the belief system together. I noticed this early in my healing career. I would assist someone in clearing a belief system, only to watch their thoughts and thought patterns recreate the belief. I used to look at thoughts as the Lego bricks that rebuilt the brick wall that created a block. And - if the belief system is completely cleared the thoughts change without effort. Using the victim example - the before thought may be, "so and so doesn't like me" and the after thought can be, "so and so seems to be having a difficult day". This can happen in a matter of minutes and is a great way to begin to see the insubstantiality of our thoughts.
Mental patterns are thoughts that habitually run in the same track. We have thought this way for a long time, it's hard to change the pattern. We may play certain music that reinforces the pattern. We may hang out with certain people who think the same way, do certain activities that leave us in that same pattern. I'm depressed so I listen to sad music, hang out with other people who are depressed, reinforce my mental pattern that nothing ever changes and my life will continue to suck no matter what I do.
Saboteurs are a type of mental pattern that were created to protect or help us in the past but no longer serve us, and in fact hinder us now. They are the type of thing that causes us to shoot ourselves in the foot repeatedly.
The mental level of the field also has an effect on the emotional level. Depending on the thoughts that are being run, they can keep a lid on emotions and act as a control mechanism.
The healing here involves creating a gap in the pattern. Meditation that allows a lot of space (as opposed to meditation where you're doing
I have been calling the fourth level of the energy field the Past Life Level. This is where I have found past life memories with unresolved trauma. I have also found other things in this level, which is why I now question it as just a past life level. It seems to be a level where there is no time, or where all time exists at once. Past life trauma acts similarly to childhood trauma, but can be more difficult to access for many people. Something happened in the past which was traumatic and continues to affect you but you can't remember what it was. They usually cause certain belief systems and spiritual belief systems which affect your life today.
Theoretically it's not necessary to go back to a past life to clear the trauma and mistaken beliefs that were formed. Everything exits in the present. And, that said, I have found that it can be incredibly helpful to go back to those memories and resolve those issues, releasing them completely. It can be life changing. It's important here to have the intention to resolve the issues, not just to remember who we were in the past. The story is unimportant, except for the purpose of clearing and letting go. Once that happens there's no point in trying to see past lives. Everything we were then we still are now.
The Journey is a wonderfully effective tool for clearing issues on this level. It's a way to access memories, process the emotion and resolve the issue to the point of forgiveness, which is another way to say releasing the memory and letting it go - completely, totally, and utterly. In that way the trauma and emotion are freed from our cells, and from the fourth level.
Next month, levels 5 and 6. something) begins to create that gap. Shamatha Vipasyana meditation is one such technique where the attention is on the outbreath and thoughts that arise are labeled as thoughts, without regard for the content. One keeps going back to the breath without trying to get rid of the thoughts. This technique is Buddhist in origin but has no particular religious overtones, it just works with the mind. Over time the heavy, sticky quality of thoughts is lightened. It also helps to change the life style patterns so they don't reinforce the mental patterns.
Mental patterns are thoughts that habitually run in the same track. We have thought this way for a long time, it's hard to change the pattern. We may play certain music that reinforces the pattern. We may hang out with certain people who think the same way, do certain activities that leave us in that same pattern. I'm depressed so I listen to sad music, hang out with other people who are depressed, reinforce my mental pattern that nothing ever changes and my life will continue to suck no matter what I do.
Saboteurs are a type of mental pattern that were created to protect or help us in the past but no longer serve us, and in fact hinder us now. They are the type of thing that causes us to shoot ourselves in the foot repeatedly.
The mental level of the field also has an effect on the emotional level. Depending on the thoughts that are being run, they can keep a lid on emotions and act as a control mechanism.
The healing here involves creating a gap in the pattern. Meditation that allows a lot of space (as opposed to meditation where you're doing
I have been calling the fourth level of the energy field the Past Life Level. This is where I have found past life memories with unresolved trauma. I have also found other things in this level, which is why I now question it as just a past life level. It seems to be a level where there is no time, or where all time exists at once. Past life trauma acts similarly to childhood trauma, but can be more difficult to access for many people. Something happened in the past which was traumatic and continues to affect you but you can't remember what it was. They usually cause certain belief systems and spiritual belief systems which affect your life today.
Theoretically it's not necessary to go back to a past life to clear the trauma and mistaken beliefs that were formed. Everything exits in the present. And, that said, I have found that it can be incredibly helpful to go back to those memories and resolve those issues, releasing them completely. It can be life changing. It's important here to have the intention to resolve the issues, not just to remember who we were in the past. The story is unimportant, except for the purpose of clearing and letting go. Once that happens there's no point in trying to see past lives. Everything we were then we still are now.
The Journey is a wonderfully effective tool for clearing issues on this level. It's a way to access memories, process the emotion and resolve the issue to the point of forgiveness, which is another way to say releasing the memory and letting it go - completely, totally, and utterly. In that way the trauma and emotion are freed from our cells, and from the fourth level.
Next month, levels 5 and 6. something) begins to create that gap. Shamatha Vipasyana meditation is one such technique where the attention is on the outbreath and thoughts that arise are labeled as thoughts, without regard for the content. One keeps going back to the breath without trying to get rid of the thoughts. This technique is Buddhist in origin but has no particular religious overtones, it just works with the mind. Over time the heavy, sticky quality of thoughts is lightened. It also helps to change the life style patterns so they don't reinforce the mental patterns.
Healing - The levels of the energy field - 1 & 2
My first energy healing teacher introduced me to working with the levels of the human energy field or aura. He used Barbara Brennan's book, "Hands of Light" as a primer for energy healing. In her book she describes the 7 levels of the energy field in great detail, and describes how she works with each. I still regard her book as one of the great works on energy healing. Over the course of the last 15 years of doing healing work, I've come to understand the energy field in my own way, as the various modalities that I've learned have woven themselves together into one stream of healing. Every client I work with teaches me something new; a new way of looking at things, a connection between different methods of healing that I hadn't seen before, some new insight about the nature of energy or being or reality. As I continue to work and learn, my view expands and evolves, and that's the beauty of this work.
The energy field can be viewed as levels of the atmosphere. When you look up, there can be clouds on many different levels, many different heights. There can be clouds on the ground level, or fog, which prevents any visibility whatsoever. You can't even see ten feet in front of you. There can be low lying clouds, higher clouds; stratus, cumulus, cirrus clouds on different levels. The lower clouds block the sun completely. The very highest clouds allow you to see the sky, but still cause a shadow on the earth. The clouds are the metaphor for blocks in the energy field. Blocks can be on any level, yet all of them cause some degree of "clouding", or blocking energy flow. Some are temporary obscurations, and some may be real distortions in the field. Those distortions could be things we've carried from life to life, a way of viewing reality that has continually created patterns that cause us to suffer. For example, the belief of being a victim is something on that level. No amount of "positive thinking" or pretending will change that, it takes clearing the belief on the level of the original distortion. (In other words, clearing the "fog" will not clear the "clouds" high up in the atmosphere). Sometimes an accumulation of beliefs can create a "cellular pattern", or a way of behaving that runs so deep we can't even see it, but it influences every single thing we think, say, or do.
Let's start with the lowest levels of the energy field, the "fog" levels. The first level is called the etheric level. It starts from the skin to approximately 4 - 6 inches up. (Another, perhaps more accurate way of seeing the level is that each is a "body" permeating all the way through the physical body - in other words, interpenetrating bodies). The more healthy a person is, the wider the levels will be. The etheric level is an energetic template for the physical body. Any distortions felt here directly influence the body, now or in the immediate future. Diseases that are already in progress are felt here, as well as diseases that are about to manifest physically. Issues with specific organs can often be felt. Depending on the style of the healer, these can be felt as hot or cold spots, or a thickening of energy, or actual block in the flow of energy. This is not to say that all energy healers can feel all of these problems and accurately assess them, there is a range here. Many of the blocks felt in this level originate at a higher level. As with clouds blocking the sun, a block at a higher level manifests (distorts the energy) all the way down to the body.
Healing at the etheric level often involves changes on a physical level. Change in diet or nutrition, exercise, herbal healing, massage, chiropractic, acupuncture, yoga, chi kung, homeopathics, and other such modalities. When the distortion has gone too far into the physical level, or has been undetected for too long, it might be necessary to use such methods as drugs or surgery. Healing is about flow. When the energy is flowing freely, health happens. When there is a blockage to the energy flow, methods must be found to clear that blockage. If someone has a life threatening tumor, surgery might be the only recourse to get the energy moving again. There is so much that can be done to stay healthy before a blockage has become this severe, and a lot of it has to do with movement!
The second level is the emotional level. For whose who can "see", this level looks like it contains blobs or clouds of different colors. for those who "feel", it feels the same. You can feel the different emotions as your hand passes through them. Emotions are natural, normal expressions of energies. If someone you love dies, you will feel grief. This is natural. What is not normal is if you are still feeling that grief at the same level of intensity 2 years later. Then one would look for what is blocking that energy from flowing freely. When emotions are stuck there is a cause. It may not be a simple or a singular cause, but it can be found and healing can take place.
Healing on this level is interesting. Often people pick up others' emotions and they can also be found in this level. You might feel emotions that seem to have no origin. From a healer's perspective, these can feel like the clients emotions or they can have a somewhat different energetic feel. The reason I begin every energy healing session with a clearing is because so many people come in with other people's emotions in their field. This is especially true of other healers or therapists, who are working with people all day in a caring and compassionate way. This could be the topic of an entire article! Once OPEs (other people's emotions) are cleared from the field, we can begin to work on our own emotions. The best way to stay healthy emotionally is to actually experience each emotion fully as it arises. Experience it and let it go as it dissipates naturally. Sadly, this is rarely the case. We are reluctant to go there for so many reasons. We're afraid to seem emotional or out of control. We don't want to seem overly sensitive or weak. Or we could (we all do!) have suppressed emotions from old traumas that make experiencing current emotions scary. Our thoughts and belief systems determine how open we are emotionally, and how willing to stand in the space of fully experiencing what is. The Journey is one modality that is exquisite in it's ability to work with emotions. More about this next month!
Next month, levels 3 and 4.
The energy field can be viewed as levels of the atmosphere. When you look up, there can be clouds on many different levels, many different heights. There can be clouds on the ground level, or fog, which prevents any visibility whatsoever. You can't even see ten feet in front of you. There can be low lying clouds, higher clouds; stratus, cumulus, cirrus clouds on different levels. The lower clouds block the sun completely. The very highest clouds allow you to see the sky, but still cause a shadow on the earth. The clouds are the metaphor for blocks in the energy field. Blocks can be on any level, yet all of them cause some degree of "clouding", or blocking energy flow. Some are temporary obscurations, and some may be real distortions in the field. Those distortions could be things we've carried from life to life, a way of viewing reality that has continually created patterns that cause us to suffer. For example, the belief of being a victim is something on that level. No amount of "positive thinking" or pretending will change that, it takes clearing the belief on the level of the original distortion. (In other words, clearing the "fog" will not clear the "clouds" high up in the atmosphere). Sometimes an accumulation of beliefs can create a "cellular pattern", or a way of behaving that runs so deep we can't even see it, but it influences every single thing we think, say, or do.
Let's start with the lowest levels of the energy field, the "fog" levels. The first level is called the etheric level. It starts from the skin to approximately 4 - 6 inches up. (Another, perhaps more accurate way of seeing the level is that each is a "body" permeating all the way through the physical body - in other words, interpenetrating bodies). The more healthy a person is, the wider the levels will be. The etheric level is an energetic template for the physical body. Any distortions felt here directly influence the body, now or in the immediate future. Diseases that are already in progress are felt here, as well as diseases that are about to manifest physically. Issues with specific organs can often be felt. Depending on the style of the healer, these can be felt as hot or cold spots, or a thickening of energy, or actual block in the flow of energy. This is not to say that all energy healers can feel all of these problems and accurately assess them, there is a range here. Many of the blocks felt in this level originate at a higher level. As with clouds blocking the sun, a block at a higher level manifests (distorts the energy) all the way down to the body.
Healing at the etheric level often involves changes on a physical level. Change in diet or nutrition, exercise, herbal healing, massage, chiropractic, acupuncture, yoga, chi kung, homeopathics, and other such modalities. When the distortion has gone too far into the physical level, or has been undetected for too long, it might be necessary to use such methods as drugs or surgery. Healing is about flow. When the energy is flowing freely, health happens. When there is a blockage to the energy flow, methods must be found to clear that blockage. If someone has a life threatening tumor, surgery might be the only recourse to get the energy moving again. There is so much that can be done to stay healthy before a blockage has become this severe, and a lot of it has to do with movement!
The second level is the emotional level. For whose who can "see", this level looks like it contains blobs or clouds of different colors. for those who "feel", it feels the same. You can feel the different emotions as your hand passes through them. Emotions are natural, normal expressions of energies. If someone you love dies, you will feel grief. This is natural. What is not normal is if you are still feeling that grief at the same level of intensity 2 years later. Then one would look for what is blocking that energy from flowing freely. When emotions are stuck there is a cause. It may not be a simple or a singular cause, but it can be found and healing can take place.
Healing on this level is interesting. Often people pick up others' emotions and they can also be found in this level. You might feel emotions that seem to have no origin. From a healer's perspective, these can feel like the clients emotions or they can have a somewhat different energetic feel. The reason I begin every energy healing session with a clearing is because so many people come in with other people's emotions in their field. This is especially true of other healers or therapists, who are working with people all day in a caring and compassionate way. This could be the topic of an entire article! Once OPEs (other people's emotions) are cleared from the field, we can begin to work on our own emotions. The best way to stay healthy emotionally is to actually experience each emotion fully as it arises. Experience it and let it go as it dissipates naturally. Sadly, this is rarely the case. We are reluctant to go there for so many reasons. We're afraid to seem emotional or out of control. We don't want to seem overly sensitive or weak. Or we could (we all do!) have suppressed emotions from old traumas that make experiencing current emotions scary. Our thoughts and belief systems determine how open we are emotionally, and how willing to stand in the space of fully experiencing what is. The Journey is one modality that is exquisite in it's ability to work with emotions. More about this next month!
Next month, levels 3 and 4.
