Why I Probably Won’t Teach You To Do Energy Work

I completed my Level 3 Reiki training in 2006. Originally I had only signed up to complete Levels 1 & 2, but on the final day, during our attunements, my Reiki Master looked at me with surprise and said, “I have to give you Level 3 as well. The guides are telling me that you are supposed to have it.” I remember thinking “How lovely!” and, “I have no idea what that means but I’ll take it”. I had been practicing CranioSacral Therapy and Massage Therapy for about 2 years prior to taking my training and was already using my own, innate, version of energy work but thought I might be missing something. I wondered if I shouldn’t be incorporating a more structured, systematic way of working with energy. Having received several Reiki treatments myself, I decided to try it out and see if it would help me channel and structure my abilities.

Over the years I’ve rarely used Reiki in the way it was taught to me. I realized that I didn’t need to channel or structure my gifts and forged ahead doing energy work the way I always have, in a manner that is innate to who I am. Interestingly enough I’ve been trying to complete my Master Reiki level for years because, if you know me, you know that I can’t stand to leave things unfinished. It drives me nuts. Every time I go to complete my training something comes up and I’ve never completed it. A Master level in Reiki allows you to be able to teach, to pass along, the rituals and methods for performing Reiki. It took me up until this summer to realize two very strong reasons why I haven’t been able to complete my training:

 

1. I don’t actively practice Reiki

2. I’m not meant to teach energy work.  

When you study and learn Reiki, you learn that prior to recent times, it was a secretive and selective group of people who practiced Reiki. The art of Reiki was passed along, Master to student, and all of the symbols and teachings were considered very sacred and only shared with those whom the Master felt to be worthy. As a newbie in the Reiki circles, I didn’t understand this. Having an innate ability to work with energy, to communicate with spiritual beings, and to help with others’ healing, I didn’t understand why information such as this would have been kept a well-guarded secret. I naively assumed that gifts, such as mine, were available to anyone who was open to the possibility of such things and that everyone should have access to various types of energy training. I innocently thought that others thought/think as I do and that purity of spirit & mind would prevail, that others would be able to handle the consequences of performing energy work, that they would use their newfound skills for a higher purpose. It didn’t take me long to realize that I was wrong. I quickly discovered how naïve my thinking was and over the years have had many, many, encounters that have reaffirmed the need for selectivity in training people to work with energy.

You can but you shouldn’t.

It’s true that people, whom are not innately gifted with the ability to do so, can learn to work with energy. As a skill it’s something you can to learn to do. You can train to become more grounded, more focused, more open, and more aware. In fact there’s an entire cultural movement devoted to this very thing and an industry that is growing daily to help people in their pursuit of New Age healing, understanding, and growth. People are taking courses on everything from Tarot Card readings to Energy healing and they leave these courses often feeling inspired, excited and more powerful than before. (Notice how I said more “powerful”? I’ll come back to that point later.) As a skill, energy work can be taught, but this doesn’t mean that it should be taught to everyone.

The practice of energy work can be taught, but the art of energy work is a gift, and you can’t teach a gift.

Dabbling in things that seem interesting and exciting without having a solid understanding of what it is you are dabbling in opens you up to a whole myriad of problems; problems that can, literally, haunt you for years; problems that can destroy your life and the lives of others. Knowledge without understanding is a very dangerous thing and often people practicing energy work are unaware of the depth of influence they have in that moment.

You Think You Do, But You Don’t

"Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required."^{[Luke 12:48]}

I can’t count the number of times, over the years of working with patients throughout their healing journeys, that I have heard the words, “I wish I had the gifts you have”. Each and every time a patient or friend has uttered these words to me something interesting happens inside –
I cringe. I get nauseous. Now I’m not going to deny for one second that I love my gift. I don’t deny that I absolutely and passionately adore helping people heal, helping them to grow deeper, and to develop a stronger appreciation for the spiritual aspect of life. I love it with every fiber of my being. It’s who I am. But there is a dark side to having a gift like mine and my usual response to such comments has been to say, “No. No you don’t.” “You really don’t. It’s not all roses.”

Sometimes my gift is overwhelming; sometimes it is debilitating, and heartbreaking. There are times, after working on others that I get extremely ill. There are days that I feel pain and sorrow so deeply and in each fiber of my being that I can’t breathe. There are nights when I can’t sleep and days where the line between the physical and spiritual realm becomes so blurred that I question my sanity. Over the years, because of my experiences, I’ve learned my limits, learned how to stay more grounded. I’ve learned to fearlessly trust my gift and to be passionately grateful for the family and friends in my life who understand and accept me. And over the years, I’ve learned to be extremely thankful that I’ve been able to learn these things because let me tell you, I’ve seen many a gifted energy worker struggle with and be unable to adjust to the strength of his/her gift. I’ve seen them consumed and tormented by it. No my friends, it is not all roses.

But it is a gift.

I have a gift.

But each and every one of you also has your own very special gift. Mine is spiritual, energetical, and maybe yours is too. It may be completely different though, and it is so important to find your own strengths, your own gifts, and to cultivate them. Denying your own strengths, saying they aren’t “important enough”, they aren’t “unique” enough, they aren’t “mystical enough”, is denying the truth and beauty of who you are. So stop coveting and start cultivating. You may think you want my gift but you probably don’t.  

Power

I told you we’d get back to it!

By definition the word, power, when used as a noun, means “the ability to control people or things”.¹  Power, is one of the most frightening and disturbing things I often encounter when talking to those performing energy work. This is not a pitfall that only people new to the work encounter, this is a pitfall that so many of us fall into and it’s so easy to become trapped in our need to “prove” ourselves. Ego says, “Look at me. Look at how amazing I am”. It says, “Let me tell you how amazing I am. Let me show you how I can fix you. Let me tell you all about your traumas and your future so that you will worship me and know my power.” Ego loves power, and when Ego rules an energy session the true purpose for healing gets lost. A session ruled by Ego no longer serves the patient’s higher purpose or best interest but the practitioner’s need to be special, to be right, to be powerful. When Ego rules the session, all sense of neutrality goes out the proverbial window and the session becomes about the therapist.

Power is not the way to true healing, yet unfortunately, in so many of those pursuing instruction in energy healing, power has become god. Power has become universally synonymous with importance and hey, who doesn’t want to be important? But as my mother has always reminded me, each and every one of us is important not because of what we can do, nor because of how intelligent we are or how rich we are, no each one of us is important because we are unique, because we were created to be special, because we were created in God’s image. Through creation, and grace, we are important, and nothing we can say, do, or accumulate can ever trump that level of importance. Nothing. If we can keep our Ego in check and remember that healing occurs through us and not because of us, then beautiful things can be achieved. If we can’t, then healing sessions become a method of manipulation, they become a dumping ground for the therapist’s own traumas, and they can add more trauma to an already traumatized patient.

When you perform energy work you walk the line between different realms and it’s a very, very, fine line. It’s a challenge to stay grounded in the physical realm, to keep your ego in check, to ensure you are able to clear any energies you pick up along the way. A session must always be about the patient’s best interest, about their safety, about their issues.

Energy work is sacred and because it’s sacred I won’t be teaching you how to do it. I’ll talk to you about the Ethics behind energy work (of which I’m super passionate about), I’ll talk to you about ways to help you ground yourself, to help clear yourself. I’ll gladly work with you through your healing journey and I’ll be your liaison between realms, but I won’t teach you how to do what I do. I won’t teach you and it’s not because I’m elitist, it’s because I hold it sacred, I honor my gift and the burden that it brings with it. No, even if I could I wouldn’t teach you my gift. You already have your own gift: find it, cultivate it, honor it and I can guarantee that a lot of the answers you’re looking for from me, you’ll find you already know, because once we align with who we are to be, all that is old falls away.

All My Relations,
Mandy

1. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/power