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There is
a big spiritual and mystical component to therapeutic touch
(TT), it has been used by many people and cultures over time
as a healing modality. My exposure to it is through the
nursing profession. It is one of the many energy therapies
that have long been used, but it has only been in the last
10 years that the energy healing therapies have
received the interest of the public and main stream
medicine. I will give you a brief scientific basis of the
energy healing therapies and talk more specifically on TT
and my experiences with it. This essay is not intended to
teach the reader how to use TT , it is intended to expose the
reader to an energy healing technique.
In 1939
a Russian scientist named Semyon Kirlian, accidentally
shocked himself with high voltage and saw an electrical
discharge from his hands. Amazed by this brilliant release
of energy from his hands, Kirlian decided to see if he could
use a camera of sorts to capture the energy field of
humans, plant life, and animals. These photographs looked
like halos or spikes being discharged off the body. Kirlian then
investigated if this camera could be used as a diagnostic
tool, to determine if various states of health would have
different energy fields. He spent time categorizing the
various fields and found that indeed, emotions and physical
states changed the vibrance and colors of the field.
Western scientists dismissed Kirlian's work until very
recently.
In the
1970's a biophysicist named L. Konikiewicz, from Polyclinic
Medical Center in Pennsylvania, determined that various
emotional and physical states created different coronas (
similar to an aura or halo). When the human body is ill or
emotionally wrote, the corona appears brighter and more diffuse
rather than a tight, bright corona of a health person. So as you can see, the
body is an electrical unit and that health is influenced
and dependent on electromagnetic energy. You have the
ability to heal yourself by altering or boosting your energy
, and you also have the ability to help others by boosting
their energy field.
We use
energy language all the time, for example, he has a strong
presence, or she is a comfort to me. These people never
may even say a word and their physical size may be petite.
Where others, make you feel agitated , jumpy, annoyed. We
may say I got really bad vibes from him/her. In each of these
cases we are reacting to their energy field. We
intuitively sense it, although we have been taught to
discount theses feelings as children. Intuition is something
that we all have but have not used it because, in our western
culture those rely on their intuition are considered feabile minded.
The
human energy can be seen by the eye, but requires some
degree of training and focusing. It is like those pictures
that came out years ago, where if you changed your eyes
focus slightly and stared you could see the picture within
the abstract forms. If you squint your eyes, the image you
are looking at becomes slightly blurred and you can see a
heat like wave rising of the body. It looks as though you are looking at a
heat wave rise off of a hot pavement or barbecue. It can
have a soft blue gray color. It is best seen when the
person you are looking at is up against a light colored back
ground.
Try this
exercise, center yourself, and then rub your hands together,
place the tips of your fingers together and pull them apart
slowly. While you do this squint your eyes till the image
is slightly out of focus. Once again, it is best to do this
against a white wall or light background. You will be able
to see a slightly blue hue connect the finger tips. Another
exercise you can try, is after you center yourself and rub
your hands together, place them together as though you are
cupping a ball in your hand. You will feel something like
resistance, a spongy, bouncy, rubbery ball between your hands.
This is what is called an energy ball. Your energy body surrounds
your physical body and extends about 2 - 4 feet from it.
Think of it as a cotton ball that surrounds you & is
egg shaped. It is this energy field that people are talking
about when they refer to an aura. It is a brilliant rainbow
color in 7 layers starting from the body and working it's
way out.
Dolores
Kreger a nurse, used Martha Roger's theory of energy and
created the nursing intervention called therapeutic touch.
A healing modality that is an accepted practice in nursing . TT is
used by many people not just nurses and one does not need be
a nurse to use it. TT acknowledges that the human energy
can be felt, by using your hands to scan a persons
body. The hands never actually physically touch the person,
but come in contact with the energy field. By sensing the
changes in the field one can assess the field. You may feel
intense heat or coldness, increased resistance or a void.
These changes in the energy field correspond to physical
changes the person may have or is going to experience.
Changes in the energy field occur before changes in the
physical body. A health energy field has very little
variation, and feels smooth and even.
TT has
been used on cancer pain, immune deficeincies and chronic pains,
such as back and neurological. It has been used to minimize post operative
pain and labor pain. It can be used with traditional
medicine as well. TT can be used preventively to maintain health and
emotional well being.
A TT
session is short about 15 - 20 minutes. A short history of
the persons health, and emotional status is obtained so the
areas of focus are identified and an
understanding of what the client expects is communicated.
Then the practioner scans the body moving slowly from the head,
moving down the back to the feet and then repeating the
process by scanning the front. This is done to to assess for
variation of the field. Assessing the field is a brief process
and should not be done repeatedly, because with each pass
through the field with the practioner's hands, the energy
field is slightly altered.
Once it
is assessed, the energy field is worked on to even it out.
There are 2 main techniques that are used:unruffling and
modulation. Unruffling dissipates areas of congestion and
increased heat. This is done by moving the hands
repeatedly downward over the area until that sensation is
diminished. Modulation redirects energy to an area of
coolness or emptiness by placing the hands above the area.
The field is then re - assessed for an evenness, and the
session ends.
The
person experiencing this enters an extreme relaxed state.
In some cases, they may feel a relief of their symptom at
the end of the session or several hours later. In other
cases, it may take several sessions for the person to feel
some relief.
The key
here is the practioners intent to heal, you can not hurt the
client, the only patients in which caution needs to be used
is head injuries, heart patients, and infants.
If you
are interested in finding out more about TT here are some
URLs with more information. If you would like to be able to
learn to use it you should take a class on it.
A review of Therapeutic Tocuh literature
A site that presnts the research evidence for and against TT and links to sites that provide information on using it and learning it.
"Eponahax"
Archieved Alternative Therapy Topics
Aromatherapy
Meditation
Femcafe Site Map
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