Healing at a Distance

Imagine reaching out and touching someone. Not with a phone or a note card or an e-mail. Just with your energy and intention. The person you reach out and touch could be in the next room, the next city, the next state, or in another country or on a different continent or even on a boat in the middle of an ocean. It could be the person you love most in the world, or a stranger in need. Wherever they are, your energy and intention can reach them. With a healing intent, your energy can help that person be more whole.

Does that sound like wishful thinking? Science fiction? Or New Age mumbo jumbo? Actually, the phenomenon is more ancient than the Bible, the Koran, and the Sanskrit holy texts known as the Vedas. Healers and scientists studying the practice call it long distance healing or remote healing. Shamans have been doing it since before recorded history. They call it journeying to the spirit world.

Could we be that connected to each other? Could we have that much power to help each other? What would that mean?

I used to think long distance healing sounded pretty fantastical. In fact, the first time someone told me they could do a healing for me, even at a distance, even if I was in another state, I wanted to say: "Yeah? And I have a bridge I'd like to sell you." After I heard the same claim from several different healers, I wondered how they could all be nuts in the same way.

Then I got one of the worst migraine headaches I've ever had. I had had a lot of migraine headaches over the years and they often lasted a few days. I crawled out of bed at a friend's house in California where I was visiting to call a healer that I knew in New York. (I was interviewing healers back then for my first book on healing.) I left a desperate message, explaining my plight. I didn't know what I thought the healer would do. Perhaps be sympathetic? Tell me to put my fingers on a pulse point? I crawled back into bed. Soon I felt a force moving through my body. Everywhere it went, my body began to relax. It was as if my muscles had to obey this force, which felt utterly soothing and delicious. Soon, I drifted off to sleep. When I woke about an hour later, my headache was gone. I found out later that the healer I called had sent me healing energy-from a distance.

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