How Energy Healing Works: Moving Between the Subtle and Physical Worlds
Few of us stop to think about how we transfer information from a text or book to our minds. Or how we move from thinking of an idea, to writing about it, and then other people reading it and making it their own. These transformations from thought to matter, back to thought again are commonplace, yet astounding when you reflect on the process.
It is a movement from the subtle realm of ideas, imagination, or intent, to the physical realm. This happens with computers or written language, moving information from the physical back again to the subtle realm. This process has been alive for centuries. Our ancestors did much the same thing long before written language was captured by symbols on paper. They even used this process for healing. This is how energy healing works, moving between the subtle and physical worlds.
Since time immemorial, people have asked wisdom keepers for advice and healing with matters such as pain, injury, or relationship struggles. Often the answers came through in the subtle realm – through prayer, supplication, or words of support. Other times, healers placed the intention or aim of the healing into an object which acts as a carrier for healing. They used items like a crystal or amulet which the seeker carried or wore. The healer endowed the object via transmission of information, whispered prayers, blown smoke, or other means to enhance the properties of the object.
This pattern of subtle – physical – subtle plays out again. The healer holds intention in the subtle realm and then places it on an object in the physical. Then the seeker absorbs the intention, transferring it back to the subtle. Finally, as healing happens, it materializes in the physical.
How energy healing works
The antennae of our systems act like radio receivers and transmitters. They pull information from our sensory organs, bridging the inner world with the outer world.
For instance, in the physical world, increased pollen in springtime flowers may cause a shift in the allergic reactivity of our nasal cavity. Sneezing attacks clear the buildup of pollen, with white blood cells moving to the rescue to trap and eradicate the foreign threat so homeostasis can return.
Subtle world changes are familiar when thoughts create changes in physical reality. For instance, being afraid of having allergies to flowers may cause allergic symptoms in the absence of the pollen. Simply seeing a scene in a movie of a meadow filled with wildflowers can cause the viewer to begin sneezing. In this case, both the trigger and the reaction take place in the subtle realm: no physical pollen need be present.
These are common examples of how we interact with the world. But what about when the subtle and physical worlds overlap, outside ordinary sensory organs? How do we navigate circumstances moving between these worlds when each informs the other?
Healing the world in your hands
Energy psychology methods work between the physical and subtle realms. They may use the hands to tap, hold or massage acupressure points, such as under the nose and under the collarbones. (This is the protocol of Comprehensive Energy Psychology (CEP) and Thought Field Therapy (TFT) to clear nasal congestion.) The physical act of touching the acupoints while experiencing distress from symptoms disrupts the connection of unwanted patterns. It does not matter if the cause was the actual pollen causing nasal congestion, or the idea of the pollen alone. The body responds to the added information and likely the symptoms either decrease in intensity or disappear completely.
Eliminating allergies
Another technique, NAET (Nambudripad Allergy Elimination Techniques), demonstrates how energy healing works. This method combines manipulation of the spine by a trained practitioner, while the patient holds a vial of homeopathically derived water based in the substance of interest. Through progressively minute dilutions of the substance in water, such as pollen from a flower, eventually the water contains no trace of measurable pollen in the vial. Only the energy or informational traces of the pollen remain. Still, this seemingly “empty” water carries the essence of the pollen. The patient holds a vial of the homeopathic water from the flower’s pollen in their hand while the practitioner adjusts the spinal column of the patient. The patient is encouraged to physically relax and take in new information into the physical and subtle realms as the vial of pollen water disrupts the allergic reaction in the nervous system, mind and beyond.
The Bengston Healing Method
Transfer of information to an object from the subtle realm can be used even when the healer or sender does not know the receiver. A general sense of wellbeing and joy, or other unseen states, can be placed into an object which is later extracted by someone in need of healing. Such is the case with the use of intentionally “charged” cotton, in the Bengston Method, which imparts information into the cotton (or other objects such as water). The receiver then holds or wears the energized cotton.
Studies have shown remission of mammary cancer in mice using hands held around the cage of the animals, while the healer is using the Bengston Method. Dogs wearing charged cotton have recovered from illness. Anecdotal evidence suggests humans also benefit from wearing charged cotton with relief from mental, physical, and emotional ailments.
Bengston's method of using rapid visual cycling of desired outcomes is a simple practice. The practitioner or healer holds the cotton in their hand. After the cotton seems “filled” with the energy of intention, it is ready to be used in the presence of a stated need. For example, it can include a desire for inflammation or pain to be reduced, or health to be returned to optimal states. It is not necessary for the person charging the cotton to know about the healing intention of the recipient. When the healing need arises, the charged cotton is available to address a return to balance.
Healing Customized for You
If you want to play with these ideas, select two small objects like rocks or crystals. Hold one in your hand and place an intention into it such as lovingkindness, peacefulness, or vitality. Then give both items to a friend and see if they can “read” or sense which one carries the intention you sent. While they may not decipher the exact intention, they may sense a difference between the two items. You can also try it for yourself, if the objects are identical in shape, size, and appearance, or if you allow yourself not to see which item is which. Possibly put them in envelopes and hold each envelope, trying to guess which item is which.
You can extend the experiment by holding a piece of food or a vitamin you take for your health. Try to send enhancement to the object, so it is supercharged with goodness for you. Or try upgrading a glass of water. Let your imagination carry you to other experiments. You can also try to extract the goodness in the food, or water, or plant, just by holding it in your hand. See if you can find a way for the sensory antennae of your DNA to use the skin of your hand as a means of transmitting and receiving information, just as your nose does for pollen and other substances.
Read more about how energy healing works in subtle and physical worlds through a description of models of intuition, and how your body and mind know instantly outside of conscious awareness, by developing intuition with the chakras.
Author
Lori Chortkoff Hops, PhD, DCEP is a licensed psychologist in Westlake Village, California, USA. She is certified in Comprehensive Energy Psychology, Logosynthesis, and has trained with Bill Bengston in 2018, practicing the Bengston Method since then, including weekly practice groups since 2020. Lori is a past ACEP president (www.energypsych.org ) and is a Reiki master. Learn more about Lori at drlorihops.com/ . Lori teaches online embodied intuition classes and offers personal intuition consultation.
