Energy Medicine? Really?

By Tom Tessereau, CBC, LMT, NCTMB
Energy Medicine Practitioner

According to Dr. Jim Oschman, a leader in the field of energy medicine, modern research science is beginning to shed light on the role of natural “energy forces” within the human body that were previously thought to be inexplicable. He reports, “Energy medicine is medicine based on the appreciation that living systems have energy fields inside of them and around them and that these fields play important roles in physiology, regulatory biology [and] regulating processes that are going on inside the organism,”

C.  Norman Shealy, MD, PhD, a neurosurgeon, psychologist, and founding president of the American Holistic Medical Association says, “Energy Medicine is the future of health.” For over three decades, he has been at the forefront of alternative medicine and alternative health care.

And to quote Dr. Mehmet Oz, “Energy medicine is the future of all medicine. We’re beginning now to understand things that we know in our hearts are true but we could never measure. As we get better at understanding how little we know about the body, we begin to realize that the next big frontier in medicine is energy medicine. It’s not the mechanistic part of the joints moving. It’s not the chemistry of our body – it’s understanding for the first time how energy influences how we feel.”

Because of these modern day leaders and their very public endorsements new opportunities now abound in the rapidly growing alternative health care market place, and yet it still takes courage to create a sign, or a website, or a business card that reveals, “I do Energy Medicine”

The good news is that it can be done, and if you have a license to practice a form of health care it may very well fall under your scope of practice.

For licensed massage therapists, for example, it says in the Massage Therapy Body of Knowledge (www.mtbok.org) in the section named Therapy Definition and Scope of Practice Statement that “massage therapy includes: treatment through the manipulation of … energy fields, …balancing energy… and energy work, which includes treatment of the energy field through the use of touch or through the use of non-contact techniques.”

As a student for 40 plus years, and a professional practitioner in the field of Energy Medicine for more than 20 years I have been amazed to see the progress that has allowed it to become almost a household word.

My formative years that laid the foundation for a life of natural healing studies partially revealed.

My path of non-traditional medicine began when, in 1957 at the age of 4, I declared to my mother while leaving the doctor’s office, “That man can’t help me!” You can imagine her astonishment.

I had a keen interest in fitness as a young boy and was exercising with Jack Lalanne watching his TV show by 1960 at the age of 7, and was impressed early on that health and well-being was a choice, not happenstance. So I began doing the Royal Canadian Air Force exercise regimen daily as a child in the 60s as well.

Around 1968 I picked up a copy of Arnold Ehret’s book and was inspired by his description of how he had cured every disease known to man by applying his knowledge of vitalism and dietetics through fasting in Europe. The book was written around 1920 and I remember thinking, “this makes so much sense, why doesn’t everyone know about this?” Unbeknownst to my family I began fasting regularly and enjoying the energy levels that came from what now is known as detoxing.

In 1975 I began practicing yoga and took my health and energy to new heights as I learned the ancient wisdom of asana and pranayama, how to move the body and breath together to energize and heal.

My personal journey into Energy Medicine unfolds.

My interest in natural health accelerated in 1976 when Michael Blate published G-Jo The Natural Healer’s Acupressure Handbook.  G-Jo could be understood as a kind of acupuncture, but without the needles. Tiny spots, or acupoints, on the body are triggered in a deep massage for a few seconds when a person is suffering from headache, back pain, or another common complaint. In most cases, relief follows instantly. I mostly used G-Jo to treat myself but would also care for my mother who suffered with pain from standing long hours as a checkout at the local grocery store while raising four kids.

Around the same time I discovered a book on Shiatsu. Like acupuncture, shiatsu is based on the holistic system of traditional Chinese medicine, where illness is thought to result from imbalances in the natural flow of energy, or qi (pronounced “chee”) through the body. Shiatsu therapists use finger and palm pressure to energetic pathways, called meridians to improve the flow of qi.

Not ever imagining that this could become a professional endeavor I was content to work on myself anytime I got sick or injured myself working out or practicing martial arts. And when I began my family in 1981 it became a standard method of care in the home.

Fast forward to 1991 when everything changed! I began to discover that I was not the only one in the seemingly conservative Midwest that was being guided to explore and share Energy Medicine.

I soon found myself in my first class in Touch for Health with Norma Harnack.  Touch for Health was created by John F. Thie, DC, and Norma was rapidly becoming known throughout the world as one of Dr. Thie’s closest associates and finest instructors. His first manual published in 1973 launched a worldwide movement in this holistic approach to health that I found simply amazing for restoring energies of the human body to facilitate natural healing. This is accomplished by using acupressure, touch and massage to improve postural balance and reduce physical and mental pain and tension. I quickly studied all I could from Norma completing Levels One, Two, and Three within no time.

Tom Goode and Judith Kravitz had just formed the Cosmic Breath Institute and when I saw the power of directed breath in the form of Transformational Breathing, well, I had to become certified, was there any other choice?

On a roll now, not ever turning back, I soon enrolled in the Healing Arts Center’s first massage class and realized that massage therapy, as yet an unlicensed profession, would allow me to get into a more acceptable and rapidly growing health care field where I would be able to apply my now 15 plus years of study in natural healing.

The Universe was on my side now, propelling me forward into unknown territory. So when my friend Ellen who had told me about Carole Madsen and the Healing Arts Center just happened to mention one day that she had taken a class in Reiki I didn’t know what it was but something in my heart was attracted to it immediately. I had to have it. It was what I was thirsting for.

Unlike today where Reiki Master/Teachers are a dime a dozen, there were only two Reiki Master/Teachers in St. Louis in 1991 and I was soon enrolled in classes at the Whole Human Center in Maplewood, MO learning from Richard Cayce and Arthur Maines.

Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes natural healing. It is administered by “laying on hands” and is based on the idea that a usually unseen “life force energy” flows through us and is what causes us to be alive and is the driving force behind the bodies ability to heal itself.

Somewhat different for me challenges arose because there was no pressure applied and Reiki required me to cultivate the ability to be present and instead of a state of “doing” it was coming from a state of “being” in the here and now. Within 2½ years I had completed the Reiki Master/ Teacher level, sought out other teachers nationwide to study with, and was now ready to teach and share with others what was now forming into my life path of Energy Medicine and natural healing.

Around 1994, while teaching massage therapy classes for Carole at the new Healing Arts Center for Education school, two students insisted that I attend an upcoming Pranic Healing class to be taught by Stephen Co in St. Louis for the first time.

Pranic Healing is a highly evolved and tested system of energy medicine developed by Grand Master Choa Kok Sui that utilizes prana to balance, harmonize and transform the body’s energy processes. Prana is a Sanskrit word that means life-force. This invisible bio-energy or vital energy keeps the body alive and maintains a state of good health. In acupuncture, the Chinese refer to this subtle energy as Chi. It is also called Ruach or the Breath of Life in Hebrew.

Pranic Healing was described like acupuncture without needles and without touching the body, only working on the chakras and the energy field surrounding the body.

Insatiable in my desire for more knowledge, wisdom and understanding I immersed myself in every class developed by Grand Master Choa Kok Sui, attending them repeatedly.

By now, perhaps like you, I was beginning to see a pattern, like a golden thread of ancient wisdom, that flowed through and somehow connected all of these amazing modalities that were exploding into our culture like a field of flowers blooming where once there were none.

And even now I am happy to say that the Healing Arts Center, which Carole handed to me in 1996 to steward and nurture and grow, is “The House That Reiki Built!”

And imagine me, small town Crystal City boy, with only a high school diploma in traditional education, being asked to educate on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) at Washington University School of Medicine, Barnes Jewish Hospital, St. John’s Mercy Hospital, Injury Specialists Drs. Barry and Rachel Feinberg’s renowned Pain Clinic, and Jewish Hospital College of Nursing and Allied Health, just to name a few. It seemed unreal until people told me that I have earned what could certainly be called a “Doctorate in Complementary and Alternative Medicine” if there had been one.

And even though my current practice is primarily an expression of Dr. Robert Boyd’s Bio Craniopathy, known worldwide as a pioneering physical structural modality, my background allows me to be fully aware of its implications for my clients’ energy structure as well.

So when professionals and laypersons alike ask me where do I suggest they begin to learn Energy Medicine, for home or office, I most often reply, “it doesn’t matter where, just start, now!”

And there is no need for you to study them all like I did. You can find the one or ones that speak to you at a deep level and meet your needs.

Some modalities like Reiki are more Yin, receptive and allowing.  Pranic Healing is more Yang, active and dynamic. Touch for Health I see as a balance of both. Breathwork can be an expression of either, depending on what the client needs.

In my opinion they are all good and have their place. A place in your family and professional life, a place in our culture, and a place in modern health care.

Because, you see, the time is indeed now. There is no turning back for our culture, because rapidly it is being recognized, researched and proven that everything is energy and this means that anything is possible!

And in the future we may all be able to look back and see that the experts were correct, as prophetic seers of what was to come. Energy Medicine was indeed the medicine of the future!

Energy Medicine? Really? I’d bet my life on it!    

BOOMERITIS - Massage Therapy and the 5 Physical Stages of Aging

As a member of the Baby Boomer generation I have been thinking a lot lately of how to maximize my own potential for youthfulness as my body ages.

And as a massage professional working in Complementary and Alternative Medicine I am interested in how I might serve and assist my generation to experience greater health and comfort in the coming years.

And in a practical sense, many health care providers see this slice of the human race as a place to focus their efforts to insure their job security and as a source of income for the future.

Definition of Boomeritis:

Boomer-A.K.A. Baby Boomer: A person who was born between 1946 and 1964. After the end of World War II, birth rates across the world spiked. The explosion of new infants became known as the baby boom. During the boom, an estimated 77 million babies were born in the United States alone! The large increase in population produced a substantial rise in demand for consumer goods, stimulating the post-war economy.

The baby boomer generation makes up a substantial portion of the U.S. population. Baby boomers have a significant impact on the economy. As a result, they are often the focus of marketing campaigns and business plans. Right now, there are somewhere around 40 million senior citizens in the United States. By 2050 that number is projected to skyrocket to 89 million.

Itis: This suffix has come to mean “inflammation of” but originally it meant “pertaining to” or “of the”.

So Boomeritis is the “inflammation of” the tissues of a baby boomer, or simply something that is “pertaining to” or “of the” baby boomer.

Boomeritis, or injuries to this generation, is on a sharp rise in the U.S. as they begin to turn 50, 60 and beyond. Especially for amateur athletes and weekend warriors there is a veritable explosion of bone and joint aches, pains, injuries, and ailments.

Musculoskeletal injuries are now the No. 1 one reason for seeking medical care in the United States. And falls, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported, have become the leading cause of injury deaths for men and women 65 and older.

Unless a boomer can do something to slow the deterioration in muscle, bone strength and agility that often accompanies aging, they will become a prime candidate for what Dr. Nicholas A. DiNubile, an orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, calls “boomeritis.”

“By their 40th birthday, people often have vulnerabilities – weak links – and as the first generation that is trying to stay active in droves, baby boomers are pushing their frames to the breakpoint,” Dr. DiNubile said in an event in New York sponsored by the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and the National Athletic Trainers’ Association.

“Baby boomers are falling apart – developing tendinitis, bursitis, arthritis and ‘fix-me-itis,’ the idea that modern medicine can fix anything,” he said. “It’s much better to prevent things than to have to try to fix them.”

Dr. DiNubile pointed out that evolution had not kept up with the doubling of the human life span in the last 100 years. To counter the inevitable declines with age, we have to provide our bodies with an extended warranty.

So the dilemma of this coming of age is the new focus on staying active as a way to stay healthy and youthful, while not injuring oneself in the process.

In their recently published book, “Age-Defying Fitness” (Peachtree Publishers), two prominent physical therapists, Marilyn Moffat of New York University and Carole B. Lewis of Washington, D.C., provide suggestions to help someone make the most of their body for the rest of their life: and how to assess the status of five categories in the aging process: posture, strength, balance, flexibility and endurance.

Let’s look at each one of the five categories and discuss how massage therapy may work as a corrective strategy.

Conclusion

So, in conclusion, the antidote to aging is activity because inactivity magnifies age-related change. But activity only maintains and increases a person’s wellness in all five domains if it can be done without injury.

Boomers are now in the 49 to 67 age range so they need the help of competent massage therapists who must intervene now to help head off what happens to those who age in a sedentary way, while also helping to preserve those who injure themselves trying to stay active, because injury is one of the main reasons people stop exercising.

As a boomer myself now in my 60th year who wants to stay active and healthy, massage therapy is one of my main strategies for success.

And for massage therapists of any age it is obvious that we want to be prepared to focus on this growing population who need our services more than ever.

In my opinion, those in our profession of massage therapy who develop the skill set and experience for this aging population of Baby Boomers, and begin now to develop specific marketing and education skills will be highly successful for many years to come.

Who now remembers Rachel Carson and her inspiring book, Silent Spring? My read of this had a profound effect with its revelations of the desecration of the natural environment by the widespread promotion and use of such chemicals as DDT, Aldrin and Dieldrin. We were progressively, unwittingly and insidiously ingesting these toxins without realizing it. And who was profiting from it all?

I tend to see good in everyone and initially found it hard to believe that there are malevolent people who would sacrifice others to attain their dreams of profit at any price.

In the Western world we have populations which are commonly overfed yet undernourished. The simplicity of the relationship between the quality of the food we ingest and ill health continues to be ignored. The disease industry marches on – vaccination, invasive “investigations”, BigPharma and so on.

Rachel Carson could be considered to be the author of what we now refer to as environmentalism. She was at one time a marine biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service but it was the publication of her book, Silent Spring, which produced an international awakening of how vulnerable nature was to the crass pursuit of the chemical industry for profit, to the exclusion of the natural world.

Her book was first serialized in The New Yorker in 1962, some two years before her death in 1964. She was a remarkable woman, a visionary and without whose courage the increasing march of technology to threaten the natural order would probably have been at best delayed, at worst swept aside.

Rachel once remarked, “Man’s attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself?” Who can say more on this theme than the lady to whom we continue to be hugely indebted?

In Part 1 (June 2011) I quoted a short passage from the writings of J M Thurston, MD, of the North American Physio-Medical school.  It was this:

Vital force, through living matter, is always resistive, and reconstructive, in intent and purpose, when the Vital domain is invaded by inimical substances, forces or influences.

When I first read these words I felt the hair tingling on the back of my neck. Here was someone putting into words a message that was buried deep in my sub-consciousness but too nebulous for me to articulate.  But how utterly true those words were – and are.  Here was a sine qua non in healing.  It was self evident.  Wasn’t it?  If true, then let’s just consider the significance of those words.

Thurston was saying that the reconstructive flow is ALWAYS, not sometimes, but always present even in the case of the most profound deterioration in the health status.  Let’s say an advanced cancer.  Wow!   This seemed to me to be an irrefutable truth yet, in apparent contradiction, we look around us and see the vast panorama of illness of every nature and severity.

So, what is the problem?  Is it just that Thurston is wrong?  Is the vitalistic principle a myth?  If not, what other factors are relevant?  Or even absent?  In my world it is a given that nothing heals in the absence of the intrinsic vital force within each of us.  Such applies whether it be the resolution of a cut finger, a torn hamstring or recovery from a cancer operation.  For a variety of reasons, however, the availability of the vital force will not be a constant between one person and another – and that’s a theme for another time – but it is nevertheless the vital force with its innate organizing facility, its intelligence, its never ending drive towards normality which has to be central to any healing resolution, however much we employ ancillary methods or substances to help with that resolution.  We will consider some of these issues as we go along.

A second factor must also come into the equation.  Whilst the availability of the Vital Force, that is, the organism’s mechanism underpinning this phenomenon, has to be a major player in the health delivery process, there has also to be consideration given to external influences which will impede in any way to the delivery of the “product” – health.  The list of these is indeed long, and even highly opinionated.  Some are also virtually obvious such as the tobacco habit, excess alcohol, sustained stress, chemicalization of the environment and so on but high on the list will be the nutritional issue, both extrinsic and intrinsic.  I will also come back to the latter presently.

The healer for all of us resides within.  For the professional the highest task therefore is one of facilitating the Life Forces which are just bursting to break through irrespective of whatever obstructions or, as Thurston puts it, “inimical substances, forces or influences” there may be.

(If this is your first time reading my blog, welcome! I invite you to begin with the first post and work your way to this one. My intent is to take you on a bit of a journey into an alternative view of health, and it will be much more meaningful if you are with us each step of the way.)

Thanks so much for the great e-mails and phone messages about Arnica! I’m so glad the information has been helpful. Last time I asked – if the skin is broken Arnica is likely not the right remedy, but which is? The answer is Calendula, potentized from Marigold. Many people like to use Calendula cream or ointment; a dose or two taken internally is often ideal.

Over the past few weeks I’ve received several questions from people interested in knowing more about vaccines. Having four children myself this is a question I’ve studied both professionally and personally. Below is some information that should be helpful. Remember, really do your research before agreeing to any vaccine – for a child or an adult, including those who are pregnant and those with compromised immune systems. The following is taken from www.nvic.org. NVIC is a wonderful website with a wealth of factual information. Please, take some time to investigate.

Under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, over $2 billion has been awarded to children and adults for whom the risks of vaccine injury were 100%. Vaccines are pharmaceutical products that carry risks, which can be greater for some than others. NVIC encourages you to become fully informed about the risks and complications of diseases and vaccines and speak with one or more trusted health care professionals before making a vaccination decision.

Eight questions to ask, and fully answer, before making a choice about vaccines:

• Am I or my child sick right now?
• Have I or my child had a bad reaction to a vaccination before?
• Do I or my child have a personal or family history of vaccine reactions, neurological disorders, severe allergies or immune system problems?
• Do I know the disease and vaccine risks for myself or my child?
• Do I have full information about the vaccine’s side effects?
• Do I know how to identify and report a vaccine reaction?Do I know I need to keep a written record, including the vaccine manufacturer’s name and lot number, for all vaccinations?
• Do I know I have the right to make an informed choice?

A question I would add: Do I know all of the ingredients that are in each injection?

A little known fact: Homeopathy, as a medical system, has the capacity to address any symptoms that are produced by childhood illnesses, or those illnesses for which we vaccinate adults. For detailed information begin here:
http://hpathy.com/homeopathy-papers/hidden-in-plain-sight-the-role-of-vaccines-in-chronic-disease. Hpathy.com is a great resource to learn more about homeopathy!

If this is an important topic to you, please consider joining us for Study Group in August at the Healing Arts Center. We’ll be discussing vaccinations in more detail, as well as two remedies that are very effective for “undoing” vaccine damage.

♥ Julie

* Our free Study Group always meets the third Saturday of the month, from 9-11 am. Registration is required – please call 314.647.8080. Hope to see you soon!