by Benjamin Alter, ND
There’s a great deal that the world of medicine has yet to discover about healing. The great yogi Paramhansa Yogananda said that the medicine of the future would be based almost exclusively on the study and healing application of energy.
When it comes to energy and energy medicine, I like to think that we’re all beginners! At this stage in human history, I suspect there’s a lot more that we don’t know, than we do.
A special challenge of the dawning era of energy medicine is that energy is invisible.
Yes, light, sound, and heat are energy in forms that we can perceive with our senses. But most of the energy inside and outside of our bodies is beyond the spectrum of human perception.
Where does energy come from?
To answer this question, a brief visualization may help:
Close your eyes and focus your awareness on a single part of your body. It doesn’t matter which part, just allow your attention to focus calmly on that body part. Then imagine a single cell in the body part. There are trillions of cells, but imagine that you’re entering one cell, and that you find yourself in the universe of the cell’s interior.
Thousands of organelles are moving about, signals are being sent and received, and it’s all so chaotic and noisy, yet it’s perfectly orchestrated.
Make your way to a mitochondrion. There are thousands of mitochondria floating about in the cell. The one you’ve chosen has an external membrane, through which you can pass using a special transporter. Notice the light and sound in the center of the mitochondrion – these things shooting around are electrons, released to create the energy that powers absolutely everything in the body, including this tiny intracellular structure.
Take a moment to appreciate the beauty of the light and sound in this energy factory.
Now make your way out of the mitochondrion, back into the cell, then into the bloodstream. Let yourself flow for a while, enjoying the ride, before you come back to reality and experience yourself once again in your whole body.
(I know you couldn’t close your eyes AND read the guided visualization, but I hope you had a pleasant experience. If you like, give it another try with closed eyes.)
At any rate, I hope you’ve understood the point – at the most basic, fundamental, molecular, biochemical, and physiologic level of the body, we find pure energy.
The technical details are really secondary: to create energy, add a phosphate to adenosine-diphosphate (ADP) to form adenosine-triphosphate (ATP). The tiny ATP molecules are responsible for creating all of the energy that drives every single bodily part and process.
Seeing the Invisible
For about eighty years, science has focused on ATP as the source of the body’s energy. But is this all there is to it? Speaking for myself, I’d like to believe that I’m more than a physical blob composed of mitochondria-driven cells.
What of the thoughts that flow constantly through your awareness? What about the emotions that pass through your heart? How about your memories of past events? These are driven by energy as well!
Have you walked into a room where there was recently a heated argument? Maybe the people in the room were able to turn their frowns upside down at your approach, but you could still feel the energy of their anger.
Have you ever had your heart broken? How was your physical health afterward?
Better yet, have you fallen in Love? Did you go for months without any physical ailments during your “honeymoon” phase?
We are undoubtedly affected by invisible energetic influences of which science, as yet, knows little.
Energetic Support
These simple, very common experiences offer us clues to the magical powers of energy healing.
The energetic body can be reinforced in a number of ways. Most simply is the foregoing example of Love.
Want to stay healthy? Be in Love! No need to end your relationship when the romance fades, and go in search of new honeymoons. With practice, you can learn to bring the pure joy of the honeymoon into every moment of your time together!
Of course, it’s certainly much easier said than done. But setting a strong, clear intention to bring more positive feelings into your life is a powerful place to start.
Furthermore, your new awareness of the positive influence that your emotional state has on your health will give you great leverage for warding off illness, and for healing faster when you do get sick.
Homeopathy as Energetic Medicine
If you aren’t familiar with homeopathy, I’ll give you my simple two-second definition…
“Homeopathy is an effective scientific system of healing that uses dilute substances to treat a whole person by taking into account the complete set of symptoms that he or she is experiencing in mind, body, and emotions, based on the ‘law of similars.’”
In even simpler terms, homeopathy uses the principle that “like cures like.”
Homeopathic treatment makes use of physical substances (usually a liquid or pellet), but the substance is really just a channel for transmitting an energetic essence to the patient.
This is our current understanding of homeopathy, and it’s also where many folks get lost, confused, or skeptical about the energy-healing powers of homeopathy. But that’s okay, because faith isn’t required. Just ask the crying infant or sick animal, both of which will respond miraculously to homeopathic treatment.
During a homeopathic consultation, the homeopath will complete an intake interview to acquire a complete description of symptoms. The homeopath will then organize this information to form a picture of the patient’s “energetic essence.” He/she will then match this information with a well-studied remedy, the “similimum,” and offer it to the patient. The remedy will have an invisible energetic influence that will subtly stress the body to stimulate its own self-healing powers.
In Summary
Be mindful of the energy that you let yourself be exposed to, whether visible or invisible. Set an intention to adopt a peaceful and balanced mindset. As you sharpen your energy-awareness, you’ll find it shaping your healing path with grace. Homeopathy is just of many ways to bolster your physical and energetic self, support the healing process, and optimize a state of wellness.
Benjamin Alter, N.D., is a new associate at Pacific Naturopathic. To discuss your health issues with him, call 650-917-1121.