Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force …
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
In the field of subtle energy medicine, which is based more on what cannot be seen with the eyes than what can be, the influence and impact of the spiritual realms on healing is widely embraced. Patients and clients who are drawn to subtle energy healing, either in conjunction with conventional methods or as their sole approach, are usually open to or already engaged in spiritual practices such as prayer and meditation. As a subtle energy practitioner, you might very well have certain rituals and practices for opening to Spirit and inviting it to guide you in your work with others and to enrich your overall experience. Many practitioners find that subtle energy healing methods are often more effective when they are combined with spiritually focused tools and techniques, such as the essential energy techniques from chapter 9.
In this chapter, our primary focus is on the power of prayer, contemplation, and communing with a higher being, which we will call Spirit in this chapter, and other spiritual forces and beings to aid in the process of healing. While these three spiritual activities are interconnected, they are different. The differences and interplay between these three ways of spiritual communication are described under “Receiving Answers and Assistance,” as are ways to receive insight and revelation.
With a discussion on prayer comes the inevitable question: who or what are you praying to? I think the answer to that question shifts and changes from time to time. At one moment, we’re talking to God; the next we’re talking to a beloved family member who has passed over; the next we’re talking with our own higher self or consciousness. For subtle energy practitioners, Spirit and spiritual forces are some of the best allies. Therefore, the remainder of the chapter discusses angels and spiritual beings, our soul and our spirit, and other aspects of self that we can call on for direction, clarity, and guidance.
The beauty of prayer and other modes of spiritual communication is that anyone, practitioners or lay people, can successfully employ them for the purpose of healing.
Many subtle energy practitioners rely on spiritual insight during a session, whether they are working on themselves or others. We can use three distinct, but related, forms of spiritual communication—prayer, contemplation, and communion—to obtain answers to questions, healing energy, or revelations that will help us understand the true nature of a dilemma.
These three forms of communication work this way:
Prayer is speaking to Spirit.
Contemplation is basking in the presence of Spirit.
Communion is opening to receive information and energy from Spirit.
Prayer can be done at any time and in any way. Many of us were taught to pray on our hands and knees, in a place of worship, or before a meal. These prayer rituals remind us that we can always lean on a greater presence for love, hope, and blessing. But we can also utter a prayer when driving to work or sitting in the movie theater, and we can encourage our clients toward understanding that there are no rules about prayer. Prayers can be shared with others—aloud or silently, through song or dance—or simply held inside the silent place within our hearts.
If our clients are comfortable with prayer, we can ask them what they prefer to call Spirit, and we can then pray for or with them. It’s vital that we honor our clients’ beliefs, however, or the prayer can feel judgmental or imprisoning. We can also pray privately and internally for spiritual assistance for our own work as a practitioner.
Contemplation occurs in hundreds of different ways, but they all share this in common: they acknowledge the presence of Spirit or spiritual forces and seek a peaceful unity with them. I encourage clients to take time during their day to simply sense Spirit, with no agenda. This clearing of the mind and soul is refreshing and can often lead to communion, or the receiving of assistance and healing.
During client sessions, I employ contemplation through the Spirit-to-Spirit technique (see chapter 9). I pause after each of the three steps and allow myself to embrace the sacred holiness of my own spirit, of others’ spirits, and of the higher Spirit. I then ask Spirit to hold me in a state of oneness with its limitless power. When I feel stuck during a session, I stop, breathe, close my eyes for a moment, and then ask Spirit to remind me of its presence. This bonding moment is often all I need to know what direction to take.
How do you receive answers to the questions you are looking for? This is the point of communing, or opening to revelation.
During sessions, I often commune with Spirit to receive intuitive insights in the moment. My client asks a question; I see a psychic image in my head, hear words of knowledge in my ears, or am struck with flash of understanding through my body-self. These intuitive signs lead my client and me further down the road of understanding or healing.
Sometimes answers and healing energy don’t come right away. I might then suggest that a client set an intention to enter a state of communion in their everyday lives. The key is to dedicate a specific period of time in which Spirit will respond. That time frame can involve more than a few minutes or an hour to several days or weeks. I often suggest that a client set their intention to receive guidance, then give Spirit days, if not weeks, to send them what they’re seeking.
Living everyday life in a state of communion means paying attention to the types of signs and omens received intuitively but also through mundane reality. Signs might include dreams, visions, or intuitive flashes, but could just as likely involve reading an insightful book or being given a message from a friend. I once had a client learn everything he needed to about recovering from an illness watching a kid’s television show while he was communing for a week. The key is to be willing and open; Spirit will do the rest.
These three spiritual communication processes can easily be blended in different ways. You might enter a contemplative state to acknowledge the presence of Spirit, then pray for assistance, and then move into communion to await an answer. You might pray and then contemplate so as to receive a revelation—or receive an insight and then pray for its explanation.
Note: Setting an intention to commune with Spirit could be considered a form of prayer. Any of the ten Prayers for Healing, discussed in the next section of this chapter, can be used as the opening to a period of communion.
There are ten types of prayer for communicating with Spirit and spiritual forces for the benefit of others and yourself. I call them Prayers for Healing. Knowing the distinctions of each type will help you craft a prayer that is ideal for your circumstances and healing goals. Know that you can conduct these prayers for yourself or others; before, during, or after a session; silently or loudly; and/or through speaking, writing, or singing—any means of expression you can think of, really.
When doing healing work with others, you can either pray aloud with them or suggest a type of prayer for them to say aloud or internally. Prayers don’t have to start with a “Dear God,” but they can. You can name the Divine as you and/or your client understand it, or simply breathe into your heart using the Spirit-to-Spirit technique (chapter 9) and formulate the type of prayer that would best suit the other person’s needs.
To use prayers for self-healing, consider creating your own book of prayers in a special journal, jotting down the words, phrases, and ideas that come to you based on the ten different types of healing prayers described below. In fact, the time you spend writing down your prayer ideas can actually be little moments of prayer.
As you read the descriptions, allow yourself to sense which ones you find most inspiring right now.
MEDITATION: A Form of Communion
MEDITATION IS ONE of the most well-known processes for clearing the mind and quieting the body. This stillness often helps open the doorway between the Spirit and ourselves so revelation and healing can be ushered in. A meditation can involve sitting in the traditional lotus posture (cross legged) of yoga or deep breathing, but you can just as easily meditate while walking, chanting, or even cooking.
Meditation is a form of communing or communicating with Spirit. While prayer is reaching upward and outward, meditation closes the loop on our communication with Spirit. It asks Spirit to respond and respects the fact that we are worthy of receiving. Even the thought of receiving insight, assistance, and hope from Spirit heals the unworthiness issues that so many of us hold deep inside and that often prevent the movement and effectiveness of subtle healing energy.
For more on meditation, including its additional benefits, see chapter 15, “The Subtle Mind.”
When there is an important decision to be made, we can sometimes find ourselves languishing in a state of confusion, avoidance, or doubt. A Prayer of Decision is an opportunity to make a statement of what we need to have happen—whether or not we are yet certain that it is the “right” or perfect situation, solution, or choice. Stating our need opens the door to even greater clarity. The purpose of this prayer is to decrease doubt and increase faith by securing a clear intention.
For instance, a client with cancer might wonder if she should use radiation, chemotherapy, herbal treatments, or all of these practices. She might frame a Prayer of Decision that says, “Spirit, I am willing to do what I need in order to heal, and I am open to all paths. I ask for clarity about which treatment most aligns with my healing desires.” She could then spend an entire day praying for clarity around the use of radiation, making the statement, “Spirit, I am open to radiation as the highest solution for this illness,” and see how this decision fits within her body and soul. She can then make the same declaration of Prayer of Decision for chemotherapy and herbal treatments, each on different days, and then finally evaluate the results to come to a final decision.
There are times when we sense that the solution to a problem or the optimal outcome to a situation is not necessarily what we might want or would choose on our own. Not finding the answer we seek through our mental or even intuitive capacities, we may know in our heart that the moment calls on us to invoke a higher will—to request the support of the Divine. The purpose of this prayer is to ask for the willingness to have our prayers met in a way that serves a higher order rather than our personal will.
We can feel it in our bones when it is time to release ourselves or another from a perceived offense and the hurt associated with it. Whether the incident or moment that left us feeling betrayed or abandoned happened thirty years ago or last week, we sense when it is time to lay down the righteous anger or bitterness that can accompany emotional pain, and to take a stand from higher ground, claiming, through prayer and divine support, that it is time to move on. In doing so, we open to a new path, a new way to move forward. The purpose of this prayer is to fully release ourselves or others from any such perceived offense, hurt, failure, or disappointment.
There are those moments when we have tried to find solutions to issues by relying on our own thought process, deductions based on past experiences, and familiar belief systems, but we have not found the relief or resolution we need. Those are the moments when this prayer may be the solution. When we say something along the lines of, “I am willing to release everything that may be in the way. Assist me in surrendering to the forces of my highest good,” we have employed the prayer of surrender. This prayer puts us in a place I call “the pause point”—the potent place of waiting. Waiting for help. Waiting for a response. Waiting for a sign. What makes this interim time of waiting especially potent is that woven into the request for surrender is the handing over of our burdens to a higher power.
The prayer of commitment is the most overtly interactive of all the prayers. In a sense, it is where sacred communion meets life coaching. As you call on Spirit to support you in finding a solution, resolution, or healing of any kind, you simultaneously commit to doing your part. Just as you make the request for help, you also commit to getting clear about the actions you need to take in the matter, as well as when and how you take those actions.
The prayer of freedom may be one of the most radical of the Prayers for Healing, in that it is a communication with Spirit in which you state that you are willing to stand on new ground in your life. You’re willing to discover yourself and life anew, even if you have backed away from doing so a million times before. At the heart of this prayer is the sincere proclamation that you are completely willing to be free of the underlying causes of presenting challenges and problems. You are willing to be free of negativity, old beliefs, toxins, other energies and entities, cords, influences—anything that is keeping you from living your highest expression.
Although each prayer involves a request for guidance in some way, this prayer holds a very specific purpose. It is the prayer to Spirit in which you ask to have guidance come through you in the way that makes you most effective, knowing that you are uniquely wired—fully equipped with your own perceptions, talents, skills, and gifts. This is the prayer in which you are asking to be of service and to make a difference. You ask the divine forces to provide the guidance that will allow you to have the greatest impact you can, based on who you are.
The prayer of compassion can be used when someone or something outside of us is in need of our help. Whether that person is a family member, friend, client, or a stranger on the street, this is the prayer to ready us—in a holy instant—to be available for another.
Not to be confused with pity, compassion is a sharing of love and support with discernment and respect. Compassion invites us to be clear and clean of distractions and personal agendas. Compassion occurs when we care for ourselves and others simultaneously, embracing the self-love and self-honor that enable us to truly show up for another and coming to the situation with the boundaries and discernment that are necessary in order to authentically help another.
The prayer for compassion aligns us with our higher selves and enables us to meet another and their situation with clarity and presence. From this place, we won’t attempt to do for another what they can do for themselves. Instead, this prayer will lead us to the correct action and attitude needed to help the other person with an open heart.
Rather than a request for guidance or an invocation of healing and assistance, we now express gratitude to the source of all life. Whether you direct your communication to your soul, your spirit, your higher self, your guardian angel, or simply God, the prayer of joy is an opportunity to express the appreciation, praise, and thanksgiving that occasionally bubble forth. The prayer of joy is a prayer of celebration—for the blessings of your life. As it arises spontaneously from the depths of your heart, you will know exactly what to say and when to say it.
The prayer of intercession is a sacred opportunity to request highest order. It is a chance to be a spiritual proxy, praying on behalf of another when they cannot pray for themselves. A beautiful gift that another may never know you gave, it is an absentee prayer for those who are very sick, in a coma, very young, or in some other way, for some other reason, unable to reach a hand to Spirit on their own.
SPIRITUAL SOURCES OF ENERGETIC SUPPORT
There are countless spiritual sources that can help us achieve our healing goals. A few of the most well known of these are briefly discussed in this section.
You can connect with these sources via direct prayer. For instance, you can ask for a certain type of angelic assistance through intention. In my own practice, I also ask Spirit to send me the spiritual forces or guidance that would best suit the situation at hand. That way I always know I am working with the most helpful sources of healing and inspiration.
There are four basic realms or worlds from which we receive spiritual support: Spirit and spirits, energy, nature, and humanity. We can draw on any of these to help heal others and ourselves.
The realm of Spirit and spirits is the least concrete, but often the most powerful. It is centered in the Divine or Spirit, the “one before all others.” Surrounding Spirit is a pantheon of helpers that have never incarnated and yet serve humanity, seeking to help us mature and evolve. The angels are the most well known of these groups.
The energy world consists of spheres of beings that operate in various dimensions and zones. These primarily interact with our energetic systems. They might include a fifth-dimensional being that is capable of expanding our thinking or a former sorcerer who now exists on a different plane, one more heavenly than earthly. Possibilities can also encompass beings from other planets or universes that operate at a different frequency than humans do.
Healers have long excavated the natural world for assistance and healing energy, starting with the environment around them. In the everyday beauty of nature we find herbs, flowers, minerals, and foods that serve as everything from antidotes for illness to sacred medicines that bestow visions. There are the companion animals that provide unconditional love, and the elements, such as water and air, that we need for survival. Many natural objects, forces, and beings are also infused with their own individual spirits, which healers have traditionally called upon for assistance. For instance, a shaman of yore might summon the overarching spirit of owls for wisdom, or turn to the elemental force of fire to burn an infection out of a patient’s body.
Finally, we can turn to the human realm for love, kindness, and healing, starting with the people around us. When we turn to another, or even ourselves, for healing, we are engaging with the very real power of love for a higher purpose. When we serve as a subtle energy practitioner, we are bearing witness to someone else’s healing process. As well, we have various parts of the self that assist with our healing endeavors, such as our own soul or spirit, which are described in this chapter.
Not everyone within the human world is obvious, or even concrete. This sphere also encompasses the spirits of the deceased who still linger on earth, such as our ancestors; saints and avatars; and religious beings, such as the Buddha, Kwan Yin, and Christ, who remain on earth to provide continual teaching and healing.
Following are descriptions of a few of the types of beings in these different realms. Those described are the ones that most subtle energy practitioners find as useful in their personal or client work. Additional sources of spiritual forces are described in many of my other books.
Jews, Christians, and Muslims believe that when creating heaven, God brought forth the heavenly hosts of angels, which makes angels older than humans. In the Old Testament, angels are said to be attendants at the heavenly court; their job is first to worship God and second to convey God’s will to earth. The word angelos means “messenger,” but the Israelites also assigned the concepts of servants, ministers, hosts, holy ones, and watchers to these beings. Their power, love, and guidance seem to be truly nondenominational.
In addition to general angels, there are several specific types of angels that are ready to partner with us in our journey as human beings and healers.
Cherubim, according to the Israelites, support God’s chariot and act as guardian spirits.
Seraphim are the angels that surround God’s throne and sing; their name comes from a word meaning “to burn.”
Warrior angels fight in the army of God and include the Archangel Michael.
Thrones are angels thought to oversee justice in heaven.
Dominions are considered to be celestial housekeepers, carrying out the duties assigned them by Spirit and delegating tasks as they see fit. They also make sure that all the other angels are fulfilling the tasks assigned them by Spirit.
The virtuous angels work miracles and dispense the virtues, energy that encourages spiritual qualities such as integrity, courage, and grace.
Principalities are occupied with the welfare of nations or groups. Certain principalities are also called upon by God to create miracles for individuals. These miracles are performed so the individual concerned can better fulfill a destiny that will help many.
Archangels are the chief angels. Some, like the well-known Archangel Gabriel, deliver significant messages or healing from God. (General angels deliver lesser messages.)
The Thunder Beings and Cloud People are particularly forceful archangels, delivering power to earth.
The Nephilim, another type of archangel, could also be called earth angels, because they inhabit the material planes. The Nephilim are split into two factions: those that assist humankind and those that serve personal and selfish ends. The latter are often called fallen angels or dark angels.
Note: Almost every religion and shamanic tradition speaks of dark forces, the dark angels, or other troublesome entities that can be involved with people who are dealing with a far-flung variety of emotional, mental, physical, relational, and spiritual conditions. Refer to chapter 7, “Energetic Boundaries,” for recommendations on clearing and protecting yourself and your clients when working with interfering energies or beings.
Forms are beings that have become so brilliant at their dedicated craft and purpose that they have actually transformed into a representative of that ideal. The idea of the Forms comes from Plato, who described a cave in which ideals like Justice and Truth dwelled, far from the living. Here are the most common Forms:
The Powers protect humankind from evil.
The Shining Ones bring heaven to earth and grant wishes and dreams.
The Ancient Ones assisted God with the creation of matter and continue to do so.
Archetypes have evolved into representative types or ideals and model these types or ideals for others.
The Muses provide heavenly energy for different and inspired ends, such as art, writing, or music.
Ideals exemplify standards we all try to achieve, such as the ideal of mercy, mothering, or kindness.
Although many spiritual traditions and holistic systems define the spirit and the soul differently, we can agree that they are extensions of the divine mystery that some refer to as God. And by all accounts, it appears as though we exist in human form as extensions and expressions of our soul and our spirit.
While our spirit gives us perspective from the mountaintop of life, reminding us of what lies beyond our physical experience, our soul walks with us through the valleys, forests, and flower fields of living, privy to everything that holds personal meaning for us. In connecting with our spirit and our soul through prayer, contemplation, or stillness, we might recognize their messages and signals by attuning to the feeling that accompanies the transmissions. In essence, our spirit comes calling with the energies of clarity and passion, while our soul comes calling with the energies of closeness and compassion.
LIFELONG SPIRIT GUIDES: Guardian Angels and Other Spiritual Helpers
MANY SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHERS believe that we have spirit guides that assist us throughout our lives. These invisible beings protect, teach, guide, and love us.
Based on my cross-cultural studies of various sacred scriptures and legends, I believe that we are each born with two lifelong spiritual guides. These might include an individual we knew in a past life, an ancestor from our this-life heritage, a saint or other religious figure, or even an animal spirit. And one of our guides might be an angel.
Even before the Bible proclaimed the existence of personal guardian angels (in the book of Matthew), the idea of personal angels was already well established throughout the ancient Semitic world, and it continues to be popular today. Through my client work, I have determined that if someone has two lifelong spiritual guides of the nonangelic variety, they are also watched over by an angel. Thus, we really do have guardian angels that can be called upon when we need help. If serving as a practitioner, we can also encourage clients to seek assistance from their guardian angel, as angels deliver the highest form of spiritual help we can receive, alongside that which Spirit provides.
We receive additional guides as our life goes on. Some of these invisible helpers show up to help during a stage of life, say, our teenage or elderly years. Others assist us with a particular concern, such as healing an illness or attracting a mate. These guides can be culled from any of the realms of existence discussed at the beginning of this chapter, which means they can include spirits as well as energetic, natural, and human beings.
For a deeper perspective, the following descriptions of the spirit and the soul will provide you with distinctions and nuances that you may find useful as you source them for your own guidance and for working with your clients.
Spirit. The spirit is the purest expression of self that is composed of creative Source energy and enlightened or illuminated consciousness; the whole self that mirrors the Divine and expresses an eternal truth.
Overspirit. The overspirit, the most unified aspect of a spirit, manifests in material reality through three main parts:
The seed of destiny is a concrete energy that encodes the spiritual genetics into the body through the subconscious. While physical genes are composed of chemicals and amino acids that link in chains to determine psychological and physiological characteristics, the spiritual genetics fashion geometric shapes forged from spiritual energies like faith, truth, and hope. You can access these spiritual genes to serve as a template for healing, asking for aberrant physical genes to match the spiritual genes.
The spirit star connects one’s personal spirit to the unfolding divine plan and is opened once the seed of destiny is unfolded. This energetic body can be opened or intuitively read to assist someone with finding his or her purpose and life plan.
The spirit body is the etheric coating within and around a materialized spirit and is responsible for connecting the spirit with the energy system. This energetic body can serve as a template to shift any part of the energetic anatomy to a higher level.
Soul. The soul is the aspect of the eternal self that moves through time and space, generating learning and love. There are several parts to the soul, including:
Soul fragments, individual and often independently operating parts of the soul. A soul might fragment due to trauma.
Oversoul, a parenting body that usually wants to unify the soul fragments.
Soul etheric body, a charged casing that protects a soul, but also connects each fragment to each other. The etheric body of a unified soul, a soul that has never fragmented, can separate from the soul and hold the soul, mind, or spirit’s consciousness and thus travel through time and space.
Note: As profound and majestic as the soul is, sometimes there is trauma, shock, and unresolved pain that leaves a soul fragmented and damaged for a period of time. In these situations, the soul becomes something that needs to be healed rather than a source of guidance or healing for the rest of a person. Soul healing and integration can take place through a soul retrieval, in which a shaman finds and retrieves the lost part(s) while both the shaman and the client are in a meditative state. You can also serve as your own shaman and search and find your own missing soul part(s). When soul healing and integration has yet to take place, the spirit is always available as a clear source of healing, guidance, and inspiration.
Although the emphasis in this chapter is the guidance we seek through prayer and communion, it could be said that every source of guidance is potentially a source of healing as well. That is certainly the case when calling on the forces of the higher self and higher heart. It’s been said that we are spiritual beings having human experiences, and as the word higher implies, these are the higher aspects of our spiritual selves. They are our ever-present connections with Spirit while living our physical lives, helping us to integrate Spirit into our body, mind, heart, and soul.
Maybe there are times when, in your desire to talk with Spirit or send out a request for help and care, you want an approach that feels more familiar somehow, less mysterious. You may not feel the call to reach out to the angels or to Spirit. Instead, you might find yourself seeking to connect with the higher aspects of the self you know as you.
In the ancient Huna healing tradition of Hawaii, higher self is the term used interchangeably by the kahunas (shamans) when speaking of our unique spirit (see chapter 17). This part of us works with light. As shared in many religions and spiritualities, as well as science, we are made of light. To heal we have only to repair the rips in the various parts of ourselves, such as our soul or mind, that are causing us to lose light.
Your higher heart is the part of you that knows and shares only love, to the point that it can perform healing service for yourself and others with love as the only tool. We are made of light, but light is made of love—of bits, pieces, and streams of divine love—which is always available for service.
In a nutshell:
The higher self speaks the language of light. The higher self is a reflection of our spirit or our soul’s view of our body. It can access guidance and healing when needed, especially when gaining clarity of vision, purpose, or intention is in order.
The higher heart speaks the language of love. The higher heart links love-based concerns and relationship matters with spiritual truths, changing the actual rhythm and function of the heart to support health.
The distinction between light and love is subtle. Light is made of love, but just as a son reflects his father, he is also different. Love is the more encompassing of the energies and always creates more of itself. To open to love or the higher heart is to invite a personal interaction with the source of all love—Spirit. Light is a more technical energy that accomplishes the tasks assigned it. It can be used methodically for an established outcome. To access the higher self is to assure that the protocol or procedures of love are enforced.
You might open to love if you aren’t sure of what needs to be accomplished; you must then be willing to trust in the process that unfolds. You can apply light if you believe that you know the desired outcome and simply want the right protocol followed.
To clarify whether your higher self or higher heart holds the guidance and healing you’re seeking, you could ask yourself this question: Given the nature of my prayer or concern, do I need light right now, or do I need love? The answer will be just the quality of aid that you most need and want.