I work as a Pranic Healer. The Prana in Pranic Healing means energy or life force. The word prana is a Sanskrit word that is partially equivalent to the word chi in Chinese medicine, to the word ki in Japanese and so on. This life-force exists all around us and is present in virtually every physical form that we encounter everyday. Practitioners of Yoga, Tai-chi, Reki, Bio-energy, IET, Pranic Healing ,etc engage with this life force using specific process in order to bring about changes in the physical and mental health of their subject.
The reason that it is possible to do this is because every sentient being has, as well as their physical body, what we call an energy body made up of this life force. This energy body when operating properly helps with the regulation of systems within the physical body. The most basic of the many functions of the energy body is to cleanse and energize the physical body through the ingestion of prana from the atmosphere and the expelling of used up prana from the physical system.
I first encountered Pranic Healing about twelve years ago. At the time I was feeling quite listless. I was in my mid-thirties, I had very little energy and my mood, and self-esteem were very low. As well as this I was having regular painful infections in my gums. A dentist had advised me that the infections were related to a wisdom tooth, the extraction of which could lead to the permanent loss of feeling in my mouth – apparently the wisdom tooth was lodged in the trigeminal nerve. The other option was to take antibiotics two or three times a year to combat the infection. Basically – two bad options!
When I look back on that time now I realize that I was not happy enough with these option to accept any of them. I set my intention to finding a third way and that is ultimately what happened. After some curves and bumps along the way a friend recommended I go and see a Pranic Healer friend of his in Limerick City. This was the move that really changed everything for me. The wisdom tooth problem disappeared(never to return), my energy levels increased and my overall health and well being, outlook and sense of purpose grew and grew.
But most important of all, in that gift of two bad options the dentist gave me, was that through Pranic Healing I began my life-long apprenticeship on the energy body. I studied the theory of Pranic Healing through Master Choa Kok Sui’s book ‘Miracles Through Pranic Healing’, I began to meditate regularly and observed the astounding changes that adjusting the subtle energy of my energetic anatomy was having on my physical and mental well-being. Over the course of a few years, I had literally become a new person.
I was so excited, I wanted to tell everyone about this information, I wanted to shout out from the roof tops – we have an energy body!, we can heal ourselves! And I sort of did that for a while, because I thought that people would want to hear about this, that they would try it out and experiment like I did and that they too would see their lives, their connection with the world transformed. I soon learned of course that I was not brining the ‘Good News’, to people I was rather bringing a form of madness.
The majority of people wanted nothing to do with this information. Most people plain didn’t believe my story, some responded with anger, others gave me lashings of side-eye, some offered compassionate and supportive nods to help me recognize that I had merely succumbed to delusion and illusion, others subtly alluded to my being hoodwinked by hoojars.
And indeed I doubted myself doubly on top of this to the extent that most of the external negative feedback I was receiving was not a patch on the internal dialogue which was trying to convince me to steer clear of this energy body madness. I pushed through none the less.
The most important lesson I learned during this time is that despite the countless hours spent learning about the energy body and practicing the skills of manipulating prana, the energy body is apparently not scientific. Banging on about something that is not in the realm of science is a sort of new heretisism. The energy body is wishy washy arraire- prariee nonsense. Clear rationale science it aint.
There lies the rub though. One thing I observed in interactions with people on this subject was how easily people would use the word unscientific to undermine knowledge of the energy body. I was immediately on the back foot, where is the research? they would say. Its just the placebo they would side-eye, psychosomatic they would learnedly chasen. What could I say – I was just the fool who had spent years studying the theory of and practicing the illusionary. A detractor didn’t have to go to any of that bother, didn’t have to read even a page of theory or do ten minutes of practice, because science was on their side and firmly against me.
It was, ironically, a conversation with a scientist friend of mine that helped me to see this conundrum for what it is. He and I were chatting about my attempts to explain Pranic Healing to people. I was lamenting that most people tended to dismiss it immediately and sometimes attack me verbally for even mentioning it. It was, I said, seen as something fluffy and unscientific and therefore not even worthy of discussion. After a moment of consideration, he said “those people are not scientists”. The purpose of science he reminded me is to investigate new phenomenon. The only way to do this is to study the subject, carry out experiments and observe the results. That strangely enough, is what I have been doing for the last ten years. During that time I have developed a praxis around the energy body that has been exceptionally rewarding. I have got to study deeper and deeper teachings on this phenomenon, experiment with them in real life situations and observe the results. But, hey don’t listen to me, for I am not a scientist. I am one of those that people get to give side-eye when I speak about my observations! Just a quack.
Realistically at this point in time there is zero chance of any organization providing funds to carry out research into the energy body. Leaving aside the obvious and tiresome argument around the medical science industry and its financial needs, one of the reasons for this, in my view, is the notion of the pre-analytic vision. I was introduced to this idea by the Environmental Economist Herman Daly. In the context of his work the pre-analytic vision of neo-classical economics had created in the mind of the adherent a solid boundary of thought that prevented them from engaging with the viewpoint of ecological economics. In the neo-classical view the eco-system sits inside the economy and serves its needs, whereas in the ecological economics world view the economy is a subset of the ecosystem and is limited by its needs. If you are a neo-classists it is very hard to view this perspective and vice versa for ecological economists.
So it is for us energy healers. Our pre-analytic vision is different from that of what we will call the rational mind -i.e that which most people associate with science.
Our minds have broken away from the agreed norm of duality. A norm that sees the ‘I’ as separate from everything else. And we have begun to think more about interrelationships, systems and – of course- the flow of prana or chi that, to us, gives rise to and bounds physical objects together. We study hypothesis that have been developed over many centuries and apply them in situations where people are unwell. It is as simple as that.
I am not saying that Pranic Healing or any energy therapy is the panacea for anything. It is not. My work as an energy healer always defers to the view of medical science as a priority. But experiences in my own life and with people I have treated is that, as a complementary therapy – it is effective.
One day over ten years ago I was given two bad options by my dentist. I found a third and that one ‘made the difference’. Being unscientific is a small price to pay for the gifts I have received on the third way
