Alternative healing: meditation, crystals, aromatherapy

[TIGG]

Thought this might make an interesting source of topics.

Prim suggested this forum so here goes.

Does anyone have any experience with the use of Meditaion, homeopathy, crystals, Bowen Therapy, Reiki etc they can contribute?

I have long been a believer that there are ways to heal outside of 'conventional medicine' not as an alternative necessarily, but as a support system.

When I was diagnosed with my tumour a dear friend Maria sent me a book 'Love, Medicine and Miracles'. I read most of it absorbed probably half, but it helped me on some level.

When I get headaches ( frequently) I talk them down, lately that no longer works and the feeling of the brain pressurising against the skull has led me to visualising a pair of hands cradling my brain and reducing the pressure of it against the hard bone of the skull. The pain eases and finally disapates.

When I told them in hospital I did not require pain medication and that I could 'talk down the pain' ( ie focus on imagining it leaving me, and the feeling of relief that would leave me with) they said they were tension headaches caused by stress. When the MRI scans came back later and showed the tumour, I felt some justification in my beliefs of self healing. I did have something, it was just that I had the ability to manage the level of pain.


I have a grouping of crystals on my work space I also use to 'help me'. I use instinct to choose the crystal that will help me deal with emotional distress.

Has anyone else any experience or can they advise on how to begin using meditation to centre the emotions?

Homeopathy?

Reiki, I have experienced Reiki healing and ts results are amazing.


edits: for title changes.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

TIGG, this is a subject that I no little about, and wish I knew more. I look forward to learning more from you and others.

[Maria]

I've got lots to say on this subject, but apparently we are going to have a server change this week, and anything I say will be lost?

A quickie headache help I played with last week: I'd read that headaches are commonly caused by vasodialation or vasoconstriction. I get one headache per month that is resistant to my usual mind over matter techniques (yes, it happens the day before my menstrual cycle) and nothing helps it.

This month I'd read that higher blood pressure was caused by stiffness in the arteries, and I figured that perhaps this monthly headache might be caused by artery stiffness. When I meditated and tried to visualize changes that would help the hurting, I visualized the arteries in my head getting wiggly and soft and able to constrict or dialate at need. This actually helped, for an hour or two at a time- then I'd have to re-apply the technique. So, partial sucess. Nothing else I do for that particular headache ever works, so I was pleased that working on a possible cause might have fixed the symptom.

[truehobbit]

Maria, anything you post up to midnight GMT, March 23 will be moved to the new location. For an as yet unknown time of between 24 and 72 hours beginning at midnight March 23, all posts made here will not be moved, but you can repost them later (or a Shirriff will move them for you - not sure myself yet how it's going to work) - of course this means that the sequence of a thread might be interrupted, so we advise to post sparingly (or only less important stuff) during the transition period.

As to alternative healing, I think one has to differentiate in order not to fall into a trap of believing in just anything. I'm certainly not skilled enough to tell what's what, but I'm a bit of a sceptic by nature.
However, I do believe in the power of the mind - what you call "talk down the pain" - visualising the problem and how it goes away. Only I wonder what exactly makes it work sometimes and sometimes not.

Also, I've experienced some pretty amazing alternative medicine. One time, when we had already almost given up on my aunt recovering from a difficult heart-surgery, she had some alternative treatment from a healer who used coloured ribbons (I think) - I was only ten or so, so I didn't really catch all that - but my aunt did get a bit of her strength back, and the fluid retention (hope that's the right term) in the body lessened.

So, well, all I can say is that, yes, I think alternative methods can help, but it's not easy, so, anyone promising a quick-fix is likely to be a scam.

[Primula Baggins]

I used the Bradley method when my kids were born (relaxation, visualization, lower-back massage) and found it very effective in taking the edge off the pain—I didn't need drugs. It did hurt, a lot at some points, but I could tell from times when I had to get up and move around during labor that lying in a comfortable position, breathing gently with the eyes closed, and visualizing the process probably cut the pain in half. I was very grateful, especially since I could then be clear-headed and alert during the time after birth when I was celebrating with my family and getting acquainted with my baby—who was also clear-headed and alert!

I've used what I learned then in many painful or tense situations and again found it very helpful.

I remind myself of this when I'm tempted to be dismissive of "alternative medicine." I know many people who practice meditation, and some who've been helped by homeopathy. Some of my friends urged me to try various alternative treatments during chemotherapy, and they sounded interesting, but I just didn't have the energy to seek them out (it's hard to go get regular massages when you can't drive, for example).

[Maria]

I've never gone to anyone else for any kind of alternative medical treatment other than chiropractic care. I'm too much of a do-it-yourself person. Plus, the thought of letting a stranger that close to me (mentally/psychically speaking) is intolerable.

I looked into Reiki once, actually contacted a local practitioner and was considering taking lessons in the technique- but after reading a book about it, I couldn't stand the thought of someone messing with me that way! I don't have so much of a fear of scam artists as a sort of screaming heebie jeebie reaction to the thought of someone getting that close.

So, I read lots of books on the subject of energy healing. The styles I found most effective on myself were "pranic" "reiki" and "kiatsu" healing. I couldn't just stick to one, of course!, but found elements of each that worked for me.

I'm still too "shy" to effectively work on anyone other than my husband, but I have been able to help him with several times over the past couple of years since he had Lyme disease. My kids are too skeptical to take anything I say on the subject seriously, but I do try to help them occasionally without explaining what I'm doing. It helps them some.

Mind over Matter-
I've always been able to "turn off" tickling. If someone tickles me, I'll be tickled for a split second or so, but then I can literally turn off the feeling. I'm not just holding still and enduring it. I can literally turn off something to where the touch does not tickle. I've been this way almost my whole life.

A couple of years ago, on TORC, a thread by Dazzling Moonlight finally convinced me that various aspects of "chi" might be real, and I started investigating the possibility of self healing. As I was starting to look into this, I had a wisdom tooth that was starting to cause trouble. It hurt a lot, but the only appointment with an oral surgeon I could get was a month away. I decided to try to stop the pain as an extension of the anti-tickle ability I seemed to have. I'd imagine my finger glowing, and then I'd touch my jaw where it was hurting, and then my jaw would go numb for hours at a time. After doing this off and on for a few weeks, by the time I went to the oral surgeon, it had stopped hurting at all, and he said it was unwise to take the tooth out at this point if it wasn't hurting me, because it was so big that getting the roots out could damage nerves that controlled my face! I agreed and left fast. (I have a horror of surgery.) I still have all my wisdom teeth, some impacted. That one acts up once in a while. It is easily dealt with.

So, that was a resounding success. At that point in history, I was trying to get into shape for all the walking I'd be doing when I went to The Gathering in Toronto. I decided to apply this new anti-pain technique to my stretching exercises I was doing before walking. I'd go into a stretch, hold it until it started to hurt, then numb it and continue stretching for a couple of minutes. After a couple of days of this, the soles of my feet started hurting terribly. I found that I'd injured the fascia on the bottoms of my feet. It was the most painful thing I've ever experienced. After talking to a doctor (and rejecting most of his suggestions) I decided NOT to numb the pain mentally or take pain killing drugs, as this could cause me to damage myself more. I used energy healing techniques (not the painkilling kind) and got better in two months instead of the 4 or 5 that the doctor had predicted.

I was fascinated with this new ability. After I got over the foot thing, I had my first "over 40" physical done. As my mother has osteoporosis, I figured I'd better get a baseline test done, for comparison when I started to degenerate later on. The test showed I had the bones of a 56 year old, at 40! For the next year, I did various energy healing techniques on myself 2-3 times per week, but didn't change anything else about my diet or exercise level. One year later, I had the test done again. My bones were normal for a 40 year old!

I think I was able to help my kid when he had severe appendicitis (or he might just be a really tough kid!). I know I helped my husband overcome the Lyme disease, after 3 rounds of strong antibiotics failed. I've helped him with minor things since then. I'm helping myself on the diet I'm on now, by daily visualizing the fat cells being accessed properly when there is an energy shortage, rather than slowing down my metabolism to compensate. When I forget to do this, my weight plateaus. When I start up again, it starts dropping again. I guess that's a safety mechanism so I don't keep dropping weight forever until I waste away!

The mind controls the body, if you can just clear away the "junk" and focus on what you really want to happen, the body will make it real. A strong intent and belief that it WILL happen is very important.

The thing I don't know is that if I really helped my husband, or if I just guided him into helping himself. He knows the techniques now, but sometimes can't do it by himself and asks me to help. I don't know if I really can transfer energy from me to him and do him good, or if his thinking I am allows him to fix himself? At first I was sceptical, and figured that he should be able to do this himself as well as I could... but it isn't the sort of thing his personality type is prone to do, and it could very well be harder for him than it is for me. We are dealing with forces that cannot be measured, so there's really no way for me to know.

So, I help as I can, not knowing if I'm just helping him focus his thoughts to do it himself, or if I really am opening up a conduit to Universal Energy and flooding him with the energy he needs.

I DO know that when I first tried to help him with something, a bad heat rash, I was so self conscious that I didn't open up to the outside energy properly, and just transfered some of MY energy to him, and got a backwash of HIS energy onto me. I got the same heat rash within an hour, although I wasn't in the heat at the time. The books warn against that. I'm still not convinced that there is actual energy flow, or if my nervous system just tuned into his sufficiently to cause the same reaction on my body. Either way, it was a good lesson. I never attempt to help someone without making SURE the flow is one way-- towards them, and the only way to do that is envision that you are tapped into an infinitely huge, beneficial energy source, and not giving your own personal energy.

If you are really interested in this stuff, read lots of books! The particular techniques that *work* for me, might not be the ones that work for you. It's all mental, and what amuses me might seem stupid to you, and unusable.

[TIGG]

Maria,

thank you for your knowledge

I use crystals to calm myself to centre myself and focus my emotions.

interesting, the first time ever I had a sort of therapy sesson yesterday after a term of difficulties in my new job ( details in members lounge at B77, no wish to cross post to here).
They suggested that the reaction I was having to a manipulative, decietful person at work had awakened unresolved feelings of a similar encounter in the recent past. BINGO!!! The difference here is I have management who are awake enough to see that the situation I described was true, I was not delusional, or paranoid, I am dealing with a man hell bent on sabotaging me.

The therapist explained that the emotional side of my brain was in over drive and the logical side could not function it was like a small voice trying to be heard in a storm. By getting a support peron who not only supports me but believes me I am able to control the emotional storm. Until then the crystals were holding it in check, but I was unable to extinguish it.

I think I need to learn more about meditation, and try it.

Self healing I have only ever used for pain, maybe now I will try imaging that horrid wee tumor burning itself out

The Reiki man on the weekend rid me of the abdominal pain I was experiencing, I don't know if its coincidence, I never told him about it.

He said my colon was badly compressed, and he worked on my hips and worked alot on points in my shoulders that left me with stabbing pains in my chest, they have gone and now I feel well again. NO abdominal pains and other personal issues I was having have resolved themselves.

I want to learn more about natural sources of help so I am not putting drugs into my body. I worry about stress and how it will affect my health, and that is why I was proactive in seeking counselling on how to deal with work conflicts.

[Maria]

What do you do with the crystals, Tigg? I've tried wearing a couple of different stones as jewelry after reading what they were supposed to help with, but I've never been able to stand them. I've got three necklaces with supposedly helpful stones in them, but when I try to wear them they feel heavy on my chest, and it's like the chain is choking me. I don't really know if that's the stone, or the metal of the jewelry, because all jewelry seems to affect me that way. I don't even wear my wedding ring because it bothers me so. Errrr... I guess it IS the metal.

So what do you do with crystals?

[TIGG]

Maria, normally I just hold them and allow their energy to enter me.

If I am feeling particularly low, I have been known to take 7 different stones and place them over the corresponding chakra points and relax and allow myself to feel re-energized.

But at work I will take a stone or crystal and simply hold it while I work, letting the angst drain out and a clean energy flow in.

[Rowanberry]

Maria, regarding your discomfort with any jewelry: Years ago, I read an interview of a woman who had found the capacity for energy healing in herself. She had very soon noticed that for the energy transfer to be efficient, she had to take off any metal jewelry she may have been wearing, even her wedding ring.

[Jnyusa]

Moslems remove all their jewelry before praying.

There is something about metal in contact with the body. Don't know what it is, though.

The only metal I can have touching my skin is sterling silver. Everything else breaks me out in a rash.

Jn

[Maria]

My aversion to jewelry began years ago, Rowanberry, long before I started dabbling in ... whatever you want to call what I'm dabbling in! Psionics, maybe? Anyway, I wore that wedding ring for about 12 years, and every day of that time, I was always fiddling with it, moving it around on my finger, spinning it on my finger. I just couldn't let it sit still on my hand. Finally when we started taking judo lessons, my husband and I stopped wearing our rings (because it was embarrassing to forget and wear them onto the mat and get scolded by the teacher) and I felt such relief! I eventually stopped wearing a watch, too, and felt even better. There was actually a five year gap between not wearing the ring and watch, and starting with the energy manipulation.

Tigg,
What you describe seems much the same as what I call meditation. I used to have a terrible time lowering what I call my "shields" and allowing new energy into me. I wonder if the stones are acting as a conduit from the chakras to the universal energy source, to make the transfer easier? Sort of bypassing the normal shields, because you will it, without lowering the shields? I may have to try that... it might be easier than my current method-- or at least an alternative method to use when I get too familiar with the old ones.

Jny,
Do you know if Moslems take off their glasses to pray, too? My glasses don't bother me the way other jewelry does, but then most of the parts that actually touch me are plastic coated, or touching my hair instead of my skin. I wonder if the effect is like an electrical charge grounding out?

[MithLuin]

I also can be "not-ticklish"

I am naturally a very ticklish person - I tend to react violently when people tickle me, and collapse and find it hard to breath and all of that.

The problem seemed to be that I would tense up and focus on the spot being tickled, making me really, really ticklish. (I do the same thing when in pain, so I have a very low threshold of pain!)

One of my friends in high school told me to relax my muscles (not clench them), and it worked - I wasn't ticklish any more! This really freaked out the person who tried to tickle me.... To make it work, I had to go completely limp, like a rag doll. But it did work.

I like wearing rings (silver). My necklaces tend to have leather cords, not metal, but either is fine with me.

Being healthy as a horse, I haven't had any cause to worry about normal medicine, let alone alternative medicine. I don't even get headaches more than about once a year.

I tend to be leary of people practicing non-regulated forms of medicine. As a Christian, I am also suspicious of things like Reiki and focusing energy and such. But I don't really know all that much about it. "Mind over matter," though, makes lots of sense to me, and people really should know how their bodies work.

[Maria]

I tend to be leery of doctors! They always want to give you drugs or cut on you. *shudder* If I can fix whatever's wrong with me by just thinking in a certain way- then I'm much happier, since I can't trust modern medicine because I always seem to have non-standard reactions to drugs.

I think it's ironic that so many Christians won't even consider energy healing because it might conflict with their religion... whereas Jesus was the best energy healer on record. If only he'd been able to teach everyone what he knew so well intuitively... we'd be a couple of thousand years ahead in this sort of health care by now instead of fumbling through a thousand lies, half-truths and superstitions to get a single idea that works.
*sigh*

[Maria]

I tried wearing a moonstone necklace yesterday, as I was having abnormally bad PMS... I only lasted an hour with it around my neck, though. I ended up carrying it in my jeans pocket the rest of the day, and played with the stone in my hand a lot. Symptoms were much diminished by the end of the day. I'm thinking of getting some loose stones/crystals, as the metal holding the stone seemed to bind something, and impede it's function. Silver and I just don't get along!

[TIGG]

Saturday a psychic fair was held in our local town.

I went in with a group of friends including my daughter and her friend from work.

First off we wandered around and checked out the different stalls and got an idea of what was available. Then we left and went downtown and had lunch and a gossip session.

ON our return we seemed to split into 3 different groups, Hayley went straight to the 'Aura photography' booth, while Daughter of Star made her appointment with an internatinal clairvoiyant/reader. ( I was booked for an appointment an hour later with the same medium).

While we waited for our appointment times we talked with a herbalist, and after body testing, I came away with 5 herbal simples my body chose for me, including Hawthorne and Gingko. Daughter of Star went to her appointment and another friend had her herbal session. What our bodies 'chose' and what our problems were was amazingly accurate.

After perusing the hall for another half hour with 'D.O.S' it was my time to be 'read'. the uncanny thing was all he said abut 'me' was so accurate, he told me that I am 10x more 'capable than most people, but the down side was that made me 10x more open to fears and hurts. ( how right!!!! , I seem to spend my life working at stopping fear and despair over come me). I bounce from one extreme emotion to the next most times, but lately I have locked my emotions up so tight that I have no feelings, eveything is a numbing void. It is only when something massive happens that I FEEL, and that is only as long as it takes to contain the fear and put a lid back in it.

He told me of my past lifes, living in the forests in medieval times with a long bow, and of calling people to worship during ancient egyptian times. My father was there, in spirit supporting me. The medium told me I was surrounded by people who loved me, that I was highly indvidualistic, that if he was to draw me and my aura it would be with a cross, as I have an intense sense of integrity and honesty. Or as an arrow head, as I as 'straight as an arrow'. That when I fail I punish myself, that I need to learn to forgive myself more. That I am hiding too much and need to open my heart and let it have a free reign.

That I am a 'child' that he found my simplistic view of life and people as inherently good and my belief that all will be well, to be refreshing and magic. He also asked me 'who was the mother and who the daughter?', as D.O.S was so much 'older' than I was.

It was not a fortune telling as such, but it was a trigger for me as it helped pinpoint where I need to grow.

I am a largely spiritual person but not within the conventional religions.

My Dad indicated that I need to rid myself of Horace and that there was a woman who would help me achieve this, but my ridding must be done with love, not hate.

oh and I was told to lose the black clothing, I had not realised but for the last 4 months or so I have lived solely in black. looking in my drawers and wardrobe it is all black and little color, so I need to shop for color. mmm shopping

I had a great day, it stretched my mind, it opened me up and after 2 days of the herbs I already feel more focused.

mind over matter? I really don't care, I feel better, I feel as though I am taking control again instead of drifting along in a self induced fog.

[Maria]

I'm afraid to try a psychic. I'm kinda scared they'd laugh at me or something, nowadays.... since I already get so much help from the I Ching.

When I was in college, a friend talked me into getting someone to "read" us. When he started getting very accurate, I got scared and visualized an impenetrable shield going up around my head. He looked puzzled and stopped and then said the session was over. My friend scolded me when I told her what I'd done and that I'd spoiled the reading. I didn't care. When the experience seemed to be getting real, I decided I DID NOT want this guy in my head.

What you did sounds very interesting, though. Gingko is supposed to be very good for the brain, but it makes me break out in tiny little hives.

[Elflover]

I've had a longstanding interest in "alternative" healing methods. The problem is, it can be hard to sift through the mixture of techniques out there to determine what is real and what is a scam. I have used various types of stones as well as essential oils for emotional control and physical healing. They are practical, relatively cheap and easy to come by, and seem very effective if used properly.

I've never been to a psychic fair, partially because I would expect 99% of what's there to be vendors selling products or fake services. How can you tell if someone there is really telepathic, a medium, or whatever else they claim, or just an illusionist? There are people who are very good cold readers. Combine that with a strong intuition and a few magic tricks, and they can convince anyone that they are actually "reading minds" instead of picking up on subtle clues and "feeling" for answers.

[TIGG]

maybe it is strong intuition, but if it helps, if it sooths the mind and heart and as long as the 'client' does not forgo treatment which is working and tries other methods in conjunction I am all for it.

IF someone paid large sums of money to smeone and did so repeatedly, for a service that gave them no relief I would have serious concerns of a hoax and a scam.

I know that I went to the fair I attended feeling cold and numb, frozen by fear and seeing nothing but a gloomy outcome for all my tests.

Whereas now I have a attitude sufficent to overcome the fears that threaten to overcome me at times. I am a believer that attitude helps with healing, that while we are positive of a successful outcome our body is able to put all energies into its defence and healing, whilst if we are surrounded by gloom and indeed hate of our situation, the bodies defences shut down.

Anyone who can help me to focus on a healthy happy attitude is helping me.

[TIGG]

HERBS!!!!

the herbs (?) are helping, I have been opening up to my own feelings more and more daily.

There is still a little bit of numbness around the edges, and around the physical extremities, read fingertips and toes, but I feel as though I am awakening.

Saturday, I had a day, with nothing planned, a day to do with as I wished, so I began with a nice long snooze, followed it up with a late breakfast, a spot of gardening, a touch of housework, and was then ambushed by a feeling that left me low. (read: attack on myself)
BUT da TIGG stood up for herself, not in an aggressive way, but assertively. And I found myself surrounded by help and support. Every day I feel stronger, and more able to cope. More myself. My self esteem and confidence is returning, and those negative feelings are being swept away, not just buried, but swept right out.

My ability to 'talk down the pain' remains, but I am using it less, and allowing myself to feel.

I am amazed by Marias ability to use shields, but I have come to the conclusion that I am using them wrongly, I am using them to deflect feelings and pain and in doing so it comes bounding back time and again, until I feel bombarded by it. now I use my shields to minimise things and so am able to cope. Little steps.