The bouncing red ball that started it all.
Today’s question is from an email received last night.
DM wrote: “Are you reiki trained? What us your academic training. I am reiki 2 but would never make claims that you do” (Yes, it’s unedited).
My response: Nope. I’m not reiki (or any other modality) trained. This was a gift that pretty much fell into my lap about four years ago during a a Quantum Touch class of all things. I never took another class. (Skip to the bottom to read my academics!)
How I ended up in that freakin’ class was not by desire. I mean, when you get right down to it, obviously we get to make choices. Sometimes life really is like Burger King. But going to this blasted Quantum Touch class was part of something much larger going on around me that I could not ignore and not much room was left for choosing anything else.
The nutshell version of the string of events went something like this:
When I left my former husband in Denver and landed in Virginia, there were a series of extraordinary events that included ghostly & angelic visitations, poltergeist activity, people seeing St. Michael around me, visions, and other psychic-spiritual activity that made me sit up and take notice. And, at some point, while all this stuff was going on around me, I must have found an Oprah list or something that said, “To be spiritual, you must read these books” or something like that. So I bought books. Gobs of books. Shelves of books. I’d get through a few pages and say, “that’s not it.” Muddle through a few chapters and think, “Nope.” I spent so much money on Amazon while supplying local thrift stores and the library, it wasn’t even funny.
One of those books happened to be Quantum Touch by Richard Gordon. What was funny (in the interesting but not ha-ha kinda way) is that I don’t remember ordering that book. It certainly isn’t on any ‘must have spiritual read’ list that I know of. It just happened to land in my mailbox. I read it…sorta. What I really mean is I skipped through it, said hmmmm a couple of times, wondered why it landed in said mailbox and tossed it on the coffee table.
Three days later an acquaintance popped by the house to return a sweater she’d mended for me. She saw the book, looked at me and said, “A friend of mine is having a class on that this weekend.” D’OH!! A bouncing, flashing red universal ball if there ever was one. One that couldn’t be ignored. Again, sure, I had the choice to ignore that fucking ball. It’s one of the really nifty things about being all grow’d up, that option to choose how we like it (yes, I’ve got BK on the brain). But I’d also learned the hard way what can happen when you ignore the obvious being brought to you on a platter.
So, my unemployed ass wrote out a check for $250 and went to the bloody class. The blue streak from my front door to the instructor’s front door was twenty miles long. I grumbled and cursed. I wanted to know why in the fuck I was being shoved in this direction. “I’m a fucking probation officer, for fuck’s sake!” “What the hell do I need this shit for?” “Now I can’t eat, you assholes!” And on. And on. Twenty miles of pissedoffedness and confusion. Seriously, why was I going to something I had no real interest in.
And, I walked through the door and was promptly told to grab a seat & get comfy because we’re going to watch a video similar to the one linked. “$250 for a goddamn video?!? Are you shitting me?” That was in my head and most certainly on my face because as soon as the instructor pressed stop, she said, “So, Ingrid why don’t you demonstrate for us the technique?” Fuck me. Now, not only am I pissed off because I think I’ve been had, I’m now on the spot. There were three other participants in the small group. All were female and appeared to be in their late 60s or early 70s. One of them, bless her heart, volunteered to be my guinea pig.
In modalities, there are specific steps to follow, rules that must be followed before you can do the healing thing. You must breathe in a particular manner, visualize in a particular manner, or is it visualize and then breathe. That’s what was going on in my head: Do I breathe first? Or visualize first? Fuck. What do I visualize again? What’s the order of the breath? The pressure was on. And I’m pretty sure I was actually holding my breath when I put my hands on this lady’s shoulders.
Instantly, upon contact, what moved through me, in me, around me, from me, was liquid lightening. It was golden white. It was white hot (without being hot, oddly enough). It was pure power and out of my mouth flew, “OH!! SHIT!!” What occurred had no connection or correlation to breathing in a particular fashion, visualizing colors or chakras or vibrations or anything that that little book said I had to do to access or use healing energies.
I never took another class. In one split second, I learned exactly why I was shoved toward something I had no interest in and exactly why I didn’t need more classes, certificates, crystals, chants, circles or symbols, attunements or invitations. I just needed to use it.
For me, this is an inherent gift. I just didn’t know it until 2010. It’s a gift that people from all over the globe have had (and still have) and shared for eons. This notion of ‘academic’ training for healers is a relatively new one. It used to passed down from generation to generation selectively. I’m one who thinks that it might be a good idea to include some of that selectivity in today’s ‘academics’ of healing. I’ve met far too many people who’ve spent money on pretty pieces of paper who have no business being in the role of healer. Does everyone have the capacity to be one? I dunno. Maybe I suppose it’s similar to the notion that everybody has the capacity to become an engineer, plumber or geochemist. We all have the grey matter and when applied along with our passions, potentially can.
I’m just fortunate enough to know my purpose and passion don’t require any more academics. When I’m the catalyst for someone else to come into their healing gift, I don’t recommend they take a ‘healing’ class per se. We explore where they are mentally & emotionally drawn, where their interests & passions combine, and create or find an avenue for that to open up. For those whose gift is of hands on healing, I give them myself as a guinea pig and say, “Get to it.” That’s it. No class needed.
And, to follow up with the latter part of DM’s question regarding results. I don’t go looking for results, they just happen. There is no mental intention to ‘cure’ or resolve any particular physical, emotional or ‘spiritual’ issue. My sole intention is to focus on a relationship with whomever is with me, open myself all the way, and love on ’em. That’s it. The outcomes are just the icing on the cake.
For what it’s worth, though, here’s my ‘academic’ background. I received a BA in Liberal Arts & Sciences from Virginia Tech. My areas of focus were Urban Affairs and Planning, Political Communication and Sociology. My Masters in Criminal Justice is from the University of Colorado-Denver. My areas of expertise are in community capacity development, gang intervention & suppression, supervision of sexual offenders in the community, and the mentally ill in the criminal justice system.
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