The Shaman Within: Channeling Universal Life Force
to Heal Your Body
22nd April 2016
By
Therese Wade, MSc
Guest writer for
Wake Up World
We live in a sea of subtle
energies. When we become conscious of them, we can learn to use them.
Ancient cultures understood that we live
in a vast sea of energy. They understood that the planets and stars are
conscious beings who communicate with each other. They believed that the
trees serve as antennas, which allow natural subtle energies and
information to flow up from the Earth to the stars and planets, and from
all other celestial bodies into the Earth. They taught that everything
and every being has consciousness and channels this energy according to
its capabilities, to help facilitate this essential cosmic dialogue. In
fact, they understood that all matter, including the physical body, is a
gathering of this universal energy. They recognized that our thoughts
and emotions are a form of energy, and that when these are in harmony
with the living universal energy field, we become clear channels. Then,
the life force of the Earth and cosmos flows through us more smoothly
and abundantly, guiding our evolution as new perspectives are revealed
and advanced abilities are awakened within us. These abilities include
heightened creativity, extrasensory perception and the ability to bring
about dramatic physical healing. Shamans learn to feel, sense and use
this energy without filtering or distorting it. They often refer to this
process as becoming a “hollow bone”.
We transmit and receive energy.
This universal sea of energy, called Qi
in China and Prana in India, circulates through our bodies, interacts
with the electromagnetic spectrum and includes other subtler energies
not yet understood by western science. It
is the foundation for the practice of acupuncture, where thin needles
are used to assist the flow of vital energy through meridians in the
body. It is the inner force that advanced martial artists cultivate and
direct outward. The Hopis of the American Southwest use the term Kachina
to describe the world of subtle energies. They perform rituals and
ceremonies to interact with the Kachina in order to attract rain to grow
their crops, and to receive healing and other benefits. The Dogon people
of Africa call the channel through which the Earth projects energies
through us, the Bayuali. They call the channel through which we receive
energies from the cosmos, the Yenu. The Dogon believe that it is our
responsibility as humans to become clear channels who ease the flow of
cosmic energies rather than interfere with or obstruct them.
Although western medicine limits its
focus to electromagnetic energies, it does acknowledge that the human
body functions as a two-way antenna. Doctors use tools such as ECG’s and
EEG’s to determine whether a patient is still alive by measuring the
electrical energy being transmitted from within that patient’s body.
They understand that our bodies receive information from electromagnetic
fields in our environment to regulate circadian rhythms, such as our
sleep-wake cycles.
Scientific studies
indicate that the spinal cord (containing cerebro-spinal fluid which is
conductive) acts as a natural antenna and that DNA serves as a fractal
antenna, capable of operating at many different frequencies
simultaneously.
It is also interesting
to note that the U.S. army demonstrated that trees work as remarkably
good antennas for wireless communication and used them for this purpose
during the Vietnam War.
7.83 HZ: Earth and the cosmos exchange
energy and information.
Nikola Tesla – the physicist whose
inventions laid the foundation for our modern use of electricity and
wireless technologies such as alternating current, radio, x-ray, radar
and remote control – discovered that the Earth receives, stores and
transmits energy. In 1899, he built a lab in Colorado Springs on the
summit of Pikes Peak, a site considered sacred by the Hopi and Ute
Indians. While running experiments there, he detected extremely low
frequency (ELF) waves of electromagnetic energy being naturally
transmitted within the cavity between the Earth’s surface and the
ionosphere, 80 kilometers above the Earth. He discovered that within
these ELF waves, those that vibrated at about 8 cycles per second (8
Hz), flowed more smoothly between the Earth and ionosphere, with less
resistance and greater amplitude (force or power).
He believed it was
possible to use this innate frequency of approximately 8 Hz as a carrier
wave to transmit information and power without wires, to any part of the
world. Tesla was deeply
interested in preserving the Earth’s natural resources for future
generations. He spoke fervently about the need to discontinue the use of
fuel as a power source. His goal was to harness “the very wheelwork of
nature” by tapping into the natural and renewable storage battery that
exists between the Earth and the ionosphere.
He was unable to obtain
sufficient funding to complete projects involving the wireless
transmission of power, however his idea of the wireless transmission of
information led to the invention of both AM and FM radio.
Tesla also stated that
during his time at Pikes Peak, he recorded radio waves being emitted
from the cosmos to the Earth. Countries around the world now use radio
waves to analyze the composition of stars and planets.
In 1952, a physicist
named Schumann measured the resonant frequency of the Earth-ionosphere
cavity more specifically to be 7.83 Hz (confirming Tesla’s calculations
of approximately 8 Hz). The Earth transmits and receives a measurable
energetic frequency that surrounds all life on this planet. It has been
discovered that the human brain, while in a deep state of meditation,
lowers its brainwave oscillations to harmonize with the Earth’s resonant
frequency.
We tune into this cosmic dialogue of energies by adjusting the
frequency of our brainwaves.
In Shamanic traditions, drums have long
been used to produce rhythmic vibrations that assist the Shaman in
attuning his/her mind with the living universal energy field. In this
state of altered consciousness, the Shamanic practitioner is able to
interact with the non-physical world. They channel and transmit subtle
universal energies to help heal themselves and others. They also receive
information in the form of vivid imagery, thoughts, words and ideas
communicated
to them by guides and ancestors from the spirit world. This shamanic
tradition has been studied using EEG tests. Results showed that the
brainwave pattern of the subjects slowed down into a theta state.
This state is entered
when the majority of brainwaves transmitted by the subject, begin
oscillating at a frequency of 4-8 cycles per second (4-8 Hz). EEG
studies performed on regular meditators revealed that they also enter
this theta state during periods of deep meditation.
Those who practice a
consistent meditation routine often report experiencing a shift in their
awareness of surrounding energies, sudden realizations, colorful
visions, new abilities and emotional and physical healing. They also
report that the more often they meditate, the easier it becomes to
access this altered state.
Tesla was aware of this living universal
energy field. In his article,
Man’s Greatest Achievement, he used Vedic terms such as Prana and
Akasha to describe this field, from which all perceptible matter is
generated. He said that he accumulated many of his ideas while alone in
deep meditation.
He called himself “a
sensitive receiver” and reported seeing visions and receiving
premonitions, including one that helped him to prevent his friends from
boarding a train that later crashed.
He disclosed that he
had a photographic memory and described visualizing his inventions in
such detail that he could operate the device in his mind, then make
improvements to it and provide precise and correct measurements without
ever even drawing a sketch.
A shamanic practitioner explained to me
that we all continuously receive and transmit energy and information
through this subtle universal field. However we spend much of our time
in the higher frequency beta brainwave state (15-30 Hz) associated with
alertness, logic, critical reasoning and stress. This distracts us from
the subtler energies and inhibits their flow through our bodies. We
could compare this to having our car radio tuned into the same station
all the time, not knowing that we can adjust the dial. Adjusting our
brainwaves to the Earth’s natural frequency of approximately 8 Hz
through regular meditation, is like turning the dial on your radio to a
new station. While tuned in we receive more life force and information
from the universe. At this frequency, we also transmit energy with the
benefit of constructive interference. This term, used in physics,
describes the increased amplitude (force or power) that occurs when two
waves of the same frequency come together. When we harmonize our
brainwaves with the natural frequency of the planet, our intentions are
transmitted with the force of the Earth behind them, giving them much
more power and direction.
New abilities are awakened within us.
In a previous article, Your
Cells Are Listening: How Talking To Your Body Can Help You Heal, I
wrote about a surprising ability that was awakened within me after
several months of dedicated meditation. This is the ability to converse
with my body through words, and receive dramatic physical responses. As
I talked with my leg – where I was experiencing severe pain and partial
paralysis caused by a condition called reflex sympathetic dystrophy – I
suddenly felt scar tissue unwinding under my skin, nerves firing and
energy moving along defined pathways through my calf. My calf muscles
began to perform flexion and extension exercises independently of my
conscious control, as electric-like jolts continued to shoot through the
area. Through a series of conversations with my leg, I was able to
completely restore function to the muscles. Realizing the broad
potential of this mind-body technique, I organized my approach into a
system that I could teach to clients, called Antara (Sanskrit for
within).
Experiences we have encountered in our lifetime and how we have
processed them determines the way our body funnels universal energies.
By communicating with different tissues
in my body, it became clear that changes in the connective tissue called
fascia were responsible for unwinding the tension and scar tissue,
freeing the impinged nerves, unblocking the acupuncture channels and
allowing communication to be restored between my nerves and my muscles.
The fascial network is a thin, very strong, three-dimensional net of
biological fabric, containing many layers which envelope and infuse
every other tissue in your body. Providing both integrity and
elasticity, the fascia holds your organs in place and aligns your spine
and joints while allowing mobility. It also provides pathways for blood
vessels, nerves and lymphatic vessels to travel through, so that
nutrients and hormones can be delivered to every cell and toxins can be
carried away to be eliminated. The fascia also serves as the supporting
physical material for the acupuncture meridian system. Physical trauma
can lead to increased tension and the formation of scar tissue within
the fascial network. This causes the fascia to shorten and tighten,
which can impinge nerves, disrupt the flow of blood, lymph and energy
and pull the spine and joints out of alignment.
While applying and teaching this
technique, I have observed that emotional trauma also plays a role in
fascial tension and scar tissue. According to shamanic belief, physical
tissues at the deepest level, are a gathering or concentration of
emotional energy. All physical life forms begin with a single emotional
impulse. Emotional energy is the trellis that physical bodies grow on.
My experience with the Antara method suggests that the fascial network
in the body is a physical representation of what I call emotional
latticework. Each of us builds our own unique emotional latticework
within our body that is formed from the energy of both positive and
negative emotions. Stress, unresolved traumas, and suppressed emotions
can build a complicated energetic latticework containing disharmonious
frequencies that seem to change the tonicity of the fascia and interfere
with energy flow. Imagine the fascia as a biological fabric made up of
many long threads. Each thread vibrates with life force similarly to how
a string on a guitar vibrates when waves of energy travel through it.
When you tighten a guitar string by twisting the tuning key, this raises
the pitch (the frequency of vibration of the string). When the tonicity
or tension of the fascial threads change, their frequency of vibration
also changes, and the body becomes an out of tune instrument. This
alters the resonance allowance of the body or the range of frequencies
that the body naturally channels.
Often while communicating with my own
body, I would feel very obvious unwinding sensations in my fascia, and
each time that I was able to release a new line of tension or layer of
scar tissue, I would experience an intense dream that very same evening.
The dreams would usually involve people, relationships or events from my
past – usually those that I haven’t thought about in a very long time.
Occasionally the dreams would be based on primal fears (or possibly past
life experiences) rather than anything I have experienced in this
lifetime.
Clients also report being surprised by
the unexpected emotions or dreams that surface while they are practicing
Antara. This is true in both gradual and sudden onset cases of chronic
pain. It seems that the energy of unexpressed emotions can compromise
the tonicity of the fascia, and interfere with the normal healing
process after injury. At some point the emotion becomes trapped within
the tissue. The Antara process unwinds the fascia and releases the
trapped energy, then the emotion is experienced as it either easily
flows out of the body or is brought to the surface where it can be
acknowledged, processed and then released. The newly liberated fascial
threads re-integrate with the whole, as the fascial network begins to
function like an orchestra playing in harmony again. The life force from
the Earth and stars flows more smoothly through the body and the
regenerative processes return.
Illness and injury are an opportunity to evolve.
In Shamanic teaching, illness that does
not respond to conventional treatment often indicates a spiritual
initiation process that leads to the disruption of normal life and
withdrawal from the mundane world. The individual undergoes a period of
physical, psychological and spiritual trial, where they must feel,
understand and integrate the most difficult experiences of their life.
By seeking answers to the mysteries of life and by turning inward
through meditation, new levels of awareness are reached. The individual
gains freedom from self-imposed restrictions and oppressive environments
(both of which can manifest as tension in the fascial network that
resists energy flow). They realize that every physical challenge, every
emotion, and every person that crosses their path has been a stimulant
for their own evolution and are able to navigate life with more inner
peace and trust in the process. With less interference, they begin to
channel universal life force more freely and discover surprising
abilities within. This transformation can lead them to a higher purpose
or destiny than previously imagined. They are given the opportunity to
heal themselves and then share what they have learned while making a
lasting contribution to the world. The Antara method is the result of my
own experiments with focused intention during deep meditation. While in
a brainwave state attuned with the Earth’s natural resonance, my
intentions to communicate with my body are transmitted with greater
power and direction. With the support of the Earth and Cosmos and the
cooperation of my physical body, I was able to manifest dramatic and
profound physical healing. We exist in a living universal energy field.
Each one of us can become conscious of this field and learn to better
cooperate with it in order to overcome challenges, and to fulfill our
higher destinies in this life.
Further reading from Therese Wade, MSc:
References:
About the author:
Therese
Wade received her Master of Science Degree in Acupuncture and Oriental
Medicine from Bastyr University in 2003. Her combined experience with
Chinese medicine, shamanic studies, kundalini meditation and
hypnotherapy are integrated within her approach to mind–body–spirit
medicine.
Please visit
www.antarahealingarts.com for more information.
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