Keeping it Simple

In Eden Energy Medicine (among other kindred modalities) we learn a repertoire of very specific processes intended to address specific issues. For some common energy imbalances, such as over-energized triple warmer, we learn more than one intervention that can help re-balance that energy. We could call this process reductionist, albeit more holistic than most allopathic medicine. Yet we sometimes forget, or fail to focus on, a few basic premises.

First, although talking about different energy systems simplifies things and helps us better understand how each operates, there is less emphasis during the certification program on how these various systems interrelate.

Second, when we learn how, for example, to strengthen the aura or to calm Triple Warmer, we have not emphasized that this is not introducing new information to the body. Rather, we are finding ways to get ourselves out of the way so the body can return to its normal state of equilibrium – a state with which the body is already not only familiar, but expert. That may, in fact, be why, for the most part, we cannot cause harm with energy medicine interventions, even though, at times, we can have a potent and beneficial impact on the body’s ability to heal itself.

My favorite stance when I am working with clients or students is to imagine that together we are engaged in a mutual research undertaking. “Let’s see what happens if we do this.” If I can stay curious, and open, rather than relying on being sure of what I am doing and playing the role of the expert in the relationship, that person’s energies and the dance that our energies engage in together often show me things I would otherwise be unlikely to discover.

At my recent retreat (still underway) I had the luck of engaging with a small group of willing players. Thus, we were able to jointly investigate the interaction of several basic energy configurations related to the daily routine. For each of these three men, auras were weak, penetrating flow was not engaged, triple warmer was over-energized, and grounding was absent. These are very common issues for new entrants into the realm of energy medicine. Of interest, none of these men are neophytes to spiritual work, meditation, or subtle energy, yet no one had ever shown them how to address these three basic issues. The absence of this attention to grounding, triple warmer, and the aura could grow into a blog all its own, but for now I will stick with the results so far of our energy investigations.

There are many exercises for working with the aura. A very simple one is drawn from a practice called The Six Healing Sounds which is a core practice in the Universal Healing Tao (founded by Mantak Chia). The sound for the heart is haaaaaa, uttered subvocally. The Healing Sounds are most effective when one allows conscious attention to drop down into the space the organ occupies. For the heart sound, massaging CV18, the alarm point for circ/sex, or simply placing one’s palms over that area of the chest, helps make that connection.

This one simple action brought Triple Warmer into balance, activated penetrating flow, strengthened the aura, and grounded everyone’s energy. It was like magic. It led to some conversation to unpack what was going on. It is said that the heart field is the largest and most electrical in the body. Bringing attention out of the head and into the heart allows that field to expand, and doing so benefits the integrity of the aura.

Why do so many of us start out with collapsed, weak, and/or holey auras? My hypothesis is that, at a very young age, in search of safety, we are attempting to know what is going on with everyone who shares our environment. To do this we cast our aura far out from our bodies. But, in the absence of any explicit instruction, doing so usually leads to the aura becoming disconnected from us. The cost of this configuration of a weak or detached aura might end up giving us plenty of information about others while we lose contact with our core selves.

When I described this hypothesis to my retreat attendees they each nodded their head vigorously. In fact, it was that idea that led us to test penetrating flow. Many of us are aware that when penetrating flow is activated, Triple Warmer relaxes and comes into balance. I’ve understood this in terms of triple warmer’s response to getting radiant circuits flowing. But as it related to working with the aura I saw that penetrating flow helps us connect to our own core in a profound way.

And what is it that throws Triple Warmer out of balance so easily. Although many things play a role, chief among them is our thinking – as well as what we listen to. We learn at a very young age to center our sense of ourselves in our heads. We are told to put on our thinking caps, to use our heads. We get the impression that our analytical skills are what count. We become unfamiliar with our bodies, as if they were meant only to carry our head and sense organs around from place to place.

The heart sound brings the conscious attention from the head into the heart. It thus addresses the TW imbalance, the lack of grounding, the status of the aura and of penetrating flow. And uttering the ‘haaaa’ is such a simple intervention.

And yet it isn’t. That’s the paradox. Because doing so consistently means changing lifetime habits (to which TW will object). It’s more than a simple habit change (if there is such a thing) because consistently attending to grounding, to the status of triple warmer, to the integrity of the aura will lead to a paradigm change. Centering oneself in the heart rather than the head? It means changing everything. So the process seems to be more gradual than this simple solution.

Judith Poole, EEMCP