Healing Hamilton

Assisting you on your path to physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well being.


Showing posts with label mystery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mystery. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Possibillian


P is for Possibillian

 Yes, "possibillian" is really a word.  Granted, you won't find it in any dictionary (yet), but there's an entry for it on wikipedia, so it must be a real word, right?



Possibillian was coined by neuroscientist David Eagleman in response to being asked whether he was an atheist or a religious person.   He replied "I call myself a Possibilian: I'm open to ideas that we don't have any way of testing right now. "
 
"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd"
Voltaire          

Once we get beyond the toolbox of science, no one knows anything for certain.  Actually, the only thing we do know for certain is the magnitude of things we don't know.    Being a possibillian means you don't have to limit yourself to one belief system - you can be open to multiple possibilities and ideas at the same time.  And it's okay to say "I don't know" - what a novel and freeing idea!

If you're interested in possibillianism you can watch David here or check out his website here


"Celebrate possibility and praise uncertainty."  David Eagleman


Tuesday, April 17, 2012

A Good Omen


O is for Omen

 If you've read some of my previous posts you'll know I struggle with my internal skeptic, even when it comes to Reiki.  Though I've been practicing it for several years now and KNOW it works, I can be skeptical.  Certainly not about the results, but about what the heck Reiki really is anyway.    I know the history of Reiki and have listened closely to my Reiki master, but never felt like I understood.

I did some research into acupuncture and traditional chinese medicine.  I learned another energy-based modality.    In these, and even in traditional western medicine, I realized that while we can usually explain what happens and when, we often don't know the how or why behind it.   I realized that my path is not the one of scientific inquiry which will one day, I'm sure, explain so much of what seems unexplainable right now.  No, my path is that of practitioner, of healer.  Of using the tools of Reiki to help people, even though they may seem mystical to me.  With this realization I felt I was ready to take the final step and become a Reiki master. 

During day one of my master training, I shared this insight with the group.  There was nodding of heads and general support around the table.  A short while later I noticed a 4 inch long feather on the floor beside my chair.   Knowing my Reiki master has a few feathers she uses during ceremonies, I returned it to her.  No, she said, it wasn't hers.    She'd never seen the feather before and wasn't sure how it may have come into her house.    The feather, she thought, was intended for me and I should keep it.

Hmm.  Call me superstitious, but I'll interpret that feather as a sign.  A sign that I'm on the right path.  A  good omen.



Monday, April 25, 2011

The Uncomfortable Monarch

"U" is for Unknown

The unknown is a very unacceptable place to be these days.  Science is uncomfortable with the unknown, and at this point in human history science is King.  And what happens to the guy who makes the King uncomfortable?

"Off with his head"!

From my practice in the complementary healing arts of Reiki and Sound therapy I have come to realize that people are more than a collection of organs, bones and muscles wrapped around a personality.  But what exactly is that "more" made of?  We don't know....yet.

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when doctors scorned the idea that invisible germs were responsible for hospital infections.  In fact, this idea was so widely ridiculed that doctors would wipe their scalpel on their shoe prior to surgery just to prove how wrong it was.  Well, we all know how that story turned out, and how silly those doctors ended up looking.  

But what about the part of our story that's yet to be written?  The part when future historians say "There was a time when the idea of (INSERT CURRENT UNKNOWN QUALITY HERE) was widely scorned until (INSERT NAME OF RIDICULED SCIENTIST HERE) proved that ........"

Until that time comes and that part of our story is filled in, we in the complementary healing arts are just going to keep right on working with the unknown. 

May the King show a little mercy in the meantime.


Thursday, December 2, 2010

A little mystery

In an age where science is king, we've become gobblers of scientific sound bites, snippets of information fed to us by experts.  This is reductionism -  the reducing of complex systems to the interaction of their parts.   The standard scientific method of objective, peer-reviewed experimentation is reductionism at its best, and it's the bedrock of modern science and medicine.  Reductionism is a great tool.  Using it has rocketed us to the moon, wiped out deadly diseases,  and transplanted a baboon heart into a human.  In fact, it's working so well, it's the only tool we're using.  This is a mistake.   Many doctors working in alternative medicine end up there because they see this mistake first hand.  They come to understand that people are more than a collection of organs, bones and muscles wrapped around a personality.  They reach into their traditional western medicine tool box for help and come up empty-handed.

Thomas Moore, in is book Dark Nights of the Soul spends some time exploring the edges of the known and describes it as  "... the pulling apart of meaning to reveal the mystery."   Mystery.  Isn't this exactly what reductionist science is out to eliminate?  As a practitioner in alternative healing modalities, I see that much of what my clients experience during treatment falls into this category of mystery.  They describe physical sensations like tingling, swirling, pulling or vibration.  They report relief from pain, nausea, headache, tremors, and depression.   When viewed only through the lens of reductionism there is no explanation for these experiences, so it is concluded that the treatment is a sham, and the resulting benefits are just the placebo effect.  (It's interesting and somewhat ironic to note that scientists are currently using reductionism to validate and measure the placebo effect.)

I'm not suggesting we go back to a time when there was nothing but mystery and superstition.  Reductionism has served us well, and will continue to do so.   But it needs to scootch over just a bit , and make room for something else in our collective consciousness.  What should that something else be?  I think, as Thomas Moore suggests, we should all adopt a style of awareness that includes the mysterious and the unexplained.  How about you?  Do you have space for a little mystery in your life?