Why I offer energy healing: healing according to ACIM vs healing in the world

ENERGY HEALING HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ACIM

If you have a physical or emotional ailment you’d like some support with, energy healing might be able to help. The type of energy healing I practice is available to you anywhere in the world as it does not rely on physical proximity. To be clear, this form of treatment has nothing to do with the teaching of A Course in Miracles; no world-based form of healing does.

In that sense, there’s nothing innately special about this type of help- it’s just one of the many ways through which you may experience relief from physical symptoms. Just as taking a regular vitamin supplement that boosts immune health has nothing to do with a self-identified Catholic’s spiritual path, energy healing has nothing to do with your study and practice of A Course in Miracles but may help resolve physical conditions.

WHY DO YOU OFFER ENERGY HEALING?

I was trained in energy healing shortly before encountering the Course, so my study of ACIM has since changed the way I think about the nature of healing- what really needs healing and where healing really occurs. Nevertheless, the energy healing method I use has helped some people experience incredible benefits.

Not everyone will necessarily have the same results. Some may not even appear to have benefited in a concrete way. But it’s the amazing results I’ve witnessed that prompt me to offer energy healing publicly, in case they may be of benefit to anyone else seeking this kind of specific help.  

ACCORDING TO ACIM TRUE SICKNESS & HEALING ARE OF THE MIND

Now if you’re anything like me, you may be wondering: “why would A Course in Miracles student offer energy healing?” Great question. After all, the Course itself makes it very clear that all illness is strictly of the mind, not of the body.

“Since only the mind can be sick, only the mind can be healed. Only the mind is in need of healing. This does not appear to be the case, for the manifestations of this world seem real indeed.”

(P-in.1:2-4)

It specifically teaches that all sickness is a product of our mind’s immense, deep-seated, and well-hidden ontological guilt over our belief that we separated from God. Healing is thus only ever of the mind because this is where the sickness of separation resides. True healing therefore consists of us releasing the fearful idea that we are separate from God.

Bodies do appear to get sick, but being illusions, all physical manifestation of illness simply reflects the mind’s original chosen illness- the belief in separation. It is this original error that the mind projects onto the illusion of the body that manifests in sickness. This sums up the Course’s view of sickness and healing in a nutshell. 

“Psychotherapy (healing), then, must restore to his awareness the ability to make his own decisions. He must become willing to reverse his thinking, and to understand that what he thought projected its effects on him (as a body) were made by his (split mind’s) projections on the world (and body).”

(P-1.4:1-2. Italics in brackets mine.)

IN THE WORLD, SICKNESS IS AN ILLUSION & HEALING IS MAGIC

So how does energy healing fit into this metaphysical framework? One word: magic. The Course describes the body and world we know as an illusion or myth. They are not real. However, within the world of illusion, magic certainly appears to work, or have an impact on illusions.

Magic is defined as anything within the illusion that we use to get relief from, ‘heal’ or fix problems in the world. In other words, everything from surgery, medications, to breathing itself, is magic. They can all appear to keep the body alive and possibly improve physical conditions.

THE INAPPROPRIATE USE OF DENIAL

In other words, the Course doesn’t deny that things in this world can appear to make us feel better within the body- it just refers to these aids as magic to remind us that everything within the world of separation is made-up. That is, it doesn’t deny that medicine can be effective, that drugs (pharmaceutical or recreational) won’t alter our body’s state, behaviour and physiology. In fact, we’d be crazy to deny that these interventions don’t appear to have physical or tangible effects in the world- they do. 

The Course wants us to understand that nothing in form is true, but this does not require us to deny our experiences in the illusory world and body. That is, to deny what we think is real and where we think we are. Jesus makes it very clear that to deny our experience would be an inappropriate and thus unhelpful use of denial. This is because to deny the body is to deny the power of the mind which made it up.

“The body is merely part of your experience in the physical world. Its abilities can be and frequently are overevaluated. However, it is almost impossible to deny its existence in this world. Those who do so are engaging in a particularly unworthy form of denial. The term “unworthy” here implies only that it is not necessary to protect the mind by denying the unmindful (the body). If one denies this unfortunate aspect of the mind’s power (its ability to make up illusions), one is also denying the power (of the mind) itself.”

(T-2.IV.3:8-13. Italics in brackets mine.)

INSTEAD OF DENYING YOUR EXPERIENCE AS A BODY, USE IT FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT’S HEALING PURPOSE

Jesus would instead have us understand that it is our experiences in the body and world that are our ticket to healing the mind. How so? By using everything we think and feel to return our awareness to the true cause of these experiences in the wrong mind: the belief that we separated from God.

Instead of denying the body and world, use your awareness of them to remember the split mind that they were designed to hide, and choose against the ego thought system it adheres to. This is how we use our experiences of the world for the Holy Spirit’s purpose of healing our mind, rather than for the ego’s purpose of maintaining the illusion of separation. This is how we choose the Holy Spirit as our Teacher instead of the ego.

So while false, we must not ignore our experience of body-based illness. Seek treatment for your symptoms however will most help- whether that’s through allopathic medicine, holistic methods or other alternative therapies.