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Another Side of Creating a Healing Environment
You never know when you’re going to learn something new about healing. In healer circles, especially as you move toward the energetic end of the spectrum, a lot of effort and intention go into creating “healing space.” The ideal is to create a zone in which the receiver can align with the forces of heaven and earth and come into balance.
If you’re lucky, you get to work at sites with healing power vortices in the land and the water, like what we had working on the Health Services staff at Harbin Hot Springs in Northern California. Even without power spots, the healer world has plenty to say about the best colors, sounds, geometric shapes, and feng shui to use in setting up a healing room so that it becomes a healing environment. Some energy healers’ rooms are accessorized to the max with singing bowls, crystals, tuning forks, and cosmic scenes painted on the walls in soothing pastels made from citrus oils. In the corner, an atomizer silently wheezes out aromatherapy essences while the chants of Tibetan monks burble in the background. I know healers who set up their massage table using a compass to determine true north so as to line their patients up with the longitudinal lines of energy movement through the planet. These are examples of text-book, super-conscientious versions of creating healing space. It doesn’t always work out.
A massage client of mine, Jack, a Korean War vet, lives full-time in a nursing home, where he shares a room with his elderly wife. Since his stroke, his left arm is completely curled up, his hand a tight spastic ball. Unable to do much at all outwardly, he lies cramped in his hospital bed in a drab room with artificial heating and cooling. Wall to wall shelves are filled with videos about warplanes and every modern war. He also has videos of every John Wayne film ever made.
During our massage sessions, the TV is on. Each time, it’s The History Channel, mostly war documentaries. Today’s selection is the Tet Offensive.
“Jack, do we have to have this on while you’re getting a massage?”
“I want it on.”
“Only if you insist.”
“I insist.”
“OK. But if you fall asleep, I’m turning that sumbitch off.”
