Voicing the Unvoiceable: Why energy healing is so Un-PC

[BridgeTheGap]

It's a typical Bioenergetic healing session. My client in his late 20s (we'll call him Dave here) shares how a female colleague, Sarah, is constantly begging and bothering him to complete her tasks for her. I ask Dave to sink into his feelings each time this situation arises and share what actions he would like to take based on his own emotions. A sense of anger and resentment immediately charge the space between us and, strangely, I end up whispering to myself, "Please say you want to hit her, say you want to hit her." As awful as it might sound (especially given its violent nature), from several years of therapeutic spiritual practice, I have come to recognize this powerful psychological shadow material is exactly what needs to be acknowledged and expressed for real healing to occur, and to avoid future unconscious aggression.

Knowing Dave, I'm fairly sure that, like most of my clients, he is too polite and "kind" to express such unsavory thoughts, but then Dave's eyes widen brightly, his shoulders relax, and his chest opens proudly as if suddenly relieved and empowered by an unseen force. "Oh, my God," he smiles, shaking his head in disbelief, "I totally want to punch her!"

Now that Dave has courageously uncovered (and connected with) the 800-pound emotional gorilla in the office cubicle, we can help guide the gorilla out of the corner so that he can move and transform. Examining the scene closer, Dave suddenly realizes that he can never look Sarah in the eyes when she annoys him.

We have now successfully tracked down gorilla No. 2: the shame Dave experiences from holding anger toward Sarah. As I had initially suspected, potent emotional force impregnates this seemingly small office interaction. Dave is suffering from what we in Bioenergetics call a "double bind." While Dave is incapable of exhibiting his anger toward Sarah because he, and society at large, view that emotion as shameful or unworthy (and also potentially dangerous), he also can't free himself from those guilty feelings without first expressing them.

Read more: http://www.utne.com/mind-body/voicing-the-unvoiceable.aspx#ixzz2M7FwTEnO

[get the red out]

1. Emotion is "un-PC"

I see that so much. You have to be capable of admitting to an emotion before you can recover from it or get through it. But that's not acceptable so people repress quite a lot and that can lead to unintended consequences.

[Squinch]

3. Feeling feelings:

Doctors can now diagnose depression if grief lasts more than 2 weeks. (Name me anyone with an IQ higher than 3 whose grief for a significant loss lasts two weeks.)

[jollyreaper2112]

2. peer review

Submit to peer review and double blind studies. Otherwise it's woo.

[tinrobot]

4. Not everything has to be peer reviewed.

Talking to my friend makes me feel good. I don't need a peer review to know that.

If a spiritual healer helps a couple to have a better relationship, then good for them.

[jollyreaper2112]

5. religion and faith can be a comfort

And there's no way to medically test for that. At the same time, there are many unscrupulous false priests and soothsayers who will take advantage of people in a time of weakness and vulnerability.

I confess to being violently hostile to this sort of thing on principle. It's too open to abuse.

[BridgeTheGap]

6. EVERY human endeavor, including science, is open to being abused.

And I am a big fan of double blind testing. But there is anecdotal evidence between that and "woo."

My father just passed and I'm still upset with the funeral industry, including newspapers that charge high fees for obits. Both my parents were cremated, though they had bought a plot among other deceased family members. My mom's ashes were burried in the plot 10 years ago. The cost to dig a hole in the same plot and plant my dad's ashes: $1,200. Talk about taking advantage of people in a vulnerable condition!

[jollyreaper2112]

7. Exactly

I don't give sciency stuff a pass because there's no supernatural woo. I am skeptical of everything but try to remain as open as possible.

I like the analogy made between religion and penises. They're both fine to have, make use of, etc, but it is impolite to wave them around in public and you should never expose them to other people's children. Your own children? Metaphor works further. There's innocent and bad ways for kids to see the family jewels, same as innocent and bad ways to give them religion.

The funeral services industry really has you over a barrel, right? Same with health. There was a guest on the Daily Show talking about that. You ain't exactly fit to comparison shop when having a heart attack, right? You don't know what your bill is unless you survive and then you can hardly negotiate. The interesting point he made is that this is precisely the opposite of a free market and should be the very thing to have market advocates up in arms. But they aren't, are they? The captive market serves them just fine.

[tinrobot]

8. The article had nothing in it about religion.

The energy worker covered in the article helps his clients identify and recognize their emotions.

Nothing religious about that. Psychologists do similar things.

[jollyreaper2112]

9. it's the terminology

I'm automatically suspicious of anyone talking about working with undetectable forms of energy that we nevertheless divine to be there. If they'd just left it at emotions I'd not have my woo hackles raised. I come from a background that includes belief in prayer and faith healing so I'm overly sensitive to that.

[BridgeTheGap]

10. I'm not real sure about how well science and psychology

are mixing any way. But at least it's a start of plumming the depths of who/what we are beyond a physical body (admittedly, the two are related). The interplay between id, ego and superego are profound, to say the least.
I too, am open minded. I've had people tell me they were energy workers (no, not the electric utility!), usually Reiki. They'd offer to try it on me, never with any experiential results on my part UNTIL the time I badly pulled my calf-muscle rounding third in a softball game. A few hours later, a woman I had worked with told me she did Reiki and would I be willing to let her give it a try. I told her that I'd never experienced anything in the past. "That's okay, just let me try." I did. She held her hands 6 inches or so from my calf, never actually touching it. Within 10 seconds, my calf muscle began heating up like it had bengay rubbed on it. And my calf muscle, though not entirely healed, felt considerably better afterward. Like I said - anecdotal evidence, and, yes, I was a little shocked, if not pleasantly surprised.

[Dorian Gray]

11. Now that you've admitted

your violent hostility, you can work to address this and move on from it.

Thank you very much.

We've done wonders in this session.

[jollyreaper2112]

12. my feels