I have a friend who is very heavily into the New Age movement; in my mind, too much so. It bothers me because I know the dangers of uncritically accepting anything that comes your way especially when it comes to religion, and she does not have the critical thinking skills nor the education to distinguish what may be valid in the New Age movement and what is downright dangerous. And if you think I had problems dealing with some of the stuff the storefront Bible church wanted me to accept, you haven't seen anything yet. I flat-out do not believe in it. Anything that asks me to leave my education and intellect at the door--that is not for me. But I have learned that there is no convincing people who do not want to listen to what I have to say, and she will have to find out the hard way. I do hope that she does not run into some of the truly dangerous mind control gurus out there--and they are out there as anyone who has ever browsed Rick Ross's Cult Information site knows.
Anyway she has been bugging me to take part in something she calls Reconnection energy healing. So, finally, in the name of science and curiosity I gave in and said, ok. After all, what harm could come in laying on a table while someone walks around you waving their hands? (Unless of course you are one of these people that believe in spiritual influences, good and bad, and anyone who's been following my blog knows I absolutely do not believe such entities exist.) I figure, I know my own mind, I know when to get up and leave if things start getting too crazy, and I am in control of this situation.
So I went over to her house. We went into the basement to a dimly lit room and she turned on a fan (to create "white noise") and had me lay on my back in a very comfortable overstuffed chair. She told me not to be alarmed if I felt physical sensations, tingling, warmth, etc. as many people have reported such. I'm thinking, yeah, right. I closed my eyes and listened to her footsteps and the fan and pretty soon I was letting my mind drift off to la-la land (and being Aspy I have a real talent for that). Although I started off thinking about one of my favorite relaxing images it wasn't long before the images and colors changed. I was having a real good time letting them come unbidden and watching how they changed. I could hear my friend walking about. Sometimes she sounded close and sometimes she was several feet away. I want to add that I kept my eyes closed out of my own free choice--she said it was optional, but I just felt that I would get the most benefit out of the session if I kept them closed. It was tremendously relaxing. I knew from my reading about how the mind works (real science, not New Age woo-woo) that what I was experiencing had perfectly natural explanations and would indeed be expected under such conditions. But then to my great surprise, I began experiencing tingling and warmth up and down my left arm and my left leg (which I had injured some time ago during a play and which still gives me trouble off and on). And balls of shiver up and down my spine, which could not possibly be from the fan! I have absolutely no rational explanation for this--I was not expecting this and in fact, given my skepticism, should NOT have happened, despite what she told me. Yes, I know about the power of suggestion, but I also know that you can resist the power of suggestion and I flat-out did not think anything else would happen except that I would just lie back and relax and do nothing and at the end we would all agree that yes, that was pretty relaxing (but then so are the massages I get at the therapy center).
That was not the end of it, however. Afterwards we went upstairs to debrief where her partner and a couple of other women were sitting around in the living room and they of course wanted to know all about my experience since they were all enthusiastic believers in "energy work." So we were discussing the colors and shapes and what I thought they meant and what their books said that they meant when all of a sudden her partner gets up, crosses the room to the bookcase and returned with a book. "A voice told me to give this to you," she said. When I saw what the book was my eyes opened wide. It was Marguerite Henry's "Gaudenzia, Pride of the Palio," a book I had enjoyed as a child, about the famous horse race that takes place in Siena, Italy. I had not thought about that book for ages until a few weeks ago when I came across a documentary on the Palio in one of my DVD catalogues. Of course I sent away for it, and after I watched it, I thought I really must go to the library, to the children's section and see if they have that book. Now here it was in my hands!
Now, it's a pretty well-known fact around work that I like horses, and if it had been just any old horse book I could just say, well, nothing unusual about that. But my friends do not know of my interest in the Palio and it is something they themselves would not be interested in. In fact, I doubt they even know what the Palio is. So I think we can safely rule out that this was planned to get a specific reaction out of me (which it sure did!). There is just no way they could have known this specific book was on my mind. Was it simply coincidence--something they reject--or were they picking up on my thought vibes, as they claimed?
A very weird experience indeed.
Anyway she has been bugging me to take part in something she calls Reconnection energy healing. So, finally, in the name of science and curiosity I gave in and said, ok. After all, what harm could come in laying on a table while someone walks around you waving their hands? (Unless of course you are one of these people that believe in spiritual influences, good and bad, and anyone who's been following my blog knows I absolutely do not believe such entities exist.) I figure, I know my own mind, I know when to get up and leave if things start getting too crazy, and I am in control of this situation.
So I went over to her house. We went into the basement to a dimly lit room and she turned on a fan (to create "white noise") and had me lay on my back in a very comfortable overstuffed chair. She told me not to be alarmed if I felt physical sensations, tingling, warmth, etc. as many people have reported such. I'm thinking, yeah, right. I closed my eyes and listened to her footsteps and the fan and pretty soon I was letting my mind drift off to la-la land (and being Aspy I have a real talent for that). Although I started off thinking about one of my favorite relaxing images it wasn't long before the images and colors changed. I was having a real good time letting them come unbidden and watching how they changed. I could hear my friend walking about. Sometimes she sounded close and sometimes she was several feet away. I want to add that I kept my eyes closed out of my own free choice--she said it was optional, but I just felt that I would get the most benefit out of the session if I kept them closed. It was tremendously relaxing. I knew from my reading about how the mind works (real science, not New Age woo-woo) that what I was experiencing had perfectly natural explanations and would indeed be expected under such conditions. But then to my great surprise, I began experiencing tingling and warmth up and down my left arm and my left leg (which I had injured some time ago during a play and which still gives me trouble off and on). And balls of shiver up and down my spine, which could not possibly be from the fan! I have absolutely no rational explanation for this--I was not expecting this and in fact, given my skepticism, should NOT have happened, despite what she told me. Yes, I know about the power of suggestion, but I also know that you can resist the power of suggestion and I flat-out did not think anything else would happen except that I would just lie back and relax and do nothing and at the end we would all agree that yes, that was pretty relaxing (but then so are the massages I get at the therapy center).
That was not the end of it, however. Afterwards we went upstairs to debrief where her partner and a couple of other women were sitting around in the living room and they of course wanted to know all about my experience since they were all enthusiastic believers in "energy work." So we were discussing the colors and shapes and what I thought they meant and what their books said that they meant when all of a sudden her partner gets up, crosses the room to the bookcase and returned with a book. "A voice told me to give this to you," she said. When I saw what the book was my eyes opened wide. It was Marguerite Henry's "Gaudenzia, Pride of the Palio," a book I had enjoyed as a child, about the famous horse race that takes place in Siena, Italy. I had not thought about that book for ages until a few weeks ago when I came across a documentary on the Palio in one of my DVD catalogues. Of course I sent away for it, and after I watched it, I thought I really must go to the library, to the children's section and see if they have that book. Now here it was in my hands!
Now, it's a pretty well-known fact around work that I like horses, and if it had been just any old horse book I could just say, well, nothing unusual about that. But my friends do not know of my interest in the Palio and it is something they themselves would not be interested in. In fact, I doubt they even know what the Palio is. So I think we can safely rule out that this was planned to get a specific reaction out of me (which it sure did!). There is just no way they could have known this specific book was on my mind. Was it simply coincidence--something they reject--or were they picking up on my thought vibes, as they claimed?
A very weird experience indeed.
