The Journey Behind SHEN
Inspired Origins, Transformative Healing
Until 1977, I was an unshakeable disbeliever in ‘subtle energy’, past lives, and the vague, rambling ‘explanations’ associated with all that. But that was about to change.
In August, I attended the Second International Healing Arts Conference in Ward, Colorado, with the intention of learning the latest physical bodywork techniques. On the third day, I joined a workshop titled “Healing with the Subtle Bodies,” even though I had no idea what a subtle body was. As I entered the class, I noticed a chart of the chakras at the front by the teacher, and thought, “Oh, no, not this stuff!”
Before I could muster enough courage to leave, the teacher instructed us to face the nearest person, raise our hands with our palms near our partner’s, without touching, and “Send energy from your right palm to your partner’s left palm.” Reluctantly, I complied – and was shocked to feel something between my right hand and my partner’s left hand! I was thunderstruck – I didn’t believe in “energies,” but I couldn’t deny what I was feeling! Before I could gather my thoughts, we were instructed, “Now try to send the energy from your left hands.”
Wow! Whatever I felt in my right hand was magnified tenfold in my left hand! Before I could speak, my partner exclaimed, “My, that’s a lot of energy coming from your left hand!” With that independent validation of what I felt, I accepted the fact that a biofield existed. An unbidden thought flashed through me: “Now I know why I came into this life – it’s to bring this out of metaphysics into physics.”
Three days later, I joined a class in ‘energy healing’ where we were asked to choose a partner, scan their body to find the hot and cold areas, and apply the ‘energy’ from our hands to balance our partner’s body temperature. A middle-aged woman who appeared depressed and worn out approached and asked to partner with me, adding, “I don’t have very much energy, so maybe you could give me some and then I could give you some back.”
Less than thrilled, I agreed. She reclined, and I scanned her body with the palm of my hand to discover that her abdomen was very hot, but her right thigh was very cold. I remarked on that, and she responded, “There is a sharp pain along that line.” With that, I placed my sending hand on her abdomen and my receiving hand on her thigh to balance the temperature. That unleashed a chain of completely unanticipated reactions; the hair on my arms began to rise, my arms grew hot, she started quietly sobbing, and her abdomen began contracting.
Then everything intensified. I realized that the contractions resembled birth contractions, but I said nothing because it was clear she was not giving birth. Eventually, the contractions peaked and then subsided. She sat up and said, “I feel as if I just gave birth to myself,” a completely illogical yet profound statement, especially since her contractions had seemed like birth contractions to me.
I saw her every day for the next four days, and each time she remarked, “I don’t know what happened, but the world is different.” I didn’t think mine was, but maybe hers had, so I said nothing. She then left the conference, and I thought I would never see her again.
But I did. Six weeks later, we met at a Halloween party. She strode up to me wearing a vivid red dress with a large black spider clutching her right breast, and exclaimed, “I still don’t know what you did to me back then, but I’m different!” This was resoundingly seconded by several of her nearby friends. After a bit, I hesitantly asked about the spider. She replied, nonchalantly, “Oh, I had a mastectomy six months ago.”
What I had done for her six weeks prior in the workshop in the Colorado mountains not only released the trauma of her mastectomy but also helped her regain her self-worth.
And that was the beginning of SHEN.
Richard Pavek