The concept of healing is as old as humanity itself. From the ancient tribal shaman, to the temples of Egypt, to the Christian saints and the village wise woman. Throughout all cultures and all times there have those who seemed to be able to tap into some hidden force of nature and utilise that ability for the benefit of their communities. This force has been called many names, the Dao, God, Christ, Manitou, Universal Energy, Buddha Nature, mother nature, the names are legion, but the principle remains the same. We ourselves prefer the term, Universal Energy, but it really doesn’t matter. It is our understanding that whatever “map” a healer is using they are tapping into the same thing.

 Healing has many aspects but underlying all the ways in which people perform as healers lies a fundamental aim and that is to restore something to a state of wholeness; I use the word ‘something’ because it isn’t just human beings that can be in need of healing; animals, plants, all living kingdoms and even places and locations can be in need of healing.

If we focus on the human being we see that they are vastly diverse and that diversity extends into the ways that they can be unwell, with the intensity of that ranging from being out of sorts to terminally ill.

Over the centuries communities have always had healers within their midst, who people could turn to for help if they were ill. Each culture had its own explanation for illness and used a theoretical model of the human being as the starting point for healing.  These models have varied over time and even today, where the medical model is the dominant force across much of the world there are still alternative ways of setting about restoring someone to health.

One of the dominant maps used throughout history has been the idea that we are a being made up of energy and when that energy flows properly, as it was intended to do, then a person would be ‘healthy’ and that health applied to all aspects of the human being, be it physical, mental or spiritual. The remedies for any imbalance came out of that energetic model and various techniques, for instance, acupuncture, meridian therapy etc were devised to bring the body/mind/spirit complex back into harmony, for harmony is what we all wish for.

Another element of this model is the assumption that our disharmony, although showing itself through the body, is caused not only by imbalance in our bodies but by a disconnection or disruption of the energy that flows throughout the Universe and out of which all manifestation comes. As we have a Universal element to us then severe problems can occur if we go out of resonance with that Universal Energy that sustains all things. Again it is part of a healers function to help re-establish the complete realignment to that Energy.