I give a heartfelt thanks to the teachers of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing for walking with me through the development of the material that came together to form this book; to Roseanne Farano for her dedicated friendship, open listening, and clear advice; and to the clerical staff at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing for preparation of the manuscript.

BARBARA: You need a lot more strengthening in your lower half, in the first chakra and in the pelvic area. And the sugar metabolism is off a little; the thyroid is underfunctioning and probably could use some cleansing in the liver. Something’s going on in terms of your assimilation of nutrients in the small intestine. It’s not as efficient as it ought to be. Do you have trouble with constipation?

RICHARD W.: No.

BARBARA: Your coccyx needs to be a little more flexible. You know, the occiput and the coccyx move when you breathe. That’s partly why there’s a little less strength in your lower half than there could be. I’m sure you’ve dealt with it in terms of your character structure too. [Character structure is a term from bioenergetic therapy that relates the body’s physical structure to the person’s psychological makeup.] But the weakness is caused partly by the coccyx—it’s not flexible enough. I’ll work on that. The fifth chakra and the first chakra would be the ones affected primarily by the characterology of masochism. I want to work primarily on [the problem in] the third chakra, which I realize is a result of your childhood experience. In terms of psychodynamics, it is related to how you connect to people. There are some old issues in the third chakra relating to your mother and father that make this area the weakest area of your body.

Now, I think it wouldn’t be hard for you to learn to see into the body. Your third eye is pretty open—you’ve got a lot of energy there. Have you tried? Did you see anything?

RICHARD W.: Just a faint outline. That’s all. And sometimes I see things, and I’m not sure if it’s real or not.

BARBARA: What you do with that issue of whether you saw it in a textbook or whether it’s in the body is to look for anomalies that wouldn’t show in the textbook. You’ve probably done autopsies. You have to separate that out too. But what you’ll do when you keep looking in the body is that eventually you are going to find things that you didn’t see before, and that’s going to help you.

I don’t know if this is normal or not, but the right side of your thyroid is a little smaller than the left. Do you mind removing your tie? It’s a little hard to look. I’m looking to see if there’s any physiological stuff going on in your heart.

So what are you doing about stress? Do you work long hours?

RICHARD W.: Nothing per se. Do you see anything physiological?

BARBARA: I don’t right now. I’ll go in deeper. . . . I do see you’ve been under stress. (Pause; examining heart with HSP; still sitting six feet away facing him.) When I look at the heart, the problem is actually on that side, in the back. (Referring to the lower right back wall of the heart.) That part on the back looks a little . . . the muscles look like they’re harder. I’ll find better words later. (At this point holding back information, not wanting to disturb him.)

(Richard W. gets on the table, and Barbara starts to work. Some time passes.)

BARBARA: I’ll talk a little about what I’m doing right now. This is stuff that’s not in my book. I’m going to work on something that I found that’s deeper than the auric field. It’s called the haric level. Martial arts people use it. You know about it. I’m going to go in and strengthen the point called the tan tien.

Just for your information, the reason I asked you about the constipation is, I think there’s something going on with the fluid balance in your body.

So from the psychic point of view, when I do a hara healing, what happens is the whole lower half [of the body] starts letting go, in a sense kind of melting and reforming itself. So the sacroiliac joint on the right is out of alignment, and I’m working on it. The forward aspect of that joint is jammed together. . . .

(Time passes.)

What I’m doing now is, there is an acupuncture line, a meridian up here, that goes all the way right up into there, and I’m trying to energize it. . . . And I’m working into the ligaments, right in this area. Now the second chakra is beginning to get charged.

I’ve restructured the first chakra on the gold level of the field, which is the auric seventh layer. The first chakra goes right up to the coccyx and sits in the coccyx-sacral joint. There was a lack of energy there; that continues up toward the right side of the sacroiliac joint, and that continues all the way up the body.

(Time passes.)

Where I am right now, from my perspective, is the gall bladder. . . . And now I’m moving into the third chakra area. Actually, the liver doesn’t look bad; it looks a lot cleaner than I thought. There’s one area back underneath here, the inside of the back of the liver is stagnated. . . .

What I am actually doing right now is trying to make the gall bladder dump some of the stuff that it’s carrying. On the auric level, it’s let go. But that doesn’t necessarily mean on the physical level that it’s let go. What I’m hearing is that it will respond overnight. I don’t normally give a running explanation, but I’m going to do that since you are a physician.

I’m on the third chakra, working on the fourth level of the aura.

Do you have a brother? Somebody you were real close to when you were about twelve? Did he die or something happen? Fell out of a tree? Some sort of loss is involved. This is where it’s left, or stuck, in your body. Sure feels like a brother. So the way that brother trauma is in your third chakra is in the form of a vortex here, that is kind of strung out and hung down. This is interesting. I’ve seen this auric configuration a couple of times, and it’s always associated with overweight. (Richard W. is overweight.) But just now, when I first saw it connected with this friend or brother, that’s new. Psychologically that’s connected to Father. (Refers to the right side of the solar plexus chakra.) Then there’s all this stuff with your mother here (left side of the solar plexus chakra). From what I can see, the relationship with your father was a lot healthier than the one with your mother. There is more left here [in the auric field] to deal with.

So what I am doing here is kind of lightly bringing this whole area back together. The third chakra has been torn in this area, near the pancreas area.

RICHARD W.: Is that the mother stuff?

BARBARA: Yes. I’m just beginning to move into this area [with healing energy] to knit it back together. If I work on it longer, I’ll go deeper and deeper. I’m just kind of bringing it back, just the beginning of the knitting on the first level of the auric field. You might feel that it’s kind of knitting through the whole thing. Just strengthening the whole area.

(Time passes. Barbara is toning healing sounds into the solar plexus pancreas area.)

Now it’s affecting the second layer more, a lightening, actually kind of like a sweetening.

(Barbara completes healing in silence and leaves. Richard W. rests about fifteen to twenty minutes. Then Barbara returns to discuss healing. Usually, healings are not so thoroughly discussed afterward. It is important for the patient to rest. In this case, since Richard W. is a physician, a longer, more detailed discussion takes place.)

BARBARA: Okay, with the restructuring of the third chakra and the reactivation of those energies of the system, you will feel relief in the area of the heart chakra. The heart chakra was trying to do the work of two chakras.

RICHARD W.: Do you see anything around my heart chakra?

BARBARA: Yes, there are a few things that I haven’t said. The weakness in the pancreas was affecting the left kidney. All of the organs have deep pulses that are all synchronized in health. [In dis-ease they are not synchronized.] Last month, a student and I were working on someone who had a liver transplant; we had to repulse all the organs back together. Because of your pancreas being off, it had to be repulsed with the liver, then with the kidney. It was almost as if energetically the kidney were stuck, pulled up and stuck, obviously not physically, onto the pancreas. And when I was working in there, I pulled it back.

There is stagnation in the heart. It was as if this side [left] of the heart had more energy than this side, but the primary cause isn’t the heart. It’s the weakness in the lower chakras so you overcompensate with the heart. And I kept hearing Heyoan saying, “When you connect with your patients, you need to begin focusing on the hara and the lower chakras.” The reason there’s a weakness and clogging that was deep in the heart was because this chakra [third chakra] is torn open. It was overcompensating by running energy through here. Remember that acupuncture line I said runs up through here?

Now there was less energy in the heart on the right side than on the left. So I moved it [the energy] over. So it wouldn’t surprise me if you felt stagnation here. The other thing is, if you’re worried about any arrhythmia, the cause is from the third chakra area rather than all the traditional things. I know that’s not traditional. But of course I can watch all that stuff too, cholesterol and fats and all that kind of stuff. So there are some of those.

But the heart itself, when supported by the lower organs and the metabolism in the body and the lower chakras, will be fine. So my recommendation of what you need to do is to really strengthen in here [in your lower half]. Now this [chakras three and four] is all restructured, so you will feel different there. And I’ve put a lot of power into the hara, tan tien, and I worked on the coccyx. So [stay] down in your legs, and when you are in the hospital [working], really feel the hara and connect here. Instead of just connecting here [the heart and solar plexus areas] with the patients, make the hara strong. It is okay to use these chakras [the heart and solar plexus], but put a cap over these chakras, the third chakra and the fourth. Just imagine a little cap protecting you. And that’s about it.

Do you have any other questions you want to ask me?

RICHARD W.: So my structure—I’m top heavy?

BARBARA: Characterologically? Yes, masochistic psychopathy.

RICHARD W.: And it’s not flowing? There’s upward displacement and energy trapped in the torso?

BARBARA: Yes.

RICHARD W.: Physically, I had a heart attack two years ago. What did you mean when you said the heart was doing the work of two?

BARBARA: Both chakras. The heart chakra was also doing the work of the third chakra. Remember I said those muscles [on the back of the heart] were—it was almost as if the word were old. I didn’t want to say it because it was a pretty negative statement. But it was almost as if those muscles—you know how when people get old, they lose the connective tissue in the muscles, like it’s stringy and hard? That’s what the muscles on the lower right chamber of the heart look like on the back, like cardboard. I don’t know if that correlates with anything.

RICHARD W.: Scar tissue.

BARBARA: That’s what it is.

RICHARD W.: Because [the cardiologist told me that] the interior wall of my heart doesn’t move well. It’s hard. Scar tissue, dead heart muscle.

BARBARA: Just on that side or the whole heart? Because the top part looks a lot better.

RICHARD W.: The bottom part, the interior wall of the right atrium is stiff because . . .

BARBARA: I’m seeing it on the back on the right.

RICHARD W.: (Points to the rear of the heart, correlating to the area Barbara was viewing.) That’s the scar tissue, so it doesn’t contract vigorously. But [you say] the problem then is really lower.

BARBARA: The cause is, [it’s] the weakness in here [solar plexus], the problem with the sugar metabolism, this whole chakra being torn out, and then you’re not going down to really rest in your power which is down here [tan tien]. So something like tai chi would be really good for you because that would redistribute the power. What’s not good for you is connecting to your patients too much through the heart. That’s not good because it’s already overworked because of the weakness [below], the way I see it.

So two years ago you had a heart attack?

RICHARD W.: I had surgery.

BARBARA: You had surgery? I missed that. Did you have a bypass? Well, you know what I saw? It was funny—it was almost as if your whole aorta were pushed over this way [to the right] too far, and I pushed it back. [On the energy level.] All the energy along the aorta, I pushed back to the left. I guess they moved it during surgery.

RICHARD W.: They probably did.

BARBARA: That’s why there’s such a difference in the right and left side here [in the heart area].

Unfortunately, at the time I gave the healing to Richard W., I was just closing my practice in order to have time for teaching and writing, and I did not see him again. It would be interesting to know how he would have progressed if the healings had continued.

I asked Dr. Sarant to write a letter giving medical information about Richard W. that could be compared with the reading. Here it is.

I sent my patient Richard W. to see Barbara Brennan for several reasons. Richard W., himself a physician, has a great interest, as I do, in healers and healing that are unorthodox. Richard W.’s history is that, at the age of thirty-seven, he suffered from a huge inferior wall myocardial infarction [that is, a heart attack] and underwent coronary artery bypass surgery. He also infarcted and had considerable damage to his right atrium [the significance of which shows in the reading above]. Richard W.’s father had, himself, died at the age of thirty-eight, and at the time of Richard W.’s disease, he certainly suffered from a feeling of hopelessness, as if there were no way out of the emotional and situational morass in which he felt himself. He was interested in getting different perspectives on his disease.

We decided that the best tack in going to see Barbara would be to tell her nothing a priori and see what she came up with. Her reading was truly incredible and rather awesome. While she didn’t come out and say, “Aha! I see you’ve had a heart attack,” her reading revealed a valuable and rather incredible description of a myocardium that had been damaged by ischemia; that is, she described a heart that had suffered from a coronary attack. She describes a stagnation in the heart . . . and a weakness and clogging that was deep in [the] heart. . . . Very interesting is her comment that . . . [the left] side of the heart had more energy than this [the right] side. . . . For in fact, Richard W. suffered muscle damage to both left and right ventricles but also to the right atrium. The right atrium was the most damaged, and it is probably this that Barbara saw (“stringy and hard . . . the muscles on the lower right chamber of the heart”). Anatomically, if you look at the posterior of the heart, it is mostly made up of right atrium and ventricle. If you could see through someone’s back and look at the heart, you would be looking at mostly right atrium and ventricle; and this stringy and hard part of Richard W.’s heart was his (damaged) right atrium and ventricle. It is impossible for Barbara to have known this except via her ability to see inside the body.

Other aspects of the reading are no less impressive: Barbara states emphatically that his “sugar metabolism is off a little,” which, interestingly enough, did not become a clinical problem until almost two years after the reading. Richard W. does now, in fact, have type II diabetes mellitus. It is interesting to speculate that this delay in apparent clinical disease was perhaps secondary to some manipulations in his energy field. Unbeknownst to Richard W. at the time, he in fact does also have some biochemical evidence of slight hepatic dysfunction. His liver function tests are slightly to moderately elevated, confirming Barbara’s statement (“could use some cleansing in the liver”). Her comments about the thyroid gland being underfunctioning could not be substantiated; his thyroid function tests have remained biochemically normal.

Other parts of the reading were functionally correct while formally incorrect. It is interesting to compare some of Barbara’s reading with dreams, or with people who telepathically receive information. They are sometimes almost right. That is, while the overall validity of the reporting is undoubtedly correct, there are instances of slight exceptions.

Thus, it wasn’t Richard W.’s brother who died when Richard W. was twelve; it was his father who died when Richard W. was nine. But Richard W. admits that his relationship with his father was like two brothers. It seems to me that some more work and research needs to be done on specific parts of some readings. While Barbara was completely correct in seeing and describing the anatomical and physiological abnormalities in Richard W.’s right atrium and ventricle, she made no specific comments about his left ventricle. Could this be because the left ventricle is tucked more laterally in the chest and thus one doesn’t have as ready access to it? Some questions to ponder.

Bioenergetically, Richard W. certainly has a tight and spastic diaphragm—that is, he has a rather severe diaphragmatic block that Barbara certainly picked up on and expounded on at some length. It is interesting that she notes a heart stagnation, which she attributes to this block.

I believe physicians can best utilize the services of healers by keeping an open mind and remembering that physicians certainly aren’t the holders of the first nor last word on illness and disease. We need to show some humility and to keep an open mind.

Richard W. had some interesting comments on the reading: He found himself incredibly and deeply moved by the experience, yet he could not consciously determine why or what it was about the reading that was so moving. And he told me that several hours after the reading, he became extremely tired and had to take an hour or so nap. He compared it to the fatigue he experienced after acupuncture treatment.

I certainly hope that there will be many more joint consultations between physicians and healers. Each can benefit greatly from such joint ventures.

The training includes the study of the human energy field (HEF), or aura, both from the scientific point of view and from that of clinical observations by healers. It teaches the anatomy and physiology of the HEF; psychodynamics of the HEF, including energy blocks and defense systems as manifested in the HEF; the development of Higher Sense Perception to perceive the aura and gain information about the cause of illness; channeling spiritual guidance; hara healing; core star healing; and a variety of other healing techniques. It explores individual issues through deep personal process work directed toward uncovering the unique healer within. Five-day classes are held five times a year on Long Island, New York.

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You already give yourself healing, even though you may not call it that. What is the first thing you do when you hurt yourself? You usually touch the hurt part of your body. You may even grab it to help stop the pain. This physical instinct also sends healing energy to the hurt part. If you relax and keep your hands on the injury longer than you normally would, you will find an even deeper healing taking place. Every mother touches, holds, kisses, or caresses her children when they are in pain. She does the same for her other loved ones. If you take these simple reactions and begin to study them, you will find that when you touch someone whom you love very much, there will be a stronger effect than if you are touching someone you don’t know. Most likely you have given your touch a special essence—the essence of the love you have for that person. You see you knew healing all the time but were unaware of it.

When you are joyful, happy, energized, or in any other kind of good mood, your touch will be more pleasant to others than when you are in a bad mood. The energy within a bad mood touch is not the same as that within a joyous one. How you are in any given moment is expressed through your energy. When you learn to regulate your moods and therefore the nature of your energy and your energy flow, you will soon be using your energy for healing. That is what healers do. They simply learn to perceive and regulate their energy in order to utilize it for healing.

These personal everyday experiences, which I’m sure have taken place since we were cave dwellers, have grown into the basis of laying on of hands healing. It has been around as long as there have been human beings. The ancients were aware of healing power coming from hands. Each culture explored and utilized this power from within the framework of its knowledge and traditions. In his book Future Science, John White lists ninety-seven different cultures over the face of the globe, each of which has its own name to refer to the healing or life energy fields. Life energy fields have been known in China and India for over five thousand years.

I call the life energy that surrounds and interpenetrates everything the universal energy field, or UEF. I call the life energy associated with human beings the human energy field, or HEF. It is more commonly known as the human aura.

I have been developing, studying, and utilizing HSP for many years. I have found more specific ways to differentiate between the types of HSP. It includes all our normal five senses—sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell—as well as additional senses. One of these senses, our intuition, is a vague sense of knowing, such as knowing that something good is going to happen but you don’t know what it is. Another example of intuition is when you know someone is going to call—you may even know who it is—but you don’t know exactly what it is about.

Another of these senses is what I call direct knowing. This sense gives us complete and specific direct information. For example, we know a certain person is going to call, when they are going to call, and what they are going to say. Or, if asked a question about something that we think we know nothing about, we know both the overall concept and the specifics of the answer. Usually with direct knowing, we don’t know how we know the information. We simply know it.