Throughout time and history, numerous cultures across the globe have understood that human beings are not just made out of “physical matter”.  There is more to us than our “mundane” matter, and if we can grasp the concepts of vibrations, frequencies and energy moving in us and around us, we can feel the “subtle” body. If we dare say that these are the energies that underlie everything in the universe, we can also say that we are subtle beings walking the earth in physical form.

The ancient Chinese Meridian system, the sacred Hindu and Tibetan chakra system, the Mayan and Incan energy systems, the Egyptian and African energy bodies, the Jewish mystical energy system called the Kabbalah have traveled through time to reach us. Many energy practices inspired by these systems like Acupuncture, Cranio-Sacral Therapy, Ayurveda, Reiki, Reflexology, Biofeedback or Homeopathy attend to our physical and energy bodies. They also provide support to our mental, emotional and spiritual health. Alaine Duncan (1) acupuncturist rightly says:  “Trauma isn’t the story, it is the vibration.” 

Browsing through my website, you may realize that I work somatically, with trauma, both developmental and shock. I include generational legacies inherited through a convoluted process of compressed energies at conception, which encompasses the world of the Pre- and Perinatal. Working with these topics encourages us to work with the vibration of trauma, with body energies, what they mean to us and how we can heal as we attend to these vibrations. 

There are, of course, the “energy fields”- the measurable electromagnetic fields generated by living beings at all levels (cellular, organic)- and there are also the more subtle energy bodies called biofields: subtle and commonly accepted fields emanating from us from our “pulsing units of life”. Although these fields are not visible to the human eye, they can be felt in different ways by the practitioner: hands can be used as a diagnostic and healing instrument as they tune into the biofield.

Transferring this body of work and its fine attunement from face to face/table sessions to online sessions is possible when we are able to intentionally tune into the subtle body present in front of us or on the screen.  Since energy follows intention, the practitioner can sense and move the body’s vibrations and re-establish balance, in person or online. Although I am not following any of the above-mentioned models, I work intuitively with my intention and hands to guide me through this process, as taught by Kathy Kain and Steve Terrell. In this healing work, attending to the vibration of the body also means attending to our very early attachment patterns. 

In her remarkable Encyclopedia on Energetic Anatomy Cyndi Dale explains this phenomenon: you can heal from a distance. What follows are the most relevant extracts from chapter twenty-five. (2)

Hands-on and distant healing proving subtle fields and a non-local reality.

“Distant or absentee healing is a well-known concept and a reality among subtle energy healers, and even the religious, who use prayer and positive thinking to invite healing for people who are not geographically present. Considerable evidence underscores its effectiveness. It can be explained by energetic connectivity, which assumes the presence of fields that can generate these connections through what has been called a “nonlocal reality”.

Studies on therapeutic touch professionals have demonstrated positive results in areas including pain relief. * In his paper reviewing sixty-one such studies, Dr. Daniel J. Benor, a respected medical doctor and author on bioenergy, states that “distance, even thousands of miles, does not appear to limit the effects of healing.”**

Healing touch is another hands-on energy practice that works with the energy field to support the body’s natural ability to heal. It is currently used in hospitals and clinics worldwide and is taught in universities, medical and nursing schools, and other settings. Research on its effectiveness in more than sixteen areas suggests that physical healing is possible through accessing the biofields. ***

How do these and other such methods work? It is hard to know exactly, but one likely explanation is that energy fields can overlap and interconnect from on person to another. It is known that biofields exist because they have been imaged with newer technology, including Kirlian photography, aura imaging, and gas discharge visualization. 

…

Other research establishes the ability of one person to affect another through these fields. …  An individual cardiac signal can also be registered in another’s EEG recording when two people sit quietly opposite one another. ****

This interconnectivity of fields and intention is a marriage of subtle energy theory and quantum physics. … For centuries, healers have been reporting the existence of interpenetrating energy fields around the physical body.

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While these fields extend far beyond the physical body, quantum physics explain how one person’s field can interact with someone else’s thousands of miles away…. all living beings are interconnected in a nonlocal reality. Having touched, two particles can affect each other across time and space.  Through intention, our personal field can interact with someone else’s field and instantly transfer information. Research in resonance and sound shows that if living beings operate or resonate on similar vibrations, one can affect the other. “

(1) Duncan, A. and Kain, K., ((2019) The Tao of Trauma. A Practitioner’s Guide for Integrating Five Element Theory and Trauma Treatment. North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, CA.

(2) Dale, C. (2019) The Subtle Body. An encyclopedia of Your Energetic Anatomy. Sounds True. Boulder, CO. 

• * E. Keller, “Effects of Therapeutic Touch on Tension Headache Pain,” Nursing Research 35 (1986): 101-105; D. P. Wirth, “The Effect of Non-Contact Therapeutic Touch on the Healing Rate of Full Dermal Wounds,” Subtle Energies 1 (1990): 1-20; G. Rein and R. McCraty, “Structural Changes in Water and DNA Associated with New ‘Physiologically’ Measurable States,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 8 (1994): 438-439; Jeanette Kissinger and Lori Kaczmarek, “Healing Touch and Fertility: A Case Report,” Journal of Perinatal Education 15, no. 2: 13-20.

• **Daniel J. Benor, “Distant Healing, Personal Spirituality Workbook” Subtle Energies 11, no. 3 (2000) 249-264; www.WholistichealingResearch.com
• ***www.healingtouchinternational.org
• ****L. Russek and G. Schwartz, “Energy Cardiology: A Dynamical Energy Systems Approach for Integrating Conventional and Alternative Medicine.” Journal of Mind-Body Health, 12, no. 4 (1996): 4-24.