The energy around us is positioned as an ancient and universal practice available in various cultures: popular approaches seek to heal the body, mind, and spirit. This can take several forms in many cultures and spiritual traditions. In this blog, I will describe energy healing in different cultures starting from the East and going towards the West, showing the cannons and diversity of this practice.
How is energy healing practiced in India?
In India, energy healing practices can be performed in the following ways: through Reiki, Pranic Healing, and Ayurveda. These approaches involve various methods that assist in the equalization of anatomical energy or ‘prana’ using meditation, breathing exercises and placement of hands.
In Indian traditions, energy balancing is viewed as a technique that helps an individual’s prana-hole (life force) to be in synchronicity with the universe. Of Japanese origin, Reiki has gained popularity in India and consists of the placement of hands on a patient and the intention to heal his body. Using no-touch techniques and focusing on the energy field surrounding the body – Pranic Healing works on cleansing and energizing the chakras. Ayurveda is an ancient Indian system, which uses energy balancing in combination with herbs and dietary measures to enhance health.
What are the main energy healing methods in China?
Energy healing practices in China comprise mainly Qigong and acupuncture. These methods also aim at restoring the imbalance of energy, or “Qi” in the human body, using exercises or needle acupuncture.
The qigong which is practiced today is said to have been taken from the complex movements of Chinese opera and the advance surgical theater. Qigong includes movement and breath control in order to allow the maximum flow of energy in all directions within one’s body. It is an everyday performance designed to preserve normal state of health. Acupuncture is also an ancient technique that involves the placement of tiny needles along certain meridians of the body to correct the imbalance of Qi for healing purposes. Both methods are part of TCM in general and have been practiced in the field of physical and emotional healing.
How is energy healing practiced in Japan?
Reiki, leverages placing hands on the patient to channel ‘universal life force energy’ to them. This healing method is very famous due to its calming and de-stressing properties.
Reiki is a healing process that was discovered in Japan during the early 1900s where the patient is in a lying position. The practitioner places his or her hands resting on or near the patient, conducting healing energy. Such energy is said to activate the body’s inherent healing abilities, relieve stress, as well as promote emotional stability. Today, reiki is recognized globally, yet, owing to the proper historical research on the healing procedure of Reiki, it can be seen that its origin remains in the Japanese culture of worship, in particular the Oneness with the life force.
What energy healing techniques are popular in South America?
In South America, energy healing is common among the native peoples for example shamans where it involves the use of ceremonies and rituals to treat and bring back the balance of the body’s energy. The shamans perform the function of mediators between the real world and the world of spirits.
Shamanic healing is an energy healing technique prevailing in one of the most ancient civilizations of South America – the Peruvian culture. The shamanic activities include the actions of purifying negativity and bringing balance back using rituals, songs, plants and sound. In the process they channel guidance from spirits and ancestors transforming the physical energies of the people relative to the environment and other cosmic forces. Such ceremonies would tend to address the physical illness treating, emotional and spiritual states as well.
How do Native American cultures approach energy healing?
Energy healing in the Native American cultures is both a normal practice and integrates with spirituality practices. Even in the case of energy healing services, people include herbal therapies such as smoking and the use of sweat lodges to include nature as cleansing agents.
The practice of energy healing from the Native Americans is inherently a sacred practice that incorporates the thought of spiritualism and mother nature. Taking smudging – for example, sacred herbs including sage are burned and the smoke entered around to heal the individuals from negative energies. Spiritual enhancement activites like sweat lodges involve construction of a hot hut where indoor participants get in to purify body and spirit. Healing processes typically require creating the right environment through the use of chanting, drumming and prayers so that healing energies can reach the people who need it and the people who support the stricken ones and the positive energies that are supposed to flow within them.
What role does energy healing play in African traditional medicine?
Energy healing, which is practiced in African traditional medicine, encompasses spiritual healing, herbal treatment and communing with forefathers. Sangomas are an example of these healers who use the power of energy in the body.
Also in African traditions, people are more diversely spiritual in the aspects of energy healing since there are steps taken to reach out to the ancestors. Sangomas, the traditional healers of the culture, cast spells to direct spirit energies through the head and ears and connect with the spirits. The focus of such magical interactions is the restoration of the body that is compromised, usually spiritually and within the context of interpersonal relationships. Much energy healing incorporates the use of herbs and sacred practices with lots of people’s input.
How is energy healing viewed in Western cultures?
The practice of energy healing is however still in the Western world gaining acceptance with then growing energy healing methods like Reiki, therapeutic touch, and crystal healing. For these reasons, while rational criticism of such treatment practices is applicable, there are multitudes of people who use it as a complement for simply decreasing stress levels and normal emotional wellbeing.
Western countries have recently taken considerable interest to energy healing therapies. Still, some practices such as Reiki, Therapeutic touch or crystal healing have established themselves. Many people resort to healing methods to relieve themselves of stress, anxiety, emotional blockage and so on. Energy healing is usually employed together with orthodox medicine as an additional technique and more and more experts in this field are practicing these therapies in wellness and medical clinics.
Conclusion
However, energy healing is not a homogeneous practice. Each culture adapts it to its own practices and spiritual traditions. Whether it is through the chakras, Qi, or spiritual rituals, energy healing has the fundamental principle of restoring the balance and harmony of the internal environment and the external one. Energy healing takes care of cultural barriers and permits patients to find other ways to achieve good health as more people require a change to a worldly approach fostering energy healing.
Different approaches such as these may contribute to a broader view of what energy can achieve in healing practices around the world, encouraging a better appreciation of other peoples’ ways and the advantages they offer.
