My mom has a reiki healer that she's been going to for a couple years. The healer is a member of our church, and she feels called to work with healing and angels and has a prayer before every session. My father hates it. He believes she's working with the devil because she doesn't have the priesthood. So I asked him point-blank if he thought women could have the gift of healing. He said he didn't know, which is big of him. I know he's a product of the patriarchal society that is our culture, and it's hard to let that go--especially when the church is also patriarchal.
So I've been thinking about this for awhile now. I really do like the idea of people given the gift of healing--it's listed as a gift of the spirit. So which ones can you trust? Are there people actually working with dark angels out there, creating false miracles and drawing people away from Christ? Probably. I would like to find a healer that has a positive aura and radiates spiritual power that I can feel. I'd actually like to BE an energy healer, but I don't feel the calling for it and so I don't think it's one of my gifts. I know my chakras, or nerve endings, or whatever you want to call them, are out of balance. I'm unhappy with a happy life, and faithless in the face of a multitude of blessings. I don't want to depend on drugs again, I want to fix the root of the problem. I think a serious and skilled energy healer would be able to help immensely.
In my work, this is something I think about/struggle with constantly. I remember when I was in herb school and was first really introduced to plant spirit medicine I was very "wait, say what?" about it. Then in massage school as I learned about acupressure and cranio-sacral work and chakras, I was still very uncertain, but I had some really profound experiences. Now I'm approaching a point where the idea of Reiki or some sort of more informed energy work really appeals to me and I am having to reconcile it with the principle of Priesthood healings. I have a very strong testimony of the healing power of the Priesthood... but I also have a hidden testimony that I've had profound experiences without/outside of it, particularly one very recently that I feel was direct divine inspiration with regards to chakras in birth. Also, having learned of faith-based blessings performed by women in earlier days in the Church, and knowing that really... faith and worthiness are the engines that make Priesthood effective, I've very much started to ask myself exactly what IS the Priesthood, and what does it really do, and how does that go with my intuition, faith, and my own ability to use my hands to heal?
ReplyDeleteI'm sure I'll post those answers as they come...
These verses have helped me on my path to reconciling energy "vs" Priesthood
ReplyDeletehttp://lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/131.7-8?lang=eng
Oh I like it. Thanks for that. It makes me believe that to find a true healer, it needs to be someone with 'pure eyes'. That whole "by their fruits shall ye know them" thing, too.
ReplyDelete