Brought to you by Vitality Directory BBS (619)634-1912 This file may be copied in it's orginal form The Subtle Energy Workshop Welcome to `The Subtle Workshop', a new column devoted to defining, describing and exploring Subtle Energy! But, wait a minute. What is Subtle Energy anyway, and why you should you care about it? well, briefly Subtle Energy is an important new form of healing which has emerged into consciousness, and increased use, in California and elsewhere. In this first column I will define Subtle Energy and explain why I think you should be aware of it. Then, in succeeding columns, I will discuss in various forms of Subtle Energy and describe how you can explore some of them. And I promise you this - Subtle Energy work is not like any other form of personal growth or deep healing that you have ever tried! But first, a word about myself. who is Don Gerrard and why is he writing about Subtle healing? A fair question! Since 1970 I have found myself publishing, editing and sometimes writing books on alternative health care. During the 1970's I was fortunate enough to publish a number of pioneering holistic health books, including some you may be acquainted with: `The Well Body Book,' `The Tooth Trip,' `The Massage Book,' `Getting Clear - Bodywork for Women,' `Seeing With the Mind's Eye,' and over 25 others. In the early days of the holistic health movement I began exploring every alternative health care technique that I could find, whether it came from the East or west, or was medical, nutritional, or therapeutic in orientation. I tried to become familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of each emerging discipline, including natural foods nutrition, relaxation, meditation, stress-reduction, visualization, and massage and bodywork, as well as with the new verbal therapies, including Gestalt, client centered, and cognitive work then coming to the fore. I never wanted to be a practitioner of any technique, but instead focused on learning about (and trying out) how they worked. This became a kind of obsession with me, and it has helped me understand more fully the field of holistic health - both intellectually and through personal experience. All of the techniques that I studied emphasized non-invasive, chemical free, self-empowering methods for increasing one's health and well-being. But of all the techniques I explored, none caught my attention quite so much as those which would come to be know collectively as Subtle Energy. Why? Because some Subtle Energy techniques seemed to be able to penetrate more deeply in less time with fewer problems than any other form of healing I ever tried. Over the 20 years since I began these explorations, I have found Subtle Energy to be the most efficient path to deep healing and personal growth I have ever experienced. It is this understanding, borne from my life and my work, which I will share with you in this column. What is Subtle Energy ? I don't know who used the form first, but Einstein used `subtle energy' to describe any energy that exists in the Universe which cannot be measured. So subtle energy began life as a scientific term for any phenomena which lay beyond the grasp of the scientist, and which could not be explained by standard scientific methods. In recent years, the term Subtle Energy has been adopted by psychics, healers, and some researchers to describe faint energy fields that surround living things. These fields are too faint to be detected by any instrument, or by the five senses, but gifted persons and specially trained people can detect colored fields of energy called `auras' surrounding people, animals and even plants. And radiesthetists - people who employ techniques similar to those used to dowse for water - can detect and work with Subtle Energy fields, and have done so in Europe for the past fifty years. As more practitioners and researchers have begun to work with Subtle Energy, a consensus seems to have developed that this type of energy is essential to life, and when imbalances occur in the subtle energy fields surrounded a person's body, physical distress is not far behind. Some adventurous researchers are even proposing that Subtle energy fields and consciousness are intimately related in surprising ways. In short, a kind of unified Subtle Energy Field Theory is currently emerging, one which recognizes the importance of this unseen part of ourselves as a necessary component of everyday health and well-being. While some practitioners seek to rebalance a person's Subtle Energy fields as a precursor to better health, others concentrate on understanding more about the fields that surround plants an minerals, in the hopes of using this natural energy in some way to help people, or the planet herself. In later columns, we will explore some of these ideas further. In addition an increased activity on the part of Subtle Energy practitioners , increased interest in various types of Subtle energy research., and the proliferation of small companies offering various types of Subtle Energy products, there is now an International Society For The Study Of Subtle Energy and Energy Medicine (ISSSSEEEM) which lay people as well as practitioners can join. This organization includes pioneering doctors, well-respected researchers, practitioners, and interested lay people. It holds a conferences, publishes a very good journal, and allows anyone to get to know the major and minor players in the field. Best of all, the organization plans to hold their third annual conference in San Diego next year !! Yo learn more about ISSSSEEEM, write or call them at 356 Goldco Circle, Golden CO 80401, (303)278-2228. Why Should You Care About Subtle Energy? Subtle Energy work has many advantages. Among these are the fact that it is toxic free, chemical free, and without side effects. It can help balance emotional states, and tone the body often without laborious exercises or costly treatments. And it can be combined or adjunctive to many other types of therapy - including medical drugs - without causing disruptions or other problems. If you are a holistic health practitioner, some form of Subtle Energy can add strength and flexibility to whatever you do now. If you are a lay person guiding you own daily health, inner development, and personal growth, some types of Subtle energy can bring you insights not found elsewhere. In the next Subtle Energy workshop I will describe some of the basic forms of Subtle Energy currently being explored by researchers and practitioners. You can learn more by reading `Vibrational Medicine' written by Richard Gerber M.D.. Don Gerrard can be reached at (619) 456-5248.