CHAPTER 5 The healing encounter
As we have seen in the previous chapter, the rhythms of one person’s electromagnetic field can be registered in the electroencephalogram (EEG) of another person when they are in physical contact, but also even when they are not touching. This is the basis of the ‘healing encounter’. The experienced therapist will use the resonance between the two fields to enlist the receiver’s own self-healing powers in order to amplify the effects of the therapy. The healing encounter is particularly effective if the receiver ‘instinctively’ feels that the giver understands him and what he needs.
The nature of yuan leads us to realize one of the most basic, yet most profound, rules of Shiatsu: what you do is important, but not nearly as important as the way that you do it. When training in East Asian medicine, one often comes across the legend of the old doctor in Taiwan, or Macao, or some other vague/specific setting, who only ever uses the same two commonly used acupuncture points for every condition, and achieves miraculous cures. It is a legend with a message; the techniques or ‘treatment protocols’ we use are the vehicle for other healing influences, which include the resonance between giver and receiver.
Eleven million ‘bits’ or units of information from our senses is the minimum number estimated to reach the brain each second. Of these 11 million, our conscious awareness registers … 50 bits, according to the maximum estimation. The remaining 10 999 950 are experienced as ‘intuitions’ or ‘hunches’, among other things. According to the Danish mathematician, Tor Nørretranders, ‘trust your hunches and intuitions – they are closer to reality than your perceived reality, as they are based on far more information.’*
* Estimation of information reaching brain from senses (Zimmermann 1989). Estimation of bandwidth of consciousness (Karl Küepfmüeller 1962).
As much as possible, we need to tune in to these signals and accord importance to our perceptions, as they are a part of our yuan, our energetic link, with our receiver. Some lucky individuals are born with a natural ability to resonate with the fields of a wide variety of people and to use that resonance consciously to identify and adjust distortions in the fields of others; this is what is often called the ‘healing gift’. Those of us born without this gift are not devoid of the capacity for sympathetic resonance, since it is inbuilt into instinctual human response patterns; simply, it is undeveloped and we cannot use it consciously in normal circumstances. With application and training, however, it is possible to develop awareness of some of our subliminal responses and this is the theme of Chapter 6 (on Self-development).
There are two aspects to the therapeutic encounter. One is the practical aspect of dealing with clients, their different needs and problems, in conjunction or in conflict with our own needs and problems. The second aspect is the nature of the energetic relationship between giver and receiver, the yuan, the healing connection. What creates it and how do we develop awareness of it? To some extent, the answers to these questions can be sought from the self-development and training methods outlined in Chapter 6; however, there are certain basic qualities to be defined here so that we have an idea of what we hope to develop.
