So much has happened within the last 56 hours that it is hard to comprehend. A little earlier today, I got home from my first ever Reiki conference. Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll be coming down off this high any time soon. But while so much of it is still with me, I have to get it down, so here it is...
The Gainesville Reiki Assembly has been putting on this conference for about six years now, although it was the eighth annual conference. The main coordinator is a lovely soul by the name of Delores (but everybody calls her Dee) Mitchell. With a few loving, caring folk, she managed to gather a small group of people, along with wonderful presenters to create a weekend of magic. I guess the best way (or best for me) of recounting the weekend is to tell it as it happened.
Day 1
I arrived a little after 1:00 on Friday after going past the place and driving a good five minutes down the road. I met Dee, and several other people. Everyone was just standing around talking, getting to know each other. I moved upstairs where the presentations were to be, and started talking with Janet and Becky. While I was doing this, I noticed Katie come upstairs. (I met her downstairs earlier.) She went over to a chair, and put her bag down, then shook her shoulder. At that instant, I closed my eyes and saw the line around her shoulder blade that needed to be worked. Rather than do anything (although I felt the need), I continued talking with Janet and Becky.
Janet had asked where I was from and what I was doing. When I mentioned massage, she told me about her shoulders. Not one to miss a moment, I asked her to lay down on the bench she was sitting on, and started working on her. I was working with my eyes closed most of the time, just following where her problem was. I did some moves that I have never done, and some that I just plain old don’t do very often. I then worked some energy on her and then we were being gathered for the opening.
Dee led us in an opening greeting, then turned to the first presenter Day Devi-Doolin. Day showed us some yoga breathing and movements. They were all very interesting, and energizing. (And yes, I do remember them.)
At this point, there was a short break (at least I think this was the correct chronological place). I had looked over the railing down to the front lobby and saw Katie again doing something, then moving her shoulder. I headed down. As I have talked before, we all have this point where we may not be sure enough of ourselves to offer help. Part of that reason is that if we do offer help, we’d better help. I had been arguing with myself to as to whether I felt comfortable with offering help, or sure enough in my abilities to be of help. I went up to her and asked her if she was having trouble with her shoulder. When she said yes, I offered to work on it. We sat in the other room while I followed the lines that I had seen earlier. I worked both shoulders some, and a little on her back. Then I added energy to seal it in.
Back upstairs, the group of us sat around and talked about Reiki and things. We discussed the problems in Florida with the massage claiming that Reiki is massage, and that all practitioners need to have massage licenses. We talked about pure Reiki, or at least tried to define it. This led into discussions over there being no set baseline to Reiki instruction. Basically, everyone teaches something different which makes it hard to quantify the different levels.
One thing surprised me about the group was that out of the 20 people there at the moment, there were only four or five Reiki masters, including myself. I felt honored when Dee introduced me along with the other masters there. I can only hope that what I offered as part of the discussion was helpful.
Next, we had a presentation by ‘Super’ Katie (the person I had worked on earlier) on crystals. 'Super' comes from an awakening/rebirth she had last year. (And besides, she is super.) Although Katie does not know Reiki (and I think it is only a matter of time until she takes the classes), she is a crystal healer. I might also call her a crystal intuitive. She told us how she used to work in a crystal store, and when people would ask about a particular rock, the information would be there, even though she hadn’t read any information on the rocks. She definitely has a connection that is live and open. She intuits (and/or is guided on) what she needs to help someone, and then does it. The love she sends off to people is a key to her success. Cool. One of the things Katie gave us was a list of common crystal energy associations. I have had numerous ones of these over the years, but I have never been able to remember much of any of them. Hers is much smaller than those I have seen, that I think I might actually remember them. I have wanted to for years, but could never grasp much more than one or two. (I guess hers is easy so that people with feeble minds, like me, can remember.) Katie was kind enough to let me post her chart on this site. Follow the link to get to it. The chart is also available from the front page. Common Crystal Energy Associations
The next presenter was Amber, a friend of one of my students, and I passed on a ‘hello’ from her. Amber is a very dynamic person. The first thing she had us do was go around the room and find something to remember each person’s name. As a group, we were able to call back everyone’s names, and that information stuck with us through the weekend. In fact back at he hotel later that night, I was able to recall everyone’s names. I can’t do it now because I can no longer picture everyone.
What Amber talked about was money, and people’s perceptions. There were a lot of good comments that came up during the discussion. The basic thought was that because we are spiritual healers, we feel we should not have money. That was a perception she wanted to get us to change. Unfortunately, my reaction was one of withdrawal. I make decent money at my full-time job, therefore money doesn’t concern me as much for my healing and teaching. And as I sit here, I realize that this is something I should be concerned with. At some point, I want to leave my well-paying job and do healing full time. I will still need to survive, so money will be an issue. Her point was very well made. It just took a couple days to register.
At one point during the day, one of the participants had mentioned that they did not have a reservation anywhere to spend the night, and was either looking for someone that could share a room, or spend the night on the beach. I had a good feel for her, so I offered. I had booked a room with two beds, and offered to share with anyone coming from up here to cut expenses. The only person that came from up here was my friend Lyn, and she stayed at her mothers not far from the conference.
Acaysha took me up on my offer. Again, I see a hand moving through all this. It’s the old ‘there are no accidents, only plans someone hasn’t told you about’. Her story is as amazing as anyone else’s there. She has been through cancer, epilepsy, and a lot of other things. She had her brain operated on to cure her epilepsy, and that left her (at age 25) with the mentality of a two year old. She made her promise to God that if that was the last time she had to be operated on, she would heal herself holistically, and go anywhere needed to heal others. She literally brought herself back from that state by learning Reiki and several other things. Like, wow. (Acaysha has been writing a book on what she has gone through. It should be very inspirational reading. She hopes to have in publication in a few weeks. I am waiting to see it.)
The last person that was going to be doing anything was Jane, who was going to sing. It was getting after 8:30, and Lyn had showed up. She and I and Acaysha decided to skip the music and go find some dinner rather than be looking for somewhere to eat at 10:00. We found a nice Greek/American/Italian place down the road. After dinner we went to the hotel where I gave two massages, and received one. Lyn returned to her mothers, and Acaysha crashed, so I went to bed. It had been a great day, and fun evening.
Day 2
The next morning, I had told Acaysha about my leg problems, and she did a healing on me. She used tuning forks, and a wand, and her hands filled with energy. She told me that I had picked up a parasite somewhere, and that it was in my colon and it was 15 feet long. She told me it was headed toward my heart, and that I probably would have had a heart attack in six months. She broke up the worm, and then cleared the old karma that was causing my legs to give me problems. This turned out to be temporary, but it gave me a lot of keys to work with. Her basic advice was to let go of the problem, and give it back to God. The reason it returned later was (as one of the presenters told us) we continue in certain patterns. Another reason is that we tend to make our problems a part of us. We identify with them, and to lose that problem is like losing a piece of who we are. Her advice while doing the healing was ‘let go, and let God’.
The first presenter for the day was Paul who talked about Tachyon energy. The place I had heard the term previously was on Star Trek. Paul talked a lot of scientific terms (which doesn’t bother me), but he talked too low for most people to hear him, and we lost interest. What I had heard sounded interesting, but couldn’t hear enough to follow it. The sad thing was that Paul is one of the top people in this field, and it is completely cutting edge.
The one thing I do know is that he had a lot of items there that had been charged with Tachyon energy, and that they were giving me (and others) a headache. He had left them out while the next speaker talked, and I reached across the room and shielded the stuff. It felt much better then.
One thing was neat. While Paul was giving his talk, a dove perched on the ledge outside, and stayed for most of the time. It was obviously interested in the energies.
The next presenter was Karen who talked about empowerment. This was a very important talk, which we all needed to hear. As we go through our lives, we give our power to others. This enables them to take control over us. I give my boss my power so he can treat me like he does. This is from the power and ability I give him. I allow him to have this. What Karen was showing us to do was to take that power back, and stop giving it up. Saying things like ‘I stop giving power to my boss. In fact, I take back any power I ever gave him.’ Watching people do this was amazing. The transition in them and the change in their energies was something else. Suddenly they were strong and vibrant. It was a very neat experience.
Coming back upstairs from our lunch break, I saw Dee standing on the stairs. I went up and started working her back where I felt she needed it. I did this for a few minutes, and then something shouted ARMS. I asked her what was up with her arms, but she didn’t know. I worked both arms, and then did energy. I had to hold onto her to keep her from melting down the stairs.
Scott was our next presenter, and he talked about energetic awakenings. He showed how he clears energy problems from people, and how he measures their energy levels with a pendulum. He told us about how he plotted the globe as a living organism (which it is). He showed us where the heart and stomach and all the internal organs were.
He then showed us where the energy lines and vortexes were through the United States. There actually is one around Miami, Florida, but it is fractured. However, it does explain Coral Castle. A quick second for those that do not know, Coral Castle was built by one man. He cut the huge blocks of stone, and raised them up by himself. He always claimed that he knew the secret of balance. A TV program years ago said that he looked for a place where the energies were right, and it claimed some people watching him thought he made the rock levitate. Hmmm, makes sense to me. (If you are interested in more information, see www.CoralCastle.com.)
There were two gentlemen that talked after Scott, but they weren’t on the program. I think we got the feeling that they just tagged along to try to sell their books. I don’t remember much about either, but the one book that the first man sold came with 3 dice (die?). They were colored on each side instead of numbered. The idea was that you ask a question, and roll the dice. Then you look up the combination of colors to learn about each of the three influences that are looking over your answer, and they give you an answer. In comparison, this is very similar to Tarot. With Tarot cards, one pulls the cards (and the level of psychic ability has an influence over the correctness), then, unless you know it, one looks up the meanings of the cards and their combinations in a book. Yes, very much the same thing.
Sam then introduced us to Antamantine energy. This is a new type of energy that comes with a few conditions. The conditions apply to the integrity of the practitioner. The rules are that you may charge to teach people this energy, but you may not charge for healing people. You may accept offerings (tips), but you may not specify how much that amount should be. Acaysha had it done on her shoulder, and was very impressed. It involved meditating for five minutes, then the energy could be applied for up to five minutes. Training is not that expensive, and it is not that far away. I am probably going to look into it some day soon.
The last presenter was Lisa, and she was a performer. Again though, we looked at the time, and decided that if we got dinner, we would best utilize our time. (We were looking at a sunrise meditation on the beach, and we wanted to do some more healing before the night was out.) I did buy one of her CDs, and if I like it, I will be getting back to her for more.
Lyn, Acaysha, and I, and Lyn’s sister Beth went to dinner. Then Lyn and Beth went back to the Dome to hear the rest of the performance while Acaysha and I went back to the hotel. I did bodywork on Acaysha, and then when the others arrived, I did bodywork on Beth. (These were one-hour massages.) I then got a healing from all three ladies. Again, I was clear.
Day 3
When the wake up call came at 5:00 the next morning, I asked Acaysha if she wanted to go to the meditation. Her response was something like ‘mmm, mmmmff.’ I didn’t think I had had enough sleep to do that, come back to the hotel, pack, go to the final day, and then drive an hour home. So, I set the alarm for 8:00. (As I understand it, there weren’t a lot of people that did make it to the meditation.)
I was up by 7:30 because of my legs. They were not as bad as before, and there was a lot of healing going on overnight, but they still bothered me enough to get me up. Acaysha and I traded Reiki healings before packing up. She told me that all my chakras were open. Cool.
We got to the Dome just in time for the first presentation. As I got upstairs, I said hi to Janet and a couple of others. I rubbed Janet’s neck for a couple minutes, and then put in energy. As I walked away, I heard her tell the person next to her that I have the hottest hands (and the heat generally is a result of the amount of energy). Now I’m thinking. ‘oh not again’, but I guess I should be getting used to it.
The presenter was Becky, who, instead of talking for 90 minutes, set up an angel walk. I have seen one of these before, but it was not nearly as powerful.
When we can, we go to the Darkover science fiction convention in Baltimore. They also have an area there that they teach ethereal things. I don’t believe the ones running it shield and ward it as well as they should, so I am hesitant to attend some things. The angel walk was being run by my teacher Bonnie, who took one person outside of the room, blindfolded them, then led the to each person in the room. That person would hold them, or hug them, or pat their back. The idea is to let people receive unconditional love. It was nice, but today’s was spectacular.
Becky had us line up in two lines facing each other, about a person’s width apart. One, by one, each person is asked to close their eyes, they’re given a big hug, by the person at the start (Janet), and then sent walking down the line. The people in the lines would guide the walker, gently along. Usually it was a matter of reaching a pair (one on each side) and receiving hugs, or energy, or just a squeezing of hands. The people in the lines were told to pass on any messages, or say anything they wanted to the person, if they wanted. Once a pair was done with the person, they were passed to the next pair.
I was the third person through the line. It was phenomenal. The touching of people, the care, the love coming through was unbelievable. I was fighting tears by the time I got to the end. It was that powerful. Becky was at the end of the line for a final hug. After receiving love of that nature, it is so easy to pass it on to the next person. I found it interesting that I wasn’t looking for words to say to each person, but words popped into my head as I touched them. I gave most everyone a hug, and passed on the words I heard. Sometimes I passed on energy. It was very neat. This went on a long time. The energy building in the place was amazing. We figured that next time we did this it would have to be at night as we figured the building had to be glowing.
The reason I figure this angel walk was so much more special than the other was because everyone here was already filled with love. They are healers. They share. They give. They send out joy. That is what made this walk special.
One of the people there, Richard, had a bag of small crystals. With each person that came by, he reached into his bag, pulled out whichever crystal wanted that person, and pressed it into their hand. It was a wonderful idea. It is a great reminder to trigger the memory. Very, very nice.
After that, we all decided that it was lunch time, and people started to move to the first level where the food was. I needed water, I needed grounding. Marie had asked me to look at her arm and do some massage on it. She just started massage school down in Sarasota (south Florida). I think she’ll be very good when she’s done. I worked on her arm with some massage, but mostly I did energy work. I massaged from top to bottom forcing the negative energy toward the fingertips, then I just pulled it out. I worked it a little bit more, then gave her lots of energy, and a hug.
I moved downstairs, and started for the water when I saw Becky sitting across the room. I went over and started working on her back where I felt I needed to. I passed on some energy, and then gave her a hug and thanked her for setting up the angel walk. If for nothing else, that made the weekend.
Finally, I made it to the water, and got a little food. I went outside and was standing by a table where Lyn and Beth and others were eating. I looked up and saw this huge snake going by and made comment about it. This got one of the ladies onto her feet and over near me. Normally, I don’t like snakes either, and I was not going near it, but this one had no interest in us. I put my hand on the lady’s back, and passed calming. She knew what I was doing, and thanked me.
The last presenter was Rick, whose comment was ‘and my talk has to follow this?’ What he had to say was very interesting. It had to do with (and I’m sure it’s being spelled wrong) Khundalini rising. From what I can remember, Khundalini is like and energy force that will come up through you to connect to your higher self (and I probably don’t have that right, or even close). When all your blocks are removed, this is your next step and is a wondrous thing. But if there is still garbage, or other things blocking the path, it can be very bad. Rick described cases where people developed paralysis, or partial blindness, or extreme sensitivity to light, sound, and touch.
This is what he referred to as premature Khundalini rising. It is speculated that a lot of people currently in mental institutions are there because of this. One of the first things that has to be done when this occurs, is remove all stimulus. After that, it may just be a waiting game. I am not sure what else there is to do other than get someone that knows what they are doing to look at it. Medical doctors constantly diagnose it as other things. But as Rick said, always go to the medical doctor in case it is the problem caused by something else. Wow.
After that, Jane came and sang for a while. We were told that we could do healing while she was singing if we wanted. I immediately went out to the car and brought in my table. I set it up, and then just started to grab people. I was doing about five to ten minutes of massage on the back of their body, back, backside, legs, and feet. It was lovely. The temperature was just right, the music was wonderful, the emotions and energy were just filled with love. I wasn’t scanning or anything, I was just working. With each person, I sensed what to do, and changed with each one.
I must have done about 10 people. It was just so wonderful. I had offered to several people initially, to work on them if they stopped by the motel room, but none did. As they got off the table, they were saying that next time they would take me up on my offer. It was a very fulfilling experience. I gave out business cards and told them to keep in touch. I hope they do. This was a wonderful group.
The last person I did was Rick. He kept commenting on my style. He does some massage, but he is not licensed. He was asking what style it was or what routine I was following. I didn’t really have an answer for him. What I was doing, changed with every person that got on the table. My movements were governed primarily by my intuition, and then by how slippery their clothes were. The pressure changed accordingly too. Rick had said that I had chosen a pressure that was just right for him.
As I was working, people were leaving, so I had to stop and get hugs occasionally. It was so wonderful and loving. When I finished with Rick, I packed up. He asked if I wanted to participate in the closing prayer before I left. I gladly joined in. There were six of us left by then. Kelly lead the prayer of thanks, and we said our goodbyes. I was then on the road for an hour’s drive (float?) home.
Dee had mentioned trying to put something together in six months instead of waiting another year. I told her to let me know if I could help with anything. I would do what I could to help make something happen. She asked me about presenting something. I figure I can come up with something.
All in all, it was a spectacular weekend. I enjoyed so much the opportunity to be with and learn from so many talented healers. It was something I was desperately in need of, and thoroughly enjoyed. I’ll carry this feeling and pass it on. Spreading the love and joy is necessary. As I stated in a previous entry, someone described me as a pebble hitting water, and letting its energy ripple out. As all the healers left, we knew that our mission was to be the pebble, and start as many ripples we can.