Quest Magazine

Printed in the Summer 2016  issue of Quest magazine.
Citation: Samarel, Nelda, "A Visit to John of God" Quest 104.3 (Summer 2016): pg. 101-105

By Nelda Samarel

In 2011 I was scheduled to teach the winter school at the center for the Theosophical Society in Brazil, one hour from Brasília. It seemed an opportune time to visit Abadiânia, the home of the world-renowned healer, John of God. After all, I was “in the neighborhood” and, since I have been practicing and teaching the energetic healing modality known as Therapeutic Touch for over thirty-five years, my interest as a healer was keen.

According to Google Maps, the trip from the Theosophical center to Abadiânia should be two hours and thirty-two minutes. However, we took a “short cut,” and the resultant four-hour ride took us through the bucolic Brazilian countryside.

Arriving in Abadiânia, my home for the next week, I was struck by the poverty of the rural town. As I learned the following day, most of Abadiânia is structured around and economically dependent on the Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola, or “the Casa,” as the location of John of God’s clinics is known. Scattered throughout the small town are pousadas, inns where visitors to the Casa are housed; restaurants; Internet cafes; and shops selling essentials for travelers.

The pousada in which I stayed is owned by and designed for Americans, containing extra comforts not always available at other pousadas. This includes items such as window screens, Internet, familiar food, and an English-speaking staff. Although I tend to be an adventurous traveler, it seemed prudent to provide a high level of comfort for myself in the event that I would undergo a healing. The pousada provided three simple but delicious meals daily, a private room complete with hammock and writing desk, and beautiful grounds. Most importantly, the other guests, about twenty in total, all spoke English. We became like a family, sharing our experiences and taking care of each other.

Normally first-time visitors come with a guide who organizes transportation from the U.S., arranges for lodging, assists with formulating and translating requests for healing; accompanies you to the Casa, guides you through the phases of the process, and generally cares for you during your entire stay. Being comfortable traveling alone, and having read a fair amount about John of God and the healing process, I had opted for minimal guide services.

Who Is John of God?

João Teixeira de Faria, internationally known as John of God, born in Brazil in 1942, is a medium and a healer. He maintains, “I do not cure anybody. God heals, and in his infinite goodness permits the Entities to heal . . . I am merely an instrument in God’s divine hands.” It is estimated that, directly or indirectly, he has treated up to 15 million people during the past forty years. John of God, referred to as “the medium,” has no medical training, but permits past doctors’ and spiritual teachers’ spirits, referred to as “the Entities,” to use his body and consciousness to diagnose and treat individuals. When he is healing, he is referred to as “the Entity.”

It is said that thirty-three entities work with John of God. Some of these include medical doctors: Oswaldo Cruz (1872–1917), Augusto de Almeida (1871–1941), Bezerra de Menezes (1831–1900); and José Valdivino; saints: Francis Xavier, Francis of Assisi, Joan of Arc, and Ignatius Loyola; archangels: Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, and Uriel; and great souls: Jesus Christ, Morya, St. Germain, and Koot Hoomi.

From my own experience, I cannot attest to the fact that any of these Entities were present through John of God, the medium. But I can attest that, although I saw him, the physical man, on three successive days, and came within two or three feet of him each day, it was as if I was with three different people. It seemed that I was with the same person (or Entity?) the first two days, but on the third day he was entirely different. His eyes were the eyes of a different being, and his entire countenance was that of someone else.

João left school after the second grade. He had his first healing experience when he was sixteen and began performing healings in Abadiânia in 1978 at age thirty-six. Soon after, he founded the Casa there. In 1981 he was tried for practicing medicine without a license, but an outpouring of public support resulted in an acquittal. One year later there was an attempt on his life.

The medium is at the Casa every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and has healing sessions mornings and afternoons on each day, beginning at 8 a.m. and not leaving until all healings are completed. Every week, approximately 1500–2000 people visit for healing. He sees each one on all three days. Thus he may have up to 6000 sessions each week. There is no charge for healing, but donations are welcome.

Healing Practices at the Casa

The Casa is a complex of single-story structures, all painted white with blue trim. Both the interiors and exteriors are spartan and clean, providing only the bare necessities. The main building includes an assembly room where all enter and wait for the healing sessions. The room is open to the air and has a small stage at the front. Other rooms in this building include a room for surgeries, a recovery room, a room for discarded wheelchairs and crutches, and two “current rooms,” obtaining their names from the palpable healing energy, or current, generated by John of God along with hundreds of meditators. There also are buildings containing a kitchen and dining facilities, offices, restrooms, a pharmacy, and a store. Outdoors are sitting areas and gardens and a large parking area for buses, cars, and taxis.

Before arriving at the Casa, I was instructed to write three very brief requests for healing. These requests would later be translated into Portuguese, the only language the medium speaks. It is not every day that one has the opportunity to make healing requests of a medium in Abadiânia, so I obsessed over what to ask and changed the requests numerous times. I finally settled on three requests, two of a spiritual nature and one for physical healing of my spine. My rationale was that, given this unique opportunity, spiritual requests were of much greater importance as, unlike physical healing, they may be carried to future incarnations.

Outside the assembly room are a window and counter, behind which are two volunteers, translating and helping people to shorten requests. I had used an online translator program for my requests, so I asked one of the Casa translators to check them for me and make any necessary corrections.

By 7:45 a.m., everyone requesting healing is seated or standing in the assembly room waiting for the morning session. On the days when there are healing sessions, everyone entering the Casa is required to wear white, as it is believed that white helps maintain a higher vibrational frequency. In the assembly room were several hundred persons sitting on benches and on the floor, and standing far back into the courtyard. Many more were to arrive. Because I was aware of the crowds, I arrived at 7:15 and was seated in the first row of benches, directly in front of the stage. A few more formalities, and then all were requested to recite the Lord’s Prayer, the only religious rite at the Casa.

When it was announced that people who were to see the Entity for the first time were to form a line, I took my place in the long line, holding the paper with my three healing requests. The line moved slowly through the next room, the first current room, where approximately 100 people seated on wooden benches were meditating. We silently and slowly continued through this room and entered the second, larger, current room, also filled with people meditating, until we reached the front, where the Entity was seated on a small platform. Throughout this room were several extremely large crystals, some of them at least four feet in height.

As I approached the Entity, with three or four people ahead of me in line, an assistant approached me and took my requests. This assistant, like all who work at the Casa, was a volunteer. He walked with me until I was in front of the Entity and gave my requests to him. The Entity looked at me, looked at my requests, and said something to the assistant, which was translated to me as “Take the medicine.” The Entity then scribbled something illegible on a fresh scrap of paper and handed it to me. This was my “prescription” for the herbs I was to take. The entire process was less than fifteen seconds, and the assistant ushered me to the next room. I must say that I was terribly disappointed. I’m not certain what I expected, but this certainly was a letdown.

I proceeded to the Casa pharmacy to have my prescription filled. There I received a jar of herbs made, I believe, from dried flowers, that I was to take as directed for forty-two days. I later learned that all the bottles contained exactly the same herbs, but the Entity psychically impressed something on the prescription paper and the “pharmacist” filling the prescription, also a medium, transferred that impression into the bottle she handed to me. To my Western way of thinking, this all seemed far-fetched.

Following healings, everyone is instructed to go to the large kitchen and outdoor dining area, where each person who receives healing is given a bowl of homemade soup infused with healing vibrations. The soup is prepared in huge pots, more like cauldrons, by volunteers. As I stood in line waiting to receive my soup, I looked around and saw an amazing variety of others who were receiving healing. There were people like me who had the luxury of traveling thousands of miles out of curiosity, others who traveled in the hopes of curing serious illness, and people from all over Brazil who traveled great distances by bus to see the Entity. These travelers actually slept on their buses during the days of travel and while staying at the Casa. There were people in wheelchairs, on crutches, deformed children, and babies being carried. It seemed that I was surrounded by pain and suffering. I thought that if only a fraction of these people were helped, then all the effort was worthwhile.

As mentioned before, there is a room at the Casa that is filled with crutches and wheelchairs. I was told that these were left by people who came and experienced complete healings so that these items no longer were needed. I was told stories of others who experienced full healing from serious and life-threatening illnesses.

My own experience was not so dramatic. Within a few days my spiritual questions were very clearly answered in my meditations, and several weeks after I returned home, my unrelenting and long-standing back pain suddenly disappeared. Alas, the pain relief was short-lived: I needed to have back surgery several months later. I wonder, however, if I had returned to the Casa, would I have been completely healed? Or was the pain temporarily relieved in order to permit me to emotionally prepare for the surgery that I required?

Surgeries

For many who visit, the Entity prescribes his own form of surgery, which may be either visible or invisible. Those receiving invisible surgery are called to sit together in a room with eyes closed for about ten minutes. The Entity then says something and tells them that they are healed and need to proceed, with caution, back to their pousadas by taxi and lie in bed for twenty-four hours, during which time their meals are brought to their rooms. People having invisible surgery with whom I have spoken said they felt as if they actually had surgery, with all the associated discomforts, and slept for most of the next twenty-four hours, after which they felt fine.

Some volunteered for visible surgery, which is performed publicly in the assembly room in front of patients who are waiting to be seen. The second day, as I was waiting to see the Entity, he came out into the hall with six assistants and three patients. All stood on the small stage in front. At that point I was seated on the edge of the stage, approximately four feet from where the Entity stood.

The first patient, a man, was instructed to stand facing the group. He opened his shirt so that his chest was exposed. The Entity waved his hand across the man’s forehead, then chose a knife from a tray held by one of the assistants and made a vertical incision about four inches in length into the man’s chest. The man was standing, eyes closed, smiling, and did not even wince as the incision was made. There were a only few drops of blood, which was amazing considering the depth of the incision. The Entity then made another incision parallel to the first but somewhat shorter. While this was happening, I saw the outline of a red equilateral triangle on the man’s chest, in a position so that the incisions were in the exact center. (The equilateral triangle is a symbol that is present throughout the Casa, with the three sides representing faith, hope, and love.)

The Entity placed his fingers inside both incisions, not wearing any gloves, moving his fingers. He then withdrew his fingers and took surgical sutures from a tray held by another assistant. He deftly and quickly sutured both incisions, obviously having much experience. Having worked as a nurse in emergency rooms in several hospitals, I never have seen more expert suturing.

That evening, when discussing this with others in my pousada who had also been sitting in the front of the room, I learned that no one else had seen a triangle. Much later on, when with one of the local young men who was driving me to the airport in Brasília, he explained that most people don’t see what I had seen, and that the triangle guided the location of the incisions. I have found no explanation for this.

The “Current,” or Energy

It is entirely possible that the healing at the Casa occurs because of the powerful energy there. Being a Theosophist and a long-time practitioner and teacher of Therapeutic Touch gives me some familiarity with energy and healing. According to Theosophical teachings, human beings are energy fields. It is the pattern and rhythm of that energy, its vibration, that determines our relative health or illness. Energy healing is strengthened when done in the midst of strong and vibrant energy fields.

It is said that part of Brazil has a geological foundation of crystal rock, a foundation that carries a high energy. This was quite apparent when I was at the Theosophical center outside Brasília, with its crystal foundation and abundant waterfalls. At the center, I taught Therapeutic Touch in the mornings and saw patients in the afternoons. Unexplained healings occurred during those afternoon sessions, healings that I could neither explain nor replicate. One such event was the case of a man with a large tumor which had been present for several months on his arm. He had seen a physician and had an MRI scheduled for the following week. He requested me to treat him with Therapeutic Touch. As I was doing Therapeutic Touch, I felt that my hands were being guided.

The next morning at breakfast he approached me and showed me his arm. The tumor was gone. There were other instances, but that is the most dramatic example, and I am certain that it was influenced by the energy present.

In addition to the energy of the crystal foundation in Abadiânia, there are several hundred people meditating in the rooms through which the patients to be healed pass as they approach the Entity. At the Casa, this is referred to as “sitting in current.”

Each who comes to be healed is expected to take their turn sitting in current, usually once every day. This involves arriving at the Casa before the start of the healing session, entering the current room between the hall and the large room where the Entity is seated, taking a seat on one of the wooden benches, keeping the eyes closed at all times, and meditating silently until all who have come to see the Entity have passed through the room and have been seen. The process takes between two and a half to four hours, depending on the number of people to be healed.

Also, in the large room where the Entity is seated, more people, both patients and mediums working with the Entity, are meditating while the line passes through. The large crystals mentioned earlier are placed throughout this room, further strengthening the energy.

The resultant power of all the beneficent energy created reminds me of the healing sessions at Pumpkin Hollow Retreat Center and Indralaya with the gifted Theosophical healer and clairvoyant Dora Kunz. Dora gathered large groups of nurses around her at her healing workshops for almost thirty years. All present, approximately seventy-five to ninety nurses and patients, meditated together before Dora’s healing sessions, producing a similar effect.

Additional Theosophical Parallels

According to John of God, illness may be explained karmically. It may be the result of karma for actions in a previous lifetime or earlier in this lifetime. Sometimes a life of illness may be chosen by the soul prior to reentering the physical world in order to more quickly work out previous karma, thereby achieving a more rapid spiritual progression. This is consistent with Theosophical teachings about karma and reincarnation.

Consistently with Theosophical teachings, John maintains that the body is healed from within. Theosophical doctrine also teaches that all manifests from within outwards.

John of God has said that, to be a medium “requires loving God above all else, and your fellow human beings as yourself.” He works long days and takes no remuneration. Clearly he is altruistic at heart. H.P. Blavatsky has told us, “True Theosophy is altruism, and we cannot repeat it too often.” Her teachers, the Mahatmas, emphasized having the welfare of humanity at heart. In this respect, we may say that John of God is a true Theosophist.

What Really Is Happening in Abadiânia?

Much has been written in the news media about what is going on in Abadiânia. Several have attacked John of God as a charlatan, denying the possibility of what they are calling “faith healing.” Those who pride themselves on having scientific minds say there is no proof that any healing has occurred. Experiment is the gold standard of scientific research and requires observation and measurement. The physicist Max Planck said, “Experiment is the only means of knowledge at our disposal.” According to the paradigm of experimental science, if it cannot be measured, it is not real.

I, too, pride myself on having a scientific mind. For decades I was a nursing researcher conducting federally funded studies. However, more and more we are understanding that not all phenomena are observable or measurable. Yet those phenomena are no less real. In fact Shankaracharya, the renowned exponent of Advaita Vedanta, maintained that if something can be measured, it cannot be real, implying that the real is beyond measure.

In 2012 Oprah Winfrey journeyed to the Casa and was taken with the veracity of what was happening, saying she had a “most powerful experience.” Researchers from Harvard visited and came to the conclusion that “something” was happening, although it could not be explained.

The fact is that there has been no research examining the efficacy of what is happening at the Casa. We have only the anecdotes of tens of thousands of people, many who have experienced healing and many who have not.

I have no explanations, nor do I have any certainties about what I experienced and witnessed in Abadiânia, but I do know that something is going on, something is happening, unexplainable as it may be.

Nelda Samarel, Ed.D., R.N., a longtime student of the Ageless Wisdom, has been director of the Krotona School of Theosophy and a director of the Theosophical Society in America. She serves on the executive board of the Inter-American Theosophical Federation. A retired professor of nursing and a researcher, Dr. Samarel has numerous publications and presents internationally.

Printed in the Summer 2016 issue of Quest magazine.
Citation: Smoley, Richard, "Clairvoyance and Healing" Quest 104.3 (Summer 2016): pg. 106-110

An Interview with Robyn Finseth 

By Richard Smoley 

Part of the Theosophical tradition, which goes back to its beginnings, has to do with clairvoyance. It’s by no means a skill that everyone has. In fact, those who are adept at clairvoyant vision are rare, even in the Theosophical Society. It would seem that there are only a few in each generation who have this ability and who have been able to cultivate it to the degree that they can make use of it.

One such person is Robyn Finseth. Raised in a Theosophical family, she possessed clairvoyant abilities at an early age and was able to develop them under the guidance of Harry van Gelder and his sister, Dora Kunz, who was no doubt the most distinguished Theosophical clairvoyant of her generation. Later Robyn trained as a chiropractor. Today she has a chiropractic practice in Portland, Oregon, where she uses her clairvoyant abilities as part of her overall skill set.

I met Robyn when she was visiting Wheaton a couple of years ago, and was very impressed by her insight. She and her husband came to visit my family and me at our home, and she seemed to have a very clear sense of us and our situation. When I was driving them back to Olcott, she turned to me and asked, “Did you want to be a novelist?” And in fact I had — with three unpublished novels in my desk drawer to prove it. Yet it was not a subject that had come up at all in our conversation, nor was it anything I had been thinking of in recent days or even weeks.

Naturally, when we set out to do an issue on healing, it occurred to me to interview Robyn about her abilities and how clairvoyant experience appears to her subjectively—as well as to find out how she uses them in her medical practice.

            This interview was conducted by e-mail in February-March 2016.

Richard Smoley: Could you begin by talking about your background? How did you come to have clairvoyant abilities?

Robyn Finseth: I was, simply, born with this ability. I cannot remember a time when I could not see colors or auras or otherworldly things, whether they were of past human beings or animals or simply apparitions of a variety of entities. I am a second-generation Theosophist who was raised by parents (Beatrice and Ken Lawrence) who became members in their youth. Consequently, I was born into a family who could understand this “strange child” and not place me in a situation that could become either harmful or exploitative.

My grandmother had eighty acres of farm and forest. As a child I would sit in the woods for hours just observing the entities around the trees and the natural habitat. I also understood at a young age that not every child could perceive what I did; therefore I kept silent about my sight. In fact, I was terrified of others knowing what I could do. I made my parents promise that they would keep my secret and only share it with those who could help me understand this world. I am pretty sure that intuitively I understood that there was a certain danger in this for me, whether this understanding was from another lifetime of exploitation, or simply from realizing that my abilities needed to be respected and used wisely.

As a young child I was introduced to a gifted healer named Harry van Gelder (brother of Dora Kunz) who helped my mother with some health issues. I was maybe seven at the time, and I remember visiting him in Vancouver, where he was practicing as a licensed naturopath and osteopath. He was a skilled clairvoyant who used these gifts in his healing, and it was there that I began my journey into health care. I remember the first time I saw him and how he practiced, inspiring me to one day be a doctor too — pretty strong thoughts for someone so young. But I never varied from this path; I just took some time getting there.

There were many prominent adults who were respected in this field of vision who helped me as a child. I was part of the service of the TS called the Knights of the Round Table, led by Perry and Edith Karsten, both prominent in the Portland Lodge, along with Anna Berkey. Many times both Perry and Anna helped me understand what I could and couldn’t do, without placing undue emphasis on either. They helped me balance my life without losing my way in this alternative universe. Believe me, this alternative universe is quite intoxicating even for a child. I remember spending hours in my room or alone, enjoying a world that only I could see. And just hearing myself say these words, I can only imagine what a psychologist would have done to me had I been born to another type of family. I suspect I would have been silent about everything.

So with the help of these friends both here and in my alternative universe, I was able to translate what I could do and see into the world of service.

Smoley: Tell us a little about your subjective clairvoyant experience. What do you see? How do you see it?

Finseth: Learning how to quiet the mind is one of the easiest explanations of sight. Those who practice and use meditation in their daily lives seem to understand this phenomenon more easily than others. It is in this quiet that we allow ourselves to be one with self, world, and universe. It is in this quiet that we clearly understand our directions as human beings.

Colors were more vivid in my childhood, and I suspect it was because I didn’t question the colors or the strength of their impact as much as I do as an adult. I think what people really want to know is how do I do it, and I can only respond by saying that I don’t use my eyes and I do use my eyes. It is in the in-between sight that I actually see. It is the glimpse out of the corner of your eye rather than looking directly at the object. If I am looking at an aura, I never do so directly, but rather after I have seen the person. Then I often look away or avert my eyes to something else — without really seeing that something else; I am actually focusing on the aura itself. Now people’s auras are their personal space. Therefore I also am respectful of this fact and do not “look” unless asked to do so.

Smoley: Please talk about your use of clairvoyance in healing. What role does it play? How do you apply it?

Finseth: I am a practicing healer, licensed as a chiropractic physician in the state of Oregon, where I reside. When people ask to become my patients, they have automatically given me permission to use whatever means I have at my disposal to help them. In my world, that means I use all my senses, touch, sight (both ordinary and nonordinary), and the help of those who sometimes come in with the patient. Not all of my patients understand the depth of my ability, as it isn’t necessary; they simply understand that I will help them in any way I am allowed to do so. Even though I have these other gifts, I can only see what I can see and do what I can do. There are many other factors present when a person has either a condition or an illness; consequently even with these abilities sometimes I simply cannot help.

So when you think of the term clairvoyant healing, it really is not an accurate description. Rather I use clairvoyance to understand the problem, which is presented from all aspects. This is true whether or not it is a physical manifestation of an emotional or psychological problem or simply an injury sustained in life. I help patients understand their conditions from a perspective of learning, as — if it is simply an injury — learning how and why the body ended up in this situation. I know from personal experience if we truly understand the why of the question, we more often than not either fix it or simply avoid that situation in the future.

Many people do not understand the impact that strong negative emotions can have on the physical body. There are times when the person in front of me simply does not want to hear that they have any part in their condition, who believe that their body  “just needs to be fixed”; those I cannot help.

Smoley: What does a balanced person look like, and how do we achieve balance?

Finseth: In my chiropractic world, balance is the achievement of full spinal movement without restrictions or pain. It is a body given the right nutrition and exercise to operate at its best each and every day. Traditionally, healing is the balance of the physical, emotional, and mental fields. Healing is the ability to be honestly objective of self without being critical. As Theosophists, we use meditation to aid us in this honest, objective look. Through kindness and love we can achieve what we are ultimately hoping to achieve: balance of self in this life.

Energy is a very important part of balance. In my observation, we have two kinds of energy: core and renewable. The core is what we are born with, and the renewable is the energy we can tap after sleep, rest, or through meditation. We must be cautious when using the core, as it is nonrenewable; it is the energy that is tapped when the renewable has been used up. You have all experienced times when you said to yourself, “I am burning the candle at both ends.” You are literally burning into your life’s core. When the core is gone, so is your physical life.

Now I can’t talk about balance without introducing karma and previous lives. As Theosophists, we accept that this is but one of many lifetimes. Both personally and with others I have worked with, I have found, that often we understand, at a very basic level, that which is in front of us for this particular lifetime. I always think of my dear, sweet friend Linda Jo Pym, who said to me, “ I just want to learn what is needed this time so that next lifetime I can come back and not repeat this one all over again.” I love this thought, and when I personally am facing one of my many challenges, I think, “OK, let’s get it done so we don’t have to come back and do it all over again.” We have all experienced challenges that keep showing up. Well, listen to the challenge, and maybe the next time try a new approach.

Smoley: Where do you think healing needs to go today? How should it fit in with conventional medical approaches?

Finseth: The beauty of modern medical practices today is that our boundaries have shifted away from the traditional medical model. We have so many avenues to explore with the acceptance of alternative health care as part of the whole of medicine. We have the ability to no longer simply take one suggestion but to look into finding many suggestions before we decide for ourselves on the best course of action. The first thing I tell my patients is that they are truly the best source of knowledge about their own health care. The only thing we as doctors or nurses or healers can offer are suggestions about what direction may be the best route. You, as the keeper of your own body, will know better than anyone what direction is best for you. Finally, Americans are no longer limited by only one kind of health care but can seek it from many different types of approaches. The Internet has opened many avenues of exploration for everyone, so that we can be much more informed about alternatives to any disease or condition.

Indralaya, the Theosophical camp on Orcas Island off the coast of Washington state, has long supported Therapeutic Touch (TT), a program begun by Dora Kunz and Dolores Krieger. This program has bridged gaps all over the world, as it teaches students (often nurses and doctors) how to channel energy to help direct the body to its optimal state. I have met several nurses who have used these teachings successfully in a hospital setting. I cannot think of a more traditional medical model than a hospital. If we can have TT in this setting, I would say we have come a great distance in alternative acceptance.

When I first began working in my own state as a doctor in 1981, we were at the beginning of being allowed into insurance coverage for patients. Since this date, there aren’t any insurance programs I am aware of which do not allow a patient to explore alternative health care. I know Oregon is more progressive than many other states, as we also have a prominent naturopathic college in our midst. So in my opinion our health care is moving into the right direction, which is the marriage of all forms of health care.

Smoley: Could you share some of your memories of Dora Kunz?

Finseth: I was a very lucky little girl who had access to Dora Kunz at a very young age. During one of my many times at camp on Orcas Island, Dora was there, and my mother arranged to have her read my aura. During these years Dora always made herself available to any of us who wanted more information. I remember being terrified of this reading, afraid that my sight was all my imagination and not really sight at all. The only memory I have of what she said was to simply continue along the course I was on and that all was well with my direction. This was also around the time I was connected with her brother, Harry, who helped me with these abilities many times in my young adult life.

When I was a young girl, my mother got Dora’s book The Real World of Fairies: A First-Person Account. I loved this book, as it helped me understand what I was seeing and helped me sift through information no one else could help me grasp. I also read a book by a doctor who used Dora to diagnose illness in patients, a very powerful book for me during these formative years.

Dora was a very skilled clairvoyant, far more skilled than I. Her book The Personal Aura, written later with depictions of auras, has always help me understand much of what I see. The easiest aura to read is the emotional one. It’s constantly changing with thoughts and feelings.

In my early thirties I went back to school to get my final degree, this one as a chiropractor. During this time I took some time off from my studies and worked with Harry at his clinic in Ojai, California. I stayed with him for several months and during this time he helped me set the course of my healing direction. Some years later, I was visiting Wheaton when Dora was national president of the TS, and I asked her for another session. During this time, I remember we were sitting on the porch, enjoying the early spring, when I asked her if I should attend the TT sessions that were just beginning at camp. She looked at me and said, “Why would you? Aren’t you working with my brother?” I giggle at this memory. I only attended one session of TT many years later, when I took my husband up for treatments.

Dora was never one to mince words. During a particularly difficult time in my life I sought her out for advice, hoping for some insight. Her answer to me was simply “Get over it.” Harsh, but honestly just what I needed to hear.

Smoley: There’s a lot about clairvoyance in books of many kinds. Often it seems that there’s some gap between the way the books describe something and the way it really is. Do you find that this is true with clairvoyant abilities? If so, how?

Finseth: If you put five people in the same room with an object and asked these same five people to describe this same object, you would of course get five different responses — a thread of sameness, but all different. Well, the same would be true of five clairvoyants, as there are so many layers of sight. The aura itself has so many layers, and sometimes when I read something another has said, I can see some of what they report, but not necessarily all of it. Does that make my vision more perfect or less? I think the answer is neither. I simply have my own vision, and I am very comfortable with it in analysis. The others may be in the same position of comfort with their abilities. I will admit that it seems a bit fanciful when some people  have claimed sight, but who am I to say that it isn’t really there? In my youth and my early training, I was taught to look for the truth of what I sensed or saw, and sometimes it would take some distance away from the experience to see the truth of it. We all indulge in wishful thinking, but that is what we want to avoid. Our work is to discern the truth of words from the truth of actions.

Smoley: Many traditions, including Theosophy, warn about the dangers of psychism. How do you feel about these warnings? Are they right? Are they overstated?

Finseth: Any form of intuition can be dangerous if used improperly. We can delude ourselves into thinking we are or aren’t something that may or may not be true. I would be very wary of enrolling in a course of study that promoted “channeling spirits” or used questionable methods as a source of answers. I think there are dangers of opening up to the universe in such a way that you become vulnerable to forces that are not positive. There certainly is a negative element present in this world. It doesn’t take much to understand that there is negativity possible in any avenue or way of life. I trust myself, and when I meet someone who is dealing in less desirable measures, I simply avoid them, putting a protective cloud around myself and that person, if for no other reason than to help direct negative into positive. I am very wary of those who profess such powers as to truly “heal” another human being. I am not saying it isn’t possible, but at what cost to either recipient or sender?

So, yes, there are dangers along this path. I was very fortunate in my life that my teachers were far more skilled than I and could help me develop what I use today in my everyday life.  

Smoley: How would you advise someone who was interested in developing capacities like this?

Finseth: I have been asked this question a number of times in my life, and I find it a very difficult one to answer. I do not know how I developed this ability, but strongly suspect that I simply developed it over many lifetimes. Somewhere in my development this ability was not turned off, and for this I am extremely grateful, as it has helped me throughout my life to be better at my job. I guess the best advice I could give anyone is not to be “ambitious” in development, but rather, allow the self to develop. If it is meant to be for that person, then it is to be. It is also to be used with caution: this is an ability that is easy to misinterpret. I always love the saying from Dora Kunz: “Clairvoyance is overrated; after all, cats are clairvoyant.” My interpretation of this is to learn humility.

Although I have the ability to see beyond the physical world, I am cautious in doing so. I am always reminded that when looking at others, it is really their personal information. Unless they ask me for advice, it really isn’t my business. I will admit that I have sometimes been curious about what is happening to someone, and the image is unavoidable. But I am not a circus act either. If you stopped me on the sidewalk and said, “Read my aura,” I would refuse. This has happened to me, and when under pressure I simply shut down and all of my senses are no longer available. Besides, I feel a bit insulted.

So, yes again, there are dangers. As comfortable as I am, I would be very cautious in helping others along this path.

Printed in the Summer 2016  issue of Quest magazine.
Citation: van Gelder, Kirsten and Chesley, Frank, "Compassion in Action" Quest 104.3 (Summer 2016): pg. 112-115

Dora Kunz’s Approach to Healing

by Kirsten van Gelder and Frank Chesley

 Dora van Gelder Kunz (1904–99), born on a Javanese sugar plantation, was one of the most memorable and influential Theosophists of the twentieth century. She possessed clairvoyant abilities from her childhood and was educated in their use by C.W. Leadbeater, the great pioneer of clairvoyance. Along with Dolores Krieger, she developed the healing modality known as Therapeutic Touch. From 1975 to 1987 she was president of the Theosophical Society in America. Longtime Theosophists still have many rich and fond memories of her.

This excerpt from a recent biography describes Dora’s work in the early years of developing Therapeutic Touch at workshops at the Theosophical centers Pumpkin Hollow Farm, in Craryville, New York, and Camp Indralaya, off the coast of Washington state. It also contains excerpts from an interview with her from 1984. —Ed.

It was not until the early 1970s, when Dora was over sixty years old, that she really came into her own. Initially she wanted to know if healing could be taught. Could those who had little or no religious education learn to heal? Could students with strong religious beliefs change their language and enlarge their views in order to practice in secular institutions without imposing their own religions on others? For example, could healing be practiced in nonreligious settings without reference to the Holy Spirit or other religious terminology?

Leading a group of intelligent, capable professionals in meditation and then supervising as they treated patients at Pumpkin Hollow Farm and at Indralaya, she was really in her element. At Pumpkin Hollow Farm, most of the treatments and discussions took place outdoors in the orchard near the brook. A patient sat on a bench as Dora demonstrated. Because the patient’s localized energy field extends beyond the physical body, Dora encouraged students and practitioners to gently move their hands and keep them four to six inches away from the patient’s body. She started at the top of the head and moved her hands over the patient’s head, neck, shoulders, all the way to the feet. That was repeated while she stood in front of the patient, again starting at the top of the head and moving down to the feet. Dora wanted people to become aware of subtle energies. She often kneaded a patient’s shoulders and upper back with her strong hands or put the palms of her hands on the patient as she worked. However, she encouraged others to keep their hands away from the patient’s body in order to become more sensitive to subtle variations in the energy field. Dora observed students and modified her approach accordingly.

Dora introduced city people to nature at Pumpkin Hollow Farm or Indralaya workshops while seated on a large canvas tarp, plastic chairs, or the grass in an old orchard. She did not present outlines or flow charts, glossaries, or other handouts. She told stories about healers. She was a master of understatement, so only those who could get in sync with her could make sense of the stories and follow their logic. For those who expected a logical progression that required little more than rote learning, she was frustrating. For those who did not attune to her through listening to the brook or participating in her meditation or respecting her for her fearlessness, her presentations came across poorly.

Dora was invaluable to those interested in clairvoyant validation of their experiences of subtle consciousness and the appropriateness of their meditation practice. Dolores Krieger, Dora’s partner in devising Therapeutic Touch, shared an example of the way Dora validated her awareness of a devic consciousness. The experience occurred while the two of them were walking through birch woods after picking wild blueberries. Dolores had a sudden perception of beauty and unity. Though Dolores was awestruck by it, Dora merely agreed, matter-of-factly, that the woods were beautiful. However, several weeks later, Dora spoke to a group in California about the beautiful birch woods near Pumpkin Hollow Farm and the deva associated with it. Only then did she validate Dolores’s exhilarating experience. Listening to a tape recording of Dora’s presentation, Dolores understood that she had experienced more than the physical beauty in nature: she had perceived a deva’s consciousness. Dolores commented:

She’s done that time and time again and — even though people would think she’s abrupt — she won’t give it away. She won’t throw it away, her world, by talking about what she’s seeing. Very guarded; it’s as though she has a treasure and she realizes how silly most of us are with that kind of information. If you get the right question and if you, yourself, have the insight or the wisdom or the understanding about something, it’s a whole other story. And then you find her to be completely different, a whole other person than you think she is . . . not because she wants to withhold it but she realizes that it’s more important for you to find out; it’s more important for you to perceive it.

Dora was not a philosopher. She gave simple teachings, and she acknowledged students’ insights and validated their realizations. Her attentiveness to individuals’ development reinforced one of her fundamental teachings: “We can change.” Human beings have the potential to change profoundly; they are not closed systems like machines. The transformation process encompasses vastly more than a single lifetime. There is a continuity of consciousness far more subtle than that associated with sensory awareness of three-dimensional space and linear time. Dora encouraged those she called “potential healers” to gain familiarity with the inner self and with expanded, subtle states of consciousness.

Dolores’s championing of Dora and Therapeutic Touch was crucial, though she conceded, “Dora really was the leader — because she had these capabilities.” Dora assessed patients much as nurses and other clinicians use observation of gait, balance, skin tones, respiratory rate, and other indications. But for Dora, these elements were combined with clairvoyance and an assessment across the past, present, and future. She could see pathologies in the vital (etheric) field as well as habit patterns in the emotional field. To some degree, she determined the likelihood for change — for better or worse — by being attentive to each patient’s unique temperament. She provided counseling, but her approach involved much more, since she also worked on energetic levels. She attempted to resonate with the patient’s inner self, that is, with the more subtle levels of consciousness associated with wholeness. By using her hands to focus healing energy, she helped patients experience calmness and meditative quietude. From that level of awareness, it was possible to catalyze the healing process and restore their integration into the matrix of wholeness.    

Dr. Renée Weber, a student of J. Krishnamurti and a longtime friend of Dora’s, conducted an interview that appears in Dora’s third book, a compilation of articles entitled Spiritual Healing (initially published in 1985 as Spiritual Aspects of the Healing Arts). Weber entitled the article “Compassion, Rootedness, and Detachment,” and in it she introduced those concepts relevant to healing. Weber was direct: “The healing force and its energies somehow speed up the innate tendencies toward order in the body. Now what is the specific role of the healer in this?” Dora replied, “The role of the healer is just to be an instrument; by his compassion and by his focusing to allow this healing force to flow through him to the patient. [The healer] is not necessary if the person himself has the strength to open himself up to the healing power, and is willing, at the same time, to become aware of his emotional and thought patterns which help to keep him in the state of illness, and to change them.”

Weber described self-healing as “the direct harmonization of the ill person with the healing power.” She postulated that self-healing, without the intervention of a healer, is possible. The Chakras and the Human Energy Fields, a book published in 1989 by Dora and her colleague Dr. Shafica Karagulla, cites a case in which a woman with a poor prognosis avoided surgery and meditated for several years in order to consciously change her habit patterns. Although the woman was successful, Dora said that self-healing is rare, often occurring when a patient is very close to death. As a result, she very rarely suggested that a patient dispense with orthodox health care. Regarding self-healing, Dora said:

It requires one’s awareness of his disordered patterns and a willingness and ability to let go of them . . . It is very difficult. I have worked with a great many people who are ill and they often feel that they are their patterns so that it’s more comfortable not to make an effort to change them . . . A person’s self-image — what he (often unconsciously) thinks of himself — is a very important factor in healing. (Emphasis here and in other quotes is in the original)

Dora offered a specific example of a person who “thinks of himself as constantly failing and rarely able to achieve his goals fully, this makes for a negative self-image which is very difficult to change. Most of us are completely unaware of how we picture ourselves. We may feel patterns of depression recur without connecting them to the lack of self-confidence in ourselves that we repeatedly are building up within us.” Once the person is aware of the negative patterns, changing them, she said, “is a very tedious process”:

One has to become aware of how one develops the beginning of this self-doubt every day and say to oneself: “I have enough desire to be willing to stop it the moment it starts and at that first moment of awareness to open myself to the positive energy which I can draw upon, which is also me because I am part of the universe and thus part of this healing power.” By becoming aware of the pattern the moment it begins, we nip it in the bud and change it by drawing up the will. That de-energizes the disturbed pattern and allows a new energy to enter in that may attenuate it. Self-image and health are connected because the different levels of consciousness are interconnected at all times.

Part of Dora’s approach as a healer was to help the individual become aware of negative habit patterns. She skillfully conveyed what she perceived in language that the patient would not reject. Unlike psychotherapists, she did not have weekly visits with patients for a period of years. She may have developed her habit of bluntness from her attempts to help patients gain insights and motivation to change even though she often had only a single session with them.

Weber asked about the role of the healer when a person is unable to change a negative habit pattern. Dora responded:

Dora: The role of the healer is to focus on the person’s potential for wholeness, which I feel is present in every individual . . . From my point of view, there is a point of consciousness within everyone which has the seed of wholeness. By wholeness I mean the potential to realize integration within oneself, and to actively direct the forces of one’s life, not to react only to the problems or the negative parts of one’s self. In each person’s makeup there may be many negative patterns but there is also strength, creativity and insight; a person need only be willing to draw on them, and these forces I consider the potential for wholeness.

Weber: Most human beings therefore scarcely tap the great reservoir of strength and potential creativity which you are calling wholeness. Do you actually perceive these to be part of our makeup, as you observe the fields in your diagnostic work with patients?

Dora: It is part of our human constitution. People who are born with great handicaps in life surmount them through something within themselves and reach that other level. Practically every person, if he can move through a crisis in his life and surmount it, feels at that moment a sense of inner calmness, a sense of direction.

Weber: Why don’t most of us draw more on that calmness and strength in daily life? Why does it seem to be latent and passive instead of active in most people?

Dora: Our whole attention in daily life is given to the minute details of living, particularly in our present society where we seem to depend on entertainment and stimulation from outside. We really are not aware of our own potential. Most people are involved with what catches their immediate interest or with the search for pleasure, not with the search for creativity and self-renewal . . .

Weber: Do people who become aware of these potentialities in themselves — people who are very interested in healing — do they at the same time strengthen that side of themselves?

Dora: I think they strengthen that side of themselves, but of course that does not mean that they turn into perfect human beings. They may still feel distraught and distracted by periods of lack of self-confidence or by other problems. It is hard for us to realize that everything is in flux, and most people have moments of feeling down, moments of lowered energy; but if they accept this period of fallowness as temporary they will regain the sense of being active. I have worked with many different healers and what is remarkable is that during the healing process, the healers can continue without a loss of energy because all their attention is focused on an outward movement — helping others, and during this process they forget completely about themselves.

Weber: To function in that outgoing way renews one’s energy, whereas to be self-absorbed and always revolving around the self [i.e., personality] drains one. Have the great healers that you’ve known been centered?

Dora: Centered and altruistic . . . In teaching Therapeutic Touch . . . we stress how essential it is for the potential healer to know something about centering. Centering is a practice which must be done daily. If one is a nurse, for instance, this form of meditation is not only practiced in solitude at home but right in the emergencies which come up during a busy hospital day . . .

Centering is a focusing within. It is helpful to focus one’s energies in the heart region. The first step is to be aware of any anxiety we might feel at the time and to try to dissociate from it for the moment. Shifting the focus to this center of quiet within is important in the healing process. Most healers experience it in one form or another, though often it is second nature to them and they can shift into it without much effort, without prodding from the conscious mind. When we train nurses, however, we teach them to do centering consciously . . .

There are many modalities of healing but Therapeutic Touch is one that seems eminently suitable for nurses. Therapeutic Touch entails that the nurse or healer, after centering, visualizes himself as an instrument for healing. The use of the hands makes it more effective, but it is not essential. The energy fields of the healer are focused through his hands and reach the energy fields of the patient and this helps speed up the innate healing power within the patient himself.

Dora mentioned qualities a healer must have:

From my observation, there are several common denominators which seem essential. First, the healer has to have a conviction or faith that there is a power which is greater than himself, on which he can draw. Secondly, he of course must have a genuine compassion and the desire to help others. Thirdly, to be truly effective, he has to leave his own ego or sense of self-importance out of the healing process. 

She also spoke about the importance of nonattachment.

Dora: Between the healer and the sick person there often develops a close, empathic relationship. If the healer feels that he is personally involved in the patient’s pain, he will feel anxiety, and anxiety, at whatever subtle level, is an energy that will be conveyed to the patient along with the healing energy . . . This will interfere, and in some cases I have even observed that people who identify with other people’s disease process may feel the pain in their own body. This is really not good for the healer, because it weakens his own energy.

Weber: You said that the healer has to have faith in a healing power, can that power be described in any way?

Dora: To me, this healing power exists and is real. I feel it has three characteristics: order, wholeness, and compassion . . . It’s part of nature and it’s universal. Therefore, it does not matter who calls upon it nor by what name. It is not for any race nor any particular religion. 

Compassion was to become the touchstone in Dora’s efforts to help students develop the quality of humaneness. Compassion, in her view, is the fuel that drives the transformation from “concern for others” into “altruistic action to avoid suffering and its causes.” According to Dora, compassion, altruism, and nonattachment can transform the actions of nurses and doctors into actual healing.

Kirsten van Gelder is a reflexologist in private practice. Her husband, Nicolas, is Dora van Gelder Kunz’s nephew. Frank Chesley (1929–2010) was a newspaper reporter and interviewer for over fifty years. This article is adapted from their biography A Most Unusual Life: Dora van Gelder Kunz, Clairvoyant, Theosophist, Healer (Quest Books, 2015, reviewed in Quest magazine, fall 2015). Excerpts from Renée Weber’s interview are taken from Spiritual Healing: Doctors Examine Therapeutic Touch and Other Holistic Treatments (Quest Books, 1995 [1985]).

Printed in the Summer 2016  issue of Quest magazine.
Citation: FourEagles, Russell, "The Oneida Fire Ceremony" Quest 104.3 (Summer 2016): pg. 116-121

A Native American Healing Ritual

By Russell FourEagles

When we were taking a break from gathering herbs to eat a sandwich, my grandma would tell me stories and legends. This is one of them:

When the Creator made man and woman, he made us perfect. As he looked us over, he made a little void in between our lungs, our backbone, and our heart. He thought about what he should do with this void.

“I know,” he thought, “I will create a little ‘heart box’ in that void for everyone. The heart box will be the source of a person’s love for other people and for me, the Creator, and it will also be the place for people to store their traumas and heavy emotions for a few days, until they are ready to give them to me.”

However, the Creator created the heart box before he blew life into us. After we were alive, guess what we did first as a speaking species? We started whining: “We need light so we can see, and dark so we can sleep; we need to know what is food and what do we do when we are thirsty, and how do we stay warm when it’s cold, and what is medicine and what poison, and where do we find shelter and for crumb sake where is the Home Depot?”

The Creator said, “Listen, all of you. This is very important, so pay attention: you are my children and I love you, and so I give you free will. You have the power to choose between positive and negative; let no one take that away from you, as I will not. But I advise you to concentrate on the positive and give the negative to me.”

As the Creator soon found, though, once we put stuff into our heart box it almost takes dynamite to get it out. It’s our junk and we are going to hang on to it at all cost, no matter what it does to us.

We humans tend to hang on to too much baggage such as anger, guilt, and pain. We tend to keep inside the hurts and sorrows from losses of family and friends. We also hang onto other life losses such as money and material things. That little place the Creator gave us to store our hurts was meant to be used for just a short while, until we were ready to let them go. But instead, we stuff our heart boxes with more and more hurts and traumas until we learn from our life’s lessons or die. We may often carry this baggage for many lifetimes if we don’t learn to let it go.

The heart box is like any other box. If it becomes too full, it breaks. Let’s say you and your spouse each come home with a one-pound sack of potatoes. You put your potatoes into a one-pound box and it becomes full. Then your spouse wants to put his bag of potatoes in the box, as well. So he, being a guy, forces the potatoes into the box, causing the sides to crack. You don’t want the box to break, so your spouse runs to the garage and returns with some boards, nails, and a hammer. He then proceeds to reinforce the sides of the box. And hey, guess what happens! You really can put two pounds of potatoes in a one-pound box. The problem is that the potatoes get mashed up in the process.

Now trying to keep too many potatoes in too small a space is just like what happens when we store more and more things in the heart box. Eventually everything gets mashed. That’s what we do to ourselves in the process.

It just so happens that the closest organ to the heart box is the heart. The heart pumps blood to our lungs and throughout our bodies. If the heart box swells too much, the pump can’t work and the lungs can’t move. This causes us to have difficulty breathing. Have you ever noticed that, when you experience a sudden trauma, such as witnessing an accident or a relationship breakup, the first thing that happens is that you have trouble breathing and your heart physically hurts? And that then, after a short while, you can catch your breath and the pain in your heart goes away?

What has happened is that, at first, the addition of the new trauma has caused the heart box to swell, so that it presses uncomfortably against the heart and lungs. But then, in an unconscious ability the Creator gave us, we have stolen energy from our own cells to build a wall around our heart box, just as the man reinforced the potato box so that it could hold more potatoes. Reinforced by the stolen energy, the swelling of the heart box is reduced, and the heart box returns to a size small enough for the heart to pump without hurting and the lungs to breathe easily again. Essentially this process allows us to compact more and more negative things, whatever they may be, into our heart boxes (the world’s first trash compactors).

For the most part, we men start with our shoulders and then move to our lower backs to steal energy to contain the things we put in our heart boxes, or it can happen in reverse order. Women seem to steal their energy from the Mother’s Cross, those lines drawn from the base of the skull to just above the bra line and from the center of the shoulder blade to the center of the other shoulder blade.

The problem is that when we draw on our cellular energy to reinforce our heart boxes, we weaken our cells. Weakening our cells weakens our aura as a whole and makes it easier for disease, weakened bones, weakened immune systems, and weakened emotional states to take hold in our bodies. I think everyone knows about the heart box, but most people don’t realize that the tightness they feel within their chest is from it.

One good way to unload our heart boxes is through the Oneida fire ceremony. The ceremony’s main function is for us to give all our painful memories and traumas to the Creator. We do this through writing things down and offering them up in prayer. This ritual helps us to heal and get stronger.

In the process, we uncover ever and ever deeper old hurts. You can think of the heart box and its memories as being like a pile of CDs (or, if you want to date yourself, 45-rpm records) all stacked up. As we give our painful memories to the Creator, we are, in essence, removing these recordings. This, in turn, uncovers other and older records of memories that slowly creep upward into our subconscious minds and then filter into consciousness. Often after a fire ceremony our emotions are quite intense, and it is the uncovering of these old records that causes the intensity. After all, such records are of painful memories that we have intentionally covered over, sometimes for many years, in order not to deal with them. When they finally come up, the feelings can last a week or more. If you don’t believe it, just try it. And as those old thoughts and memories emerge, write them down and make them the basis of your next ceremony.

If you write things down in the fire ceremony, complete the ritual, and they still come back again, don’t worry. It just means that you have stored those memories in your heart box more than one time.

Once a sixty-three-year-old woman came to me for healing. She didn’t know me, so on the first healing I explained the fire ceremony to her and mentioned that she had old stuff she needed to let go of because it did no good for her to hang on to it. I never mentioned what the old stuff was because I didn’t want to scare her on the first visit. By her third healing, she had done sixteen fire ceremonies. The day of her third healing, afterward she dutifully went home and did her seventeenth. About 9:30 p.m. she called, crying, and said, “This one thing always comes back no matter how many times I burn the damn thing.”

I could hear the tears falling as we talked. I said to her, “This is about your being raped when you were fifteen, isn’t it?”

For a second there was no crying — no sound at all, in fact, from the phone — just stunned silence. “How on earth did you know that?” she asked.

“I’ve known since day one, but I felt you didn’t trust me enough at the time to confide in me. But I think you trust me now, so I brought it up.”

“Why won’t it go away?”

“Well,” I answered, using my above analogy, “our heart boxes are a lot like the old juke boxes with the 45 rpm records all stacked up neat. The little arm would come down, pick up a record, play it, and then pick up the next one and play it, and so on. Let’s say you are the lady filling the juke box and you just love Elvis.”

“How did you know that . . . ahh. . . never mind.”

I continued, “So you take Elvis records and put one in every other record slot. What happens? You keep hearing Elvis over and over again. Now equate this process to the heart box. You do a fire ceremony and burn up the big E, and what shows up for the next fire ceremony? Of course, the big E plays over and over until you get to the bottom record.”

“But why would I put him in there so much?” the woman asked.

“Okay, here we go for a short lesson in history. You were raped when you were fifteen, and it took some time to get over. But by sixteen you had healed a bit, and you met this really nice boy. He asked you out, and what is the first thing you do? You take out that rape — that record — you had buried, and you look at it. Then you place it on top of the pile of records, so that now, not only is it on top of the pile, it is also still down at the bottom from where you pulled it out. But you don’t want it to be on top, so you go out and find some minor traumas to put over it so that you can’t see it again. You may even have to make minor arguments with friends or family, because they are easier to take than the real pain you are burying.

“Things are flowing fairly smoothly for you, and then you break up with your boyfriend. What do you do now? Why, you pull the rape out yet again and place it on top to see if you were damaged goods and if the rape was the reason why the breakup happened. But of course it wasn’t, so again you bury it.

“Then, later, you are out of school and meet the man you are going to marry. The first thing you do is look at the rape again to see if you are worthy. The answer is, of course you are. You did nothing wrong as a kid; you had no control over a vile, wounded pedophile. But by now, you have stacked that rape up in your heart box maybe twenty times from looking at it at different stages of your life. However, to get rid of it, you need only to keep on doing the fire ceremony. Keep sending the rape to the Creator and, I promise, when you get down to the bottom record of it, it will be gone. So keep on keeping on.”

I received a phone call from the woman about a week later.

“It took twenty-three fire ceremonies, but it is really gone! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can’t say it enough.”

She was a very happy girl when she got past her memory of that rape, I must say. It has been ten years since this lady had to do that many fire ceremonies. But she is still doing them for other things, and she told me she wished she had learned of this ceremony when she was thirty.

My personal belief is that each person is a healer of sorts. It is much like baseball. Everyone in the world can pick up a ball and throw it, even though not everyone is Babe Ruth. Likewise, everyone can participate in their own healing. If people would give their attention to the fire ceremony and let go of the things that bother them, it would be much easier for them to be healthier and happier.

For example, when a loved one passes away, hold onto the love and the good memories. But be sure to give all your pain of the crossing to the Creator, or God, or whatever you call your higher power. When you hold the pain in your heart box, it weakens your body, your entire immune system, and your aura.

I am sure that almost every person in the world knows by now what an aura is. But some people don’t know that our auras are made of the projections of the energy around each and every cell in our bodies, not unlike the light that fiber-optic lamps project. As I said, the Creator gave us the ability to draw energy from our own cells to reinforce the heart box walls. When that energy is lost, you lose the protection of the energy field or aura around you, and you get sick.

This is not to say that the Creator’s intention was for us to overload our heart boxes in the manner that we all often do. But at the same time, we shouldn’t feel guilty about having done so. Again, when the Creator made us, he made us perfect as we are. If we remember that we are perfect as we are, then we are not so inclined to judge against ourselves.

The Traditional Ceremony

As I have explained, I discovered that the most important aid to healing ourselves is the Oneida fire ceremony, which involves writing down your prayers and burning the paper so that your prayers ascend to the Creator. My grandmother passed down to me the following version of the fire ceremony:

“In the days of my grandmother’s grandmother,” said Gram, “there was no paper to write on, so the people had to gather the materials they needed for a ceremony from the woods. First they gathered pieces of birch bark and thinned them down to two or three layers to make the bark pliable enough to fold. Then they found mineral stones to grind into powder and mix with elk or buffalo fat for paint. With this mixture, they painted symbols, pictographs, or petroglyphs on the birch bark to represent what they wanted or what they needed to let go of. In the swamps where the black spruce grew, they would harvest its small, fine, red roots and weave them into red cloth to wrap the ceremonial birch bark in. They gathered nettles and soft maple bark. They boiled the bark to make a purple dye for the cordage made from the nettle. The cordage was used to tie off the red cloth. Of course, they used tobacco, the medicine that is essential to every native ceremony. It was placed inside the painted birch bark paper after a prayer was made. The paper was then folded up and wrapped in the red cloth and tied up with the purple cord before burning.

“So you can see that it took a lot of work to prepare for the fire ceremony in the old days. Now that we have pen and paper, it is easy to take this important ceremony for granted. Today, we only have to be department-store hunters and gatherers. When it took weeks or more to prepare for a fire ceremony, people held it in much higher esteem, as we still should.”

Grandma asked, “Do you remember how I showed you to breathe?”

“Yes,” I replied.

“Well, remember to tell your clients to breathe into the Earth Mother, like I showed you.”

Here is what Gram taught me: Essentially, you are bringing the energy up your arms. As you inhale, raise your arms and draw the energy from your fingertips to let it flow into your central core. At the same time, use your mind to push the energy down through your core, out the bottom of your feet, and into the earth.

Then, as you exhale, the Earth Mother removes the negative energy, or whatever you want to let go of, and sends good energy back to fill you up, which instantly relieves any tension. She sends positive energy to replace the negative because she always works to achieve a balance. This simple exercise will help you stay in balance, and if you are in balance, you will find that everything in life becomes easier.

Breathing into the earth can be done in any position: standing, sitting, or lying down. As you use your breath, imagine it as a valve. As you breathe into your lungs, the air pushes the negative out and down. As you breathe out, the air and energy come up and out your lungs, drawing new energy from the Earth Mother. It may be helpful to imagine the breath as a yellow line of energy, much like the graphic lines used to point out movement in a football instant replay on TV. I find that image works well for many people.

“You can’t take the air out of a balloon without the balloon getting smaller,” said Gram. “The Creator set it up so that when the Earth Mother takes the negative, she always replaces it with positive so that we don’t die.”

“Grandma,” I said, “what if I can’t do this healing stuff, or I don’t want to, when I get big?”

“Don’t worry,” she said. “You can and you will. Just remember all the things I teach you and know that the Creator is the one who does the healing by sending you his energy. All you do is pass it on.”

My Version of the Ceremony

This ceremony is a forgiveness ceremony. It is about forgiving yourself, others, situations, and other things that have hurt you in your life. Gram freely gave the ceremony to me, and it is in this faith that I give it to you. No one should charge to help people do this ceremony. You will lose the spirit of the ceremony if you charge, and let no one charge you. With that said, here goes:

1. The first thing you have to do is ask God — or the Creator, or whatever you happen to call your Higher Power — to help you forgive yourself. You do this by writing requests to him on paper.

This process includes asking God to help you forgive yourself for situations in which you had no control, such as your place of birth, what your life was like as you grew up, parental breakups or deaths in the family, and so on. We need to do this, because, on a deep, subconscious level, we hold ourselves accountable for these things. We are a great species for blaming ourselves. Say our grandpa passes away. We say things like, “Jeez, if I had only stopped by last night, maybe he would still be here” Or, “If I had called, then I would have known something was wrong.” I am here to tell you that, as it is said, no man knows the day, hour, or minute of his passing. But when the Creator wants us home, it’s our time. When the second hand gets back to twelve, it’s over, and there is nothing in the universe that can stop it. Therefore there is no reason to blame yourself; death just is, plain and simple.

So now, think back on your own life. What has hurt you today over which you had absolutely no control? Then think about yesterday, last week, last year, and so on, and list as many things as you can think of that you could not possibly have changed. Don’t worry if you miss something; this is not a one-shot ceremony. I recently did my sixty-first fire ceremony with a group of vets from the Minneapolis Veterans Administration. Most think they got more out of the ceremony than they had in a week of therapy.

2. Next ask God to help you forgive yourself for situations in which you did have some control and did not act according to your highest light. We say things we don’t mean, and though they may feel good at the time, guess whose heart box they end up in?

However, even when we do not act according to our highest light, it is because we are in fact human — with our human emotions, reason, and frailties — and that is OK, because the Creator made us this way and loves us. And again, because of the way we are wired, we tend to hold these things against ourselves. But carrying a load that doesn’t belong to us does not lead to healing, so we need to let go of the things over which we did have control as well as the things over which we didn’t, when holding on no longer helps us with our highest good. Situations in which we have control could be our own relationship breakups, arguments with loved ones, and letting alcohol cloud our judgment.

I find that usually we hold onto the junk for dear life rather than give it up. I’m not sure if this is because we don’t know how easy it is to get rid of old hurts, pains, and traumas, or if it is just inherent human greed. Most of us fight against greed, but some embrace it — even when what they’re clinging to is harmful to them.

3. Now ask God to help you forgive places, situations, and other people that have hurt you. The more we hold onto our hurt over these things, the more energy we use that we could be using for our healing. Again, think back to today, yesterday, the day before that, and so on. Think of as many negative things as you can to release, because the more you can let go of, the more you strengthen your energy field, which is your protection.

Don’t be afraid to thank the Creator in advance for answering your prayer, and be specific in your wording of what you want (for example, freedom from resentment, health, spiritual healing, and so on). If it is good for you, the Creator will usually provide.

4. As you talk to the Creator, thanking him for helping you in this process of forgiveness, hold your tobacco up and put your prayers into it. Then put the tobacco holding your prayers into the middle of the paper on which you have written your needs, and crumple the paper around the tobacco. That way, your words enclose the tobacco, and, when you burn it, the smoke carries them right to the Creator.

5. Wrap this bundle of paper and tobacco in a piece of red cotton cloth that is six to seven inches square (or whatever size feels right). This is the way my grandmother taught me. It is so that God the Creator knows you are serious. Tie the cloth with a purple strip of cloth, string, or yarn. Tie it with four knots. Purple is the color of healing. The four knots represent the Four Grandfathers, who are the Creator’s spirit helpers. They watch the north, east, south, and west.

6. Throw the healing bundle into a hot, friendly fire so that you can see the smoke taking the words to the Creator. A hot, friendly fire is one where the wood has burned down to coals. I use the fire pit outside my house. On days when I don’t have time to build a fire, I use a two-pound coffee can. I poke holes in the side of the can near the bottom with a can opener that my dad used to open beer with (a “church key,” for those of you old enough to remember). I then place four or five pieces of Match Light charcoal in the can and light them. Next I fill out my writing for the ceremony, and by the time I’m finished and have my bundle made, the charcoal is white hot; all I have to do is drop the bundle in. I sometimes don’t have the patience I should have, and I think this way of doing the ceremony would be helpful to those of you who are like me.

Don’t be surprised if, a short while after the fire ceremony, you notice yourself feeling weepy, angry, sad, elated, happy, or any number of other emotions. As you peel the layers off of old memories that you had hidden from yourself deep in the unconscious, the old wounds start to float up into consciousness again, and you begin feeling the emotions that you have covered for such a long time. So keep a little notebook to write about things as they come up. It will be the basis for your next fire ceremony. Soon you will have plenty of material for the next one. I have noticed that this pattern has recurred with my clients over and over, time and again, during the last forty-five years.

The fire ceremony is not a thing to fear. Instead it is a way to overcome fear. It is also a way to enrich your present life by ridding it of past-life issues — issues that we carry from life to life until we deal with them, because they won’t go away on their own. The fire ceremony cleans out your heart box, giving you a much greater opportunity to achieve a healthy mind, soul, and body.

I heard of a man who did our ceremony and is now charging people to do it for them. That’s a nice thought, but the only one who can truly cleanse the heart box is oneself. I can help people pull negative stuff out, but it will never stay out unless they do the fire ceremony for themselves. Otherwise the issue they’re trying to get rid of will be back in a matter of hours, or four days at most, and that is only if the facilitator knows about wrapping the client in a cocoon of light after a healing is over.

We can’t be lazy people; we have to do the work ourselves if we want to heal. Don’t waste money on people who claim they can do something they can’t. There is no magic pill that fixes anything without work on our part. The Creator gave us the tools to work with — let’s use them. The fire ceremony is not hard to do. If you can’t do it by the end of the book, come see me and I will show you!

As I have said, my gram taught me that Oneida breathing is an important tool to use with the fire ceremony to balance the emotions, help ground us, and convert negative energy to positive. It is to be done four times a day with four repetitions each time, if you so choose. Here is a quick account of how to do it:

Stand with both feet on the floor and inhale deeply through your nose. Visualize your negative energy going down your body, out your feet, and into the ground. Then exhale through your mouth and visualize positive energy coming up from the earth, through your feet, and into the rest of your being. Upon inhaling, you send your negative energy to the Earth Mother; upon your exhale, she replaces the negative with new, positive energy.

Russell FourEagles is a Native American spiritual healer with over forty years of experience. He has performed over 45,000 healings around the world. He operates the Soaring Eagles Wellness Center in Spooner, Wisconsin, and speaks at Native American gatherings across the country. This article is excerpted from his book The Making of a Healer: Teachings of My Oneida Grandmother (Quest Books, 2014).