Energy Healing has become popular in many forms over the last few years; Reiki for example is the use of metaphor and symbols (thought) to move energy for healing purposes, (see Articles~ Healing ~ Reiki) and because it is a human being's destiny to be creative, this inspiration is used with visualisation to heal, this then is the movement of thought, which is also called 'energy' and 'spiritual' healing. So is there a difference between the two?

Most people think of Spiritual Healing as faith healing, but it is not.

Faith Healing has to do with an unquestioned belief. Faith is the confident belief or trust in the truth or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing. As with "trust", faith involves a concept of future events or outcomes, and is used conversely for a belief not resting on logical proof or material evidence. Informal usage of the word "faith" can be quite broad, and may be used in place of “trust" or "belief."

If spiritual healing depended on faith or any belief, then animals and babies would not respond, and they do.

All Healing with the use of energy (thought) is the basic restoration of wholeness or wellness to one's experience. It stimulates the immune system through the subconscious primitive brain on the first level -  physical.

Energy healing removes the toxic aspects of distorted self-acceptance that appear to have separated the person from wholeness on the second and third - emotional and mental levels, through re-training the conscious or unconscious, Cognative Behavioral Therapy or Hypnotherapy come in here.

Next we come to the additional aspect: The fourth level ~ Spiritual, this is recognizing, accepting, and realizing the atmosphere of God, (or the perfect spiritual idea of a Being / the 'Great White Spirit' of the American Indian) the realisation of the universal energy field and the human energy fields being all part of the whole.

In the individual, this might be present in the healer and the patient, or start with former and emerge in the latter, and it is geneerally accepted that this is being channelled from the world of meta-physics, i.e. spirit. Through Spiritual Healing the consciousness of the Ultimate Truth is opened in those who are able to accept that all life is the Life of God, (or the Great Spirit) remembering that it is up to the individual what they wish to receive.

When we come to realise that there is an infinite, eternal, ongoing creative Intelligence that moves through a creative process that produced us, we accept that all things are possible in God’s creation, both in this world and the next - where all the laws of physics are the same, we just don’t know everything about them yet.

The magnificent ancient Chinese classic I Ching, or Book of Changes, makes a penetrating statement: “Even a single passion still lurking in the heart has power to obscure reason.” And this is where the non-physical aspects come in; a single distorted opinion, acceptance, or mistaken belief, can be expressed as an attitude and a way of relating to life that will cause distortions in the other aspect body mind, emotion or spirit.

So we see that Energy can and is used in all aspects of healing. Usually we go to the doctor or the hospital for the physical or mental; the complementary therapist more often for the emotional, acupuncture or hypnotherapy for example; but where do we go for the spiritual? Our churches and our spiritual leaders are there for just this part of our lives. The Spiritualist Church takes this very seriously indeed, and has on hand healers who are trained in the use of healing energies together with ethics and the law.

If you are fortunate a trained complementary therapy healer will be also a spiritual healer and you will have all aspects ‘covered’, but how will you know this? A therapist who can use intuition (their spiritual aspects) will give a sense of empathy, of unspoken assurance, and you will know within yourself that you are in the right place, it is wise to reject all others.

We are all splendid entities through which the power and presence of truth and light called the Great Spirit can flow - if we allow. All is voluntary and nothing can happen without permission given and received, nobody is a conscript.

And so to the original question, is there a difference between energy healing and spiritual healing?

No there is not, but the basics are only covered in simple energy healing, the next levels are addressed in the emotional and mental, which leaves the  spiritual department, only there do we find the whole, the holistic being able to be healed, with the grace of God.

It is my belief that the Divine Being through the spirit that lives in all of us, can and does pass healing through from His spirit through the Healing mediums spirit to us all, who are spirit.

That is what all who have the experience of spiritual healing know, our evidence is a vlauable tool, and we use it!

Amen to that.

Written by Stella Rodgers 24/11/09 for publication in the Repham and Aylsham Times

From Victor Zammit website: http://www.victorzammit.com/book/4thedition/chapter25.html

25. Quantum Physics and the Afterlife

“Those who recognize that significant discoveries in science are very often prompted by observations that do not fit expectations will find a stimulating challenge in accumulating evidence that it is possible to elicit psychic functioning in experiments with ordinary volunteers acting as subjects. Even more convincing results occur with specially selected subjects.”
Nobel Prize winner Professor Brian Josephson
Professor Jessica Utts

Those who think they can rely on outdated science to support a materialist view of a universe without an afterlife and psychic phenomena are clearly misinformed.

A revolution going on in science.

Over the last few decades there has been a significant increase in research into quantum physics, the study of the characteristics of and relationships between subatomic particles and energies. Innovative, unorthodox physicists tell us this important research has a strong bearing on the understanding of the paranormal and the afterlife.

These physicists are discovering no conflict at all between physics and belief in the paranormal and the afterlife. Indeed they are showing that the phenomena we now call “paranormal” are normal and consistent with the laws of science.

Professor Fred Alan Wolf sums up this view when he writes:

I believe that the findings of quantum physics increasingly support Plato [who taught that there is a more perfect, non-material realm of existence]. There is evidence that suggests the existence of a non-material, non-physical universe that has a reality even though it might not as yet be clearly perceptible to our senses and scientific instrumentation. When we consider out-of-body experiences, shamanic journeys and lucid dream states, though they cannot be replicated in the true scientific sense, they also point to the existence of non-material dimensions of reality. (1998:245)

British scientist, Ron Pearson, in his article "Survival Physics" argues that survival of death is a natural part of physics and efforts to discredit evidence of survival after death are misplaced:

Since survival can be shown an essential and integral part of physics, the hope must be that the efforts still being made to discredit all evidence of survival will soon come to an end. This theory has achieved publication in Russian conference Proceedings (1&2) of 1991 and 1993 respectively, and in the peer-reviewed scientific journal "Frontier Perspectives"(3) in 1997. Furthermore Prof. Peter Wadhams, Professor of Ocean Physics at Cambridge University, supported the theory during a joint broadcast on the American Radio Shows in 2001. (Pearson, 2004).

For more than a hundred years numerous physicists have been at the forefront of psychic research. They have seen no inconsistency between science and existence of the paranormal and the afterlife.

Sir Oliver Lodge, one of the greatest physicists of all times, accepted life after death after using his scientific genius to prove it. He was a founder of the Society for Psychical Research. I have a lot of respect for Sir Oliver Lodge and would like to provide a short quote from his article Linking Life After Death To Subatomic Physics:

If, then, we can adduce any evidence that life or mental activity exists in space, and only sporadically makes itself evident by some material activity, the state of our present knowledge of physics renders our acceptance of the fact entirely harmonious. We have to do no violence to our physical conceptions if we admit the fact of survival. Life and mind never were functions of the material body, they only displayed themselves by means of the material organism.

Other notable physicists who investigated survival or psychic phenomena include Dr Harold Puthoff, Professor Russell Targ and Professor Dr Ernst Senkowski.

Dr Harold Puthoff, is a physicist and current Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Austin, Texas. He has made significant contribution towards empirically establishing the validity of psi particularly in the field of “remote viewing”. This was a term he jointly coined to describe a form of psychic functioning historically known as clairvoyance.

Professor Russell Targ is a physicist and author who pioneered the development of the laser. He was also co-founded the Stanford Research Institute's investigation into psychic abilities in the 1970s and 1980s. He authored numerous books suggesting that the mind itself reaches to the far ends of the universe and that it is this "non-local" quality, rather than any particular mechanism, that accounts for the remarkable data of parapsychology.

Professor Dr Ernst Senkowski is a professor of physics and electronics who conducted intensive paranormal and afterlife research for over twenty years. Dr Senkowski repeatedly obtained positive paranormal and 'afterlife' results.

Several physicists have recently published books arguing that materialist science is incomplete and therefore unable to adequately account for positive paranormal evidence. They urge the acceptance of a new paradigm or worldview which includes psychic phenomena and the existence of multiple universes including the so-called afterlife.

Dr Amit Goswami, is a former Professor of Physics at the Institute of Theoretical Sciences at the University of Oregon. He is currently a senior resident researcher at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. His book Physics of the Soul--The Quantum Book Of Living, Dying, Reincarnation And Immortality defines consciousness, not materiality, as the primary reality.

Professor John Bokris in his book discusses the The New Paradigm--A Confrontation Between Physics and the Paranormal Phenomena (2005)evidence for the paranormal, including telepathy, near-death experiences, out-of-body travel, mediumship, reincarnation, apparitions, possession, distant healing, and other phenomena. He concludes that other concepts such as the paranormal, theories about consciousness, and interconnectedness must be integrated into science to enable a superior understanding of reality.

His central proposal is that we are living in a "synchronized universe," one layer of which we see and interact with and are synchronized with. This is what we identify as the “real” universe. There are other universes alongside this, he argues, which are just as real as this one. This, he states, “begins to offer a way to understand how the soul, the center of human consciousness, can exist in a permanent form, surviving human death. It offers a useful beginning to a deeper understanding of the universe and of ourselves.” (Bokris 2005)

Another physicist Dr. Claude Swanson, has collated the "best evidence" illustrating the inadequacy of our present scientific paradigm. In his book, The Synchronised Universe, he describes scientifically controlled remote viewing and ESP experiments, demonstrations of long-range healing, psychokinesis (mind over matter), scientifically controlled experiments in levitation, teleportation and out of body phenomena (OBE). He outlines numerous examples of these strange forces being demonstrated under rigorous scientific conditions, with odds of millions or even billions to one against chance. Dr Swanson argues that there is a need for a new, truly "unified field theory" which can explain and understand both science and consciousness.

In his new book Entangled Minds (2006) Dr Dean Radin contends that those who think that science has no place for the paranormal do not know what they are talking about.

He writes: “new discoveries in science are forcing an expansion to ideas of who and what we are, and that those who are most hostile to this topic know little or nothing about the evidence”.

Many impressively credentialed top-grade scientists are independently making discoveries in areas such as homoeopathy, bio-electrography, remote viewing and healing through prayer. These are all areas that challenge traditional reductionist scientific thinking. Their findings support the new view of a world in which everything is interconnected in a pulsating energy field (McTaggart 2001).

Rather than being lifeless matter, subatomic particles are being revealed as having consciousness. Michael Talbot describes an experiment by Aspect, Dalibard and Roger 1982 which he predicts will be the most important experiment of the 20th century:

Aspect and his team discovered that under certain circumstances subatomic particles such as electrons are able to instantaneously communicate with each other regardless of the distance separating them.

a century of developments in physics has taught us that information is a crucial player in physical systems and processes. Indeed, a current trend, initiated by John A. Wheeler of Princeton University, is to regard the physical world as made of information, with energy and matter as incidentals
( Bekenstein 2003).

Science is not static

During the nineteenth century it was generally accepted that atoms were solid substantial particles that cannot be broken down any further. Quantum physics is demonstrating that what we think of as solid is mostly empty space. “Matter” is, to use Einstein’s term “frozen energy” (Ash and Hewett 1990: 16-26) and we are living in a universe that is essentially consciousness.

Professor Jessica Utts and Nobel laureate Dr Brian Josepheson state that science needs to adapt to accommodate the evidence. They write:

What are the implications for science of the fact that psychic functioning appears to be a real effect? These phenomena seem mysterious, but no more mysterious perhaps than strange phenomena of the past which science has now happily incorporated within its scope (Utts and Josephson 1996).

These physicists and other scientists--some of the most inspired and most brilliant scientific minds on earth--are stating that there is an overwhelming amount of evidence to support the paranormal and the afterlife.

The record confirms that those orthodox, negatively entrenched materialist reductionist scientists who fail to explore quantum physics, have been unable to rebut the existing empirical evidence for the paranormal and the afterlife.

As established above, there are now many physicists around the world who have demonstrated clear verification of psi and the afterlife. When added to other overwhelming evidence presented in this work, quantum physics is a powerful tool in proving that consciousness survives physical death. I predict that in years to come quantum physics will be the revolutionary method of absolutely demonstrating survival after death.

On the Internet

“The Paranormal: The Evidence and its Implications for Consciousness” by Jessica Utts and Brian D. Josephson. http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/%7Ebdj10/psi/tucson.html

Pearson, R. “Survival Physics”
http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/articles/pearson/survival.htm

A Changing World View by Willis W Harman of the Institute of Noetic Sciences.
http://twm.co.nz/Harm_wldview.html
Postualtes an ontological stance of the universe as holarchy which appears to have great promise as the basis for an extended science in which consciousness-related phenomena are no longer anomalies, but keys to a deeper understanding.

Alternative Cosmologies and Altered States
http://twm.co.nz/Alt_Cosmol.html
Stanislav Grof's talk given at the Institute of Noetic Sciences conference "The Sacred Source: Life, Death, and the Survival of Consciousness", Chicago, Illinois, July 15-17, 1994. Argues for an entirely new understanding of the nature of consciousness, its role in the universal scheme of things, and its relationship to matter and, more specifically, the brain.

The Scientific and Medical Network
http://www.scimednet.org/
is a leading international forum for people engaged in creating a new worldview for the 21st Century. Its mission is:
* To challenge the adequacy of scientific materialism as an exclusive basis for knowledge and values.
* To provide a safe forum for the critical and open minded discussion of ideas that go beyond the reductionist paradigm.

Nature's Mind: the Quantum Hologram
http://www.edmitchellapollo14.com/naturearticle.htm
Dr Edgar Mitchell, former lunar astronaut, is the founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences located in Sausalito, Calif. In this article he claims that the case for mind/mind and mind/matter interactions is impressively well documented over many decades with staggering probabilities against chance having produced the results. He claims that the discovery of the non-local quantum hologram, which is theoretically sound and experimentally validated in at least one application, suggests a major paradigm change must be forthcoming.

Dr Charles Tart's Homepage
http://www.paradigm-sys.com/
Charles is internationally known for his psychological work on the nature of consciousness (particularly altered states of consciousness), as one of the founders of the field of transpersonal psychology, and for his research in scientific parapsychology. His page contains many excellent papers, academic articles and some great links on science and spirituality.

University of Arizona Center for Consciousness Studies
http://www.consciousness.arizona.edu/
This Center at the University of Arizona is a unique institution whose aim is to bring together the perspectives of philosophy, the cognitive sciences, neuroscience, the social sciences, medicine, and the physical sciences, the arts and humanities, to move toward an integrated understanding of human consciousness

Jeffrey Mishlove
http://www.mishlove.com/menu.htm
This site compiled by Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD explores the idea that "We are living at a unique historical moment, a time when the old divisions between matter and spirit are giving way to a new, unified vision." Included on the site in full is his excellent book The Roots of Consciousness a very comprehensive and well-referenced book which details the work of many of the pioneers of psychic science and explores many of the ideas contained in this book.

Consciousness and Quantum Reality
http://twm.co.nz/herbert.htm
- an interview by Jeffrey Mishlove with Nick Herbert (Phd) author of the book Quantum Reality.

Dr Fred Alan Wolf- Quantum physicist extraordinare.
http://www.fredalanwolf.com/
Proposes the existence of many alternative dimensions.

Dean Radin’s Blog Entangled Minds
http://deanradin.blogspot.com/