“If you want to find the secret of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration”
Nikola Tesla
Unequivocally, what we value most in life is good health. Many of us drag ourselves to CrossFit or get up obscenely early to run and bike. We eat organic, locally sourced food prepared according to the diet du jour and tether ourselves to the demands of Fitbit masters. It’s expected that we visit our doctors when we are ill and generally take care of the preventative services such as shots, various –grams or –scopies and tests. But is there more? We change our oil every 3,000 miles, tune our furnace each winter and clean our teeth twice a year, so why are we not tuning our body regularly?
Studies done by Prof. William Tiller of Stanford and Dr. Valerie Hunt of UCLA, along with advancements made in quantum mechanics, are giving scientific credibility to the field of Energy Healing: the practice of moving energy within the body to affect healing. Although this is just now being officially recognized within western science and medicine, it does not mean this is a new field. It has existed for thousands of years throughout the world. You may know it as qi, chi, ki, dosha or prana. Familiar modalities are acupuncture, Qigong, Ayurveda, Pranic healing, Reiki, healing touch, Quantum Healing and sound/light therapy. Curious by nature, an engineer by degree, I set out to investigate the energy therapies available in our area. Here are four intriguing choices.
JUANITA RAMOS-CORUM: TRADITIONAL NATIVE AMERICAN MEDICINE
Juanita carries the Medicine Bag for 22 Native American tribes. Along with the Sacred Medicine Blanket are feathers from the hawk, the eagle and the condor, which were gift ed to Juanita by Grandmother Silversong. Luckily for us, Juanita has tribal permissions to treat all peoples.
In the Cleansing Ceremony, cocooned in the Sacred Medicine Blanket, Juanita coaches me to begin my journey with a happy memory from childhood. This takes me to my attic playroom where I spent hours crafting clothes and houses for my troll families. With the assistance of herbal smoke and an eagle wing, my journey progresses and my ancestors arrive. Th ere are many for I am the last child of old parents. I smell the mixture of Old Spice aftershave and cigar smoke and know my father is in the room. I discover hidden resentments and with Juanita’s help let go of damaging thoughts and long-held pain. Juanita says men are surprisingly more emotional than women but belief is not required. Your ancestors, along with herbs, rituals and spirituality, facilitate the journey and subsequent cleansing, healing the whole person—mind, body and spirit.
206-250-7238 or m2mjourneys@me.com
MELISSA NIKOLAI: LIFELINE HEALER
Not sure what to choose?
Then Melissa Nikolai may be your practitioner. Combining more than 14 holistic healing modalities, LifeLine Healing includes elements of acupuncture, chakras, shamanism, neuro-linguistic programming and more.
I’m drawn like a moth to the light radiating from Melissa. I think her copper-colored hair manifests her warm love of people and life. At the start of our session, we set an intention based on my heart’s true desire. I then list my stressors (concern about the future) and any physical symptoms (no migraine today, yippee!). I’ve learned from Melissa that these outward signs of inward struggles are the subconscious mind protecting my spirit from life experiences that would be too challenging for my spirit to handle. Th is makes so much sense to me since the timing of my problems corresponds to when my migraines started. Th rough Muscle Refl ex Testing, Melissa helps me identify the negative beliefs and mindsets that are limiting my connection to my true nature. Th ese are then the focus of Melissa’s energy healing. (Bonus for the shy: you don’t have to talk about anything if you don’t want to, simply acknowledging it to yourself is all that is required.)
775-267-7230 or nikolai.melissa@gmail.com.
ELENA RADFORD: INCAN SHAMAN
Physically small but with a big presence, I meet Elena at her downtown Salt Lake City office on a Sunday. She is welcoming, warm and earnest and looks like any other Utah mom, dressed in jeans and a sweater. I’ve been to Peru, Machu Picchu and the Amazon, and expected a more Quechan Indian style for my shaman, but she speaks English, so yay!
Elena does clearings of blocks, limiting beliefs, past lives and DNA contaminations. She comes from the high-altitude city of Huancayo, Peru, but has lived in the U.S. since she was 19, traveling back repeatedly for shaman training. According to Elena, traditional shamans knew that diseases and emotional instability were created by low frequency waves of energy in the body. Today’s shamans now identify these waves as being produced by DNA. Learning Incan Shamanism, Elena says, has taught her to understand energy, how to use it, how it interacts within the body and how it creates our reality.
When she works with clients, Elena highlights physical ailments and clears emotional barriers to help clients create successful lives; she also uncovers hidden passions to fi nd true identity and true purpose. She introduces clients to the harmonious vibration of unconditional love and uses this to help clients reclaim their connection to their sacred energies. She can do sessions in person or via Skype or phone, for an individual or even an organization.
435-901-9986 or visit theincaway.com
REBECCA HILLY: LIGHT, SOUND AND VIBRATION THERAPY
The Living Energy Center’s smallish space houses vibrational energy therapies for cleansing and detox to reduce pain and chronic
inflammation. Th e first room grabs my attention. The “Light Sound and Aroma Lounge” features a sound bed with specialized vibration generators and healing sounds that synchronize your body down to the atoms of your cells. Th ere is also an infrared sauna; light speeds healing and relieves pain, while heat (jazzed with essential oils) detoxes and relaxes the body.
Further exploration reveals light therapy pads of various sizes. Like sound therapy, light therapy has been heavily researched and has shown therapeutic benefits such as helping to melt away pain, de-stress and restore energy fl ow. I try the LED eye mask and aft er a 15-minute session, I feel like I’ve had a week at the beach without the airport shuffle. Rebecca says it increases nitric oxide levels; I later look this up and fi nd that nitric oxide is a primary facilitator of intracellular communications. Stomach to mouth, “Can you hear me now? You are full. Stop eating!”
But I mustn’t let these individual modalities distract from the overarching purpose of Rebecca’s center: whole body cleansing and detox. Central to this is the body’s own detoxifier—the lymph system. Who knew that lymph was a system, not just a node?
Well, apparently, those organs that are so causally discarded, tonsils, spleen and lymph nodes connected by lymph vessels, are all part of the circulatory system’s drainage and waste disposal system. Without it functioning properly, we puff up until we look like an elephant, hence on of the disease’s name of elephantiasis. Symptoms of lymph disease are chronic inflammation and fibrosis. Rebecca tells me chronic inflammation is the silent cause of aging and the root of nearly all diseases. Stress exacerbates chronic inflammation and a faulty lymph system fails to remove the subsequent fl uid buildup. Increasingly, lymphedema is a result of cancer treatment or can be hereditary. Rebecca has practiced bodywork and taught skills for healthy living going on 40 years. She is a Licensed Massage Therapist, Advanced Polarity Practitioner, Certified Manual Lymph Drainage Therapist, Certified Therapeutic Yoga Instructor and Certified Holistic Health Coach.
435-640-7829 or livingenergybodywork.weebly.com
By Sharon Mardula
