Changes in the Perspective of Science on Energy Work

What is energy and shamanic work? Are they joining the mainstream as accepted ways to help people in the West? A short introduction to this topic.

What is energy and shamanic work? It is a holistic practice working with people's energy field and energy bodies; physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual to bring about change, balance, and aligning of the energy system.

We exist in the physical realm which is the realm we experience in our everyday lives, but we also exist in a universe or sea of energy. This energy realm is not tangible to many people, but it is there and it is part of what influences us in our daily life. Even if we do not sense it.

There are studies that have measured the biomagnetic field of human beings. We all have a biomagnetic field, and that has been proven. It is now being understood that information can be transmitted, not just through our physical and chemical systems, but through our energy systems.

Now, science is looking at the question of whether we really do have an invisible energetic system, as well as the visible physical system that we all experience.

This is not a new concept. Chinese medicine has worked with the energy system of people for thousands of years. But it is a newer concept in the West.

Most people believe that we all have a consciouness of ourselves and of the world that can not be explained by our physical body. Many people have spiritual, transcendent, or esoteric experiences that can not be explained by our biology or the concrete reality (or so it feels) that we live in.

In energy work, the idea is that the practitioner uses specific types of energies and methods of using it like Reiki or shamanic practices, as examples and there are more names, to make changes in the client's energy bodies.

As an energy worker, I can testify to the experiences of people who I have worked with who come in to the session stressed, upset or seeking change and come out of feeling very different. Often, these changes persist over time and they tell me they did not revert back to the old issue that they came in for. This demonstrates that there was a qualitative change effected in their life and in their experience of their life through energy work.

These new approaches (which are not new and are based in ancient healing systems from around the world) are part of the growth of an understanding that multi-faceted approaches to helping people, including traditional Western medicine and other less traditional or less Western approaches, can all help people.

We are complex beings with complex structures that are both concrete and abstract, visible and not visible, and as science does not fully understand the larger scope of who we are, what makes us sick, what helps us get well, and what helps us thrive, I am happy to see that non-traditional approaches like energy work are being researched and better understood by people with a more traditional orientation.

Some references if you are interested in reading more:

The scientific hypothesis of an “energy system” in the human body. Tianjun Liu. Journal of Traditional Chinese Medical Sciences. Volume 5, Issue 1. Jan. 2018.

Biofield Science and Healing: History, Terminology, and Concepts. Beverly Rubik, David Muehsam, Richard Hammerschlag, Shamini Jain. Global Advances in health and Medicine. 2015 Nov 1;4 (Suppl):8-14. PubMed Central.

Debbie Esplin has training in shamanic work and is a Reiki Master Teacher and Quantum Shamanic Reiki Master, Angel Fire Practitioner, and Neurographica Specialist with a B.A. and M.SC. in Anthropology. Debbie offers transformation guidance using art, energy, and inner wisdom.