Page 18 - Spring 15

Energy is all – or is that all there is? Report on Spring meeting at Friends House
The spring day meeting this year was called ‘Energy is all – or is that all there is?’ and was held at Friends House, Euston Road, London as last year. Nineteen delegates enjoyed a fascinating day with three excellent speakers providing the presentations.
The day started with Mike Webster accompanied by his wife Stella. Mike was originally in the armed forces and following that became a shiatsu
practitioner and teacher. He had a kind of epiphany which via the Scottish Isles led him to what he terms Waveform Energetics. He now runs workshops and teaches the techniques. His talk accompanied by some delegate participation was an overview of the concept, potential uses and possible explanations for the process. The precept seemed to be that living beings emanate and receive energies all the time, are standing in what could be termed a ‘static field’ and humans are able with some practice to discern these energies and changes in them. He called this the ‘Energy Matrix’ of which we are all part. He discussed auras and there was an exercise for delegates to attempt to feel them on each other – some were more successful than others but at least it suggested that they could be felt! There followed information on frequencies, modulations and similar physical concepts in order to attempt some scientific explanation, but it would appear that the exact nature of the energy fields have yet to be explained. Fundamentally the process seems to be about learning to become aware of the energies – becoming a receptor – and being able to send or transmit energy to anywhere. In this, it would seem to be rather like Reiki and distant healing. As with other energy therapies and manipulations willingness, openness and letting go of preconceived notions were fundamental. One of the key words used was ‘change’. It would seem that the technique enables one to perceive where energy needs to change or is changing. This is assumed to be for the better – i.e. if someone has a painful area, you can pick up that area by appreciating the change in the energy field. The perception can be used to discern changes in the local energy field before physical events happen – such as a fight breaking out in a bar, an argument developing or a storm coming. He mentioned that it was possible to influence events i.e. make an energy change.
The whole concept was not wildly away from other practices involving the universal force – Reiki, dowsing and the like – and I’m sure could be integrated into all sorts of daily encounters. It was a brief and very interesting overview and those present got really involved in practical demonstrations and the discussions that followed. Mike sold several copies of his book – A Simple Guide To Voyaging The Energetic Universe – and a few delegates signed up for his workshop, so all in all an excellent but all too short a session. His website for further information is: www.waveformenergetics.com/
The second speaker was Dr. Moira McGuigan. Her presentation in Glasgow at the Faculty conference opened a big can of worms, as far as I was concerned and I think following her talk at the meeting, the delegates did too. Moira worked in the Glasgow hospital initially in the anatomy department and became interested in the Jacobson’s organ – later the vomero-nasal system. She worked in the A & E department as a doctor and noted that blood smelled differently depending on what circumstances produced it – i.e. trauma, childbirth, illness. She gave an overview of the workings of this system and how once triggered by strong odours, pheromones, toxic gases etc. the system defaults to the flight and fight mode. She explained, how in nature the system could pick up very small concentrations of smells and that it was not necessary for the substance – pheromones for instance – to actually ‘smell’ to cause an effect. Indeed, even if the person/animal had no sense of smell, the
system could still be triggered.
This can have a profound effect on the action of homeopathic remedies and can effectively stop them working. She explained that Hahnemann stated that remedies were best administered by nasal means and that effectively is, because the system had elements in many places, remedy action could be easily influenced. She gave examples of, when good remedies had stopped working as a result of such things as carpet cleaners, new car smells, perfumes etc. It appeared that the substance had to be new to the recipient. Once the system was familiar with it, the blocking effect stopped. This meant that after a few days repeating the remedy would have it work again. For this reason she suggested that if someone regularly drank
coffee, ate mints or used mouthwash then the homeopathic remedy would not be blocked. It became obvious that with the high use of perfume sprays, pheromone plug-ins, anti- parasite plug-ins and the like, animals (and humans) may be having the action of remedies blocked. This means that if a well-chosen remedy appears not to be working, or stops working, we should look for a reason in the environment, before we do anything else. The possibilities would seem to be endless. Advice on administration might have to be modified. The blocking effect may even start at the surgery, as the number of new smells there is high. What about a new cat urinating in the garden, a new floor cleaner, or a scented candle? Food for thought!
The afternoon session was given by Bill Rumble. Bill has been practicing homeopathy since 1987. He is the founding member of the Welsh school of homeopathy and has taught and practiced in Britain, Ireland, California and the Czech Republic. He had a refreshing approach to case taking, which could be summed up by the statement ‘it shouldn’t be that hard’. Using the Organon as reference his interpretation was that the case taking encounter needed to be patient lead – even if that meant saying very little. He advocated an ‘empty head’ approach in as much as, the practitioner should have no preconceptions or ideas at the start, which might influence the encounter. He liked to look for a ‘stand out’ event or statement during the consult, which often pointed the direction in which to go. He talked about the levels or layers of experience and where progress to health could be blocked. He felt that the ‘outer layers’ were less useful than the deeper ones using Sankarans’s schema. He tended not to use the term delusion, as he felt this had negative connotations in some sense preferring the term experience of the patient. Bill used passages from a book called ‘Metaskills’ by Amy Mindell to illustrate some of the points, he was making. His approach appeared to be a direct antithesis of that of Brian Kaplan, which tends to be provocative in nature. It showed at the very least that there are many ways to take a case
and we all develop our own methodology.
16