From Yavapai Vista

There’s no way to take a bad photo in Sedona, then again, there’s no way to take a spectacular one, either, because so many beautiful photos perfectly framed and lit are available online.  But really, these photos are just to lure you in so I could talk about something I did while I was in Sedona.

Another, same trail

A few weeks ago I hurt my neck and head in a weird accident that I don’t even want to talk about because it freaks me out. The injury limited my neck’s range of motion, hurt my head and also set up quite a painful vibration when I just walked. Or lifted anything. Or bent over. I wasn’t even sure I should travel to Sedona.  Doctor banned me from the gym until one week after I feel 100 percent. HT and I have been burning up the text lines as I was PISSED, because I had really gotten into my workout routine. I knew this would set me back and I didn’t like it one bit.

“I feel ya,” HT texted, “but take it easy and we’ll work U back up slowly when U R ready.” Now that you know what my trainer looks like from my post on Friday, you can probably picture him saying that.

I am probably at about 95 percent now, but it’s been a long haul that involved no traditional medical treatment other than ibuprofen.  This was the one time that my doctor didn’t over-react. Normally, she’d have me at Stanford in a New York Minute. Or a Stanford one. In fact, I worried that this lack of attention was actually under-reacting. So I asked again and got the same response. Nothing further needed. Even though improvement was at a snail’s pace and I feared it would never get back to normal. Or what passes for normal for me.

So I decided to do some energy work. And, since I was heading to Sedona vortexes, I figured I should take advantage of that and do something there.

With the help of a guide familiar with New Age concepts, we wandered around the beautiful red rocks of Sedona feeling the powerful energy of the place and (for me) asking that it help heal me.  Because energy does have healing properties.  I can’t say that I felt any big zaps of energy like I did on my first visit, but maybe this time I didn’t need to.

I’m lucky enough to have a friend who does Reiki, and since Reiki can be done long distance, we did several sessions the week before I left for Sedona.  She and I have a strong connection –sisters-from-another-mother, really–and I trusted in her and her abilities.  It just so happened that the day after she would do Reiki, I’d feel significantly better. Orders of magnitude better.  Coincidence?  I doubt it.  Placebo effect? Maybe. But I’m not looking too closely at it, because it worked. And I do believe in energy work. Because I believe there are things we can not explain, given the limitations of our current knowledge base.

During one session, we both (separately) saw someone in spirit. I saw the Native American spirit guide who is charge of my healing. She said she’d seen someone, too, but thought it might be me at a younger age. But now she wonders if it was my guide.

Side note: My healer-guide made herself known to me about two years ago and told me that she was preparing to help me with an injury I would have. That it would seem like it was never going to go away but that it would and I needed to know that it would or I would, well, freak out.   Umm. Does this sound familiar?

Have I lost you?  Yes, I believe all this. One day I should do a series on my blog detailing every single validating experience I’ve had that showed me that we do communicate with the other side, that there IS another side and more… but not today.

Anyway, I figured that while I was in Sedona’s energy field, I’d have a cranial-sacral energy session. It’s a form of body work — alternative therapy — in which a practitioner applies light holds to the face, skull, spine and pelvis, regulating the flow of cerebrospinal fluid by manipulating the synarthrodial joints of the cranium.   We were staying at L’Auberge de Sedona and I booked a session with one of their therapists.

Once I was  on the table, my practitioner rubbed fragrant oil between her palms and told me to close my eyes and take three deep breaths.  Within minutes, I’d gone into a state of deep relaxation, almost meditative.  I visualized my healer with her basket of herbs, and then I saw things. Almost like a dream, a man’s face appeared, very large, and he spoke to me, but as soon as he did, I forgot what he said. Other visions came and went.

When she finally placed her fingers at the very top of my head, I saw a tiny pinhole of light where her fingers met my skull, almost like a crack in the veil to the other side. It was tiny but I saw light, and when she removed her fingers from that position the vision disappeared. Maybe it led to the other side but I also knew I wasn’t going to fit through that tiny aperture and that I’d be staying rooted to the massage table for now.

At the end of the session I felt incredibly good, and again, my improvement was an order of magnitude more than any day during which I did not have energy work.

Now, it’s true that no scientific studies have shown cranial-sacral therapy to be effective, as is true of many new age practices. Then again, placebos have been shown to be effective.  I am a big believer in the mind’s ability to heal itself, and I believe that there are limits to what we know and understand today. It is entirely possible than a century from now scientists will recognize this early energy work as precursors to self-healing people will do routinely.

I didn’t always give alternative therapies much credence. My father was a physician and our household was strongly rooted in the empirical, the scientific, the provable.  Now, though, I’ve been exposed to so many experiences and read so much that I realize not everything can be explained. Once I opened to the possibility that energy healings could be effective, well, they were. Why and how? I don’t much care, really.

One day we may know more about Sedona’s vortexes. But right now, at home, feeling way better than when I arrived in Sedona, I’m grateful for its energy and for the wonderful practitioner I had at L’Auberge de Sedona. And for my sister-from-another-mother and her excellent Reiki.

If you’ve had energy sessions, I hope you’ll share in the comments below so we can all hear about them. Effective or not.  Thank you.

Panorama