“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”
~Rainer Maria Rilke
We are more than a bunch of bones or a bag of chemicals or a bundle of emotions or a blanket of energy.
Mind/body therapy takes a step back and looks at the intersection of all these things.
Dr. Caroline Peterson uses energy medicine to address distorted patterns that make the formation of health and behavioral changes difficult.
What is the Energy Body?
The energy body is kind of like the physical body. Both of them have transverse sections, deep layers, superficial layers, and stuff that goes inbetween.
The physical body and chemical body are built on the energy body.
The emotional body is intertwined with the energy body.
The energy body can be seen, but not by the mundane eyes of everyday vision.
The energy body can be felt, but not with mundane everyday sensation.
The energy body can be heard, but not with the mundane everyday ears.
The energy body can even be smelled, but not with the mundane everyday nose.
Everyone can learn to see, feel, hear, and smell the energy body.
The horizontal infrastructure of the energy body are the chakras.
The chakras move in the transverse plane through the front and the back of the physical body. Of course it will come as no surprise that the major chakras are closely related in proximity to the physical transverse planes.
- The Root Chakra (at the bottom of the pelvic diaphragm)
- The Sacral Chakra (at the top of the pelvic diaphragm)
- The Solar Plexus Chakra (at the bottom of the respiratory diaphragm)
- The Heart Chakra (at the top of the respiratory diaphragm and bottom of the thoracic diaphragm)
- The Throat Chakra (at the top of the thoracic diaphragm and bottom of the throat diaphragm
- The Third Eye Chakra (at the top of the throat diaphragm and bottom of the tentorium diaphram)
- The Crown Chakra (at the top of the tentorium diaphragm)
Superficial Energy Layers
I see the muscles, fascia, fat, and skin as part of the “exoskeleton” of the physical body. (Of course there are deep muscles, fat, and fascia, also.) These are our most superficial barriers of the physical body.
The superficial barriers for the energy body that I now work with most are called by Barbara Brennan the Etheric Template Body (about 2 feet away from the physical body) and the Ketheric Template Body (about 3 feet away from the physical body). These bodies are kind of like energy eggs that hold the physical body.
Inclusions in the Energy Body
In both the physical body and the energy body incorrect inclusions can develop or be injected into either body.
In the physical body common inclusions that develop are tumors, and common inclusions that are injected are hardware for stabilizing bones, vessels or organs, and esthetic augmentation.
In the energy body common inclusions that develop are contracts, lies we have come to accept as truth, and unresolved prior life stories or karma. Common injections into the energy body are cordings.
All energetic inclusions represent sub-par functioning of the energy system, and thus the physical system, and must be rectified for proper function to occur.
How Do You Work With the Energy Body?
When I do any work with patients, including energy work, I am always in conversation with Spirit.
Spirit will guide me to notice what needs to be addressed and the way in which it needs to be addressed.
Upledger craniosacral therapy has training in something called somatoemotional release (SER).
When I took this training I came to realize that Spirit had trained me to work with energy in a different way than SER teaches.
I noticed that SER trains people to see the direction by which an emotion or energy pattern came into the body and got stuck.
Spirit had trained me to notice where the altered emotional or energy pattern was, and the quickest way to take it out.
I think both ways are effective, however, I use the way Spirit trained me because it seems to be more expeditious.
What to Expect in an Energy Medicine Session
I generally ask the being (AKA you! and your complex self) where to start with treatment.
Sometimes a patient will say with their voice what they want to address.
Sometimes a patient will say to follow the lead of the body.
If we follow the lead of the body, we never know how the journey will start.
Sometimes it starts with the energy body, sometimes the physical body, sometimes the emotional body, sometimes the chemical body.
There is generally a dance as we work together between the different bodies that make you who you are.
Sometimes in the energy session I will explain what I see and engage you in the process.
If you don’t want me to talk just let me know.
Sometimes patients will journey with me and we will see and experience the same things.
Sometimes patients will notice sensation shifts in their bodies or emotional responses.
Sometimes patients will just relax and not have specific sensations or emotions.
After the session I will always ask you if you want to talk about your experience.
Caroline Peterson is an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church.
