Spiritual dimensions in bioenergy healing

Over the past few years I've engaged in many debates with people about the value of "curing" versus "healing". In these debates "curing" refers to eliminating a certain physical condition, whereas "healing" refers to healing the whole person, including emotional and spiritual elements along with the physical. Some people say that you cannot have a cure without a healing. At the other end of the spectrum, however, it is quite possible to have healing without a cure.

For years I've scoffed at Reiki people who said that emotional or spiritual healing had taken place when there was no evidence of physical improvement. I thought that was a cop-out. I was also attracted to Bill Bengston's method because of his clear-cut scientific assertion that it dealt purely in cures.

But now I find myself taking the middle ground, having noticed that the people who do best in moving towards a cure are the ones who are also interested in receiving emotional and spiritual healing along the way. In fact I seem to be attracting clients who are looking for a spiritual opening, and it has been a great gift to watch these people opening up like flowers reaching for the sun. Their opening seems to give them a greater ability to absorb the healing energy and to create their own miracles.

Bill Bengston's mentor Ben strongly believed in a divine provenance to the healing energy that flowed through him. Bill himself is of a more scientific bend and teaches the method stripped of any kind of New Age spiritual iconography. He will refer to "Source energy" and never once mention that "Source energy" might be another word for God. People in the workshops have in fact said to me that it was refreshing to learn healing without New Age trappings like incense, soporific music, and crystals and references to divine origins. But I now wonder: does the spiritual dimension add something to the teaching that might make it more profound and more effective?

I had the opportunity this past weekend to take a workshop in a new healing method that had been clearly derived from another method, but with deep spiritual elements added. There were people in attendance who had learned both, who were blown away by the depth and the effectiveness of the teaching when the spiritual elements were not only included, but also honoured. Whereas they were unable to learn and anchor the method in the original teaching, they came away from this weekend transformed.

We are more than bodies after all.