What is energy work? An LDS perspective.

There is a lot of confusion about energy work out there. What is it, and especially if it fits with the Restored Gospel. This is just a little piece of my perspective on it.

What is energy work?

"Energy work" or "energy healing" is the term people use to refer to a specific type of alternative medicine--non-allopathic or non-Western medicine. Acupuncture and acupressure are probably the most widely known and accepted forms of energy work. Those qualify as energy work because they use points on the body that correspond to both physical and energetic "meridians" that clear up gunk, I guess you could say.

Other modalities classified as "energy work" would include things like Reiki, Quantum Touch, theta healing, Emotion Code, Body Code, jin shin jyutsu, Rapid Eye Technique, and so on.

Here is what those things have in common:

- They recognize the interconnectedness of the body, mind and spirit: that most every physical ailment has at least a partial emotional or spiritual component 

- They recognize that the body is the reservoir of emotional trauma--literally. Our brain structures, memories, and chemicals that make us feel the way we feel are located in our bodies. So sometimes you can clear emotional trauma via the body, instead of having to relive it 

- They recognize that due to the interconnected nature of mind-body-spirit, sometimes physical ailments are primarily emotional or spiritual in nature.

I would argue that any type of work that recognizes those ideas about the human body-mind-spirit would classify as energy work.

Some of the modalities listed above work on primarily the body, the mind, or the emotions, but all of them can drastically affect the workings of all three parts of a person.

Body affecting emotions

For example, when I was first beginning this work, I practiced Quantum Touch and jin shin jyutsu. Both of those modalities focus on the physical body. You essentially insert your own electrical field into the client's electrical field and allow any energetic blockages in the body to unblock. You do this most basically by touching or hovering your hands over the afflicted area and breathing deeply. Eventually the client will begin feeling things shift around.

I've written before about some miracles I have witnessed via healing touch. Broken ribs healed in days instead of weeks. A 2nd degree burn developed at 8 am that was completely healed by 5 pm. I've seen bones literally jump out and adjust themselves under a person's skin. Instead of kissing my kids' injuries when they get a little scrape or something, I immediately insert my energy field into theirs and begin the healing process. They usually are fine in minutes.

BUT I have found that this modality doesn't just heal physical ailments. It additionally can clear emotional baggage.

Before I stumbled upon the modality I use now, when clients came to me in person I would scan their bodies by hovering my hands over their bodies by about 6 inches. If you do this on yourself, breathing deeply and paying attention to the sensations in your hands, you may realize that you can sense changes in your own body's energy field. Even just hovering your hands above the body, you will sense changes. I do teach classes on this and they are fun. Anyone can do this. But anyway. If someone came to me with depression, I would ask the body: where is this depression located? And I would scan them with my hands and find the place that felt turbulent under my hands. The actual air feels different, very literally and again I hope you try this sometime and email me with questions. The best way to verify that this is true is to try it yourself!

Anyway, I would just insert my field into that spot and begin allowing the dam of energy to flow, and sure enough, when the work is done, they feel better.

Emotions affecting body

I have also seen many physical miracles with releasing emotions. One of my favorite examples was with a client who had a headache. At this point I was no longer using my hands very much. I looked at her energy field with my mind and saw that she had a misalignment in her occiput, the bone at the base of the skull. I found that she had some emotions going on that were physically altering the space.

We know that emotions are chemical in nature because that's how anti-depressants work. You take pills that block the processing of the chemical emotion that you don't want to feel. Those molecules of emotion are obviously things and they do take up space, as all matter does. If the physical location of those emotions is lodged in or around the occiput, for example, your bones will be misaligned and it will cause things like headaches. Or if those chemicals are lodged in, say, a gland in your brain, it will affect hormone production. Etc.

And so I released the emotions involved with the occiput misalignment in that client, and she literally felt the bones shift and then voila, headache gone.

I literally experience this every day. I cannot even begin to enumerate how many different versions of this story I have seen. Someone comes in with a physical problem, we address the underlying emotional component, and the physical ailment goes away.

Another favorite story of this involved a woman with extreme arthritis, knuckles the size of walnuts. The underlying issue turned out to be an unwillingness to forgive someone who had wronged her. We did some forgiveness work and voila, by the end of the week, her hands were normal looking hands, after 35 years of arthritis. She still tests on blood tests as having arthritis, but there are no symptoms.

Wha--???

Everyone has an energy field and we can all sense everyone else's fields. You can know this for your own self by observing your own life. When someone is angry, they don't have to say anything: you will sense it. Even if you don't know them. Pay attention to the "vibes" you get from people at the grocery store, the mall, church, anywhere. You will see how much your body reacts to the "vibrations" other people are giving off, even if you aren't interacting with them directly.

Earlier I mentioned that I no longer use my hands to scan people's energy fields most of the time. That is because of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and the concept of what Einstein called "spooky action at a distance." Essentially, all energy work is based on principles of quantum physics. Because electrons exist at multiple places at the same time, you can access another person's electrons anywhere, from anywhere. When I scan people's energy fields now, I can do it at home with my mind by pulling up their unique electronic signature. I know that sounds crazy. But that's just how it goes and again: literally anyone can do this. Classes are available and not just through me. There are many, many people who have mastered this.

It is actually highly scientific, again, based on and utilizing principles of quantum physics. A great discussion of this by a quantum physics professor is located in the book Matrix Energetics.

But this is the same principle we use when we experience religious experiences: feeling like God is there with us, even though we objectively know His body is not literally there with us. God can, like us, have His electrical field present in any number of places at the same time. Quantum physics.

It's the same principle we use when we unexpectedly and unexplainedly "know" something about someone that we shouldn't know. Information is energy and has electrons of its own and those electrons can lodge in our energetic field.

We know scientifically that all matter takes up space, and therefore has atoms and therefore has electrons, and this does include even ideas, in my experience. But not just in my experience.

The scriptures explain in D&C 131:7-8:

7 There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes;
8 We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter.

Is love real? Yes. Does it have mass? Well, you might say no, but is it a spiritual thing? Yes? Is all spirit matter? Apparently yes. If your spiritual sight is undeveloped you will not see it. But as you develop, the scriptures state that you will be able to literally see the literal matter of spiritual things. Matter being: it has mass and takes up space.

This year we had a great, great lesson in Relief Society from the Howard W. Hunter manual. Here's Chapter 5: Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration. Go read it. Great lesson. But here is an excerpt straight from the prophet Howard W. Hunter (emphasis mine):

A seer is one who sees. This does not mean that he sees through his natural eyes but rather through spiritual eyes. The seeric gift is a supernatural endowment. Joseph was like unto Moses, the ancient seer, and Moses saw God face to face, but he explains how he saw him in these words:

“But now mine own eyes have beheld God; but not my natural, but my spiritual eyes, for my natural eyes could not have beheld; for I should have withered and died in his presence; but his glory was upon me; and I beheld his face, for I was transfigured before him” (Moses 1:11).

We should not suppose that to see spiritually is not to see literally. Such vision is not fancy or imagination. The object is actually beheld but not with the natural eyes. Each of us has spiritual eyes which are the counterpart of our natural eyes. We were first created spiritually and then our bodies were created as the covering of our spirit. We are told that in our first estate we walked by sight. This was through the vision of our spiritual eyes because we had not yet been given bodies with natural eyes. All men have spiritual sight but are not always privileged to use such sight unless quickened by the Spirit of the Lord. … 

By the power of the Holy Ghost, certain persons, sent to the earth for that purpose, are able to see and behold the things which pertain to God. A seer is one who sees and knows of things which are past, and also of things which are to come, and by them shall all things be revealed (see Mosiah 8:15–17). In short, he is one who sees, who walks in the light of the Lord with spiritual eyes open and quickened by the power of the Holy Ghost. Moses, Samuel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and many others were seers, because they were privileged to have a nearer view of the divine glory and power than other mortals have.

The ability to see spiritually is something all humans are gifted with. Most don't use it. They trick themselves into believing it is "fancy or imagination," as the prophet put it. Or they're scared of it. Or they don't trust it. I find many people are deeply afraid of using their spiritual eyes to discern. See my post on the gift of discerning of spirits. The gift of discernment, is, in my opinion informed by the scriptures, deeply misunderstood and underutilized.

I do strongly believe that since everyone has spiritual eyes, as Howard W. Hunter explained, anyone can see energy fields as I do. But most people have fears and other emotional blocks that prevent this capacity from being used.

Please note that the use of spiritual sight is a constant in the scriptures. Go reread 1 Nephi 1:7-8, and also the rest of 1 Nephi. How Nephi and Lehi experience their visions is very important:

7 And it came to pass that he returned to his own house at Jerusalem; and he cast himself upon his bed, being overcome with the Spirit and the things which he had seen.
8 And being thus overcome with the Spirit, he was carried away in a vision, even that he saw the heavens open, and he thought he  saw God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels in the attitude of singing and praising their God.

But notice from the text... that Lehi is still in his bed. See also 1 Nephi 8:2:

2 And it came to pass that while my father tarried in the wilderness he spake unto us, saying: Behold, I have dreamed a dream; or, in other words, I have seen a vision.

The most wonderful thing about 1 Nephi, to me, or well one of many wonderful things, I guess, is the message that literally anyone can experience Lehi's dream if they want to. If they have the faith and are willing to use their spiritual sight and know how. Part of this is dispelling with the idea that to experience Lehi's vision or dream, you have to actually be taken away physically by the Spirit to physically witness these things. No. That is not how it works. Visions and experiences that the prophets describe are witnessed within the mind. Using principles of quantum physics.

And just as the idea of "love" is real and has matter, so is Lehi's dream. Note in the scriptures how once Nephi attunes to the energy field of this vision, he not only witnesses what his father saw but also much more. His father didn't notice certain things that Nephi did. That is because the vision is an actual item that takes up actual space and has its own unique energy field or electronic signature. If you log into it, you will find that it is a real thing. Like Nephi, we can all experience Lehi's dream for ourselves. But we have to get rid of these ideas that to do that requires things that scare us away from exercising our faith. We use our spiritual sight through faith and the Holy Ghost. We don't have to prep ourselves to be literally kidnapped by the Spirit and transported to another location in order to experience these things.

Just as Moses did not see God with his physical eyes but his spiritual ones. It is all about learning to use our spiritual eyes.

How do spiritual eyes come into play with energy work, again?

I brought it up because there is lots of evidence in the scriptures for the idea of spiritual sight, which confirms the idea of remote healing (also practiced in the scriptures, by multiple people but most famously the Lord Jesus Christ Himself) and basically the concept of energy work in general: that energy fields are real, can be accessed by normal people, and really are nothing to be afraid of, but are to be understood by the power of the Holy Ghost.

Examples of energy work in the scriptures? 
A great example of energy work in the scriptures is in our very own Book of Mormon. Check out Alma 15. Read the whole thing but verse 3 is what really stands out to me:

3 And also Zeezrom lay sick at Sidom, with a burning fever, which was caused by the great tribulations of his mind on account of his wickedness, for he supposed that Alma and Amulek were no more; and he supposed that they had been slain because of his iniquity. And this great sin, and his many other sins, did harrow up his mind until it did become exceedingly sore, having no deliverance; therefore he began to be scorched with a burning heat.

The scriptures validate the idea that emotions can and do cause physical symptoms.

Later Alma and Amulek heal Zeezrom through the power of faith in Jesus Christ. Not all energy workers are "Christ-centered," and their work still works because it is science-based, just as not all doctors are Christ-centered but a medication they prescribe or a surgery they perform may still help, because it is science-based. All healing is through Jesus Christ, whether or not people acknowledge Him and the role the Atonement plays, and this is true for both allopathic and holistic medicine. But here we see how releasing Zeezrom from his emotional woes breaks the fever and heals him.

How all this has strengthened my testimony of the Restored Gospel

To me, I love how this perspective on the world deepens my understanding of the Restored Gospel. I am cerebral by nature and the quantum physics aspect of things just delights me. I love knowing that miracles are possible due to actual science.

But that is just the tip of the iceberg.

What some would call "my gifts" opened up only after a "dark night of the soul" where I was told by the Lord in prayer and at the temple to make some serious changes in my life. I was already a good person, obviously temple worthy and all that, but as we learn in the temple, there are higher laws. We know by the fact that the Millennium is a thing that it will take some people up to a thousand years to prepare to be who we will be at final judgement. What we learn at church is barely a scratch on the surface of what we need to learn and do and be to obtain the kingdom of God.

I deeply resented the things God told me to do: basically be way more humble! But in very specific ways I really didn't like. But I did it. The day I promised the Lord that I would live that way 100% from then on, six hours later I was awoken in the night by my first vision of someone else's energy field that was broken, and the Spirit explained to me how to fix it.

I find that as I pursue my relationship with the Lord, humbly change my own heart according to His dictates, the more I am able to spiritually perceive and affect. My testimony has grown so much because of this. As a Christ-centered energy worker, all my work is done with acknowledgement and gratitude to Jesus Christ. This has strengthened my testimony of prayer so, so much. And the power of the scriptures and all those "seminary answers" we say at church. And my testimony of free agency. All my energy work is principled on the concept of free agency: nothing goes through without express and direct permission and a desire for it to work.

Because of my work, I know so completely that free agency is one of the most, if not THE most sacred things in the universe.

Why don't we hear about this at church, then?

Well, actually we do--like in the Howard W. Hunter lesson!--or lessons on 1 Nephi or Alma 15. But most people have no idea what they're actually learning about. This is good and important. Church is for the ultimate basics. And the ultimate basic is: Jesus. Not energy work.

Some people are really freaked out by the "unseen" world. They might be okay with the idea of Jesus casting out devils, or Ezekiel or Daniel seeing chakras, or Nephi or Lehi having visions with spiritual sight, and so forth, but the idea of an ongoing restoration of these things is deeply disconcerting to them. The idea of them being able to do those things is deeply disconcerting to them, even though that exact promise is made in both ancient and modern scripture (see D&C 84:65-68, or Mormon 9:24, or Mark 16:17, etc).

And that's okay. Again: Church is for the basics. If you want more you will certainly find more. You have to work for it and that's the way God works. No one gets salvation, or spiritual knowledge, for free. You pray and study and work and set aside the time, have faith that you're not seeing "fancy or imagination," learn and trust and that's how it goes. I mentioned above that I teach classes. I feel that sometimes some students get this idea that I was just born super gifted or something. Yeah right. I have spent literal hours every day since my gifts "woke up" developing them. I practice for hours every day. I spend hours with the Lord in prayer and study and meditation. That is how you get spiritual knowledge. Like David O. McKay said, also from a Relief Society lesson you may have attended at church:

We pay too little attention to the value of meditation, a principle of devotion. In our worship there are two elements: One is spiritual communion arising from our own meditation; the other, instruction from others, particularly from those who have authority to guide and instruct us. Of the two, the more profitable introspectively is the meditation.

And you will find that church is 100% energy stuff if you look for it. No need to bring it up in class. But class is just an addendum to personal spiritual research and growth. I'll be blogging about Helaman 5 later, but just remember (emphasis mine):

12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall. 

13 And it came to pass that these were the words which Helaman taught to his sons; yea, he did teach them many things which are not written, and also many things which are written.

The New Testament is filled with examples of Paul explaining that he is not teaching everything there is to know about the Gospel. If you think you're going to get everything you need to know from "what is written," just know that the prophets have never restricted their teaching to the scriptures. If we are close to the Lord, He will enlighten our minds with even things that "are not written." And you will find that they all fit beautifully in with what is written.

Because all truth is circumscribed into one, it all one great eternal round, and it all really does fit together and make sense.

Conclusion

There are tons of scriptures, prophetic quotes, and everything else that explain and support the ideas behind "energy work," even though they don't use the same phraseology. But this is just an intro. Suffice it to say: "energy work" is scientific, it is real, it corresponds beautifully in my experience with the Gospel, and because it can clear up underlying emotional problems instantly, it can cause really miraculous results in not a lot of time, depending on the situation.

But most importantly, "energy" stuff is not something you need to take someone's word on. You can absolutely experience it for yourself. And you can always study and pray and take it to the Lord. Just like everything else.

So don't take my word for it. Do some work yourself and see what you see.