Long before Therapeutic Touch became a popular adjunct to Western medicine, shamans of the ancient Americas were healing the sick with the laying on of hands. They used their hands to cleanse the body, to remove heavy energy and to restore physical and spiritual balance. They used chants, drumming and singing to align themselves and their patients with the energy spirits of earth and heaven.
Native American healing traditions date back at least 12,000 and perhaps as much as 40,000 years.1 While researchers, practitioners and opponents argue the effectiveness and validity of such approaches as Therapeutic Touch and Reiki, indigenous healers throughout the Americas are carrying on the work of their ancestors without a thought as to its legitimacy. Energy healing is, and has been for generations, an intrinsic part of their existence.
Although some healing traditions are still kept secret within the tribes, many medicine people have been sharing their techniques and wisdom with the Western world. While studying with a local shaman in Peru, I participated in an extraordinary healing ceremony. For more than eight hours I was hovered over by an Amazonian ayahuasca master who sang lyrically to the spirits for assistance. Ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic used by South American healers to access spiritual help. Placing his mouth on my back and certain other areas of my body that he had "seen" as afflicted with imbalance, he inhaled and withdrew the undesirable energy and spit it aside. He blew smoke into my ears and onto my third eye and used his hands to brush away heavy energy. These steps were repeated over and over throughout the night until he finally announced that the task was completed. He proclaimed me completely balanced and whole.
Balance and harmony are vital to good health in the Native American cultures. It is believed that some illnesses occur through an imbalance in a person's behavior or thoughts. But an illness may also be a calling, a spiritual challenge. Throughout the Americas, healers focus on the universal energy as it is represented in nature, as well as the human body. Animals, rocks, sacred places and rituals may all have a part in the energy healing process.
