Robert Henderson - Emotion and Healing in the Energy Body: A Handbook of Subtle Energies in Massage and Yoga

PART ONE

Introduction to Subtle Energy and the Chakras

Understanding Subtle Energy

It can be difficult to explain what subtle energy is to someone who has never had any direct experience of it. Its like trying to describe electricityyou know it exists, and you have a good idea of what it does, but you have no real concept of what it is experientially until you touch a live wire and feel the effects surging through your body. Then you begin to truly understand what electricity is and can even find words to describe it. It is the same with energy. You have to touch it, you have to experience it and feel its effects, before you can understand what it is.

When you first begin to tune in to the subtle energy of your body, you discover that there are different types of energy, such as the energy that powers the mental determination to get something done, or the emotional energy that gives rise to feelings of sadness or joy. Upon closer examination of emotional energy, you will discover that each emotion has its own unique feel, its own unique energy stamp, and that each one is unique and different from the others. For example, the emotional energy of loneliness feels quite different from the emotional energy of anger, and they affect your body in different ways, too. The energy of anger makes muscles become agitated and hard, creating reduced flexibility and mobility and increased resistance, or physical discomfort, when you move them, whereas the emotional energy of loneliness manifests as deep coldness, causing muscles to contract and tighten. In time you will discover how all the different emotions feel in your body, where you store them in your body, and the specific effect each one has on your bodya subject well be exploring in greater detail in the coming chapters.

By examining the bodys subtle energies, you will come to understand that many of the physical discomforts experienced in the body are caused by some form of subtle-energy blockage. Knowing this, of course, can help you discover an appropriate course of action to take to help alleviate any discomfort or pain you may be experiencing. For instance, if you have a sexual partner who is transmitting unhealthy sexual energy into you, you will experience this as a feeling of weakness in your lower back and a low-level, constant nausea. Upon feeling this, you may go to the drugstore or to the doctor for help, but the root cause of what is really making you sick is the sexual energy you have been taking in from your partner. Remove the source of the discomfort and the discomfort will go away. This principle is fundamental to true healing. Going to the doctor, in this example, would only be papering over the cracks.

This is why understanding what subtle energy is can be such a help in understanding what makes your body the way it is, what makes you feel the way you do, and what makes you do the things you do. The understanding of subtle-body energy becomes a whole new way of connecting to yourself, reading your body, communicating with it, and understanding what it is telling you about your life. In the end it shows you that your body is your best guide to telling you everything you need to know about your lifewhere you have been, where you are going, and, most importantly, the things you need to do to stay on the path that will bring you the greatest rewards and happiness. This is the real, hidden beauty of your body: it is your greatest teacher and guide to a successful and fulfilling life.

The best way to answer the question what is energy? is, therefore, to first reveal the wayor all the different waysit feels as it communicates information to you. Sometimes this can be the energy of inner happiness communicating the message, Everything is okay, youre on the right track. Or it could be the energy of discomfort communicating the message, You need to sort something out before being able to continue on the right track. Whatever you feel in your body has a message for you. Once you have experienced all the ways energy can feel, the ways you experience it, then you will know what it is. And when you know it, you can then begin to read it, to interpret it. Its like learning a new language, only this language is that of your body.

My First Experience of Subtle Energy

My first direct experience of subtle energy occurred in November 2002, in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand, when I received a Thai massage treatment from Chaiyuth Priyasith, regarded by many as one of the greatest living masters of Thai massage. Chaiyuth was a deeply spiritual man and a devout Buddhist. He loved the Lord Buddha and offered daily prayers and thanks to him, as well as to his beloved Shivago Komarpaj, the accredited founding figure of Thai medicine, and to Kruba Srivichai, a highly revered monk of Chiang Mai. Chaiyuth was also deeply involved in local shamanism and regularly attended ritual spirit dances during which ancestral spirits would be conjured and made manifest in particular dancers through channeling and possession. This was the magic of Thai massage in Chiang Maiit was a combination of body work, Buddhist spirituality, and shamanic energy.