Energy healing is an alternative treatment that manipulates the energy fields around the body to facilitate healing. Energy healers use various tools and techniques to remove energy blockages, redirect energy flow, and rebalance the body’s energy systems. While controversial, energy healing is growing in popularity as more people seek holistic and natural treatment options. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the world of energy healing tools, their purported benefits, and how to use them for spiritual and physical well-being.
What is Energy Healing?
Energy healing works on the premise that the body has multiple subtle energy systems like the meridians used in acupuncture or the chakras from Ayurvedic philosophy. Imbalances or blockages in these energy systems can manifest as spiritual, emotional, or physical ailments. Energy healers claim they can detect and correct these imbalances through various interventions that channel healing energy.
Some of the key principles of energy healing include:
- The body has a vital energy force that gives it life and fuels its functions. This is called qi in Traditional Chinese Medicine, prana in Ayurveda, or simply life-force.
- Disruptions in the flow of this life-force energy contribute to diseases and illness.
- Healers can manipulate energy fields around the body and channel healing energy to rebalance the system.
- Wellbeing depends on harmonious energy flow. Balancing energy allows innate self-healing powers to mend spiritual, emotional, and physical ailments.
So energy healing tools are devices that practitioners can use to channel healing energies and revitalize the body’s energy systems. Let’s look at some popular energy healing tools and how they are used.
Common Energy Healing Tools and Techniques
There are many types of energy healing tools. Here are some of the most popular and widely used:
1. Healing Crystals
Crystals and gemstones have been used for healing since ancient times. Crystal healing practitioners believe each crystal has a unique energy signature that can help rebalance the body’s energy systems.
Popular crystals used for energy healing include:
- Clear quartz – the master healer and energy amplifier.
- Amethyst – calming, stress relieving.
- Carnelian – energizing, vitality boosting.
- Rose quartz – heart opening, emotional healing.
- Blue lace agate – soothing, calming.
Healing crystals are placed on different parts of the body, often corresponding to chakra points, during an energy healing session. The crystals can be held, worn as jewelry, placed in the environment, or used in other ways.
2. Pendulums
Pendulums are weighted crystals suspended on a string or chain that practitioners use to gather information from the energy field. The pendulum moves in particular ways to indicate answers to questions focused on the subject’s energy.
Pendulums also direct healers to problem areas by swinging in a circular motion over energy blockages. They help discover appropriate therapies, affirmations, crystals, herbs, or other remedies that can shift the energy.
3. Singing Bowls
Singing bowls produce pure tones when struck, rubbed or tapped with a mallet. The sounds generate vibrations that practitioners use to rebalance energy centers and restore harmony. The resonance is thought to ease stress, facilitate healing, and create a meditative state.
Singing bowls are placed either on or around the body. Some practitioners even use several bowls around themselves and the subject during an energy healing session.
4. Healing Magnets
Magnets are believed to regulate the body’s electromagnetic field and correct imbalances that lead to pain, inflammation, and illness. Magnetic therapy uses static magnets in items like jewelry, sleep pads, shoe insoles and more. Practitioners may also pass magnets over areas of energy disruption and blockages.
5. Reiki
Reiki is a Japanese energy healing practice that involves laying hands just above the body or lightly touching it. During Reiki, universal energy is channeled through the practitioner’s palms to support the subject’s natural healing abilities.
A Reiki practitioner scans the body’s energy field and works to break up blocks, dissolve energy imbalances, and support energy flow. Reiki is also used to promote stress reduction, relaxation, and support positive feelings.
6. Therapeutic Touch
Therapeutic touch technique also centers on channeling energy through the hands into the patient’s energy field to catalyze healing responses. The practitioner hovers their hands over the subject to detect and manipulate energy. Unruffling or smoothing this invisible energy field is thought to help dissipate negative or agitated energy.
7. Smudging
Smudging involves burning sage or other sacred herbs tied into bundles called smudge sticks. The smoke is fanned over areas of spiritual or energetic impurity surrounding a person. It is believed to clear negative energy, purify the energy field, and promote harmony and balance.
The Purported Benefits of Energy Healing Tools
While benefits vary for different modalities, in general energy healing tools offer a drug-free way to:
- Relieve pain – by releasing blockages and tensions in the energy field.
- Speed healing – by channeling restorative energy to sites of injury or illness.
- Reduce stress – by dissolving agitated or chaotic energy.
- Increase relaxation – through calming, centering energy.
- Improve sleep – by rebalancing and smoothing the energy body.
- Boost immunity – by breaking up congested areas of low energy flow.
- Support mental health – through uplifting, stimulating energies.
- Increase vitality – by charging the energy body with life-force energy.
- Promote balance – by restoring harmony and flow in the energy systems.
- Enhance spirituality – through cleansing, unblocking, and uplifting subtle energy.
While energy healing alone may not cure major pathologies, more and more hospitals are offering it as complementary therapy to improve patient outcomes, reduce pain, and support mental health.
How to Use Energy Healing Tools
Using energy healing tools safely and effectively requires some knowledge of the underlying concepts and techniques. Here are some tips if you want to explore energy healing:
- Learn about the energy systems of the body according to healing traditions like Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine or Reiki. Knowledge of meridians, nadis, and chakras helps direct healing energy.
- Choose tools aligned with your intentions, whether it’s cleansing, activating, nourishing or balancing specific energy centers.
- Create a meditative healing space. Quiet, soft lighting, calming scents like candles or essential oils enhance the subtle energies.
- Ground yourself through techniques like earthing. Being relaxed, centered, and grounded helps channel healing energy.
- Scan the energy field slowly before and after a session to detect changes in flow, clarity, texture, temperature, etc.
- Allow plenty of time for results. It may take multiple sessions to truly shift or repattern energy.
- Drink plenty of water and rest after energy healing sessions which can be deeply cleansing and detoxifying.
- Trust your intuition. For optimal benefits, let your innate guidance choose tools and direct application rather than over-analyzing the process.
Energy Healing FAQs
Still have questions about energy healing tools and techniques? Here are answers to some frequently asked questions:
Are energy healing tools safe?
Energy healing is generally very safe when practiced by an experienced, qualified practitioner. Be sure your therapist is professionally certified rather than self-taught. Energy healing should complement, not replace, standard medical care.
When should someone avoid energy healing?
People with pacemakers or other medical devices, seizures, or mental health conditions should check with doctors before receiving energy therapies. Energy healing may also be unsafe during pregnancy.
Can energy healing cure disease?
Energy healing is not a substitute for conventional medicine, but rather a holistic complementary approach. While energy therapies don’t cure major pathologies, they can support overall wellness.
What does energy healing feel like?
Experiences vary but often involve tingling, warmth, coolness, or subtle vibrations. The energy itself cannot be seen but healers work to detect and shift it. Many feel lighter, calmer, and more balanced after sessions.
How long do energy healing effects last?
It depends on the individual and their circumstances. Profound energetic shifts may permanently change someone’s energy patterns. But maintaining wellness requires ongoing energetic hygiene through healthy lifestyle habits.
How do I become an energy healing practitioner?
Training requirements vary by healing modality but often involve extensive hands-on practice, courses and mentorship to become certified. A background in anatomy and physiology is also recommended.
Are energy healing sessions covered by insurance?
Currently, energy healing is not widely covered by insurance since it’s an alternative practice. But with growing interest in integrative medicine, coverage may expand over time. Discuss options with your provider.
The Future of Energy Medicine
While some remain skeptical, energy healing therapies are gaining more mainstream acceptance. As research continues to explore the bioenergetic dimension of human health, energy medicine may one day integrate seamlessly with modern medical practices. But even now, these subtle tools empower people to take an active role in their own healing and balancing processes.
