Geral Blanchard, LPC, is a psychotherapist who is university trained in psychology and anthropology. Formerly of Wyoming and currently residing in Iowa, Geral travels the world in search of ancient secrets that can augment the art and science of healing. From Western neuroscience to Amazonian shamanism, he has developed an understanding of how to combine old and new healing strategies to optimize recovery, whether from psychological or physical maladies.
MDMA and the Power of Energy
Geral T. Blanchard • January 1, 2023
Healing can be regarded as the process of making positive changes in the body and mind, the interconnected unit I refer to as the bodymind.
This can be done with the imagination (imagery) -- what we see in our mind’s eye that may be subtly changing us for the better.
Healing can occur with direct comforting touch too, even in its somewhat remote form, such as Reiki. Sound also creates a shift in energy, whether we passively listen to comforting or stimulating vibrations, or better still, when we hum or sing along. And mental changes, new thoughts, perhaps from reading handouts like this one, can ready the bodymind for a shift.
Remember that old MDMA adage: First shit happens, then shift happens. Well, physicists tend to agree, thinking of energy as a force with the capacity to do work. And one energy system, a packet of energy, can create a shift in another connected system.
Imagine energy as a wave. Thinking of the energy that is stored in an ocean, the thought all by itself, is energy expended. So let’s consider the question of where the first wave began? If it didn’t come from another wave, after all we are inclined to imagine an isolated one, then there must have been another form of energy that influenced water to shift. Maybe wind? Maybe an earthquake? Maybe a sizzling meteorite splashing into the Atlantic? Everything, all objects from the human body to a mountain are moving inside and often at widely disparate speeds. When they come into contact with each other, a mutual shift occurs. I believe this at the core of energy medicine, what Native Americans mean by good medicine, it is anything that creates healing while in relationship, while in harmony. That is why they say, “We prefer medicine that walks.”
Today waves may be started by other waves. Or perhaps a wave of lunar or solar energy. Maybe by the energy packed in a windstorm. But, bottom line, we are all in relationship to all else all the time. And that realization comes to life for many people following an MDMA treatment. We call it unity consciousness. Native Americans have referred to it as the Vast Self or the Great Mystery.
So let’s bring these ideas to the MDMA bedside. When someone is receiving a healing – namely, an energy shift – both the patient and healer will be changed. It reminds me of my psychiatric instructor, Dr. Jonas Robitscher, who long ago defined psychotherapy this way. Repeatedly I quote him: “Good therapy is an engagement of two people that leaves both changed. If only one changes, therapy has been a failure.”
With that in mind, patient and healer are both engaged in a reciprocal transmission of energy, both are healing, especially if the therapist is in a calm and harmonious state.
It is far too simple to think of the patient as unhealthy and the healer as healthy, nor very humble. In reality, all of Us are energy waves bouncing around with the potential to do much in tandem.
So bring your mental will into the treatment room. But be a little cautious. Don’t try too hard to move energy. Allow it to happen. As Carl Jung said, “What we resist, will persist.” Fight with a degrading energy, and nothing will get better. Isn’t it interesting that many obituaries say, “He died after a prolonged battle with cancer.” Or would it be more accurate to say was a stubborn and prolonged battle with aggressive willpower that killed him. Easy does it.
Hawaiian shamanic healers have posited how the pikopiko method -- which shifts attention from one thought to another, together with the amplifying effect of deep breathing (from head to naval) -- can move energy in a healing direction. Pikopiko is most effective when we give up trying so hard to elicit change. Working too hard on growth can stymie growth. Simply focus your attention, gently, and let the attention do the work. But don’t try to move the energy, simply observe it when it does. This is why I tell many patients to stop therapy for a brief time and “give up.”
In paradoxically fashion, even within suicidal thoughts, when interpreted carefully, there might be nuggets of insight them suggesting a new and different direction is urgently required. In that way, a death call can be a wakeup call. And as one recent MDMA patient said, “Now I know what the letters M D M A stand for -- my death, my awakening.” In his case, he was referring to ego death.
If you want healing energy amplified further, you may make noises – moaning, groaning, buzzing, low belly sounds, loud exhales, or harmonizing with music you really enjoy that is being played in the background. And better still, if you invite coordination, perhaps your healer can add some of their own potentiating sound in the form of humming, intoning, chanting, etc. It may be that their internal healing noise may bump into your stuck hucha energy. At that time unhealthy waves can be dislodged leaving room for sami, a lighter vibratory energy that promotes healing.
Sometimes we don’t need a rocket ship blast of ayahuasca, psilocybin, iboga, or DMT. Something gentler can ease our fears (negative energy) and move us into a new realm of hopefulness. That something may be MDMA. Same process, kinder journey.
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“On the energetic level, between two people this synchronizing of frequencies can occur unintentionally; they may call this being ‘on the same wavelength.’ In Therapeutic Touch, as the healer remains centered and present to the healee the vibrational frequency of the two fields can begin to synchronize [resonance]; the healer experiences the harmony between the fields, and the patient may feel the same also.”
- Dolores Krieger, Ph.D., M.D.
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Additional Reading:
A Healer’s Journey to Intuitive Knowing: The Heart of Therapeutic Touch by Dolores Krieger, Ph.D., R.N.
Other Topics
Basics of MDMA
Rituals and Ceremony
Brain and MDMA
Trauma
Heart
Energy Movement
Quantum Physics
Native Cosmologies
Nature
Spirituality/Enlightenment
Kogi Tribe
Books written by Geral T. Blanchard
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