Answer:
​Actually, energy work might help your mother a great deal. Whenever she feels any of the symptoms of vertigo, instruct her to sit down and do a "hook-up" (described on p. 119 of Energy Medicine). That is, have her place the middle finger of one hand into her navel, push in gently, pull up; the middle finger of her other hand at the point between her eyebrows, push in gently and push up. Hold for up to a minute. This can re-stabilize the energies that are at the root of vertigo and bring instant relief or at least stop the symptoms from going any further.

Here are additional things she can do once or twice a day, and they may also help with an episode:

1. Have her place the fingers of either hand on one of her cheekbones and push upward with considerable pressure (stomach meridian). With the other hand, squeeze the sides of either big toe at the base of the toenail (spleen and liver meridians).

2. Massage or tap the K-27 points (come to the corners of the collarbone right beneath the neck, and drop into the cattycorner about an inch beneath it, where you will find a little indent on each side). Give these points a real workout.

3. "Smooth Behind Your Ears," that is have her place the pads of her fingers in her temples, take a slow deep breath in and out. On the next deep breath, have her push her fingers to about an inch above her ears, and on the outbreath, drag them down and behind the ears and down the neck. Have her hang her fingers on her shoulders for several seconds and then rake her fingers over her shoulders.

The 5-minute "Daily Energy Routine" (Chapter 3 of Energy Medicine), focusing especially on the crown pull, can have a preventive effect by keeping her overall energy system in balance.

Western medicine often struggles with diagnosing and treating patients when symptoms come and go, as happens with your mother. Despite this, I’d still encourage her to seek help from an ear, nose, and throat physician, and I’d suggest she consider simultaneously seeing an acupuncturist or other energy worker. Look for someone who is skilled and well thought of in her community. Very likely, she has energy imbalances that are more subtle than the medical tests she was given in the ER could detect. This is an instance where energy medicine holds a definite advantage over laboratory diagnoses and outright guesses about which medications to prescribe.

Also see the discussion on tinnitus (ringing in the ears).

Answer:
I’m afraid that most practitioners meet this one somewhere along the way, although I don’t like the phrase "healing crisis." I think of "healing crisis" as a defensive term that health professionals use so they won’t be blamed for triggering a second health crisis in someone who came to them because they were already in a health crisis. Sometimes the treatment does stir the pot, causing new symptoms or reactivating old ones, but to call it a healing crisis often obscures the dynamics so the person’s complaints are dismissed rather than dealt with. Energy medicine moves energy; the new complaints provide vital information for the next step.

And sometimes the next step involves revisiting an old health problem that has become dormant as the person has learned to cope and adapt—what my friend Peg Mayo calls "wallpapering over the cockroaches"—but the unresolved problem is still robbing the person of vital energy, causing underlying exhaustion, and dulling the mind, even though overt symptoms are no longer troubling. This can happen with physical as well as psychological problems and can be very awkward for the healer. The return of old back pain, respiratory problems, or severe anxiety may be your "thank you" after what you thought was a brilliant session.

Carrying a perspective that allows for these dynamics helps you to anticipate them and prepare yourself as well as your client. While you don’t want to give a hypnotic suggestion that itself sends the person into a "healing crisis," you can set a healing context where problems that go beyond the original problem may readily be embraced. Rather than dreading this kind of development as something bad, I hold a space that appreciates the opportunity that sometimes arises for people to have a more profound healing than they bargained for. So, I find it easy to be sincerely upbeat as I say to someone, "This energy here in your chest feels very old. Working with it may stir things up, and I want you to be prepared for that."

Of course many of the standard energy techniques for keeping the body’s energies balanced can help to head off an unnecessary "healing crisis." Doing an appropriate adaptation of the 5-minute Energy Routine (Chapter 2 of Energy Medicine) early in the session so you begin with a relatively balanced energy system is pretty standard for me, as is suggesting that an energy routine be done on a daily basis after the session.

During the session, if you sense that the person’s energy is beginning to go into an unexpected reaction, you can safely assume that the triple warmer meridian has been activated. One of its main jobs is to resist change, even when the change is beneficial. Triple warmer can pull out all the stops to prevent change, from scrambling the physical energies to sending waves of anxiety through your client. So you may be sailing along during a session and suddenly find that everything stops working until you sedate triple warmer, which gives it a calming message that causes it to stop treating the treatment as a foreign invasion.

One more way to head off an unnecessary "healing crisis" is that if a great deal of energy is moved in a session, you can close the session by strengthening spleen meridian, using the acupressure strengthening points. This enhances the body’s ability to adapt, incorporate, and metabolize new information. The "hook-up" is another way to anchor in the benefits of the treatment

Answer:
​Early on in my practice of energy medicine, way back in the 70s, I tried hard to do what I was taught as the "correct" ways of protecting myself. Most popular was to put a white light around yourself. These techniques all separated the healer from the client and induced fear about what could happen. I found, however, that most all of the tools and techniques taught to me got in my way and interfered with the really joyful experience of feeling someone’s energy.

I organically figured out what worked best for me. If I "took on" negative energy, I learned how to imagine I had a faucet at the bottom of my spinal column, and I would rush it out into the ground. I would turn the faucet on and release it. I found that doing "Separating Heaven from Earth" before and in-between clients helped to move out anything that I had taken into my body. The "Hook-up" became invaluable because the hook-up has more than one benefit. Yes, it keeps central meridian zipped up, which is very important in not having the person’s energies spiral into your own chakras, but it also activates the strange flows which know full well how to dance with someone else’s energies. So, what my friend Jean Houston calls "leaky boundaries," can be a positive thing. Energy exchanges can be highly creative interchanges.

I think there is way too much fear about picking up someone else’s energy, and the fear itself more readily allows for the transmission of negative energies into your body and creates an atmosphere that prevents them from easily moving through.

One exercise that proves uniquely beneficial is the Celtic weave. Weaving your own field tightly around you allows the boundaries between you and another to be more lax. The aura becomes a powerful bridge of giving and receiving, but at the same time you are continually pulsing back to yourself – moving into the other person’s field and moving out, in rhythm.

Of course some people are very sensitive. I am actually one of them. There is no substitute for having enough rest, having the proper diet, and making sure that your own energies are balanced, using a daily energy routine, etc. Integrity insists that if you don’t feel good, you don’t do the work. That is when you are most vulnerable as well as least competent. Healer, heal thyself.

I found that at the beginning and the end of every session, without planning to, I would take a deep breath that would make me very conscious of my own self and my own space. It simply made me feel strong. And I was. But that same breath, taken at the end of a session, was also information for me that the session was over, it was through. My body could go off duty.

​Answer:
​Because motion sickness may involve any of several energy systems, one or more of these should be helpful:

1. Hook up:
   Place one finger in belly button and push in and up slightly. Place another finger on the middle of the forehead right above the bridge of the nose (third eye). Hold both points together and breathe.
2. Hold Third Eye and Power Point:
   Place one finger on third eye position above and one finger in the indentation on the back of the neck at the base of the skull. Hold and breathe.
3. Hold Large Intestine Point on Arm:
   Slide up from your pointer finger to the crease on the inside of your arm. Hold that point with the index finger of your other hand. Repeat on the other side and hold both arms at the same time. Breathe.
4. Hold Liver Point on Foot:
   Put your finger between the big toe and the second toe, then slide up to where your big toe meets your foot. Push in and up towards your big toe. Do for each foot. Hold and Breathe.
5. Hold Stomach Points and Second Chakra: Push on your cheekbones right below the center of your eyes with one hand. With your other hand, hold your belly right below your belly button. Hold and breathe.

Answer:
Without being able to see your energies, and not knowing what your acupuncturist has tried, I can only make a very generic recommendation, which is to be sure that triple warmer and spleen are in a good balance (see Chapter 8 of Energy Medicine). Triple warmer and spleen govern the thyroid. To maintain that balance, diligently keep calming triple warmer and strengthening spleen. You might also, several times each day, do the "hook-up" (p. 119) and the "smoothing behind the ears" (pp. 235 - 236) exercises and tap the spleen neurolymphatic points (p. 84). Because the thyroid often balances itself as the body’s energies come into a better balance, I would also strongly recommend the five-minute "Daily Energy Routine" (Chapter 3).

Answer:
Restful sleep is one of the most important ways your body’s energies are renewed. This is nature’s design. Many people, however, experience difficulty sleeping, at least on occasion. For some it is a chronic problem, sometimes linked to physical or emotional difficulties; for others it is a passing annoyance.

Sleep labs such as the one at UCLA have studied insomnia and innovated various techniques that you might want to investigate if your insomnia is chronic or severe. These programs are described in a number of popular books as well as various websites you can find by searching for "insomnia" or "sleep disorder." But I have successfully worked with a variety of people suffering with chronic insomnia who were not helped by these standard methods.

The energetic reasons for insomnia vary from person to person and even for the same person from one night to the next. The following insomnia techniques are designed for a wide range of situations. Most people need only one or two of them to come into peaceful sleep. Find the one(s) that work for you. The page numbers refer to the second edition of Energy Medicine (Tarcher/Penguin, 2008).

Before You Get into Bed:

1. The Expelling the Venom exercise (pp. 236 - 237) reduces tension by releasing stressful energies.
2. The Triple Warmer Smoothie (p. 253) relaxes the Triple Warmer meridian. An activated triple warmer keeps all systems on alert.
3. Connecting Heaven & Earth (pp. 266-267) creates space so that energy can move throughout the body.
4. The Crown Pull (pp. 88-90) releases tension in the head and upper body.

After You Are in Bed:

1. Rub & then hold the backs of your knees. This stimulates the pineal gland to produce melatonin, a hormone that is vital for sleep
2. Shine a flashlight on the backs of your knees. This also gets the pineal gland to produce melatonin.
3. Place a black eye mask over your eyes, putting you in total darkness. This is a third way of getting the pineal gland to produce melatonin.
4. Place one hand on your frontal Neurovascular Reflex Points (pp. 102 - 103) and lay your other hand flat across your second chakra (p. 149). This dissipates stress, allowing your body to relax.
5. Again, place one hand over your frontal Neurovascular Reflex Points and the other around the back of your head (just above your neck). The side of your palm and your fingers will be touching the bones behind your ears. These points relax Triple Warmer. After a few deep breaths, rest both hands on your heart chakra. This harmonizes all the body’s energies.
6. Make a 3-finger cluster with your thumb, 2nd, and third fingers, and place it in the indent at the bottom of the front of your neck (this is a Triple Warmer Neurovascular Reflex Point). Place your other hand beneath your belly. This relaxes Triple Warmer, the Penetrating Flow, the Central meridian, and the chakra system.
7. The Hook-Up (pp. 98-99) completes the circuitry between the Central and Governing meridians, which then connect all energy systems, putting you in the zone for sleep.
8. If incessant inner chatter is keeping you up, a physical component may be a deficiency in one of the B vitamins, inositol. A quick fix can be as simple as shifting your eyes so you are looking toward your right ear.
9. Imagine you are looking at a clock in front of your face. Focus first on the 12. Next look at the 1. Continue all the way around the circle, looking at each number for a second or two, until you are at 12 again. Now go around again, imagining that you are winding the clock tighter and tighter each time you go around, as if the hands were on a spring. Continue until you cannot wind it any tighter. Then go from number to number in the opposite direction, letting the spring unwind and letting all your tension unwind with it.
10. To release facial tension, push your fingers up under your cheekbones, making small circular movements. Move outward along the cheekbones, continuing with these circular motions. Take a deep breath and bring your fingers to the sides of your nose, and push your fingers up toward and beyond the bridge of your nose. Spread your fingers across your forehead to your temples using pressure or small circular motions.
11. Teffening is a technique that was first used in Brazil to help babies fall asleep. Using the backside of your fingernails, gently and very lightly slide down the inside of your arms with your fingernails.
12. Use the Acupressure Points shown in Chapter 4 of Energy Medicine as described below:
    1. For insomnia in general: Hold the Strengthening Points on the Small Intestine and Heart meridians.
    2. If your mind is racing, hold the Liver meridian sedating points.
    3. If you regularly wake up between:
       • 11 p.m. & 1 a.m.: Hold the Gallbladder meridian sedating points.
       • 1 a.m. & 3 a.m.: Hold the Liver meridian sedating points.
       • 3 a.m. & 5 a.m.: Hold the Lung meridian sedating points.
       • 5 a.m. & 7 a.m.: Hold the Large Intestine sedating points.
    Hold the points before going to sleep and later as necessary.

Helping Your Partner Fall Asleep:

1. Give your partner a Spinal Flush (pp. 93 - 94).
2. Do the Brazilian Toe Technique for your partner.

Answer:
​I have such deep sympathy for you and your EMF problem. I, too, am very sensitive to this kind of energy. We live in a world of EMF soup, and more and more people are becoming painfully aware of how it affects them. I hear your fear and discouragement about the exercises in Energy Medicine not having giving you full protection, but I think you can build upon what you have already learned. I want to give you a little further guidance by pointing out the ones that are likely to help the most. If practiced long enough and often enough, you should see further improvement. Getting an assessment and tailor-made instruction from a qualified energy practitioner would also be a good idea.

1. Balance your energy by doing the "hook-up": place the middle finger of one hand in your belly button and of the other hand over your third eye, press in, pull up slightly (page 119). Hold this position, breathe easily, and relax. You're likely to sigh or yawn once you're hooked up.
2. The "Wayne Cook" posture (p. 74) is one of the best exercises I know for unscrambling the body's energies.
3. You can probably get a great deal of mileage out of "figure-8" exercises. Restoring the body’s figure 8 patterns creates a field around you that actually blocks out EMFs. Stand with your feet a foot or two apart and swoop your arms in figure 8 patterns in front of your body, out to the sides, and over your head (see p. 185). Do lots of them! They're especially fun to do with music.
4. Chapter 11 chronicles my own slippery adventure with EMFs and presents several ways to use magnets to protect and heal yourself. I experimented with magnets in a hundred ways. These ranged from spinning magnets over my aura to protect it, to taping magnets to specific points on my body, to at one time laying a magnet under my pillow and attaching another one above my head on the headboard.

Because EMF’s are everywhere and can affect you throughout the day, I'd do the energy exercises several times each day to keep yourself balanced. This will gradually retrain you’re the protective energy field that surrounds you to be more resilient even when you're being exposed to strong EMFs.

Answer:
This form of breathing moves vital energy through the chakras and it keeps the central and governing meridians, which meet in the back of your throat, connected to one another. Breathing in through your nose brings a force up your spine (governing meridian) that is fed by each of the chakras, and then shifting to breathe out our mouth creates a connection at the back of your throat which stimulates central meridian.

I see value, however, in many of the techniques that are used in traditional healing and yoga practices. These vary according to the purpose of the breathing, and they also vary from individual to individual. I even see value in "not breathing"—in the shallow breathing that sets off an alarm for many healers. When a person goes into an almost stillness with the breath, he or she may energetically have entered an altered state that can be very healing. Some exercises also have a stronger impact on the body when the person stays in that stillness of breath. A yin force is activated, and along with it, receptivity.

Anyway, it isn't that one way is right and one way is wrong, but rather there are many forms with many purposes. And sometimes it is important to just trust the energy that begins to lead the process when a person is not controlling the breath. While the healer’s attention to breath is often to change habits that keep people from getting the oxygen they need, I personally have on occasion wanted to slug a healer when I've been the one on the table and been told, "Take some deep breaths now." This has felt like a violation of my own rhythm, imposing a more yang rhythm. At other times, however, it has been helpful, so the main guideline is to stay closely attuned with your client and with what you are wanting to accomplish

Answer:
I have seen good results on the Chi machine; but I've seen people's energies become disheveled and disconnected on it as well. Everyone’s energies are different. The machine uses "up and down" figure eights but does not use a sideways motion. For some people, this is all they need to get their whole system hooked up; for others it just scrambles them more. Interestingly, a very ancient exercise, variations are found in many cultures (I first saw it done when I was a tiny girl by some Cherokee Indians), mimics the Chi machine exactly.

I suggest to practitioners who use the Chi machine that they energy test the person after a minute or two on it. Use the spleen meridian test. This will show if the machine strengthened or interfered with the body’s natural figure eight patterns. It will also give an indication of whether the machine caused the radiant circuits to kick in, which is necessary if there is to be a lasting benefit