Hiatal Hernia

Question:
My husband has a hiatal hernia. An x-ray taken during an attack revealed his stomach to be 60 to 80% above his diaphragm. Surgery has been recommended. I have your book and my friends are encouraging us to try energy medicine techniques instead of surgery. I do not know where to put my faith.

Answer:
This is a very difficult question to even begin to approach without being able to see or test his energies and make an assessment. I can tell you that I have seen many many instances where energy work did correct a condition where surgery was the standard medical treatment, including hiatal hernias. Following are three procedures that have been helpful, and he will know within two or three days if they are working:

  1. Relaxing the body as much as possible (bath, massage, deep breathing, etc.) and then sedating stomach meridian using the acupressure sedating points (p. 121 of Energy Medicine), holding them two to three times longer than suggested in the book.
  2. Massaging the neurolymphatic points for small intestine (p. 84).
  3. Modifying the diaphragm exercise (pp. 266 – 269) by first doing it as described, and then pushing in hard with the fingers while bending over as you push.

Doing these two or three times should lead to some relief within a couple of days if this is going to be enough to help. If there is no sign of immediate relief, he will have to consider either the surgery or an immediate and thorough assessment and intensive work with an alternative healer. If there is some let-up in the symptoms, he could continue to do these procedures to see if the condition can be turned around completely. Best would be to find a local energy medicine practitioner who could work in conjunction with his physician. But I have seen these techniques alone help the system to relax so completely that all the organs come back into their natural positions

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EverettHiatal Hernia

Holding Sedating and Strengthening Points

Question:
When holding my own acupuncture strengthening or sedating points, does it matter if my hand rests on my body, or should I be certain that the only parts touching are just my fingertips on the points I’m holding?

Answer:
I tend to tell people to just have their fingers touching because the fingers direct the energy. However, as long as the fingers are doing the directing, sometimes the hand may actually enhance the process. At any rate, do not worry as long as your fingers have a firm connection.

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EverettHolding Sedating and Strengthening Points

Holding vs. Needling Acupoints

Question:
What is the difference between using needles for clearing a blocked meridian versus holding the acupuncture points using one's fingers like you describe in Energy Medicine?

Answer:
Human contact sometimes has an effect that needles can not touch. The power of touch and the loop of human energy that is created between the client and the practitioner can often move energy in ways that needles do not. On the other hand, acupuncture is sometimes the best treatment because the needle can go down so deep and can affect the system electromagnetically in ways that touch sometimes cannot. Also there are times that the metal of a needle allows a laser focus that is exactly what is called for. But it is not either/or. With or without acupuncture, using acupressure to cultivate a relationship with your own healing touch is invaluable.

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EverettHolding vs. Needling Acupoints

Homolateral Crossover

Question:
I have not been successful in crossing my energies.  I work hard, doing many rounds of the "Homolateral Crossover," but I am still homolateral most of the time.   What can I do to finally shift this pattern?

Answer:
It is sometimes very tough to get out of a homolateral pattern.  Don’t despair!   I have not met anyone who stuck with the homolateral crossover who was not successful, but I have seen people need to do it twice daily for up to 3 months before the results were stable. One suggestion is that before you do the crossover, do the "crown pull" very deliberately! Use many push-pulls, beginning at your forehead and traveling back over your head and pulling across the side of your neck. Hang on your shoulders for at least 30 seconds, and then slowly pull your fingers over your shoulders and drop your arms.  Also, always do the "three thumps" before doing the crossover. If you still feel muddled afterwards, do another crown pull.   Finally, at the very end do "Separating Heaven and Earth."

Another way to change homolateral patterning, a simple and pleasurable technique, is to turn on music you like and move your hips rhythmically. You will find that they sway quite naturally in a figure 8, which helps the crossover pattern. Each of these additions will support your use of the homolateral crossover, causing its effects to go deeper and be more lasting.

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EverettHomolateral Crossover

Homolateral Crossover for Paraplegics

Question:
I am a physical therapist who specializes in working with paraplegics. I have noticed that some of my patients are homolateral. I do not know how to help them correct this with such limited mobility?

Answer:
I think I tell the story in Energy Medicine about how very early in my career I was teaching a class in a retirement home and one of the men was paralyzed on one side of his body from a stroke. By beginning to imagine doing some of the exercises that involve having the energies cross over from one side of the body to the other, he regained movement on the paralyzed side. This amazed everyone, especially him, and it gave him a whole new sense of power and purpose in his life as he had been very active before his stroke and had become utterly depressed with the paralysis.

By now I have done this dozens of time with people who are unable to physically do the exercises, and frequently with impressive results. You can teach your patients to use their minds to do the homolateral cross-over (pp.250-52) and the cross crawl (pp. 80-4).   You can do the Rhythmic 8's (p. 202) in front of them and have them follow the exercise with their eyes. If they have any mobility in the upper body, you can have them do figure eights and Celtic weaves, and imagine the energies moving in the same way in their lower bodies. Understanding the principle that the mind can move energies will open you to many creative uses of the techniques with your patients.

Also you can, yourself, do the homolateral routine ‘to’ them by picking up their legs and their arms, while they are resting.

More power to you and to them!

This video by, EEM Advanced Practitioners, Janie Chandler and Laurel Camden, demonstrates a fantastic technique for homolateral re-patterning that can be used with paraplegics.

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EverettHomolateral Crossover for Paraplegics

Insomnia

Question:
I have had difficulty falling asleep for years. The nights are so long, and I feel exhausted every day. It is a kind of torture. Are there any energy techniques that can help me?

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.
    4. 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.

The Brazilian Toe Technique

  1. Lie on your back.
  2. Your partner stands or sits at your feet so your toes can be held comfortably, without straining.
  3. Start with the thumbs on the pads beneath the 3rd toe and with the 3rd (middle) fingers on top of the nails of the 3rd toes.
  4. Hold for 3 minutes.
  5. Repeat with the 4th toes/4th fingers (thumbs always on the pads beneath those toes); then 5th toes/5th fingers; 2nd toes/2nd fingers; and finally the big toes with the thumbs beneath them and the 2nd and 3rd fingers on the toenails.
  6. Maintain contact with the foot when you change toes. Gently move your thumb to the next toe, then move your finger.
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EverettInsomnia

Gray Hair

Question:
Recently you mentioned that you knew some herbs and other substances that are good for preventing and reversing gray hair (and other hair problems). Would you share them with us here?

Answer:
Absolutely! But before we start, I want it on the record and understood that you should energy test anything I recommend here, using energy localizing. Always remember that no two people are the same. What may work for one person won't necessarily work for another.

Also, rotate substances. The body habituates so that a remedy that was working may stop working. If you give your body a break from it, it will often start working again. Energy testing shows you when you need to rotate.

The following describes what I have found to be useful in preventing – or sometimes even reversing – gray hair.

A Native American woman told my aunt to take the mineral copper. She did, and her hair came back from gray. Make sure you energy test this, because you can overdose on copper. Plus we can't let ourselves be fooled into thinking that what worked for one person will work for another.

When I had multiple sclerosis, I found a few herbs, minerals, and vitamins that were helpful. Pantothenic acid not only helped my toes not be numb and swollen, but I believe pantothenic acid, along with iodine, also helped keep my hair from falling out, which it was doing in huge handfuls when I was sick.

In addition to copper, iodine, and pantothenic acid, I've seen benefit from B12, chlorophyll, and DMAE, as well as coconut oil put directly on the hair. Massaging mehndi (a henna) into the scalp is done in India to prevent grayness. Because hair needs fresh sources of protein, collagen can also be helpful. Again, energy test for any of these.

Stress and genetics play a large role in the decline of the tiny hair pigment cells. With their decline, you lose the pigment color in your hair. But energy work can influence this.

Your body is always losing and replacing its hair. A normal hair cycle should lead to more hair. Growth cycles are related to energy balances, so when the energy between head and hair has gone awry, hair graying and hair loss is often a result.

Factors that interfere with the cycle – like medication, illness, infection, or chemicals – have the potential to stop hair from being formed properly. It can get dry, it can go gray, and it can fall out. Balancing the energies in the head can counter this (use Neurovasculars, Crown Pull, Rooster Comb Hold, meridians, etc.)

Problems with the thyroid or pituitary glands can also cause graying and baldness, so test and balance the associated meridians. A very simple technique is to tape a magnet or two onto your hairbrush so the south side faces your scalp. The energy of a magnet's south side stimulates growth. Many people have shown me positive results after I suggested they do this.

Not only was color restored to graying hair when using the magnet, but their hair grew in thicker. When this approach works, it is usually because there is a sebaceous gland problem. In fact, simply massaging the sebaceous glands on the scalp can also help with hair issues.

A Native American woman gave me the following technique. I have known this to work for many people, and I have now seen it in many cultures. Join your hands together like you are praying. Keeping your fingertips joined to each other, pull your fingers inward to create an "m" shape. Then buff your nails together in up-and-down circles. Don't do the thumbs (this causes facial hair).

There are nerve endings under the nails that go directly to your scalp, and it stimulates meridian flow. The nails reflect and affect liver, blood, and energy. If the liver, blood, and kidney essence is plentiful, then the hair is thick, healthy, and retains its color.

To close, one special story. The pitch black hair of my wonderful old friend, Jimmy Wong, went pure white after a heart attack. He used a Chinese herb, He Shou Wu, and it returned to black.

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EverettGray Hair

Graves Disease

Question:
I have Graves disease and am facing the prospect of having radioactive treatment designed to kill my thyroid. I would consequently have to take medication for the rest of my life.  Can energy medicine offer an alternative treatment?

Answer:
The triple warmer meridian governs the thyroid. Graves disease involves triple warmer having been in a state of panic for so long that it does not know how to properly manage the thyroid.  Without seeing your unique energies, I cannot tell you which energy techniques would be most helpful, but I can offer some best guesses. In my experience, sedating triple warmer via the acupressure points, and then strengthening it, followed by strengthening heart and spleen, also using the acupressure points, can alter the direction of this disease.  Balancing all body’s energies is also very important.  The "Daily Energy Routine," coupled with tracing the 14 meridians (easiest to learn from the videotapes), is a good way to accomplish this

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EverettGraves Disease

Getting Pregnant

Question:
I have been using many of your processes in my sessions and teaching clients the "Daily Energy Routine." They are a great complement to my own work as an energy-oriented psychotherapist. I am wondering if you can recommend a process or technique for someone who wants to get pregnant. I happen to have 3 female clients at the moment, all in their 20's, who have wanted to get pregnant for over the past year. Each has had a thorough gynecological exam, and there does not seem to be a medical problem. One did have some endometriosis that was surgically remedied. I am interested in what I can do in a session and/or teach them to do on their own. What energy blocks or impairments are hindering their ability to conceive?

Answer:
It is of course difficult to recommend a technique without testing or seeing the person’s energy. A variety of energy patterns can interfere with becoming pregnant. I will mention the two that are the most common and suggest a strategy for working with each.

The first involves disturbances in the circulation-sex meridian. Its flow can become constricted even by something as innocuous as when a person is "trying too hard" to become pregnant. The correction is, basically, to "loosen up" the circulation-sex meridian by sedating and then strengthening it using the acupuncture points (p. 122 of Energy Medicine), massaging its neurolymphatic reflex points (p. 84), holding its neurovascular points (p. 274), and "flushing" it (p. 105, backwards one time, forward three times).

A second place to look is actually related. Triple warmer energy may be controlling and constricting the energies of the circulation-sex meridian since the two meridians sit as partners on the same element (see p. 210). If so, triple warmer will need to be sedated (see p. 235). Neither of these approaches will be harmful, and even if they are not actually needed, one or both may be just the ticket.

And there is a third thing to look at. Kidney meridian is always involved in getting pregnant. But not always on the woman’s side. It may be in the male’s energy. So everything you can do to care for both partner s’ kidney meridians will be good, including first sedating and then strengthening the meridian (p. 121), clearing its neurolymphatic points (p. 84), and holding its neurovascular points (p. 274) to keep a healthy circulation of blood through the kidneys.

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EverettGetting Pregnant

Gallbladder Removed

Question:
I really enjoyed your talk last year at the "Mind-Body-Spirit" Conference in London, so I bought your book and your video. As I watched the video, I saw you demonstrate how a woman lost energy on her right side because of a gallbladder operation, and this really got my attention. Having recently had my own gallbladder removed, I couldn't help but wonder how energy medicine might help me with the post-surgical swelling and pain that I'm still experiencing. In fact, I've wondered how this meridian was affected now that the actual organ is no longer there. Not only do I have a major scar from an incision that the surgeons made to remove my gallbladder "the old fashioned way," but I also have a small one near my navel where they first tried a laparoscopic procedure. This smaller scar is healing quite well, but it has definitely affected my stomach and intestinal system.

Answer:
Last but not least, I had a severe reaction to the anesthesia and antibiotic medication that was used during the operation, so the ordeal of major surgery was made even more stressful than usual. Remind me to not do this again any time soon. Meanwhile, any advice you can offer would be gratefully received.

A. The gallbladder meridian is still there, even though your gallbladder has been removed, but its energy flow has likely become scrambled because of the operation. You can rebuild this pathway, by first sedating and then strengthening the gallbladder meridian. I would recommend that once or twice each day you hold the gall bladder acupuncture points (see page 122 of Energy Medicine).

A major operation like you've had not only affects the meridian that is most obviously involved, it also tends to scramble your energies in many other ways. For example, a number of your other meridians may be running backwards, and your energy may have become homolateral rather than crossing your body as is needed. To correct these possible imbalances, I’d suggest the "Daily Energy Routine" (Energy Medicine - Chapter 3). Then trace all of your meridians as an additional step. They are illustrated in Chapter 4, but are easier to learn from the Energy Healing videotape set. You'll be surprised by how quickly you can learn them. This will help your recovery process, and might also help you calm the stress from your body's reactions to the anesthesia.

Because of the symptoms resulting from the scar near your navel, I'd suggest that you sedate your small intestine, stomach, and large intestine meridians by holding the respective acupuncture sedating points, and follow this by holding the strengthening points for each. These pathways, too, will be rejuvenated by the jump-start of fresh energy.

If you do these procedures one or more times daily, I suspect you will see some improvement, but because I am laying out a fairly complex routine, you might also want to seek out an energy healer who can work with these systems and supervise your back-home practice.

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EverettGallbladder Removed