Hands of Light: The Healing Work of Brennan Healing Science

Brennan Healing Science (BHS), created by NASA physicist Barbara Brennan, is about living. I mean really living.

If you have the sinking feeling you are not living the life you were meant to live, then read on.

Brennan Healing Science combines hands-on energy healing with solid psychological process work. It's about allowing miracles happen and being present in this world while communicating with many others. How you get there is amazing.

When I stepped through the door of my first BHS practitioner, Rebecca Ellens, I was nervous, excited, curious and filled with at inexplicable feeling of being in exactly the right place. I had seen Rebecca speak at a presentation of the Brennan approach to healing and felt she was the positive, confident role model I needed. I was having chronic infections in my pelvic area and chronic problems with my life, too. I felt I had exhausted all of the options I could come up with to heal myself, and no drugs, herbs or homeopathic remedies were helping.

Rebecca had an air of infinite patience and genuine warmth. She nodded patiently as I expertly rattled on about the psychology of my family history and current problems. Never breaking eye contact, she responded, "Well C.C., you have an intelligent mind, and a clear, cognitive understanding of your life." I was deeply affected by those words, and I didn't know why. Somehow, I had experienced so much more in that sentence. I heard: I see who you are and who you will become. You are going to discover so much more than your mind. There is magic to be had and you are on the right track.

I am not sure if she had to say anything at all, because it was evident to me that this was a woman who had seen many sides of life and had come out ahead, come out herself. She resonated with that feeling and I knew that I too would come out much the same way.

Healing my infections would come slowly, sometimes in painful lessons of self care, but I was so inspired by our sessions, the magic Rebecca possessed and the unique and sacred dynamic of the healer-client relationship, that I signed up for the intensive, four year training program, the Barbara Brennan School of Healing (BBSH).

In the first week of school, I was struck with something: Everyone was feeling. Feeling emotions. And they were feeling them in front of me...loudly. I thought this was very rude. As someone who lived mostly spaced out, judging everyone quietly, I felt the blatant expression of pain and anger – the humanity – totally invasive. But I was quickly taught that feeling your real feelings with support was a powerful healing process and I had better get on board with this human thing or I would not pass the year.

Well, I always pass, so when a tragic event happened in my life later that year, I decided to give it a whirl and let out my grief in front of the group. I was sure they would all think I was crazy and weak, but they surprised me by holding me in the most powerful container of unconditional love and support I had ever experienced. It felt amazing and was incredible, transformative and healing. There was no spiritual bypassing – where people pretend to be enlightened and "above it all" while seething inside. It was a very real environment. I learned that being myself involves not just trying to live my ideals, but also being completely honest about where I am – whether that be angry, in pain or feeling weak.

As a graduate and a healer now, when I have a new client come in, my first priority is to help the client feel safe enough to go into his or her real feelings. Forget the bullshit. If you are unable to be truthful, healing can be difficult. True healing is predicated on willingness and participation from the client. While some sessions may be all energy work, most involve dialogue and finding pathways for the individual to further know him or herself and his or her patterns, and to participate in the healing process.

I found over the four years that I studied at BBSH that the school was dedicated to training their healers with a personal and experiential understanding of the healing process. We were groomed to be non-judgmental with our clients. We had to pass personal development skills every year, with names like contact, life pulse, higher self-lower self-mask, self-tracking, grounding, witness-ask-experience, surrender, the wound, transference and so on. We were required to work regularly with a healer/psychologist to deepen our process and experiential learning of the work.

BBSH is very concerned with graduating responsible healers who have uncovered their latent psychic skills and have learned healing techniques, and who are also grounded, actualized people. By this I mean people are able to hold a safe, authentic healing space for the true essence and healing process of the client to emerge.

The foundation of the psychological work in the BBSH program is known as the Characterological Defenses. The work combines Pathwork and Core Energetics (both psychological models that emerged from the work of Wilhelm Reich, a student of Sigmung Freud's) as well as Barbara Brennan's knowledge of energy and high sense perception. The different characterological defenses outlined by Reich and brought to deeper fruition by BBSH include the schizoid, oral, masochist, psychopath and rigid defenses.

Warning: Don't be scared off by the names! Each of these defenses has what is called a wound and an energetic pattern/habitual defense structure that can be read intuitively and physically by the healer. When the main defense presents itself in the healing room, for instance, the healer is able to give what is termed a healing response.

For example, with a psychopathic defense, the client allows the top of his/her energy field to become enormous, while the lower energy body deflates; he or she may become angry and will project his or her perceptions out of the sixth chakra (also sometimes referred to as the third eye, the place in the center of the forehead). The psychopathic defense usually manifests in anger, feelings of injustice, betrayal, or deception (originating from early childhood). When the anger and self-righteousness is manifest, it is not a time for the healer to argue, or to appeal to the client's rationality. It's a fight no one can win.

A trained BHS practitioner will ground deeply into the earth and open the first chakra, making the auric field like Teflon (i.e. a very firm boundary) while also honoring the place in the client that needs to be seen with respect and integrity. While it is not easy, it can also foster a deep healing in the client, particularly if it the first time he or she has not been rejected for expressing anger, or has been unable to engage someone else in the controlling, confused deception associated with the psychopathic defense.

Combining psych skills with psychic skills is powerful. The client is affected cellularly, energetically, emotionally and mentally. Healing responses create an atmosphere where self-respect can flourish - something a person in the psychopathic defense must learn to possess. As the client begins to trust the healer, the environment is set for them to go into their deeper feelings of rejection or betrayal and early childhood trauma can be cleared, opening the space to receive more authentic love. The client learns to connect with his/her inner authority and sense of belonging. The client learns to take responsibility for his/her anger, stops blaming others and learns how to be in contact with others.

In addition to the negative aspects of the character types, each also has a positive expression. For the psychopathic defense it is genuine leadership, charisma, power, a tremendous amount of energy and an extraordinary capacity for love.

In that first session with Rebecca, I found myself in a "rigid" defense. I was trying to appear perfect and smart, afraid to be in my feelings and my true self. Rebecca met me at my intellect while holding an energetic healing response, allowing her core essence - Inner Divinity - to flow into the healing space. She held an open heart, connected to the physical and creative energies, meaning she held a strong connection between the fourth, or heart, chakra and second chakra. She emanated self-love. It was so simple, but it somehow connected to my own core essence and to the magic within.

Brennan Healing Science is not just putting your hands on someone and running energy. It involves being present and in contact with yourself, and from that place, being present and in contact with the client. When there is this level of contact, fear dissolves and Divinity steps in. Psychic abilities are magnified and the chakras open. When the healer is in this space, guides, angels and ascended masters will join in and co-create the healing; sometimes we conceptualize these guides as simply ‘energies' if clients are not comfortable with the terms. After four years of intense training at the school, a healer's guides are familiar with the techniques and know how to guide the healer.

Healing skills at BBSH include (but are not limited to): chelation (the basic template for hands on work), organ and chakra restructuring, spiritual surgery, cord healings, time capsule or past life healing, multidimensional healing, channeling and hara and core star healings. The techniques are based on Barbara's conceptions of the four dimensions of humankind: the physical, auric, haric and core star. The physical and auric are dualistic while hara (intention) and core star (Divine essence) are oneness.

Brennan Healing Science teaches that all disease begins as a distortion of a belief system at the seventh level of the auric field. From the seventh level, it works its way down into the physical, blocking the creative impulse from the core star. This is why we cannot ignore the psychology of a client when working energetically. We work intimately with all the levels of the field and the chakras.

With organ restructuring, we repair the organ on each of the seven levels of the field, reconnecting energy lines, tuning into any limiting beliefs and clearing clogged energy. After a liver restructuring, for instance, clients can experience physical symptoms of a detox.

For time capsule healings, the work is to deal with frozen time conglomerates. There is no need to label whether a time conglomerate is from this life, or another life, or is a fantasy, because the release of the energy creates massive healing all the same. Life-changing emotional releases occur.

With spiritual surgery, we open up and allow guides who exist on the fifth level to come into our being and perform an etheric surgery. Healers are trained to shift their vibrational rate to align with the energies of the etheric plane. It takes incredible surrender to Divine Will, as well as grounding, trust and positive intention. I actually fell down the first time I tried to perform a spiritual surgery because I couldn't maintain the vibration.

In a hara healing, a healer infuses intention into a client's hara line. The hara line is the energetic line that connects you from the spiritual planes down to into the center of the earth. It is a place of non-dualistic intention, and it takes the entire fourth year of training at BBSH to fully develop this healing skill.

Finally there is the core essence, the Divine spark in all of us that brings us into blissful individuation and oneness. Healers bring core essence into the hara healings to foster divinely inspired intention and an everlasting connection with the true self.

At BBSH there is also a strong medical template, preparing healers to work with clients with serious illnesses. Healers are required to study college-level anatomy and physiology. During each school year, medical experts give ten lectures on the efficacy of energy healing with medicine. Topics include eating disorders, diabetes, naturopathy, heart disease, and cancer. Healers are required to pass courses in integrative care, to learn to deal with specific diseases and their treatments such as cancer: healers are taught a protocol for clients going through chemotherapy, for instance. In this sense, Brennan Healing Science is considered complimentary medicine, practiced with respect to all other medical and healing traditions.

It took me two years to heal my chronic pelvic infections. It was not just on the healing table - although I had done much preliminary work there. The healing began, unbeknownst to me, in preparation for the second year ceremony at BBSH (during the last week of school, each of the four class years puts together a year-end ceremony, representing the class' healing journey that year). I had a vision of leading a very sexy dance. I wanted to bust out of hiding and show my creative and sensual power to the world!

I took on the responsibility of actualizing my vision and choreographed a very sexy dance. I rehearsed with my dedicated dancers every free moment and when we went on, in front of the whole school (about 450 people including teachers, other class years and the head of the school, Barbara Brennan), our performance ROCKED!

Although I had been dancing my whole life, I never truly let my sensual essence be seen full on. During the performance, I let it rip: the dancers killed, the teachers were screaming and the men were hooting. I moved a huge amount of energy in myself and by the end of that dance, my infection was gone. I successfully connected my heart and second chakras (which is what the dance was about!), producing a deep healing of my own rigid defense.

What I realized is that instant healings do happen, although sometimes it is a result of a long process. As a healer now, I encourage my clients to step out and live the life of their secret dreams. I believe the work I do on the table creates the template for the client to take action in the world.

To me, Brennan Healing Science is incredible. I have seen the miracle of people re-claiming themselves and their lives, healing physical, emotional and psychological trauma and exceeding their expectations. When people connect to the deepest part of themselves and begin to feel how beautiful they are, they learn that they have the power to heal themselves and to have the life they want. They learn that living in a joyful, connected way is possible. They stop participating in negative patterns, putting up with abusive behavior and start believing in themselves. New jobs, new loves, new homes come and old patterns and situations transform into healthy expressions of the highest good. I've seen people heal cancer, autoimmune disorders, thyroid problems, heart problems and digestive disorders. It is awe inspiring to witness and be a part of another's healing process.

What I had experienced in my very first session with Rebecca – being seen as my true self – I realized that I had no choice but to actually be that self. Barbara Brennan has strived to create a system that incorporates all of the human experience and what we are truly meant to be. It is an extraordinary learning process. Barbara has already written two books - Hands of Light and Light Emerging - and will be coming out with a third soon.

There are now certificate programs in Germany and Japan as well as in Miami, Florida. In Miami, healers can actually get a Bachelors of Healing Science, as well as continue studies in the teacher training program and an advanced psychological process and leadership training program called Brennan Integrated Practitioner (BIP)/Supervision Training (STP).

My own practice is based in Brennan Healing Science, but is an ever-evolving expression of who I am and who my clients are. I continue to learn new techniques, sharpen the old ones, and study with a supervising healer. Most importantly I continually challenge myself through work and through life, to deepen my understanding of living in the heart.

For information on the school and workshops, please see: www.barbarabrennan.com

This article is an adaptation of the original, published on www.spiritofmaat.com.

Images by Val Buzeta, used courtesy of a Creative Commons license.