Energy healing conjures up beautiful visuals. We talk about people's energy and we know the universe is made up of charged particles: energy. But what exactly is energy healing? How does it work? And does it work?
I met with Dolores Höppener an energy healer in Amsterdam. She's one of those people whose whole face lights up when she talks to you. If you believe in auras her glow is definitely effervescent.
The session felt like a combination of meditation, therapy and something else I can't quite explain. I felt a warmth and vibration spread across my entire body and even blacked out for several seconds. We talked through scenes in my past and present and changed the emotional feeling associated with these key memories.
Afterwards I felt so much lighter and fresher, almost like I was floating. Something had definitely shifted and I was able to view myself with more compassion. I spoke to Dolores afterwards and she broke the mystique on energy healing down a little more.
You perform Shin-do an ancient Tibetan form of energy healing.. What is it?
Shin-do was created by Tibetan monks thousands of years ago. The system is formed by healing techniques that were based on the Buddha teachings. Until approximately 25 years ago it was unknown to the rest of the world, nowadays it’s getting more known because its effective results.
Shin-do incorporates the vibrations of the individual with universal and earth energy. Each cell and organ of our body vibrates at a specific frequency. When an organ is healthy its frequency is in harmony with the entire body and mind. When altered, harmony is broken and results in discomfort, pain, and disease.
When you perform Shin-do you channel the flow of healing energy, which is life itself; the energy of Universal Vital Vibration and the energy of Mother Earth, enhancing our connection with our inner Being.
Shin-do is also synergistic with other natural healing techniques.
You said you see physical pain and disease as a messenger. What could they be trying to tell us?
Yes, definitely. I learned this by experience. All things that happened to me - from burning the soles of my feet to inflamed joints - where there for me, to tell me something. Gifts. I experienced that when I went within; communicating with my body, I could heal myself. Our body is so intelligent; it knows when to slow down, how to heal itself and even gives us signs to make the right choices. According to Eastern medicine, from bumping your pinky toe to even cancer, is a messenger. It sounds maybe harsh but if you can look at it with some distance, how wonderful that your body gives you messengers?
Shin-do Master José Antonio Manchado encourages us to say ‘Congratulations’ to someone with any disease, even cancer. Why? He explains that it’s a possibility to wake-up; to break through conditions, patterns and habits that are not benefiting us! It’s a possibility to liberate yourself and live your life in freedom.
I really believe that all that happens is a gift. Life is always with us, never against us. Only, most of us, don’t see it as such, and that in itself is creating our suffering. We’ve got so used to believing that we are sick, we got used to our stomach aches and headaches. It’s like we take it for granted. We take painkillers to not feel it. To press down that what wants to come out.
Think about it this way: if your loved one is trying to tell you something and you are not hearing it. Over and over again, he or she is sharing this with you in many different nice ways. And then after many times of trying nicely, he or she burst it out, so that you cannot go around it anymore.
Well, that also happens within you. You are not your body. Your soul/higher self/god/light that is you (and is never against you) is communicating through your body, to help you make the right choices, to do the things that are right for you, to break through karmic habits so you can live joyfully. Let’s listen to our body, our heart, our inner wisdom!
Do you believe unexpressed emotions or hurts can manifest in the body?
There are more and more researches that show that suppressed emotions will manifest in your body and you will unconsciously act from it. This is also why the Dalai Lama created an Atlas of Emotions and commissioned his good friend Paul Ekman — a psychologist who helped advise the creators of Pixar’s “Inside Out,” an animated film set inside a girl’s head.
You most probably know that visual of the iceberg sticking just a little bit above the ocean. The mind is like that iceberg. The conscious mind is the tip of the iceberg. The subconscious is everything beneath the surface, containing all the programming behind why you do, think, act, behave, and feel the way that you do. If you don’t look at your suppressed emotions, you are running your life by these patterns. By things that we have not expressed or healed.
It’s not natural to feel fear or any other negative emotion. It is habitual and changeable! Our natural state is being free, free from suffering. To live life in joy and at ease. You have to dare to go in and face your suppressed emotions. Be willing to learn from your body, from yourself. I often experience in sessions that it's difficult to allow ourselves to cry about things that we think are too small to cry about or about things that we understand so well why it happened. I enable people to be kind to themselves and admit it was painful. And to see it apart from any other person; merely as a message for yourself; a gift. If we would allow ourselves to see things like that, we could heal ourselves right away and things would not stick; it would not affect us. So, let’s cry more and release our patterns! Let’s see emotions as energy in motion, so you give it space to let go.
Talk us through the process of a session with you. What does it look like?
When we don’t listen to our body; when we suppress emotions, which is common cause we never really learned how to let them be, we can really benefit from a shin-do session to remind us how to rely on our feelings, release blockages (emotions) and heal ourselves.
When you join me for a session we will start by connecting with each other. I will explain the process in which I highlight that you are able to heal yourself and I will merely be facilitating the process.
We ask your heart, that holds all fundamental knowledge, what can be healed. By connecting with my heart to yours we gain access to this knowledge and you will immediately feel your body reacting. A lot of people experience calmness and a feeling of deep connection and easiness. You can also start to feel the pain that is stored in your body.
When you are not used to living from your heart, I will help you rest there. Resting in the space of the heart can already be healing by itself.
When we find what really needs healing, the source of your pain, the actual shin-do starts. First we release that what is not serving you, what is limiting you from becoming who you truly are. Then we will raise your vibration to connect you with your full potential, your natural being.
Even though feelings that arise during the session can be tough, with shin-do you’re able to let them go and go home full of joy. Sometimes, when useful, I will give you a practice you can do at home to strengthen the results. This can be as simple as: do more things that you really like.
I can imagine by now this sounds rather appealing, but it still is difficult to form a clear picture of what will actually happen during the session. Well, we cannot predict what you will experience, as every time the experience is different. But one thing that’s for sure though: we are in a space where magic can happen, and when you are open to it, that is what will happen!
That is why I love it so much; to experience the magic that life is. That happens when we are truly connected. To go beyond our conditioned thoughts and see that what ones seemed real, can actually transform and heal.
Tell us about one of your best stories of a client that healed.
So many beautiful things have happened! I only just started and already have some beautiful experiences. One time someone didn’t laugh so intensely in 2 years. It felt so liberating. She walked away like she was flying - with a big smile on her face while it was pouring with rain. Intense joy and laughter tend to happen during sessions because by performing shin-do we are actually projecting life-energy through our bodies and life-energy equals love, and love equals joy!
Another time someone got the profound insight he could shape his own world; he felt his potential and saw that he was able to make the changes all by himself: a true awakening. And he hugged the earth, which was awesome!
A new- born had been vomiting for the last 3 days. In this case, the mother held the key to the source. The vomiting healed through performing shin-do; connecting the mother with her heart and with her baby. She instantly felt why it was happening. I didn’t know but I felt it was right.
The only thing, I know is that I know nothing. I let myself be surprised by the process. My experience: When I totally let go of any wanted outcome magic happens. I am getting out of the way.
Just recently, I experienced someone healing herself from a sudden deafness in one of her ears. She found out what her ear wanted her to know and that was the spark to create the healing. It felt really special to be part of this!
You also do house clearings? Do you come into people’s homes? How does it work?
Yes! I don’t have to be in the house to feel it but it can be nice. We do what feels right for both the one that wants her/his house to be cleaned and me. I connect with the house and then I get information, I see entities, and where the energy doesn’t flow. By connecting and embracing all, it can go to the light. It’s beautiful.
What’s the pricing on energy healing / house clearings and how many sessions do you need typically?
€70. One session can definitely be enough! For healings though, it depends on how long it has been suppressed and the readiness of the person. Sometimes a lot comes out and it’s nice to do one more session to see what can be healed after. Or sometimes people like some more guidance after feeling free - yes, also that can be a funny feeling in the beginning and that is ok :-)
Is Shin-do something for you?
There is not one method better than the other. It’s all about what’s right for you. Choose what’s feel right for you! If you are interested in going to the source of your pain, and you are open to try than it might be something for you.
My experiences show to me that there is a reality behind spiritual systems that very much deserves our attention. If you’re interested here’s a nice documentary: ‘Something Unknown Is Doing We Don't Know, Award-Winning Documentary Film revealing the Science Behind Psychic Phenomena’
Waking up here
By the sound of birds
The light of the sun
The smell of fresh bread
How beautiful is that...
4 days in nature
4 days of reflection
1) How we rise to new life
2) How we maintain and sustain
3) How we move beyond pain
4) And feel infinity is divinity
Yesss! It's so clear to me as you see I am in Italy, that:
Every day is a possibility to be free,
every pain is an opportunity for inner discovery.
When we take time to really listen, make friends with whatever happens, we find ourselves being grateful for what we have been suppressing.
See it as this,
and your life turns into bliss.
So do not go on
Racing from a to b
With painkillers and vitamin c
Instead have courage to sit still
Be quiet to hear what's real
And be willing to feel all
Look further than the small 'me'
Breathe loud to just Be
And ask yourself
Be curious to you
What is going on within
Why is there no peace
With what is on the surface
It's only you that knows
Why the wind blows
Where it goes...
So it's you that can heal
What's coming through
See it for what it is
As kind advice
To swirl your life (back)
To that what you really like
And feel deep contentment
All the time
- Dolores Höppener