As we mentioned in our last Ezine, a healing crisis is also known as the Herxheimer Reaction which occurs when the body is detoxifying too rapidly and toxins are being released faster than the body can eliminate them. A healing crisis can result from any holistic/natural therapy such as homeopathy, naturopathy, improved diet, or energy medicine. Many people may associate a “healing crisis” with cleansing or fasting. However, it can happen from raising your vibration through spiritual practices or energy therapies also.
The first time I recall experiencing a healing crisis was when I began meditating, and left my legal career to embark on my spiritual and healing journey. I felt feverish and headachey for months, and very thin-skinned emotionally. I needed extraordinary amounts of rest. Yet I knew I was not sick; I felt a strange sense that not only was I going to be okay, but that a new level of awareness and well-being would emerge, like the chrysalis from the cocoon.
You May Feel Worse before Feeling Better: “Peeling the Onion”
We often mistake healing crisis reactions and think we are getting sicker. Yet it often happens in the reverse. These symptoms can be brought on by a new diet or health regime, energy healing or spiritual work.
Dr. Stanley Bass, N.D. D.C. Ph.D. writes, “As you move toward better health with natural healing programs and better nutrition, healing begins to occur. As part of the healing process the body will begin to discard toxic residues which have built up in your body over the years. During the initial phase of healing, as your body begins to clean house, (detoxify) and your vital energy begins to repair and rebuild internal organs, you may experience headache, uneasiness, flu like symptoms and fatigue. These symptoms will pass as your body begins to normalize to a new level of health. You may feel worse before you feel better.”
“During the healing crisis, it is important to not suppress these temporary symptoms with drugs or the healing process may become interrupted,” notes Ginger Chalford, Ph D. “It has taken time to develop a chronically diseased state, and time is required to let go of the “locked” energy, piece by piece. It’s like peeling the layers off an onion.”
Surprisingly, often the crisis will come after one feels their very best and most energized, setting the stage for the elimination. The whole body gets into action. Most people feel an energy boost at the beginning until the toxins start dumping into the blood stream for elimination. I see this with animals too as they are placed on raw diets or sometimes after energy healing. It is as if the body is now strong enough to do its job to release whatever is compromising optimal health and well-being.
Hering’s Law of Cure – Healing Occurs from the Inside Out
According to Dr. Hering healing occurs from the inside out, meaning that toxins are excreted through the skin. This is especially true when the liver, kidneys and lungs have been impaired to some degree. It is also true for energy healing modalities like Reiki—they work on the causal level of dis-ease to bring about balance on all levels, emotional, spiritual and mental causes as well as physical.
My first physical example of this was in the early 1990s at a conference for a health supplement I was using with great results. The man next to me showed me his arms and torso–they had small red dots all over. He said that his whole body was covered with these red spots and gratefully, he stopped disrobing further as I emphatically pleaded “I believe you!!”
At first he thought it was a rash or allergic reaction. But he was not itching, and he did a bit of research. He then sent off some samples to a lab of skin scrapings and they found high levels of asbestos! He had been a construction worker for 20 years and had multiple exposures. Now he said his body was getting healthier, and able to excrete the toxic substance through the skin!
How to Minimize a Healing Crisis
If the Herxheimer reaction occurs, most health professionals suggest you cut back on your health detoxification program. However, the opposite is true for energy healing. It is often the time that people want to quit as it gets uncomfortable. This is the time to ask for help and receive as much healing as possible so that you can clear things with greater ease. The beauty of energy healing techniques are the speed and overall ease with which you can release accumulations of toxic thought patterns, emotions and physical symptoms.
Be kind to yourself — mentally, emotionally, and of course physically. Here are some tips for you to minimize discomfort:
- Drinks lots of pure alkaline ionized water (we love our Kangen water)
- Get minimal exercise daily
- Lots of sunshine (avoid midday in tropics)
- Get plenty of rest
- Take detoxification slowly … one step at a time
- Don’t increase the dose of herbals
- Keep the organs of elimination (bowels, lungs, skin, kidneys) open
- Take detox baths (ask me about the awesome DNR Body Soaks)
- Use essential oils for aches -like peppermint, wintergreen or PanAway and for emotional upliftment – Joy, Orange, Release (purchase Therapeutic grade oils at https://www.youngliving.org/kumari)
- Sweat by using exercise, saunas, baths, and herbs
- Avoid foreign chemicals and refined processed foods
- Apply Energy Healing techniques to ease discomfort and speed recovery
How Mindset Affects Healing Reactions
Once many years ago I was on the phone doing distant healing with a new client and a strange thing happened. Five minutes into the session she began to vomit, and she had not been ill at all. At first I thought perhaps there was something I did that caused such a strong reaction, and began to wonder if I should find a way to regulate the Reiki I was sending.
However, I immediately realized I had never had to do this before and reminded myself of the true nature of Reiki or Universal Life Force. Reiki is supremely intelligent energy, and most certainly not directed by me, rather it is the recipient’s own innate wisdom that applies the energy where it needs to go. So I nixed that thought pronto as I really did not want to make the error of thinking for one second this energy was about me.
I went back to our original conversation where the client exclaimed that she wanted everything in her life to change yesterday; a new job, a new home, a new husband! She was adamant that these major shifts couldn’t happen fast enough. Voila! A clue… I reminded her how she had been really impatient in her request for major change, and that could be influencing her experience.
I suggested she ask for her changes to occur with “grace and ease and divine timing”, and immediately she stopped vomiting and felt better. While this kind of dramatic release happens very rarely, it was a perfect example of how our mindset affects our healing process. Since that experience I have incorporated potent energy management techniques and intentions that facilitate our conscious alignments with more ease and consistently speed healing results and alleviate the struggle often associated with achieving higher levels of consciousness, vibrant health, and radical transformations.
Next Topic: Spiritual Healing Crisis: Are you suffering from Ascension Symptoms?
If I’ve been infected with parasites or bacteria for 15 years and finally begin to alkalize, can my healing reaction continue at different levels for months or years?
Thank you-
Dear Deanna
While I am not a health practitioner, i would imagine it could take a while to rebalance. However, energy healing will certainly speed the process and offer more ease as it balances the mental, emotional, and subtle bodies along with the physical. I usually recommend we focus on supporting all the “bodies” for faster and more effective lasting healing, as often teh CAUSE of the imbalance begins on another level than physical. If you think of it like trickling down into density, first is Spirit, then mental, emotional then physical. All the other bodies are usually out of balance first, before a physical one can develop and take hold. You can start by holding and energizing the intention that your body will rebalance with grace and ease NOW.
I agree about energy healing being helpful. Without regular acupuncture treatments, I would have stopped the herbs and minerals long ago…
Respected Kumari,
I am a TV journalist in India.I have got Reiki Master attunement and have been doing practice semi commercially. I take it as social intern training. I also use Angel Healing mixing with Reiki and other Energy Healing System. I have been experiencing crisis, always stronger then before. I find your article very helpful and guiding. I appreciate and thank you for it.
sometimes I feel stuck my intuition system and unable to tether information through Pendulum Dowsing. I feel and find me helpless in connecting healing powers and have to wait for it’s end.
I wish a regular communication with you to improve my practice. I am planning switching over my career.
I will read all your articles.
thanks
Shyam Parmar
Meerut
India
Tether means gather
Hi
Please advise if reiki healing can be use to cure depression
And also how many weeks a healing crisis is supposed to last
BYE
While I can make no medical claims, I have seen Reiki which is Universal Life Force energy, help with most things including mental/emotional healing.
If you are experiencing serious symptoms of course you should consult with a health care practitioner as well.
As far as a time frame for a Healing Crisis, it seems to run the gamut so I am not able to say how long you can expect it to last. I have found that energy healing and therapeutic grade essential oils have been extremely effective for many of my clients to alleviate sadness and depression.
Hope you are feeling better and better and please email me if you need any further assistance.