4 days; & a reflection on healing vibes/prayer/distant healing work

Four more days at the job means four days closer to more rest; exercise; and helping my dear daughter with high school; four days closer to some sleeping in; four days closer to working with Spirit on some house and self projects; four days closer to some serious visioning work on the next adventure. Four business days and I'm out.

Of course, I'll go in during the December sale if they need me to pinch-hit. But nothing substantial, long-term, or involved.


I sent a message earlier tonight to a person I know, promising "healing vibes." In all the time I spent in the car this evening, schlepping DD back and forth to choir practice, I started thinking about the difference between "healing vibes," prayer, and the distant healing work I do.

"Healing vibes" can run the gamut between holding a good thought for a person's healing, for just a moment, to serious visualization of the best that healing can hold for that individual. I've been known to hold my hands up to the computer, close my eyes, and allow the energy in my hands to flow "towards" that person. It's always with the intention that the energy be used for that person's highest good ("healing" doesn't mean "curing" (another whole topic for another time)). "Healing vibes" are short-term, I think by definition.

Prayer supposes a Being who can help, in most Western traditions; and asks for help for an individual from that Being. Quakers hold the individual being prayed for "in the Light." Prayer is intentional, can be practiced for a moment or over long periods of time, and is assumed to help. It's my experience that prayer can slide off a person, and be used by another, if the person isn't open to prayer or can't use the energy.

The distant healing work that I, and others like me, do is intentional, sure. But it has to be asked for, or at least discussed, either verbally or in writing, with the person for whom/with whom the work is done. It's a serious ethical violation, in my view, to work on someone without their permission; at issue here is the individual's ability to determine what is done to them. If you assume, as I do, that the work is real, then it's similar to doing something for that person that the person hasn't asked for. How do I know that you want your knee worked on, but I must not touch your ankle, unless we've talked before I start? I can sense your digestive issue, sure, but do you want me to touch that? So I never, ever work on someone without a prior discussion. And like all my work, it's strictly confidential.

So: "healing vibes" are harmless, at best, and possibly quite useful. Prayer is similar (though it's basic assumption is very different). Distant healing work? Only with permission; and very useful, both in the short and long term. I have, for example, a blanket permission to work on my sister. But she's the only one.

More later, my dears. Rest, and be well.