The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Healing patients without body contact and, with energy, it’s not science fiction or impossible but is actually happening according to the beneficiaries and the proponents.
This healing program which is practiced at the Youth Development Fund (YDF) in Thimphu has received positive responses from both people who underwent the sessions and from those who take classes with patients who suffer from minor to chronic diseases.
This is possible through ‘Pranic Healing’ which claims to be a simple yet powerful and effective system of no-touch energy healing. What’s more, in this process drugs and gadgets are not used except for energy body (prana).
Pranic healing was brought to Bhutan eight years ago.
Queen mother Azhi Tshering Pem Wangchuck invited Shakun Goyal, founder of Pranic Healing Centre Foundation in Delhi to teach the group of people who were interested in pranic healing.
The program is conducted during weekends. About Nu 2,500 is charged as a course fee. Ever since the program started from 1 October last year, the number of participants reached 98 within 4 months.
A certified teacher of Pranic Healing in Bhutan as well as Program Director of YDF Dorji Ohm said the healing is basically to complement whatever modern medicine that people take. “Pranic healers are not doctors but can be healers. We cannot diagnose the disease but as a healer we can facilitate the rate of healing,” she said.
She explained, “If the energy body is not balanced, physical body will never be balanced, so we treat the energy body while the physical body is treated by modern medicine.”
Pranic healing for one is used based on the principle of self recovery, which is noticeable when you get cough and cold or a burn where the body displays capacity to recover without any medication.
What Pranic healing does is accelerate the rate of recovery by using ‘prana’ which is the vital force or life energy. “Energy is all around us, in trees, in the ground, in the air and sun as well, which means there is an abundance of energy all around us,” Dorji Ohm said.
“Using this energy we channel them to heal certain ailments.”
The ailments could range from burns, diarrhea and constipation to malaria and cancer etc.
To practice Pranic Healing, there are certain disciplines that are required of the practitioners. First off, and a ‘golden rule’ to be strictly followed is simply the virtuous action to ‘not kill or harm others’.
“Do not do onto others as you would not want them to do unto you. In order to be happy, you have to make others happy,” said the program director.
In that manner Pranic healing is not just about healing the ailment or facilitation of the healing process. It is also the way you look at things.
“The way it works is miraculous and I cannot explain but it definitely has a positive effect,” said Dorji Ohm.
If anything is not scientifically explained, people are bound to view any service with skepticism no matter how well-intended. So goes the same even for this ‘Pranic’ service which many could view as just another cult trying to gain mileage.
In this regard Secretary General of Zhung Dratshang in Thimphu Gembo Dorji who attended the courses said Pranic Healing is also a spiritual practice dealing with health, well-being. “It is good for the practitioners,” he said.
The Zhung Dratshang official said “if you go by history there is a lot of inspiration from different teachers, masters and in one way it is also linked to Guru Padmasambhava.” “And we can understand a part of Vajrayana approach which is why we find it beneficial,” he added.
However, he said though it is a good practice, if certain spiritual practices stresses on importance of chants and ‘some kind of code of conduct’, then one would have to be careful. “Anything that is spiritual should have lesser components of those things,” he said.
“I didn’t see a religious cult at all since I stayed through the course. The instructor always stresses on spiritual, well-being, health, practicality of applications like meditation,” said Gembo Dorji.
Success Stories
“The healing has helped people by improving their relationships with their husbands, parents, siblings and within their working organization. Financially they are stable now because they are able to function better,” said Dorji Ohm.
The most common cases seen are arthritis, asthma and fever.
Dorji Ohm shared that after healing, two asthma cases never got attacks which initially used to happen frequently.
One of the active healers is one of the popular Bhutanese singers, Dechen Pem for whom life changed in a positive way after Pranic healing.
Dorji has healed five chronic patients, who suffer from Ulcer, migraine, gastric and cancer. She got positive response from her patients, saying that after the first healing itself they have a sound sleep.
She shared while healing there should be faith from both the sides for better outcome.
Another healer, is Kinley Wangmo a housewife, who healed about 16-20 minor patients so far.
She was not a believer at start but after undergoing the course she could find solutions to life situations with a calm mind. Earlier she used to sleep less with a lot of tension because of her asthmatic mother for whom she visited the hospital frequently.
She tried healing her sick mother and the rate of pain subsided. Her mother is well now and she never took her mother to a hospital after that.
In one of the cases, a 70 year woman who suffered from joint pain and severe constipation could gain a nearly normal toilet movement.
Previously, the said patient’s waste (excreta) had to be taken out through a pipe.Sonam Lhamo (64) from Lhuentse who suffered from gastritis for past 14 years underwent the healing process at YDF.
“I feel better right after the healing though in between I get some pain”, she said.
She was earlier referred to couple of hospitals in Bhutan as well as outside
Dorji Ohm said Pranic healing basically treats the energy body, so you heal the energy body because the physically body often is not in a good balance because of the energy body.
“We have to inculcate the practice of generosity and loving kindness, as Pranic healers,” she said adding “once you become a healer, you do the healing for the benefit of others, which benefits yourself with the right motivation. You do not misuse what you know to hurt others or harm others and that’s why Pranic Healing is governed by the law of karma,” she said.
The founder of Modern Pranic healing and Arhatic Yoga, Master Choa Kok Sui (1952-2007) was raised in a multi-faith environment.
According to Choa Kuk Sui “Pranic healing is like acupuncture and yoga in that it treats the ‘energy body’ which in turn affects the physical body”.
