TheBanyanTree: Torrential Outflow

[Roger Pye]

Kathy (not her real name) was 43 years old when she was referred to me 
by another person in my network, 'referred' being a euphemism for an 
explanation that K was in desperate need of a healing she couldn't 
afford and the referrer couldn't provide.  Generally speaking I treat 
people in their own homes mainly because they feel better in their own 
environment even though, often, it is instrumental in their health 
condition. The first day I visited Kathy I found she lived in public 
housing - a street of single storey houses which were all identical 
except for their colour. As I walked up to the door the curtain in the 
front room window next door twitched and I caught a momentary glimpse of 
an old face peering out.

"Hello, Karyn," I said as she opened the door to my knock. "I've come to 
help you, to set you free from your fears."

She stared at me, her expression bewildered, smiled a little, waved me 
inside and then began to cry. Quietly I went past her into the living 
room, set up my treatment table, taking my time in arranging its 
covering blanket and setting the pillow at one end, and then I sat down 
at one end of her settee and waited for something to happen. After a few 
minutes she came in, eyes downcast and red but not moist, to sit at the 
other end, her hands twisting a soggy handkerchief.

I said "Naomi suggested I come to see you, did she tell you about it?" A 
very slight nod resulted. "Okay," I continued. "Would you like to tell 
me something about yourself?"

Nothing happened. No response, no tears (which I had expected), nothing. 
I felt the smile freeze on my face as we sat there sharing the same 
piece of furniture. And then after about five minutes she opened her 
mouth and her story poured out in a torrential flow, her words rushing 
and tumbling over each other as if they had been dammed up like a 
mountain reservoir.

Born in the poorer quarter of one of Australia's big cities, from the 
age of five Karyn was used and abused by the 'old' men who lived on 
either side of her parents' house. Five years later her mother learned 
officially of their treatment of her daughter, accused her of enticement 
and threw her and her belongings out into the street. For the next 
decade, Karyn passed from group to group until she escaped through 
marriage to someone who treated her a little less casually than the 
rest. She bore this man two sons who stayed with her when the marriage 
broke up. Now she lived with them and another man not far away from the 
house where we were sitting.

In terms of material resources she had nothing - no job, no money or 
prospects of getting either, no mobility other than her own feet or her 
companion's car. But in terms of courage she had a lot and in the months 
which followed (I visited her every two to three weeks at no cost) I 
marvelled at the resilience which the release of that torrent revealed.

After the outflow I persuaded her to lie down on the treatment table and 
try to relax. At first it was like treating a piece of wood; relaxation 
was not a strong point - is it hardly surprising? Reiki is a hands-on 
healing treatment. It can be used hands-off and often is both directly 
and from a distance but for the first treatment at least I feel it is 
better for the recipient and the giver to be in a 'touch' situation. In 
this case though, for obvious reasons, I was ultra-careful; I touched 
her in a few places only - the back of her head, her shoulders and hips 
and then I stood on one side of the table with my left hand gently 
cupping her right shoulder and my right laid across her navel where, 
through her clothing, I could clearly feel the rigidity which 
accompanied her inability to relax.

I encouraged Karyn to talk as I do all my recipients. Her first words 
surprised me; as she spoke them I felt her stomach muscles begin to relax.

"I'm a Reiki Master too," she said. "I learned on the internet a few 
years ago but I've only ever treated my boys and myself, though it's 
never really worked with me. This is the first direct treatment I've had."

As I was leaving that day she asked me if I would re-attune her to the 
Mastership and I said I would. Over the series of treatments I refreshed 
her memory and skills and capped it off with the attunement and a 
presentation of a new certificate. She cried then too but from an 
upsurge of happiness, not from despair.

I've been a reiki person for over five years now, long enough to know 
there are several methods of hands-on (and hands-off) treatments. A few 
months ago I was asked during a workshop to explain what reiki is. 
Without thinking about it I answered "Reiki is analagous with an 
expression of parental unconditional love which a small child receives 
when he hurts himself then runs wailing to his mother and/or father for 
comfort." Afterwards I thought about what I had said and in realising I 
had never read that in any instruction manual, remembered Karyn and her 
travail and knew from where my explanation had come.

roger