And, Why You Might Be One, Too.
With many people and in many parts of our country, calling yourself a healer will get you a whole lot of side eye.
Some will assume you’re a holy roller, slain in the Spirit style Pentacostal healer and will take a few steps back.
Some will assume you’re a holy roller, slain in the Spirit style Pentacostal healer and will take a few steps back.
Others will assume you’re a delusional, anti-science, anti-brain, self-appointed guru healer and will turn and run away.
Regardless—maybe because I'm a stupid fool—I’m fairly open in public with what I do for numerous reasons. The more people that encounter healers who are grounded, rational, and “normal” for lack of a better word, the more we seed into our collective consciousness, that being a healer is normal. Because it is.
Why is it normal?
Here are 2 reasons.
1) Your body is a miraculous healer. Think of all the things that have healed in your body with little to no effort on your part over your lifetime: scratches, colds, bruises, etc. With bigger things, like sprains, broken bones, infections, you might have had to have some help to assist the body’s own healing, but still, your body is the healer. Your body is a healer. If you work with your body to help it heal, you too are a healer. This is true for everyone, even bodies with serious or chronic diseases are still running healing processes on lots of unseen levels.
2) Healing is something that anyone can do for others (though not everyone should). Healing energies are simply the ability to change or effect the energies in an embodied soul to help healing processes. Everyone has access to these healing energies because we are all souls (hence derived from Divinity-the Great Healer) and because our bodies are not just material—they are energy. Electromagnetic and other energies penetrate and surround all living bodies. This has been scientifically proven. This is a fact and scientists refer to it as the biofield. See this national government scientific link to current studies: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4654789/
The biofield is not woo-woo. It's science. And it's Spirit. Thus, everyone by nature of who they are and what they are can access healing energy to impact others. (Again, not everyone should due to issues of integrity, ethics, maturity, etc.) But everyone has the ability to help others heal. We are all potential healers.
So what's the big deal about healers calling ourselves healers?
I’ve found a lot of pushback on this beyond the extremes listed above (Pentecostal to guru), from those in established, traditional religious traditions—some you might find surprising. I’ve also found a lot of support in surprising public places (medical doctors, dentists, scientists…). The support is growing.
Here are 2 resistances:
1) Traditional religious resistance to calling ourselves healers is based on the belief that G*d or Jesus is the only Healer. Therefore, with this thinking, we might be conduits of such healing, but we are not the healers. To say thus, is to take away from G*d and to glorify ourselves.
Here’s where that goes wrong fast. G*d is the Great Everything. The Great Musician. The Great Artist. The Great Engineer. The Great Healer. The Great Mathematician. The Great Writer (Word). The Great Gardener. The Great Creator. The Great Lover. The Great Father. The Great Mother. The Great Leader.
You get the picture. So, why in the world, can we call ourselves musicians, artists, engineers, mathematicians, writers, gardeners, creators, lovers, fathers, mothers, leaders, etc. if G*d is the Great One? How dare we take credit for anything we do! Everything is given, is it not? Indeed, everything is given: insights, intellect, abilities, intuition, all of it. Either we can’t call ourselves any of it, or we can. And if we can call ourselves any of it, we can call ourselves healers if that is the gift we have been given to pass along, just like any other gift that has been given and originates in our Divine Spark and our Divine Oneness.
So do I call myself the only healer, the best healer, or think of my healing gifts as more extraordinary than other gifts or even other healers? No. It just plays a part in the Whole, just like all the gifts do. Why do we make the healing gift special? More of you are healers than want to admit or claim or own it, because there’s a “special” label applied to it. But being that I’m also a minister and spiritual director, I know the “special” label is falsely applied to healer as to minister and spiritual director. What if we equalized the healing gifts as no more elevated than an artist painting?
Being a healer is a gift, but a healing career also takes skill, technique, knowledge, experience, etc. You’d be surprised how much a healer comes to know as one works with many different individuals and groups over time. There is a lot that we as a species can learn and come to know about healing that we’re resisting. To understand that healing is a gift but also a skill that can be taught, passed on, and advanced means accepting a new paradigm of what we are and what we are made of and THAT is the underlying resistance. People in established institutions of belief (be they religious, medical, scientific, whatever) don’t like the insecurity of pushing the boundaries beyond their collectively assumed beliefs. It might mean losing their own means of income and/or their own community’s acceptance of them when they change their beliefs.
2) I’ve also had resistance from Unity/New Thought individuals who say we don’t need healers, because we can get it all straight from G*d.
Here’s why this goes wrong fast. Yes, potentially we can all get all the healing we need directly from G*d. I agree with that in potentiality and in reality it’s a good place to start. Try to get it directly from G*d yourself. However. We have each other for a reason. A lot of people aren’t ready yet to access Divine Healing directly. It takes a process to spiritually evolve to the point where you can. Plus, we can’t all be everything to everyone, even to ourselves. We can’t go out and build a complex bridge out of the blue with all the tools and know-how without relying on someone who’s gift and expertise lie there. Same with healing. We need to rely not just on the Divine Spark within each of us. We need to rely on the Divine Spark within all of us. As a healer with many healer friends, I know that we healers often say that the hardest person to do healing work on is oneself. Generally speaking, healers do work on themselves a lot. We have to continually be looking within to find our growing, integrating potentiality in order to keep offering that for others.
However, on many occasions the gift of other healers has helped me tremendously when it was beyond my ability or sight to help heal myself. And since it’s hardest to work on oneself, it’s normal, even for healers, to seek out the expertise of other healers when necessary. The more one can do oneself—great, but don’t let the “total independence” of western culture bleed in here. We are interdependent. We are interbeing. The Divine in each of us is in all of us. We each have a piece of Divinity in our Core Star/Divine Spark that is our true Ground of Being. This is why we are creators, leaders, artists, engineers, and healers. We each have what the Divine has and using our gifts and gratefully acknowledging our own and others’ leadership, artistry, engineering, or healing skills does not take away from the Divine. It magnifies the Divine in all of us. It’s just a matter of perspective.
Are you a healer? You might just be. Even if you aren’t called to be a healer for others, you can use healing energies for yourself, your household, and pets. Come and explore the possibilities!
--
Monica McDowell is a dynamic speaker, author, and practitioner in alternative wellness and spirituality. Find her on Thought Catalog here. She is the author of The Girl with a Gift, Confessions of a Mystic Soccer Mom, You are Light (internationally published by 6th Books in over 14 countries) and My Karma Ran Over My Dogma, and has the distinction of being the first ordained minister in America granted civil rights by a federal ruling. She lives in Seattle, Washington, USA, and can be reached at monica@monicamcdowell.com.
Why is it normal?
Here are 2 reasons.
1) Your body is a miraculous healer. Think of all the things that have healed in your body with little to no effort on your part over your lifetime: scratches, colds, bruises, etc. With bigger things, like sprains, broken bones, infections, you might have had to have some help to assist the body’s own healing, but still, your body is the healer. Your body is a healer. If you work with your body to help it heal, you too are a healer. This is true for everyone, even bodies with serious or chronic diseases are still running healing processes on lots of unseen levels.
2) Healing is something that anyone can do for others (though not everyone should). Healing energies are simply the ability to change or effect the energies in an embodied soul to help healing processes. Everyone has access to these healing energies because we are all souls (hence derived from Divinity-the Great Healer) and because our bodies are not just material—they are energy. Electromagnetic and other energies penetrate and surround all living bodies. This has been scientifically proven. This is a fact and scientists refer to it as the biofield. See this national government scientific link to current studies: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4654789/
The biofield is not woo-woo. It's science. And it's Spirit. Thus, everyone by nature of who they are and what they are can access healing energy to impact others. (Again, not everyone should due to issues of integrity, ethics, maturity, etc.) But everyone has the ability to help others heal. We are all potential healers.
So what's the big deal about healers calling ourselves healers?
I’ve found a lot of pushback on this beyond the extremes listed above (Pentecostal to guru), from those in established, traditional religious traditions—some you might find surprising. I’ve also found a lot of support in surprising public places (medical doctors, dentists, scientists…). The support is growing.
Here are 2 resistances:
1) Traditional religious resistance to calling ourselves healers is based on the belief that G*d or Jesus is the only Healer. Therefore, with this thinking, we might be conduits of such healing, but we are not the healers. To say thus, is to take away from G*d and to glorify ourselves.
Here’s where that goes wrong fast. G*d is the Great Everything. The Great Musician. The Great Artist. The Great Engineer. The Great Healer. The Great Mathematician. The Great Writer (Word). The Great Gardener. The Great Creator. The Great Lover. The Great Father. The Great Mother. The Great Leader.
You get the picture. So, why in the world, can we call ourselves musicians, artists, engineers, mathematicians, writers, gardeners, creators, lovers, fathers, mothers, leaders, etc. if G*d is the Great One? How dare we take credit for anything we do! Everything is given, is it not? Indeed, everything is given: insights, intellect, abilities, intuition, all of it. Either we can’t call ourselves any of it, or we can. And if we can call ourselves any of it, we can call ourselves healers if that is the gift we have been given to pass along, just like any other gift that has been given and originates in our Divine Spark and our Divine Oneness.
So do I call myself the only healer, the best healer, or think of my healing gifts as more extraordinary than other gifts or even other healers? No. It just plays a part in the Whole, just like all the gifts do. Why do we make the healing gift special? More of you are healers than want to admit or claim or own it, because there’s a “special” label applied to it. But being that I’m also a minister and spiritual director, I know the “special” label is falsely applied to healer as to minister and spiritual director. What if we equalized the healing gifts as no more elevated than an artist painting?
Being a healer is a gift, but a healing career also takes skill, technique, knowledge, experience, etc. You’d be surprised how much a healer comes to know as one works with many different individuals and groups over time. There is a lot that we as a species can learn and come to know about healing that we’re resisting. To understand that healing is a gift but also a skill that can be taught, passed on, and advanced means accepting a new paradigm of what we are and what we are made of and THAT is the underlying resistance. People in established institutions of belief (be they religious, medical, scientific, whatever) don’t like the insecurity of pushing the boundaries beyond their collectively assumed beliefs. It might mean losing their own means of income and/or their own community’s acceptance of them when they change their beliefs.
2) I’ve also had resistance from Unity/New Thought individuals who say we don’t need healers, because we can get it all straight from G*d.
Here’s why this goes wrong fast. Yes, potentially we can all get all the healing we need directly from G*d. I agree with that in potentiality and in reality it’s a good place to start. Try to get it directly from G*d yourself. However. We have each other for a reason. A lot of people aren’t ready yet to access Divine Healing directly. It takes a process to spiritually evolve to the point where you can. Plus, we can’t all be everything to everyone, even to ourselves. We can’t go out and build a complex bridge out of the blue with all the tools and know-how without relying on someone who’s gift and expertise lie there. Same with healing. We need to rely not just on the Divine Spark within each of us. We need to rely on the Divine Spark within all of us. As a healer with many healer friends, I know that we healers often say that the hardest person to do healing work on is oneself. Generally speaking, healers do work on themselves a lot. We have to continually be looking within to find our growing, integrating potentiality in order to keep offering that for others.
However, on many occasions the gift of other healers has helped me tremendously when it was beyond my ability or sight to help heal myself. And since it’s hardest to work on oneself, it’s normal, even for healers, to seek out the expertise of other healers when necessary. The more one can do oneself—great, but don’t let the “total independence” of western culture bleed in here. We are interdependent. We are interbeing. The Divine in each of us is in all of us. We each have a piece of Divinity in our Core Star/Divine Spark that is our true Ground of Being. This is why we are creators, leaders, artists, engineers, and healers. We each have what the Divine has and using our gifts and gratefully acknowledging our own and others’ leadership, artistry, engineering, or healing skills does not take away from the Divine. It magnifies the Divine in all of us. It’s just a matter of perspective.
Are you a healer? You might just be. Even if you aren’t called to be a healer for others, you can use healing energies for yourself, your household, and pets. Come and explore the possibilities!
--
Monica McDowell is a dynamic speaker, author, and practitioner in alternative wellness and spirituality. Find her on Thought Catalog here. She is the author of The Girl with a Gift, Confessions of a Mystic Soccer Mom, You are Light (internationally published by 6th Books in over 14 countries) and My Karma Ran Over My Dogma, and has the distinction of being the first ordained minister in America granted civil rights by a federal ruling. She lives in Seattle, Washington, USA, and can be reached at monica@monicamcdowell.com.
