An Example of How Love is Enduring

Getting back to the sequence of unusual experiences that led me to explore alternative healing and therapy, this is what happened next. Some very surprising things happened while I was introducing Reiki to people in my practice for the purpose of relaxation training. This would involve the person sitting in a chair while I would place my hands gently over his or her eyes. On a few occasions I would experience the following sequence of events.

1. I would feel sensations coming into my back; it felt as if the energy of a person was stepping into me. The film Ghost depicted what I felt.

2. Then I would get a snapshot-sized picture of a person in my mind which seemed located slightly to the right of my right eye. I would then describe the picture to the individual in the chair receiving Reiki.

3. Words would pop into my mind along with a strong wave of love for the individual in the chair; it seemed to be coming through me from the person I was picturing. I would feel filled with this strong feeling of love that was not my feeling for the person sitting in the chair. I would sometimes be moved to tears as though I was witnessing a very moving reunion between two people long separated. It was like the feeling we all may get watching a movie that touches us. For the next few minutes, I would relay messages that would just pop into my mind. The messages felt like they were coming from the person I was picturing and were intended for the person seated before me. This would all take place while I continued to hold my hands over the eyes of the person receiving Reiki.

4. I would bring the Reiki session to a close in the same way I would bring someone out of trance after doing hypnotherapy. I would make the usual suggestions that the person bring his or her awareness back into the room and awaken refreshed. The person in the chair would identify the deceased loved one. It was usually a relative, lover, or friend.

5. Each time I would find myself struck by how the therapeutic principle of expressing the unexpressed feelings between people and resolving unfinished business seemed to hold true from beyond the grave—especially expressing messages of love and forgiveness.

For example, in one situation, I told Bonnie, the thirty-six-year-old woman seated before me, that, “I’m getting the picture of an elderly woman wearing white bobby-socks and a long blue dress with white dots on it. She wants you to know that she loves you very much and she wants you to start believing in yourself.” I could really feel a deep love coming through me for Bonnie from somewhere beyond me. Later, Bonnie identified the person as her deceased grandmother. Bonnie told me that she had experiences where she had not only felt the presence of her grandmother but could smell her perfume.
Next to the picture of Bonnie’s grandmother, I saw the picture of a man in his mid-thirties wearing bib-overalls. I assumed it was her grandfather at a younger age. It wasn’t. From the description and the words that came through, Bonnie identified the man as a friend from high school that had committed suicide. The message that came through was, “It wasn’t your fault.” This was followed by, “I never blamed you for not calling me back that night. I want you to stop blaming yourself and forgive yourself.” A little later on the message was, “I know you would’ve called me back if you knew what I was feeling.”

I had Bonnie talk to the man in the same way I would have had her do if I were having her use the Gestalt Therapy technique called the empty chair. The individual talks to the empty chair as though the person with whom they have unfinished emotional business is seated there. This could be with someone in her life currently or from the past.

Bonnie had her eyes closed and I asked her to visualize the man. She sobbed as she expressed her feelings of guilt and sadness over not calling him back that night when he later took his own life. Each time Bonnie spoke, I would immediately receive and repeat the words, “I know.” These words were accompanied by a warm feeling of an all-knowing compassion which felt like it was coming from her deceased friend. Finally, after all these years, she was able to release these feelings that would return to haunt her from time to time.

• Today, when you feel feelings of love and affection think about the implications of Bonnie's experience. , consider how love is more than a feeling. Reflect on how the love housed in your heart is an enduring energy that continues after the death of your body as it did in the case of loved ones in Bonnie's life.