What is Healing, And Who Heals The Healer?

Article first appeared in August issue of Prediction Magazine, entitled “Positive Thoughts- With Caroline Myss”, page 26.

Nurturing Yourself While Serving – Who Heals The Healer?

What is healing? And Who heals the healer? How do you nurture yourself when you are a therapist? A review of Caroline Myss workshop.

A friend of mine wrote me an urgent email near the end of March alerting me to Caroline Myss’s (see www.myss.com) workshop in London on Sunday, April 18th. The message was clear: I should do all in my power to attend this training. My own energy levels have been low recently, either due to my work — or the change of season — and I thought this would be a timely reminder. The opportunity to meet Caroline Myss and possibly conduct an interview would be fortunate.

Caroline Myss (pronounced m-a-c-e) has been a favourite of mine for many years, ever since I first read The Anatomy of Spirit while studying healing. Hay House (www.hayhouse.co.uk) was quick to note out that Ms Myss would be ‘very busy and on a tight schedule this trip and would therefore not be available for interviews.’

My ticket, on the other hand, was quickly arranged and was waiting for me at the door. When this review was published, a high-resolution photograph of Caroline Myss was soon emailed to accompany it. I took a close look at Ms Myss’s beautifully posed advertising image, hoping to pick up some encouraging ‘vibes’:

A somewhat strained thin-lipped, yet gentle grin, wearing an expensive-looking soft black satin blouse and boldly resting her arms on a desktop against a clinically chilly and solemn greyish/white background. I’d heard from students how forthright and aggressive Caroline Myss can be, but I had no idea what I was in for!

The Seminar

The workshop was held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Friends House on Euston Road in London, which seats around 600 people (excluding upper galleries), with tickets costing £85. Fortunately, my seat was near to the left side of the stage, in the ‘VIP area,’ where other press members and Caroline Myss’ guest pupils were situated. Eavesdropping, I learned that her present students fervently follow her throughout the world, attending free workshops. Words like “she’s a guru” and “I didn’t dare waste her time” were regularly used phrases. Clearly, they were impressed – or afraid!

People began to fill the auditorium rather quickly, looking bright and fresh (for a Sunday morning); largely women wearing colourful pashminas and clutching stylish purses, who arrived in groups or pairs, welcomed others, kissed, embraced, and chatted as they took their places. A large fresh flower vase was placed center-stage on the floor.

Disclaimer warnings were prominently displayed on each entrance/exit door, reassuringly saying that the “demonstrations here today are for amusement reasons solely… Not recommended for persons who have epilepsy or are seriously depressed. These are not the views of Hay House.” Ushers were dressed in branded clothes and stationed securely at each corner; no cameras or recording devices were permitted. Were these all symptoms of a posh ‘New Age cult’?

About Caroline Myss

Caroline Myss PhD, (and you are quickly reminded of her PhD at events, in her written material, on her website, and in her books) grew up in the Chicago region with her parents, two siblings, and close extended family.

Raised as a Catholic, she went on to work in journalism. She attended an Elisabeth Kubler-Ross class as a freelance writer and was driven into a “crisis of meaning.” She was inspired to attend Mundelein College and earn a master’s degree in theology.

Moving east, she founded the Stillpoint Publishing Company in New Hampshire, where she first acknowledged her medical intuitive skills. “I had all the ambition in the world to be a publisher, and all the talent to be a medical intuitive,” she says.

She began working with holistic doctors, co-authored The Creation of Health with Dr. Norman Shealy, began making audiotapes, and talked all over the world, and has since had three New York Times best sellers, including Why People Don’t Heal and How They Can and Sacred Contracts. She is currently working on a new book about the United States’ Sacred Contract. She no longer does personal readings and instead concentrates her efforts on teaching.

Caroline Myss was being introduced in celebrity style by a representative; I spotted another girl dressed casually in denim straightening the stage and placing the vase to the side while we waited in anticipation. The audience clapped warmly as the announcer stepped down, and to my astonishment, the modest lady in jeans took the platform. Caroline Myss was her name!

“Disease arises when you run out of time.”

Caroline Myss, a fluid and charismatic speaker, asked the crowd, “How many of you call yourselves healers?” On the basis of your own injury, how can you heal? She gradually and continuously disproved the idea that “the injured make the finest healers.” She stated why “your wounds do not qualify you to be a healer,” stating that “nurses and doctors did not chose to be that way because they were wounded.”

The healer must be ‘present‘ in order to be effective. “Where are you other than here?” she inquired. She described energy patterns and how circuitry depletes when we are ‘connected somewhere,’ for as by thinking about or animating prior traumas or injuries: “illness arises because you are out of time.”

What does it mean to be a healer these days?

She emphasised the importance of first “getting a backbone”: having the guts to be free of the past and not offering one’s past injuries as fodder for patients. When a male participant argued that the past aids knowledge, Myss quickly countered, “there is no benefit in remaining wounded”: a healer would lack the ‘high voltage’ required to ‘download’ the required energy to manage time. She joked, “Being 20 helped me be 30, but I don’t bring it up!”

I recognised the distinction between one-time treatment and healing. Healing necessitated a methodical ability to be honest with oneself from the start, as well as training in self-esteem, which she believes defines the human experience. “Would you compromise yourself because you feel compromised?” she inquired. Fall in love with yourself. “How can you assist someone in travelling back in time if you are still present?” Only then can healers evolve into a “mature vessel of light and time.”

Energy, Matter, and Time: Metaphysical Laws

Myss discussed alchemy, mysticism, healing, and how time is manipulated to facilitate healing. She explained that time is the most valuable commodity, that light travels quicker than time, that energy is lighter than matter, and that thinking is translated into matter that takes shape. “Timelessness is calibrated by the physical body’s ability to move through time,” she says of healers (and mystics, the subject of her PhD). “By burning your ties to your past, you are healing.”

“Why do you fear your enlightenment?” she asks. If you can pull your spirit away from someone you despise, you are calling the light.” She provided self-empowerment tools and principles. She went on to explain how judgement, criticism, and gossip cause conflict, or ‘cosmic drama — war.’ “Where do you fit in global healing?” she inquired. “What is your responsibility if you claim to be a part of the light?”

I managed to catch her attention just before the class finished, and she answered one of my questions about destiny vs. free choice and how it relates to or contradicts the ‘sacred contract.’ If Myss was available, Hay House agreed to email me the answer to the second inquiry. Myss pointed out that the laws of attraction stated that a process could not be downloaded unless one has made a decision about who they are and what they intended to do. Obstacles would be met if we were not aligned with our ‘sacred contract of the soul,’ allowing us the opportunity to re-align with our mission.

The audience and speaker were both engrossed and were hesitant to take a long-overdue lunch break. At the end of the workshop, a wildly clapping ‘educated fan’ ran up to Myss, only to be prevented. Caroline was taken off stage and out of the building in celebrity style, just in time for her trip to Ireland for a personal visit with her brother before returning to the United States.

Do we need another Guru?

So, does the world require yet another guru? No. This, in my opinion, would simply increase the size of the herd. While some may criticise Myss’s style and approach, I observed a devoted inspiring person whose time is valuable, has new ideas, gives her all, and challenges her audience to do the same.

The world does need to be reminded of the old truth, knowledge, and alchemy that are presented in a current sincere manner by Caroline Myss—who, while serious about her ‘sacred contract,’ appears now to be humble enough not to take herself seriously.