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ASSOCIATION OF NOETIC FIELD THERAPY PRACTITIONERS |
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NOETIC FIELD BALANCING
by Robert D. Waterman
ORIENTATION
We are in the midst of a cultural phenomenon called a "paradigm shift" in which collective humanity calls for a social transformation to a world view based on mutual respect, peace, prosperity and living in balance with the natural world. Energy therapy in general, and Noetic Field Balancing™ in particular, is on the cutting edge of this change.
Noetic Field Balancing is a healing approach that combines an understanding of the ancient mysteries with modern psychology. Noetic means spiritual mind, or soul-mind. Through the spiritual mind we see the world of the soul as cause and the material/psychological world as effect, as mirror for the evolution of the soul. Noetic goes beyond intellectual and material mind to our capacity to make choices that form and transform, our mental, emotional, imaginal and physical states. Noetic derives from the Greek word nous, which is the wind of spirit that emerges from the void as the first emanating spirit of creation.
The application of the curative nature of the noetic field is ancient, finding modern expression in spiritual healing, energy medicine, prayer therapy, therapeutic touch, chi-gung, acupuncture, and shamanism. Classically called the human aura, this energy field is biblically referred to as a halo, radiance, or countenance. Yoga psychology views the energy field as an aura surrounding the body, interacting through spiritual and psychological levels via structures called chakras. An increasing interest in spiritual counseling, complimentary medicine, quantum physics, and cross-cultural shamanism have broadened our professional capacity to consider the legitimacy of self as energy and the therapeutic implications of that understanding.
What is the Noetic Field?
The traditional name for our energy field is the human aura. The noetic field is a broader concept, that brings to our awareness the deeper dimension of spiritual essence and mastery implied by the understanding of self as energy and holiness. Our "space" is our self as energy, holding and containing our embodied, physical life. Noetic takes our awareness to the dimension of soul. Soul has dominion over our thoughts, images, feeling and physical states. First as unconscious motivation, then as conscious focus and choice. The aura or energy field surrounds and penetrates the physical body. As a more encompassing concept, the noetic field is our multidimensional awareness of the aura, and life as living energy.
For the ancients, the aura reflected our spiritual, mental, and emotional well being. The aura sustains the body, while the body serves the actualization of the soul. In terms of modern psychology, the trauma and limiting beliefs that are the root of psychological issues appear as blockages or distortions in this energy field, providing the practitioner with a "visible" and "concrete" access to spiritual and psychological realities that are normally invisible and abstract. Through the use of subtle touch, mental focus, or a pendulum, the practitioner makes direct contact with the imbalance. Through the spiritual alignment of the practitioner and the acceptance, and self forgiveness, of the client, the energy blocks and distortions are transformed. The energy blocks are living thought forms that we created through choice, and our limited understanding of who and what we are. This process balances and re-aligns the field with higher consciousness.
Historically, artists depict halos around the heads of individuals to denote their spirituality. Biblically, writers refer to the "raiment" or "countenance of light" in an attempt to describe the field of spiritual energy around angels, men, and women. We use common-sense terms such as "blue mood," "red with anger," "green with envy," "full of energy," "radiant beauty," "vibrant personality." Such terms are similar to how individuals with spiritual sight describe the energy field.
Quantum physics describes the universe as energy. Energy and matter are interchangeable. Psychology, Eastern therapy, and complimentary medicine have terms for life as energy. Some of the more well-known are "prana" (yoga), "chi" (acupuncture and chi-gung), "libido" (Western psychology), "orgon" (Reichian bioenergetics), "Holy Spirit" (Christianity), "light" (universal spirituality).
What causes the noetic field to go out of balance?
Noetic Field Balancing is powerful and direct. The inner dimensions of our psyche appears around our physical body as layers of beliefs, emotions and archetypal forms. Our issues and concerns appear as blocks and distortions in the energy patterns of this field. The blocks and distortions are caused by physical and emotional trauma, self judgment and limiting beliefs, or from external psychic pressures from individuals, groups or institutional belief systems. The blocks and distortions affect the containment and movement of energy within our consciousness, and may result in psychological problems or physical disease. The indiscriminate use of recreational drugs or alcohol can severely damage the noetic field.
Blocks are an attempt to protect. As such, they become integrated into the sustaining structure of our personality. As we create meaning in response to trauma, we adapt to that meaning as if it were normal. Thus, the trauma, and the resulting meaning we construct, become normalized into our psyche. We adapt to the level of our injury, and then believe that is who we are. Consequently, as we become more centered through balancing, our sense of self shifts from ego to soul.
While our ego adapts to trauma, our soul continues to pursue transformation. In the deepest sense, our field is out of balance as one phase in a process caused by our drive to awaken spiritually and transform the quality of our lives and our experience. In a more conventional sense, any concern, trauma, or issue that brings us to counseling, or requires therapy, reflects in our field as an imbalance. Through prayer and focus, an altered state of consciousness unfolds, enabling the practitioner to engage the blocks and distortions directly in the energy field. Through this spiritual rapport, the practitioner is able to assist our transformation and balance our consciousness. Transformation occurs through an alliance of intervening spiritual energies, unfolding soul energies, and our own self forgiveness.
Why balance?
Perception is a noetic function of the aura. We look through our own energy field at life. Consequently, when our field is out of balance, we perceive life according to our judgments and distorted beliefs. This affects our connection with life. When we are too far out of balance, we loose our connection with life, and the environment around us. We increasingly react to our own projections, rather than to what is really there. In an analogous way, this affects of connection to spirit, God, and higher consciousness.
Because imbalance and weakness appear in the field before it manifest in the physical body, balancing can be a preventive physical therapy, as well as, therapy for the transformation of emotional and mental issues.
These sessions provide a powerful support, strengthening our alignment, center, clarity, and well being. It is an effective compliment to therapy and healing, and promotes our spiritual progress. The effects of therapeutic balancing are often subtle. The results of the session can range from deep relaxation, and perceptual clarity, greater spiritual alignment, or enlightenment. When the field is balanced it is fluid, smooth, and energized, resuming its natural function of nourishing the body, protecting the psyche, and integrating the body, mind, soul, and spirit. We may experience an expansive sense of well-being, greater enthusiasm, heart-felt presence, ease in daily living, more joy, or peace. More importantly, Noetic Field Balancing strengthens our connection and awareness of the spiritual centrality of our nature: our self as energy and Holiness.
HISTORY
Dr. Robert D. Waterman developed Noetic Field Balancing from his experience as a student at Quimby Center, thirty years of clinical experience, and academic work as founder and president of Southwestern College. The basis for Noetic Field Balancing evolved out of the technique of aura balancing. Dr. Neva Dell Hunter, founder of Quimby Center, developed aura balancing from the healing work of Phineus Parkhurst Quimby and material gained through her inspirational work with John-Clark McDougall. Quimby was an American transcendentalist who developed a form of spiritual healing in the mid-1800's that he called the "Science of the Christ."
Dr. Waterman met Dr. Hunter in 1967 through a mutual friend, Muriel Engle. He had dropped his classes during his senior year at the University of California, Santa Barbara, because he was experiencing a great deal of inner pressure, a lack of direction, and an inability to study.
At the time of their meeting, Dr. Hunter explained that aura balancing is a form of spiritual therapy in which the practitioner works directly with the energy fields surrounding and penetrating the physical body. The practitioner approaches the self as energy and directly engages the psychological trauma, analogous to the way a surgeon physically touches an organ. In response to emotional disturbance, mental anguish, and spiritual imbalance, we make judgments, which create blocks that reflect in the fields of energy that surround us. With the help of the Light (as she called it), the practitioner assists by finding these blocks and leading us into self-forgiveness. It sounded good to him. He agreed to a session. At the time, his exploration of consciousness-oriented psychologies helped him trust the process.
The impact was dramatic. "I experienced energy sensations and feelings moving in and around my physical body, and a mysterious resolution of my inner conflicts." Afterward, he felt clear, centered, and ready to complete his senior year.
Apprentice to a Mystery
After graduation, Dr. Waterman headed for Dr. Hunter’s school in New Mexico. He was excited about this dramatic demonstration of therapy. Conventional therapies had seemed lacking, and aura balancing represented to him the missing link that joined his experiences, spiritual training, and academic studies into one model. He needed to discover how it worked. Later, he added the dimension of the noetic field as a means to further account for role of consciousness, and to incorporate the quantum model of David Bohm.
At the Quimby Center, he met Ellavivian Power, who wrote the definitive book on aura balancing called the Auric Mirror, and Stephen Broscoff who developed a body-centered approach. As an apprentice and colleague, he worked and lived with this team from 1968 until Dr. Hunter’s death in 1978. After this time, his approach to balancing was influenced by his study and practice of "soul transcendence," with John-Roger Hinkin. John-Roger, founder of the Church of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness (MSIA), adapted aura balancing to work with a spiritual consciousness that he called the "Mystical Traveler." The techniques has furthered evolved through his experience and study of the ancient mysteries.
Dr. Waterman views the opportunity to do balancing as a great blessing. "The greatest blessing is the deepening and softening of my heart and the wisdom that is conveyed to me with each person I work with. I am able to present myself to the Holy Spirit and to the service of souls in a way that promotes spiritual progression, health, happiness, well-being, and healing."
He believes his role is as a spiritual enabler, guide, or tutor. He is able to gently suggest and draw out the client’s inherent wisdom. "When all goes well, I am able to help them remember and touch the reality that they are originally and inherently divine. In a sense, I am an educator who can enhance the student’s soul-astic achievement. When our souls touch, we awaken more to our precious role in the immensity of spirit."
For Dr. Waterman, Noetic Field Balancing continues to be an unfolding mystery. "I am a perennial student and a true apprentice of that mystery." In 1979, he received a Doctorate in Education from New Mexico State University and began work as the founding president of Southwestern College, a position he held until the college became accredited in 1994. Now in private practice, he continues to offer his teachings through his Noetic Field Therapy Practitioner Program, Noegenesis: Mystery School for the New Millennium, and the Academy of Noetic Research and Education.
BALANCING THE NOETIC FIELD
Noetic Field Balancing requires the practitioner to surrender to the highest spiritual source possible. As taught by Dr. Waterman, this is an alignment with the Father-Mother God through the Christ (Jesus Christ if you prefer). Certainly this is the Christ as a mystical force, a transcendent and present being, and the Holy Spirit.
It may be of interest to elaborate on the Christ in terms of Noetic Field Balancing. In the ancient mystery teaching, Christ is the potential each of us have as we develop spiritually. In ancient mysteries the Christ form within us is sometimes referred to as the Light Body, Philosophers Stone, Diamond Body, or Mer-Ka-Ba. It is also a higher dimensional spiritual form through which spiritual energy and development is guided on this planet. The Christ, as a universal and individual consciousness, is most identified with Jesus, and in a different way to Mary. As a Messiah and way shower, Jesus most embodied the potential of the Christ for humanity. His ministry established the Christ form as a focus of the Holy Spirit, transforming the burden of millennia of negativity. We call on the Christ or Jesus Christ in the balancing work because of the potential for transforming negativity, providing forgiveness, and as a mirror of the holiness within each of us. Mary, as his mother, is the female polarity of this mystery. Mary embodies unconditional love, peace and unity. Mary and Jesus are the outer pattern, for the unification of male and female that awakens the Christ form within us.
During Dr. Waterman’s many years of practice, people from many different spiritual backgrounds have come for sessions, and the differences were never an obstacle. The earth-based goddess, the Buddhists beingness and quest of Buddahood, The Native American Great Spirit, the Jewish Jehovah, the Taoist Tao, the Muslim Allah, to name a few, felt no conflict with the presentation of holiness within the session. His mystical Christianity, and awakening the "inner Christ," finds a place with many diverse viewpoints. Within the sacred space created by this divine relationship, wondrous things can happen. Sometimes our expectations are met or surpassed. Other times, nothing appears to happen.
Noetic Field Balancing as a spiritual work is non-adversarial and non-coercive. True spirituality embraces the curriculum of our souls and honors our choices, regardless of appearances. Since we are holy our choices receive unconditional love and allowance from "higher consciousness" and God. Spirit will intervene only at our request. Self-forgiveness of our judgments is a form of this permission. There is a long rang plan for transforming our self-imposed errors and limitations. We also appear to be inherently
linked to a divine plan or sacred matrix that perpetually prompts us to seek wholeness, fulfillment, peace, loving, joy, and home. Our work with noetic therapy and field balancing is an integral part of this plan.
Our ego wants to be in life and create separate from God. Transformation requires that we choose to be in life and create with God, which is the essence of self-forgiveness. Because we have created a backlog of actions based on separation from self (dualistic mind-set), the appearance of grace may not be immediately evident in the self forgiveness experience. However, over time, grace becomes increasingly evident as the influence of the Christ, as our noetic center, takes over.
Within this context, an altered state of consciousness is created in which your higher sense perception (HSP) and that of the practitioner is enhanced. Angels, spiritual guides, and numerous holy forces may participate in serving and healing you. Through HSP, the practitioner discerns blocks and may perceive information about the nature, cause, and judgment associated with imbalance. This information is shared with you as a process of coaching and eliciting insights and images. In this way, the effects that you created, promoted or allowed by your choice are always honored. The practitioner works through guidance of your holiness and is vigilant not to violate that sacred relationship.
How to Prepare
When you make an appointment, the practitioner talks about the need to be accepting and that your desires for greater health, well-being, and happiness are sufficient preparation. Abstaining from the use of recreational drugs two weeks before and abstaining from moderate alcohol use the day before can also help. If there is drug or alcohol abuse, a longer time of abstinence may be needed. Since this is a spiritual approach, no promises are made as to results. We all have areas of mental and emotional disturbance that we have forgotten. Greater alignment and understanding of our spirituality and purpose is an innate drive. We adapt to our forgotten hurts and judgment. Clients are often surprised at how different they feel after they are balanced. Some things are easy to change. Other areas may need more time or prolonged counseling before we are ready to balance them. Noetic Field Balancing is an effective compliment to any process of physical or psychological healing and can dramatically facilitate those processes. Though miracles can happen, this service is not meant to replace needed medical, psychiatric or other therapeutic needs.
Preliminary Steps
First the practitioner orients you to the nature of the balancing. The client reclines, face up, on a massage table or couch. The practitioner stands. The reclining position helps you relax, while providing the practitioner easy access to your field. The physical and emotional balancings are done silently. If a question or observation comes up, you are encouraged to speak. During the mental-spiritual balancing, focus statements help you discover and clarify beliefs, and to facilitate self-forgiveness. Jewelry, metal and shoes might affect the balancing process, so they are removed.
Prayer
As you relax, the practitioner begins with a prayer that goes something like this:
Father-Mother God, I just now ask to be surrounded by the light of the Christ and, through the Holy spirit, I ask for only that which is to the highest good of all concerned, keeping in mind the destinies on the planet. Through the permission of the Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I also ask that any angels, beings of light, or teachers who wish to be here and assist for the well-being of all concerned also be granted. We ask for this in perfect love and perfect understanding, and we thank you for this time. Thy will be done.
At this point, the practitioner aligns with higher consciousness and engages the field, and may have insights into your consciousness. Engaging you as a spiritual form compliments all ways of life and teachings that pursue unconditional loving. Regardless of spiritual heritage, the balancing strengthens particular spiritual and life practice.
This is not the only prayer that can be used. The opening prayer contains certain universal elements that translate into any truly spiritual tradition. The prayer includes an:
- invitation for an alignment with and surrender to a higher power,
- admonition of impeccability,
- sanctification of the place,
- dedication to the highest good, and
- expression of gratitude.
Opening and Balancing
After the prayer, the practitioner uses a crystal pendulum to open the energy field at the solar plexus. The pendulum is an instrument of focus for the practitioner and a means of engaging the subtle level of the energy patterns. This focus creates a nexus through which distorted patterns can de-construct, soul forms can unfold, and spiritual energy can be transmitted. A nexus is an inter-dimensional link. Your permission, the alignment with spirit, and the practitioner’s intention form the focus through the pendulum that opens the energy field. In some cases this focus can be provided by touch, or mental acuity. Since the intention of the practitioner is to serve your Holiness, the actual spiritual event of balancing is governed by the Holy Spirit, or Nous.
As the pendulum is lowered, the practitioner senses the subtle changes that occur. Usually the field engages and begins to open just above the solar plexus. Variations may open at the forehead. When this occurs, the pendulum gently begins to rotate. When the aura is open, the pendulum stops. Each imbalance is approached in a similar way. This action creates a high level of rapport between you and the practitioner. It also makes your sensitive levels extremely accessible, which, when combined with the loving presence, invites a deep level of transformation.
The protective energy fields interface with the psycho-spiritual environment. Blocks are an attempt to protect and have been integrated into the sustaining structure of the individual. Therefore, you must authorize any changes to this structure. This is the purpose of self forgiveness. Your openness is key, and facilitates access to original choices and judgments that formed the imbalancing belief, and to the soul intentions that involved you in the particular circumstance.
Next, the practitioner scans the field with his or her hand to first increase attunement and then to find the blocks and distortions. The practitioner’s hands are trained to see and sense. The impressions are processed through the nervous system and brain like any other stimulation and translated into meaning. Because the practitioner’s subtle body is awake, movement in the energy field cognitively registers like physical sensation. This is true for most of us. We have trained ourselves to focus away from these impressions because of social and psychological influences. In this phase of the balancing, talking is not necessary except perhaps to help you relax. You may feel subtle movements of energy, feeling, emotion, or images.
When the practitioner finds a block or distortion, he or she uses the pendulum to engage the energy. When the pendulum rotates, it reflects the transformation of energy in the field. The practitioner proceeds in this manner until all the areas are balanced.
A natural guidance leads from one step to the next. Balancing the physical and emotional energy fields is often done silently. The practitioner may ask you what you are experiencing or suggest a deep breath. Facilitative talking is always needed in the mental-spiritual balancing because you need to discover and clarify your beliefs in order to provide the clarity and the precision necessary for effective self forgiveness. Self forgiveness is necessary any time you choose a diminished self concept, or a belief that you are unworthy, unlovable, insufficient for your life, or are in any way other than a holy person. Your holiness provides freedom of choice. Self forgiveness allows higher consciousness and innate spiritual intelligence to help you balance. Without your forgiveness, help would have to trespass your choice, and true higher consciousness will not do that.
Blocks can be symbolically linked to physical imbalances, or relate to meaning structures associated with the spiritual centers, or chakras. The blocks appear in the field at distances from the body that correspond to their depth in the psyche. Beginning closest to the physical body, the levels are: physical, imaginal, emotional, mental, archetypal. The personal energy of the field extends approximately an arms length. Our field extends further, but as our universal nature.
At some point toward the end of the session, you are asked to turn over so that the practitioner can check the field from the back. The balancing continues until the entire field is smooth and silky. Before finishing, you once again turns face up.
Closing
When the balancing appears to be complete, you are asked if there is anything else that needs attention. When nothing more presents itself, you releases all concerns into higher consciousness. The practitioner proceeds to close the field with spiritual Light and Love. To close, the practitioner encircles the field seven times, ending at the solar plexus. Depending on the system or circumstances the nature of the closing may vary.
This entire process usually takes from forty-five minutes to one hour, occasionally longer. The client’s immediate experience may be as subtle as feeling more peaceful or as dramatic as experiencing bliss, greater clarity or transformation. The balancing process continues for three days after the actual session has ended. During this time, you completes any processing and adapts to any changes. This period of adjustment provides a new baseline upon which the subconscious can regulate the psyche. For that reason, it is recommended that the client abstain from alcohol, recreational drug use, and sex for those three days. Alcohol and drugs may disrupt the transformative changes and disburse the new organization of energy. Sexual intimacy is very powerful and, until the changes stabilize, may be confusing on the subtle levels. Recreational drugs always act against the balancing process and should not be used when developing a strong, aligned, balanced aura.
It is recommend that you take life as it comes for the following three days, and not analyze or worry about the experience. Journaling and reflective insights are often helpful. Changes are often deep and can be accompanied by uncomfortable symptoms. You may briefly feel like you are catching a cold or feel excessively restless. On the other hand, you may experience a great peace or joy. In any case, by the end of the three days, you will have adjusted to the changes and have a new sense of what is normal. With each session, you becomes more and more skillful in using the balancing session and maintaining and promoting balance in general. Each session provides a stronger platform for the next session. For that reason, three initial sessions are recommended. These sessions must be at least two weeks apart, however, a longer spacing is fine. After the first three sessions, a touch-up every six to twelve months is recommended. Your intuitive guidance may be the best indicator.
A PASSAGE INTO DAY
By engaging the healing energies of life through Noetic Field Balancing, we open new doors to our spiritual understanding and graceful living. This offers a point of departure for exploring a larger perspective of human reality and the implications it holds for our well-being. We are wondrous even in our most challenged moments. Ralph Waldo Emerson believed we had within us all the wisdom of nature and the universe. If that is so, our injuries foretell our healing and our limitations foretell our expansiveness. In this universe of energy, consider that therapy is a place where souls meet and impersonal intimacy reclaims its forgotten selves until all exists in a sea of loving.
Consider this writing an invitation for you to step into a new dimension of living.
©Copywrite, Robert D. Waterman, 2000
When we meet
in the heart of the creator,
our wounds
become a warrior’s footprint,
our trials and tribulations
become a healing balm,
our dark night,
a passage into day.
Robert D. Waterman, 1996
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