In this article I'd like to discuss the changes in the belief system of a person as required to advance in parapsychology studies and its applications, such as healing.
It is obvious that most people live below the personal level of awareness needed to even be interested by subjects connected to parapsychology and the psychic phenomena. Even when encountering any information about psychic events in the media, most will disregard this and relate to these articles as pulp fiction and never think seriously about the possibility that anything of it could be true.
Yes, they may know several people doing yoga exercises. They've heard them telling how good it makes them feel and relate it to the fact that most yoga practices studied in groups are the asanas, and since they are physical exercises, it's like working out in a gym. Therefore, these people will go the gym themselves to have some exercise on their body (those who care).
Then, there are people who are intrigued by the psychic abilities. They don't have any and they don't know anyone who does posses them, but they get interested when they read about them in the newspapers and have a general belief that some of this could be true. Yet, most of the time they will do nothing to explore it on a more personal level.
Most people, as I see it, first meet with the psychic or energy healing when they are in need, since regular medicine doesn't help them. They exhausted everything that the doctors suggested them. It is then that they try the path of alternative medicine. Alternative medicine is an easy term for those who don't want to think about its nature. First of all, it is called 'medicine', hence it's not some obscure 'healing' in their eyes. Moreover, sometimes doctors will themselves suggest them to take some acupuncture sessions or other alternative medicine practice.
Chinese acupuncture is now being more widely accepted by the public, both the patients and the traditional medical personnel, as a possible solution to certain medical problems. Over the years, the acupuncture proved to help many people, so at least empirically, it works. Most people don't know the basic terminology of chinese medicine, such as the Chi energy, the meridians, etc, so they let the words 'energy blocks' pass through them unaffected just hoping it would help and then forget about it. Many people think that acupuncture only works because people believe in it, so called 'placebo effect'. The same also true about the homeopathy medicine.
Yet, while many people will undergo a series of acupuncture sessions, they will never think of finding a so-called 'healer'. Energy healing, without touching the person, is way beyond what they could believe. They will not even think about the possibility of it being true, so they won't even try it. After all, the healers take money and all they do is 'waving hands in the air' or, in the best case, touching them lightly.
The next levels of awareness and belief are beginning to be really scarce. This is the level of belief where people will actually believe, or at least suppose, that healer could help them. They will usually have some friends who've gone to some healers and benefited from them. This raises their belief and because of their dire need (personal health problems) they'll 'risk' the money and take a visit. Usually, they'll go to someone being recommended by their friends.
If the healer they went to actually demonstrated some 'extraordinary' abilities, such as diagnosing their problem using psychic abilities, this will boost the belief and the person will continue on this path until his problem has been healed, or at least eased, by the healer. This will be the changing period in their lives. They have witnessed 'paranormal' capabilities of the human mind and will hold that memory for a long time to come.
Some people, after being helped by a strong healer, are really moved. They start to ask question, read the books, search the internet, etc on the subject of psychic abilities, healing techniques, etc. If fed with the right information, over time they will develop the desire to learn healing by themselves. This is a major step as it is the result of major changes in the set of believes. Not many people reach this state, even if being treated by healers. This is the point where the real adventure begins and is the path to personal spiritual growth to higher awareness.
There are many different healing techniques out there in the world. Even the energy healing category has dozens of different techniques and variations. I believe that it is so because many techniques were discovered and worked on by single gifted individuals, who then went on to teach this technique to others. Some techniques are more traditional, like the chi-kung, yoga, acupuncture etc. Today there's a list of healing techniques to choose from, be it various Reiki techniques, Polarity healing, Quantum Touch, chakra balancing, aura balancing and more.
Starting healers will naturally start with what they believe the most. Naturally, they believe most the technique which has helped them. So they will usually learn this particular technique, either from the healing who helped them or from someone they'd recommend.
From here, if the first healing experience was successful, many will continue to learn other healing practices. The complexity and the 'bizarreness' of the learned healing method would evolve over time, as the belief of the person in the various abilities of human mind and in the way the world works increase with exposure and studying. By this time, the healer will usually know quite a few other healers, some using other practices and will see them work as well, thus boosting his belief.
From this point on, only the sky is the limit. Yet, it still takes a lot of time, effort and personal growth to develop this belief system and from it, the personal abilities. For example, many people can believe that energy healing works, they may have experienced it. Yet, it will be hard for them to believe that healing can be done remotely over thousands of miles away. To others it is difficult to believe that Astral travel or Spiritual Surgery works, since this requires belief in the existence of soul and spirits and the ability to interact with the spirit world. Then, there are other techniques that are based on another set of believes, and so on.
Believing in the psychic phenomena, the ability to be healed and heal others is a process of growing. Raising the bar of the belief will allow developing higher abilities, while reaching these higher abilities will further expand the belief of the person. Some external stimulus is usually needed for a person to take this path in life. Most often this will be personal need of healing of of some close relative. One successful healing can make the whole difference.
I encourage you to try new things in your life, allow the possibility that some of this is real in your mind and you may find yourself in a wonderful life, where almost anything is possible, be it your health, your career or your new abilities. Read more on the internet, in your bookstore and ask your friends. Just never stop to evolve.
Jacob Gorban runs the Parapsychology articles and blog website and writes on the topics of health, healing, ESP and other fields of parapsychology.