Pressing The Reset Button - Review on Bioenergy Healing

Six years after her first encounter with Bioenergy healing, Tania Ahsan meets founder Michael Cohen again to find out how his technique has developed.

"I recommended the treatment six years ago and that hasn’t changed"

by Tania Ahsan

Editor of Kindred Spirit, Mar 2009

Six years after her first encounter with Bioenergy healing, Tania Ahsan meets founder Michael Cohen again to find out how his technique has developed.

Bioenergy healing is an unusual therapy on the face of it. The practitioner scans your body for blockages and then pulses his or her index finger on particular blockage points before ‘stretching’ your energy outwards across the room to clear it. You sometimes get ‘pointed’ at as if you’re being accused of something but really it’s just an energy ‘laser’ from the index finger being pointed at your energy blockage. Having already experienced this process, I was interested in learning how much had changed and developed since my first session all those years ago.

For a start, founder of the technique, Michael Cohen now scans using just his eyes. You stand (or sit or lie depending on your mobility) and he scans you just like Superman using his x-ray vision. Michael likens it to scanning a barcode. It’s super-fast and through that he can tell where to start the healing work. Throughout the session he keeps re-scanning to keep the work up to date and see where the next blockage is. He also asks for feedback on the sensations you’re feeling throughout, which makes you a lot more conscious of your body.

This development in his scanning technique just happened through a natural evolution. “One day I was working with a client and I could actually see where the blockages were. At first I didn’t trust what I was seeing but then I just had to go with it. “The result has been to allow him to work even faster on diagnosing where the energy needs to be cleared and he says he is working at a “heightened, instinctual level”.
Going the distance

“We now offer distance healing and have started a training school,” adds Michael, talking to me in their plush, dedicated clinic on Gloucester Place, London W1. Michael’s wife Jo also works with him in the clinic now and, for some sessions, they both work on clients together. I have one of these double-whammy sessions and am impressed by how different the two practitioners feel energetically. Jo’s ‘pulsing’ feels almost like reflexology and feels much more physical while Michael’s feels weirder, like an elastic substance is being manipulated around you. The two together is rather an enjoyable experience as you feel both physically and energetically ‘worked’ on.

Given how precise the energy manipulation is, I wondered how the distance healing works. “When you use a mobile phone,” explains Michael, “you can be in London and can connect immediately with someone in Australia.

" The client can feel the distance healing working for themselves and it’s tangible "

Only your phone and their phone make that connection because you have their unique frequency number and they have your unique frequency number. I do that with natural energy. I use something to tune in to the client’s individual frequency, be it their voice over the phone, a photo or a web cam, and do the healing directed to their individual specific frequency.”

The interesting thing is that, unlike some other distance healing methods, you actually feel the energy being manipulated. I know how weird it is to have Michael or Jo stand behind you where you can’t see them and you know exactly what they’re working on from the sensations in your body. How much weirder would that sensation be, if the healer is located halfway across the world from you?

“It is experiential for the clients. The client can feel the distance healing working for themselves and it’s tangible. I have to say I don’t need any technology to do it. I use a phone or a webcam to connect with a person but I could just as easily do it with a photo and so the technology plays no part. Also, unlike group distance healing sessions, a Bioenergy healing session done at a distance is the same as one done with the client there as I spend an hour or so scanning and clearing the energy in exactly the same way. It’s on a one to one basis.”
How does it work?

Without any interpretation of why a person feels what they do, Michael clears memory patterns that cause the brain to send signals indicating pain or dysfunction to the body. He describes it as ‘pressing the reset button’ in the brain so that the person has a purer, cleaner flow of energy running through them. It can be a little disappointing to learn that Michael or Jo won’t be telling you about how a propensity toward taking on too much is causing the pain in the left shoulder or that a row with your mum is causing the sore throat. We are creatures that like interpretation but if the process works to cure the pain in the left shoulder or the sore throat, who cares what caused it?

The ailments they work with are across quite a range with depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, intolerances and hypersensitivities being particular areas of expertise. In fact Michael himself used to suffer from extreme food intolerances until he used the technique to free himself from his problems. He has an unusual take on the cause of food intolerances. While nutritionists will tell you that intolerances are caused by the absence of certain enzymes in the body, he believes that in actuality a memory pattern in the brain has caused those enzymes to be ‘switched off’. Repair the neurological connection between that region of the brain and the enzymes in the digestive system, and the enzymes start working again. It is a fascinating theory and his work with this problem has been borne out by clients’ results.

They also work with people who simply feel stressed or directionless; shifting and clearing the blockages via their energy system can have a profound effect on their perception making them more focused and willing to take risks. When your energy is clear and flowing without restriction, you naturally gravitate toward living your best possible life.
Pace and priority

With no judgement or interpretation of symptoms being made, the technique works purely on the energetic level to see what needs to cleared first and that the clearing is being done at the right pace for each individual. Michael likens it to a ‘jigsaw effect’. By clearing the most prominent blockage, he puts one piece of the jigsaw down, then the next important piece can be placed (after a rescan to see where the next blockage is). This means that this is ongoing work and even Michael and Jo regularly need to do work on themselves to ensure that their energy remains free flowing. The couple now teach Bioenergy healing to other healers and to individuals so that their clients can continue the ongoing work on themselves without needing to keep coming back.

During my session, Michael works on my primary blockage which is in the head (I try not to be offended) and then Jo works on a secondary one in my torso. The pulsing or ‘prodding’ sensation is very pleasant and it leaves a residue effect of pressure but as we go on, I feel like things are shifting and sometimes I feel a sensation – not exactly pain – that feels like there is the ‘memory’ of discomfort there and then, as quickly as it came, it disappears. The weird thing is that these sensations are always at the site of old injuries, for example I had a Repetitive Strain Injury many years ago that manifested in the right arm and shoulder and, lo and behold, that’s where I felt a strong sensation that then cleared itself. It was quite amazing.

After effects

No machinery or equipment is used in the treatment and Michael uses himself (or Jo!) as a guinea pig before any development in technique is unleashed on his clients so Bioenergy healing has a perfect safety record. Having previously experienced energy healing with others that has left me with more problems than solutions, I can say that both times Michael has healed me, I’ve had nothing but good effects. However, he does warn that the 72 hours after a healing are a time of adjustment. You may feel very energetic (in which case, he says, enjoy it but don’t abuse it by all-night partying) or you may feel very tired. The trick is to go with it and not force your body to do what it doesn’t want to do. In the days following my most recent treatment, I feel physically great but a little ‘ancy’ and restless. A couple of energetic exercise classes release the excess energy and I settle down into a happy, healthy state. I recommended the treatment six years ago and that hasn’t changed.

More Information

• The Bioenergy Healing Research Foundation is holding foundation workshops in 2009 for those who’d like to learn the technique for themselves. The first is on 7-8th March. Visit www. bioenergyhealing.org.uk for other dates and more info. Or call 0845 456 1336 or email info@bioenergyhealing.org.uk

The Bioenergy Healing Clinic offer individual sessions at Gloucester Place, London W1 and through distance healing anywhere in the world.