Author Learns Hands-On Healing to Write Fantasy Novels
Ten years before anyone had ever heard of a “Paranormal Romance Novel,” I was writing a Romance in which the heroine possessed a special gift for healing people with her hands.
(No, that Romance never got published. Bummer! However, I am incorporating my “field research” into my Young Adult Fantasy series, Guardians of Aeld, so stay tuned!)
As much as I wanted to believe in spiritual healing, my mind was pretty narrow in those days. I’d never met a hands-on healer, and nobody whom I knew had ever met one, either. In my conservative little corner of the world, you acquired friends more easily if you didn’t admit to having an interest – much less a need – for a psychic. Sane people (or so I believed) understood that empaths, spiritual healers, and clairvoyants only existed in fiction.
But I was writing a novel – so I clearly wasn’t sane!
During that time, the Internet didn’t exist, and the local library didn’t carry books about psychic healing. I was starved for research material. Fortunately, I came across a public bulletin board with an intriguing flyer. “Psychic Fair,” it proclaimed. “Have your fortune told. Receive a 15-minute hands-on healing.”
“Hot dog,” I thought.
So I donned my dark glasses and my baseball cap, drove to the “other side of town” (where none of my friends or writing associates would ever dream of venturing) and prepared to conduct my fiction research. I considered the entire outing to be a lark – until I met Rachel.
Rachel was performing what she called, “Reiki treatments,” on a massage table behind a partition at the fair. She explained to me that Reiki is a Japanese word that means Universal Life Energy. Reiki treatments are a non-invasive form of energy healing, in which the client never needs to disrobe or be touched in order to experience results. In fact, a client (which could be human, plant, or animal) didn’t even have to be in the same room as the healer. According to Rachel, Reiki could be transmitted all around the world through intention and vibration.
My fiction-writing brain thought, “Cool!”
But my journalist’s brain thought, “Yeah? Prove it.”
Imagine my extreme fascination when Rachel – whom I’d never met before – took my hand and proceeded to tell me all kinds of true stories about my past. Her observations ranged from chronic injuries that did not appear on my skin (tendinitis) to recent emotional upheavals (a job loss.) She put her hands on my shoulders, and within minutes – without physical manipulation – the extraordinary heat that was radiating from her hands started to relax muscles that I didn’t even realize were tense. My perennially cold hands were warming up, and so were my feet. I grew peaceful. Something was definitely happening, but whatever that “something” was couldn’t be seen by my naked eyes.
After my 15-minute session concluded, I thanked Rachel. “This has been an awesome research outing,” I told her. “You’ve given me so many great ideas for my novel!”
She locked stares with me. Perfectly serene, she said, “Adrienne, you didn’t come here to write a novel. You came here to learn how to be a Reiki Master, to teach people how to heal themselves and help heal the earth. You have an innate talent. You were born to do this. Please let me train you as my gift.”
I practically fell over. Her “gift” was valued at $10,000 in some circles. (Did I mention that I was unemployed?)
My training with Rachel lead me on a magnificent personal journey, involving some of the most beautiful experiences in my life. I met incredibly giving people with open minds and loving hearts. I developed the ability to ease chronic pain in my body. I experienced a closer connection with nature (wild ducks and squirrels literally ran to sit beside me when I practiced Reiki in the park!)
Through Reiki, Rachel proved to me that “real magic” exists in life. She showed me that the Unseen and the Unknowable don’t have to be frightening.
She proved to me that we don’t have to be slaves to painkillers. She taught me that we each have the power to heal ourselves — and to help others do the same. I am able to type at a keyboard and continue my writing career because Reiki helps me alleviate the pain of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
In the meanwhile, I continue to teach – not just Reiki (as Rachel predicted I would) but fiction writing, too. My passion is to help aspiring authors live their publishing dream. I developed the website, WritingNovelsThatSell.com, to inspire writers and to help them understand the business of writing.
If you love the paranormal as much as I do, I invite you to drop by the writing resource pages at WritingNovelsThatSell.com, where you’ll find recommended books on Magic and the Paranormal and Fantasy and Science Fiction.
