This story has a bit of an odd beginning and I don’t know exactly where that is, but here’s what I do know: I went to see an energy healer.

I think it started somewhere with a conversation with a friend who doesn’t practice any man-made religions, but she does do “energy work.” Sometime after that conversation, as I was reading about the Law of Attraction, I came to understand that there was something I was putting out into the universe that was attracting less-than-favorable circumstances to me in a few different areas of my life. Energy healing presented as the answer.

The goal of the process is to get your body/chakra/energy to vibrate in the right way so that you attract the right things into your life. Sounds cool, right?

Then came the research process. I don’t know my chakra from my reiki and it was all too overwhelming and time-consuming. I consulted my friend, seeking clarification, then I stumbled across a goldmine of options. There’s an energy healers meetup group nearby and they said I could come and have a clearing, gratis, from one of the best people in the arena.

Who doesn't love free when it comes to trying something new that you don’t understand?

Let me preface the experience by telling you that I am a Christian, but I absolute dread the idea of going to church. I’d rather chill with Jesus on a park bench eating ice cream or have a private conversation with him in my car than go to a church building — you know, the church is in us anyway.

That said, nothing about this experience felt weird or wrong.

Oddly enough, the healing sessions took place in a church, but it was a dedicated night for this event and less than 20 people in total were present — most of them were healers.

We started with a circle of prayer — left hand up, because you receive with your left, and right hand down, because you give with your right — holding hands and taking 10-15 seconds each to say a prayer and prepare the atmosphere for what was about to occur.

During the first round of healing, there were 4 people seated on stools while the healer stood by them and the fifth person — the “main” healer of the group performed his healings standing up. I was there to see him, but I didn't make it to the first round.

I took a seat on the side where I could be in full view of everything that was going on and I watched as different healers performed different methods of healing energy. Chakra, reiki, shamanistic, whatever, it was all so interesting to view.

I noticed that there was a change in the feeling of the atmosphere. Not really heavy, but it felt like things were being released in some way and as I watched, I was somewhat startled to realize that it made me weep. There was a constant flow of tears as I watched everyone experiencing some type of breakthrough.

I thought to myself that I didn't plan on crying and I hope it doesn't continue like this as we go through the next groups of sessions, but I accepted it for what it was.

After the session ended, the healer tells what they saw/experienced/felt while working on the person and the healee tells what they experienced/felt during or after the process.

There was a second session that I still didn't get in for (gotta be quick). I sat it out and watched again, this time, I was more intrigued than emotional — or maybe I had cried it out already and that was all I needed. I’m not a big crier, so either explanation I gave myself was cool with me.

Round 3 — finally, my turn arrived. I was instructed to stand with my feet shoulder-width apart and my hands to my side, palms up (to receive). There were 3 cleansing breaths to get started and I was not to open my eyes no matter what.

I stood there with my eyes closed as the healer moved around me. I was very intent on making sure to not allow thoughts to ruin the process. I tried extremely hard to empty my mind, as you would for meditation, and just be present in the moment/experience.

At some point, I felt something that reminded me of the York Peppermint Patty commercial. It was a cool, tingling sensation in my fingertips and I enjoyed it.

The session lasted about 15 minutes (I think) and we were done, he gave his interpretation of what happened while working with me. I don’t quite know/understand the type of energy healing he does, but imagine your energy like the layers of an onion — the job of the healer is to peel the layers back one or 2 at a time and clear out anything that’s hiding in between there.

He said that I HAD (he emphasized the past-tense a lot) quite a bit of energy clogged up. The more layers he pulled back, closer to my core, the tighter the energy was packed down. He made it sound so easy when he talked about how it was no problem for him to get rid of it for me. He said for someone else, it probably would have taken much more time, for him — no problem.

It made sense. For the longest time, I’ve been told that I intellectualize things instead of feeling them. For me, some emotions are like the missing back to your earrings — you kinda wonder where it went, but you don’t spend a lot of time/energy looking for it. In this case, all of the emotions that I had dealt with were compacted somewhere between layer 5 and layer 2. Who knew?

I’m glad he cleared it. I’m glad I had the experience. I think I see things more clearly now and I've become more comfortable with speaking my truth since it happened. I feel extremely enlightened — deep thoughts and all that jazz. It’s pretty amazing, actually.