IN THIS ISSUE

The Power to Heal Group this month focuses on the biophysiology of SPEAKING THE TRUTH OF YOUR HEART and the emotional biodynamics of the upper torso. And for those of you lovers struggling with Venus in retrograde, please note that sensual Venus goes direct September 8th.

CHANNELING SEXUAL ENERGY TO HEAL
Each of us has the capacity to develop and channel our vital life force energy. Taoist practice can be used to direct this energy to heal specific organs or specific emotional or psycho-spiritual wounds in yourself and your partner. Healing means self-regeneration, and while all of us regenerate cells everyday without thinking twice about it, we would do well to remember that we all also have the choice to heal our partners and ourselves by cultivating the sexual energy that is within all of us. Because we live in a culture that dismembers sex from spirit and turns both into commodities, we need to consciously nurture the connections among sexuality, spirituality and wellness. The Tao of sexual energy recognizes the healing power that all of us intuitively understand and takes that energy to another level of consciousness. The practice is based on an understanding of chi (life energy flow), pranayama (breath), bandhas (internal energetic seals), and riding the energy of orgasm in order to move Kundalini life force energy up from your second chakra toward emotional and psycho-spiritual growth and regeneration that goes far beyond the sexual act itself. Thai authors and Taoist practitioners Mantak and Maneewan Chia review Taoist techniques in their Healing Love through the Tao: Cultivating Female Sexual Energy and Healing Love through the Tao: Cultivating Male Sexual Energy.

The art can be practiced alone or in couples. Techniques include the Microcosmic Orbit (which teaches you to channel energy rising from the perineum to the roof of your mouth through your tongue), Genital Breathing (breathing down into and up from the genitals), and the Big Draw (repeatedly pausing on the peak of orgasm, each time drawing sexual energy higher until you get to a prolonged orgasm). You can also learn the Inner Smile to smile love into your partner, or stroke your partner´s spine, or touch the crown of each other´s head to shower energy back down. Laying naked in the sun for 20 minutes is a good way to build up Kundalini.

THE NEED FOR TOUCH
Our consciousness is touch-based. Touch is connected in our biophysiology to our emotional feelings, and touch and movement go hand in hand. Like our mouths, our hands have a vastly disproportionate allocation of neurons in the somatosensory cortex. Feeling with one´s hands is one of the most basic human behaviors, along with eating, talking and ambulating. We sense the external environment (heat, humidity, pain, pressure, proprioceptive location in space, etc.) through our skin, the organ of contact between inside and outside. In addition, touch communicates. It is part of our language, and was so long before we developed verbal speech.

Practitioners and educators who use touch in their methods—such as essential touch, intentional touch, compassionate touch, listening touch, therapeutic touch, energetic touch, etc.—know from first-hand experience the vast potential for sensing, communicating, educating and healing with one´s hands.

LIMBIC RESONANCE
Without it infants die. Hearts break. Communities and families fall apart. For big cats, wolf packs, elephants, whales and dolphins as well as humans, the biochemical-energetic bonds that tie us together are key to our evolution and survival as mammals. Neuroscientists now know our hearts are 65% neurons, meaning our heartfelt emotional feelings and connections are part of our native intelligence, part of our brain. Limbic resonance is the love vibe, and you get an endless supply of it whenever you tune in to the loving vibe of another mammal. It’s why elders with pets live longer, and children who get hugs develop self-confidence and well-being. And it is the source of powerful healing energy that any of us can shine toward the people in our lives. According to Deepak Chopra, the quality of the limbic bond between the care provider and the person trying to heal is the single most important determining factor in all modalities of healing.