The smell of essential oils greets you, enveloping you upon your arrival. Gongs brrrrnnnngggg and gemstone bracelets twinkle as you walk through the aisles of vendors. Healers promise (possible) miracles, psychics sit and await your patronage (wearing a disparate array of kaftans, bindis, and, at times, bored expressions). You are drawn to tables where people lie horizontally on massage tables while practitioners wave hands over them, ring bells, say chants. Yes, you've arrived at a BMSE, a Body, Mind, Spirit Expo and you're about to be dazzled, confused, and quite possibly changed forever. And all in the span of a few hours' worth of your time. Presto! And Chango!
If it seems like I'm being flippant, I do apologize. I really do enjoy BMSEs, but sometimes the onslaught of energies can be overpowering, especially to a sensitive type like myself. My Water Rabbit soul simultaneously wants to throw her whole self in, and hide in the corner. Let me elaborate on my experience this time around.
I ambled in around 11 AM, smelled the oils, saw the glittery gems, and was drawn to the "rock guy" who had stone upon stone and ...crystal skulls. My head immediately began to pound and I felt woozy. Yet I was intrigued to have an audience with these skulls, so I paid a nominal fee to sit with them. Literally, I sat, with my hands on either side of their crystalline craniums, a trio of glassy noggins waiting to clear my negative energies and let in the good stuff. I breathed out the ick, breathed in the clarity. I felt much better. I thanked each skull by name and continued on my way.
That's when I encountered the psychic who I spent 30 minutes with. Initially, it was going to be a quick 15-minute reading, but when I sat and we connected and she hit upon every little bit of energetic disturbance I'd been feeling for the past few weeks, and we explored my spiritual journey and she knew more about my energy fields than I'd ever let on, and she confirmed every single change and vibration I'd had, and she gave me tools to help identify my energies, to protect myself, I stayed for a full half-hour. It was some of the best money I've ever spent at a BMSE.
Well, it was time for a lecture, so I studied my BMSE guide and saw that some guy who works to help clear folks of unwanted, attached energies was just beginning his schpeil. It was after the noon start time for his lecture by now, so I slinked into the back of the room and settled in. He spoke about how much mental illness and depression can be linked to folks actually being under psychic attack by ghosts, ghoulies, ETs (
not the cute ones who played in Drew Barrymore's closet), and an array of uninvited, unwanted spirit "guests". He related the story of a case where new parents had a baby that would not stop crying - until he was finally summoned and cleared the baby's energy fields of past life "haunts". Imagine that: a tiny infant, a new life, can be affected by things like that. Blew my mind.
So, "energies" was the Word of the Day. And I had no idea how clearly this would be played out until I sat through a presentation from the keynote speaker, Gail Thackray.
Thackray was scheduled to present in the same room, so I moved closer to the front and sat tight, while a cavalcade of BMSEgoers piled in. A much larger room should've been secured for Thackray, because she was definitely a popular draw. And what we all experienced was deep, moving, and, possibly, life-changing.
Petite, tanned, and pretty, Thackray energetically (there's that word again) shared with us how a visit to Brazil to see John of God changed her life, setting her on the course to become a spiritual teacher and healer. She then had some audience members volunteer to come up and experience healings. What was interesting was that each person she brought up had some sort of situation that was very similar to one of my own, either in physical form (lower back pain, for example), or spiritually. She then had all of us place our hands on the body area in question, relating how the physical space correlated with something energetic or spiritual. She asked us all if we wanted to release this blockage and, if so, to rally a unanimous "Yes!", which we all chorused. And, by golly, I felt energetic shifts in each affected area. Moments before she asked if we'd felt anything in our stomachs, a warmth or uneasiness, I had felt a slight tummy upset. This meant that spirit was, indeed, working through us.
She also led us in a guided meditation to help connect and harness God's energy. I found the experience profoundly moving; there were moments that were extremely personal which I won't share here. Suffice to say, it was cathartic and beautiful.
I left the room lighter, lifted, and felt that I was somehow "shifted" in the deepest recesses of my body and spirit. It's difficult to describe. I tried to go back to the vendors' area and felt, quite literally, as if my spirit guides or angels pushed me on the back and gently swept me out of the space. I got the clear, resonant message that I needed to go home, keep warm, drink water, and invest in an evening of spectacular self care.
It was only 2:15. All that happened in just over three hours' time. Cleared out, rearranged, vibrant and, quite possibly, healed of a couple pesky physical ailments, as well as some lingering energetic ones.
It's now 27 hours since the healing session. I've had to throw myself into life full-out, giving a lecture about my book, "The Cotton Candy Road Trip" to an auditorium full of teen-agers, then getting ready for a class I'm taking this evening, and writing this blog post. Do I feel any different? Yes, relaxed and at ease, but also slightly elevated from the usual earthly energy fields. I'm curious to see how the effects will last, how things will continue to shift, or if things will fall back into place the way they've always been. What's curious is that Thackray said once we're part of her email list, she keeps us nearby energetically.
As my slightly cynical, yet always curious mom would say, "Well,
we'll see ..."
Sitar music. Peter Cook as the Mad Hatter. And an Alice who tumbles through her own world, no animal caricatures in sight, but real adults showing up as the mad, stressed-out caricatures themselves, trying to make sense out of the nonsensical Victorian world they're a part of. As Miller put it himself, "Once you take the animal heads off, you begin to see what it's all
about. A small child, surrounded by hurrying, worried people, thinking
'Is that what being grown up is like?'"
