Are healers taking advantage of you?
In this day and ‘new age’ we all know someone who claims to be a healer. With the continued growth of ‘conscious communities’ new ‘healers’ are emerging all the time. Lets start off by looking at what is healer is. Put simply, a healer is ‘one who heals’. Healing is a skill that can be acquired after years and years of practice and study in a specific modality such as shamanism or in extremely rare cases a person may be born with a gift to heal. To find a true and capable healer with honest intention is like finding a needle in 10,000 haystacks. Yet today, it seems that every other person claims to be a healer or energy worker, especially among those in the ‘spiritual’ or ‘conscious’ communities.
Could it really be that such a vast number of people suddenly ‘woke’ and discovered their true and natural ability to heal others? Or could there be ulterior and sinister motives at work? There are generally two main motivators for someone to define themselves as a healer: Ego and Profit.
One reason that people claim to be a healer is to feed and boost the ego. In many cases, the ego-driven desire to be defined as a ‘healer’ is often unconscious – the individual isn’t even aware that they are attracted to the healer-identity for ego. This is ironic especially since the whole idea of enlightenment and consciousness is centered around the ‘death of ego’ – a concept that most ‘healers’ will claim they subscribe to. Being able to ‘heal’ others makes them feel special and unique. It can also make them feel powerful when they are around those who are ‘weak’ or in need. Often times the ‘healers’ are far more sick than those who seek them for help! Putting the focus on others (and the ways in which they need to improve or ‘heal’) makes it easy to avoid the problems they have in their own lives.
The second reason a person will claim to be a healer is for PROFIT. Being treated by a fake healer is about as effective as treating cancer with Tylenol. However, sometimes just believing we are being healed is enough to actually heal us which makes it so easy for just about anyone to be able to claim that they are a real healer. That, combined with the fact that many healers require multiple or on-going sessions makes the business of healing quite profitable. Unfortunately, that can attract some unsavory characters looking to profit from sick and desperate people.
These types of fake ‘healers’ have been highlighted recently in the ayahuasca community by the number of reports of inappropriate behavior toward women and shady ‘shaman’ who exploit those seeking healing through plant medicines and steal their money. But the behavior goes well outside of the plant medicine community into energy healers, reiki masters, kambo practitioners, light workers etc… I even knew a woman who offered ‘long distance’ reiki sessions for $100 a pop and man who with the name ‘healer’ who charges $50,000 for a month of treatment! These days anyone can get a ‘master reiki’ certification in about a month and literally anyone can self-define themselves as a ‘energy worker’ or ‘light worker’. Does that mean these people can truly heal you? Probably not.
The bottom line is: Beware of anyone who claims that they can heal you. It’s up to you to decide where to place your trust and money. The true art of healing can take years – even a lifetime to develop and perfect. Then, healing takes time, patience and a whole lot of effort. We need to be willing to put in the work, be uncomfortable and trust ourselves. We are the ones who are capable of healing ourselves if we are given the right environment and proper guidance of a skilled shaman or facilitator. Beware of healers – true healing happens within.