In my experience of the church, we celebrated the Communion of Saints, we heard stories about angels, and we prayed for light and for healing. But not as if we really believed any of it. We were referencing a mythic story that looked inspiring in the stained-glass of our windows and that sounded impressive in the pious pages of our prayer book. But had any of those things actually come to pass in our midst--the appearance of dead people, the visitation of angels, the healing of a supplicant--I suspect we would have fled the building, screaming.
This is the problem with religion when it settles into itself. It speaks of things that happened to other people, in a foreign land, long long ago, and not what's happening in our midst right here and right now. We read the stories and marvel at the faith of our spiritual forbears: Moses parting the Red Sea; Amos writing truth to power; Jesus going to the cross for our sakes. Those stories are wonderful, but they make us wistful. What would it be like to live in times like those and to have faith like that?
But a backward glance is not what modern-day seekers are looking for. They want what the church no longer seems to possess--a direct, here-and-now, life-altering, encounter with the Divine. Young people turn to music they can feel in their bones, to drugs that expand their minds, and to tribes where difference and eccentricity are not only welcomed, but cultivated.
And it's not just young people. As the church loses its grip on Western society, people's spiritual impulses have led them to alternative medicines, nature-based mysticism, and the spiritual arts that we in West have all but abandoned. Reiki is one such art that, though relatively new in its present form, has roots deep in our primordial memory. We already know that life is more than body and mind, that there are spiritual energies that can heal both, and that we are each a spark from an all-encompassing flame that some know as God, some as Creator, some simply as Source.
As a Reiki Master, Jan Thompson occupies two worlds. In one, she's a wife and a mother and a grandmother, a former teacher and educational administrator, a home owner and an automobile driver and a shopper for groceries. In the other, she's a healer, a dowser, a discerner of spirits, and a spiritual pilgrim on her Ascension journey, clearing her chakras, losing her karmic dross, and partnering with her Higher Self. Living as she does in both worlds, she knows that healing energies emanate from a divine Source, that spiritual beings are available to help us, and that this finite world is infused with a Love that knows no end.
I first met Jan when I was given the gift of a Reiki treatment. I turned over to her my gift certificate, lay on her treatment table, and drifted blissfully for a period of time that might have been ten minutes or ten hours. She never touched me. Instead, she sought out the energy flow moving around and through my body, seeking clues to where it wanted to go and what might be blocking it. Then, when she was done, we sat together and talked about it. It became evident that this was more, way more, than just a "treatment."
She spoke of Light and of Love and of Spiritual Beings (her Higher Self communicating with my own, who I'd never met myself). I knew I was in the presence of someone who didn't just believe these things--she knew them, because she lived them. And I knew I had to talk with her in The Mystic Cave, where we explore the "soulful terrain on the far side of conventional religion."
And so begins a mystical turn in the Cave. In the weeks to come, I'll go on a shamanic journey and be introduced to the natural psychedelics that can awaken us to the spiritual realms where ego dissolves and All is One. But it starts here, with Jan, a Reiki Master who offers us the possibility, at last, of experiencing personally what some of us have only ever heard about.
To listen to my conversation with Jan Thompson, press the Play button below. To learn more about her work, follow the Information button ("i") to the show notes.
There is so much of what was spoken about that resonates with me.
The transcendent self joining with the energy of the Source grips to embody “the kingdom of God on earth”, and “they will be done”. So much too contemplate, so much to reach for, so much to experience. Thank you for this interview.