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A masseuse in Florida stole my friend's chi. It happened during a Swedish spa get away (or so she swears). She concluded this when she returned home from vacation and found gym workouts she'd spent a year mastering impossible. Instead of cranking out her usual pull-ups, she could only hang from the bar like a limp dish towel. For months, she was physically and mentally drained, despite sound sleep and a healthy lifestyle. Her doctor ruled out the usual culprits, such as mononucleosis and iron deficiency. The only explanation, she thought, was that her energy -- what Chinese medicine refers to as "chi," an invisible, non-cellular force that pulses through the body -- had been stolen by a certain Floridian massage therapist who was now tooling around with it, feeling great.
While my friend may sound looney, there are actually many people who subscribe to this thinking, as alternative therapies increasingly infiltrate American culture. "Human energy vampires are out there," says Jane Wurwand, president of the International Dermal Institute, which trains skin-care therapists. "Needy people are attracted to the massage business because thay can suck energy from vulnerable bodies and take it for themselves."
Aleta St. James, who calls herself an energy healer and success coach, says she's helped victims reclaim their snatched Chi, using hands-on therapy, visualization, and clairvoyance. "During massage, you are trusting, so if the person touching you has delpleted energy or is focused on his or her problems instead of you, they can steal energy, or unload their own."
Even if you dismiss such talk as esoteric hooey, think -- really think about this: Have you ever felt exhausted after talking to someone? Are there people you intentionally avoid, but you can't put your finger on why you don't like them? Have you gotten a bad feeling from a masseuse, and felt dizzy or unusually tired afterward? Most of us can relate to these examples on some level. But are these bad vibe moments signs that your chi has been leeched by an energy vampire? Or is there a more scientific explanation? ....
"Massage promotes chi circulation," says Yubin Lu, PhD in Chinese and dean of the American Academy of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. "Therapists can consume chi because they're manipulating its flow," he says. This idea doesn't sound so out there when you consider that energy fields are actual and measurable: The BioEnergy Fields Laboratory, a high-tech electronics laboratory in Malibu, has recorded the reality of the human auric field and energy "transactions" between people, according to Valerie Hunt, EdD, the Laboratory's director and professor emeritus of physiological sciences at UCLA.
Maureen Moon, past president of the American Massage Therapy Association, says the best proof of energy transference during massage is to focus on how it feels to be touched by another person. "You feel something beyond skin touching skin. That's energy," she says. david Bond, a chiropractor in Encino, California, agrees: "When people touch, they exchange energy." A client who is angry or stressed, he says, can transfer feelings or ailments to the therapist as easily as an unfocused therapist can drain a client. (Eventually, the theory goes, therapists learn to protect their energy through practices such as centering and meditation.) ....
Truth is, other people can bring you down. Psychologists note that being around stressed-out people or environments is stressful. "We can sense if someone is angry or a situation is uncomfortable, during massage or otherwise. Our brains release hormones and adrenaline, which signal the body to be on the defensive," explains Robert Thayer, PhD, professor of psychology at California State University in Long Beach. When eventually we relax, the post-stress rush may cause us to feel drained, he adds.
Maybe my friend's chi wasn't stolen. Maybe she was stressed by other factors in her life and wanted a scapegoat. It's alos possible that she's nutty as Skippy. I don't know. but massage has a cumulative effect -- the more regularly it;s administered, the more healing it can be, while one session will only lend a good unwinding. So, even if my friend's chi was snagged by the Floridian masseause, it seems she should have bounced back quickly. "If she had come to see me," St. James says,"I could have helped her visualize her energy back in one session." This in mind, i gave my friend St. James's number -- in the name of good Karma, of course.
--Nancy Serano
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