Amidst the unassuming uniformity of brick offices on Uptown Square, distinguishable only by the business names on brassy plaques each office front must bear, you will find The Healing Place. With excitement and a dash of nervousness, we enter. A few paces down the Berber carpet hall, stands Ms. Carole Bratcher dressed in white with a warm and gentle smile. “Please remove your shoes and come in.” Bratcher is an energy healer trained by Ataana Badilli who was born in Germany of Turkish descent and is now located in NASHVILLE, TENN.
Therapeutic aromas waft the olfactory as our eardrums tap out the rhythm of a trickling fountain commingling with a meditative lull of a gentle playlist. Sitting next to her table, Bratcher appears quite relaxed, alert, and grounded. Speaking with a genuine uncontrived openness, she exudes joy and pleasant contentment. She then proceeds to explain what energy healing is and how it works.
According to Bratcher, “Energy healing taps into the life-force we all have within us. So, each being on this planet [and]?in this universe actually, vibrates to a certain frequency.” She says that no matter what name we give it whether it be life force, energy or a connection to God, “whatever it is, it is all the same thing.” Through an energy work session the clients with her assistance, “?taps into that energy field”, and by doing so is able to “?find themselves, go deep inside?find the you that you are?where your true heart is, where your higher-self is, your soul, your connection to God. All that is the same?that is where the answers lie. So, what somebody is able to do in a healing session is connect to yourself and find your truth”.
Furthermore, Bratcher takes little if no credit for the healing during a session rather, she acts as a conduit directing the omnipotent life force energy that each of us have individually and share collectively. This universal energy, she feels, is that of unconditional love saying, “And, if you know, you really get down to the definition of love, it can’t have conditions (laughs)?it is the life force. It’s the energy.”
Nearly every religious and spiritual practice has studied the dynamics of this omnipotent energy. Different cultures have developed unique approaches to its utilization from enlightenment to healing and wellbeing, to the martial arts and even ESP. It has been called by different names, most notably; “Prana” from the yogi’s of India; “Ki”, from the Huna of Hawaii; “Chi” from China and Tibet; “Qi” from Japan. Yet, strangely enough, though this energy has a long tradition within these cultures, here in the west we scarcely have any empirical relationship with it other than a conceptual curiosity.
What we do possess however, is our scientific ingenuity. One need only look into the world of Quantum Physics and the burgeoning field of Quantum Biophysics to find the published data as well as the leading theoretical evidence to support an energy field that unites us all (we will save that one for another time).
Carole Bratcher was born to a farming family in a rural Iowa town. She states, “I have always been drawn to the healing arts”. Carole began her career as a Speech Language Pathologist until she first experienced Energy Work in 1996 and had what she describes as, “?this beautiful awakening into the world of energy”. To her it was her life’s calling saying, “I have discovered I am here to reach out to the everyday person?the people that are coming to see me are people who are out there working 9 to 5 jobs, going to church, living that typical suburban life, and that really excites me because that’s how I was raised.”
It is our sincere hope that as we grow, both individually and as a people, we come to realize that the different hurtful gaps separating us from each other and from nature, are more of our own making than reality on a higher level. And, no matter what spiritual path, if any, we may follow, that it is only love in its purest form, lived and experienced?rather than theorized, that can bridge them. Finally, if you are feeling imbalanced in one way or another remember, you did not get that way alone so you do not have to heal it alone because there are people like Carole Bratcher in our own community who we can turn to for help when we need it.*
Finally, we extend an open invitation to hear from you, our readers, any suggestions, criticism, and insight into the subject matter we present. OM – inquiring Open Minds want to know. If you have, any recommendations for future topics that you would like us to cover, please contact us at rachel@boropulse.com, jason@boropulse.com, or visit theomexchange.wordpress.com
*This edition of the Open Minds Exchange article “Healing Energy” is the unabbreviated version versus The Murfreesboro Pulse print version issued on 14 May 2009. Further information on energy healing, Carol Bratcher and this article are posted on theomexchange.wordpress.com, as well as an interview transcript and Mp3 file.
