Editor’s note: The following article by Barbara D’Arcy Thompson was previously published in One Earth Magazine Volume 1 Issue 5 . April/May 1981

It has been truly said that all healing is self healing. Healing cannot be imposed from  without, it has to come from within. Doctors, therapists, practitioners can all give their help, but unless a person wants at all levels to get well, they will not do so. The only way we can help anyone is to love them unconditionally, accepting them simply as they are with no desire to change them, holding them in light and looking for no recognition or gratitude in return.

Paul Solomon points out that the Greek for ‘word’ is ‘logos’, which can also be translated as ‘expression’. So the beginning of the Gospel of John-“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. and the Word was God”-can be translated, “In the beginning God expressed himself.” “That expression,” says Paul, “was love, and he made the world out of it. This is the one prime force, the energy flowing through all matter. As it moved in the beginning it resulted in form. If we move it again, we can change the form that resulted from it.” In other words, it is through love that we can touch in to that centre of another where inner healing takes place, and so the person is healed and restored.

Healing is two-fold. The one great healer is love; the other is the life energy. In reality there is no dichotomy; both are manifestations of God. The life process, the great healer on the physical plane, is God expressing through matter, creating and re-creating, holding in equilibrium systems upon systems of universes. Life is movement, always stretching out towards wholeness, greater beauty and perfection. Life is always renew­ing itself. You cut your finger, you break a bone, and life heals the damage. The doctor and the surgeon are its humble skilled assistants.

Dr Edward Bach, that great lover of trees and plants the compassionate, self-sacrificing physician who discovered the flower remedies that carry his name, was a pioneer in modern times in realising that ‘disease in its origin is not material. It is in essence a conflict between Soul and Mind.’ The body is the vehicle, the expression of the mind and spirit, and as the mind dictates, so the body responds. Thoughts of anger, resentment, unforgivingness, fear, can all condition the body into disharmony and eventual ill health. Dr Bach realised it was not just the patient’s symptoms that he had to treat, but the whole personality. From long and painstaking observations, he pre­pared his 38 Flower Remedies for the relief of various states of mind which result in physical imbalance and disharmony. These work on subtle levels and several of us at Findhorn are increasingly working with them.

For myself, it was during the war years, which I spent serv­ing with the Red Cross, that I rediscovered the healing power of touch. When I was drawn to Findhorn nine years ago I found, to my joy, opportunities to learn what I had secretly always longed to do, use my hands in ways of healing. I was able to study massage, Reflexology and its later development, Metamorphic Technique.

Reflexology is a wonderful therapy. The Chinese of perhaps 5,000 years ago discovered the presence of life-sustaining energies circulating throughout the body. This circulation is linked to the functioning of the internal organs, each of which, like every other part of the body, has a reflex area in the feet. As you apply pressure to the nerve endings in the feet, a reflex action takes place in the corresponding area of the body. Com­pression massage gets rid of waste products that filter down into the feet, restores harmony and vitality, correcting imbalance in organs and glands and relaxing the whole system. By its nature this is a wonderful link with people. To touch a person’s feet is something very personal: in a minor way it is sacramental. Practitioners have to be very clear within them­selves; then they can make contact with the healing centre of the recipient, who becomes aware of the healing energies right through the body.

In the Metamorphic Technique-originally known as Prenatal Therapy-we massage the spinal reflex which is also the reflex of the prenatal or gestation period, the 38 weeks before birth. Although this is in past time and is intangible, it can be brought back into focus. The practitioner is simply a catalyst; it is the patient’s life force which begins to loosen the hold of time and remove the blocks in the energy flow of his creation. These blocks are on physical, emotional and mental levels, and mani­fest in a number of ways, one of which can be mental retarded­ness. Results with retarded children have been both spectacular and dramatic. The principle we are working with is life itself, life the creator, healer and restorer. It is this that through the touch of our fingers initiates and will complete the changes that are necessary if our potential is to be realised.

Barbara D ‘Arcy Thompson, who comes from a family back­ground of exacting scholarship, taught for many years. Her greatest interest now is in healing and wholeness, and she studies, practises and teaches massage, reflexology and Metamorphic Technique.