The western medical system calls a healing crisis the “Herxheimer Reaction,” describing it as a short-term reaction of sickness that our bodies undergo when we are off-loading toxins. Though this is one form of healing crisis, similar symptoms can also be experienced when we are undergoing energetic and non-traditional healings.
The healing crisis is a natural and healthy way for our bodies to shed not only dying pathogens and microbial waste, but also old beliefs, emotions, and energetic patterns that we may have carried with us for a lifetime (or several.)
The “Jerisch-Herxheimer Reaction,” more specifically, was coined after patients that were given antibiotics to treat an illness, and the symptoms they would endure as dying microorganisms in their bodies would produce endotoxins – a waste of dying cells and microorganisms – while being shed out of their systems. The death of the bacteria could cause chills, fever, body aches, sore throat, sweating, nausea, and other odd physical symptoms (many of which could never be accounted for medically).
This normal reaction of the body was essentially a letting go of something that had taken hold of it – in this case, bad bacteria – but if we think of our bodies as energetic in their truest form, as geniuses like Nikola Tesla and Albert Einstein have – then we can see that an energetic release of stuck, thick, dark energy could also cause temporary physical symptoms that look very much like the traditional Herxheimer Reaction.
Feeling Worse Before You Feel Better
When we undergo a non-traditional healing treatment like Reiki, Qi Gong, Quantum Healing, Crystal Healing, etc. just as when we are shifting the balance of bacteria from bad to good, we are “upsetting” or shifting long-held emotional and energetic patterns. The crisis that results is nature’s way of sending the appropriate reinforcements to complete the healing.
“All cure starts from within out and from the head down and in reverse order as the symptoms
have appeared”. (Hering’s Law of Cure)
The healing crisis will usually appear after we’ve done something to disrupt our old patterns – it can be a change in diet, quit smoking or drinking, finally getting more exercise, starting a restorative yoga class, receiving acupuncture, or a Reiki session, meditating for several days straight after a long absence from the practice, and other balancing, integrative healing practices.
Healing in Reverse
The body will then begin to bring back diseases in reverse order – including diseases of the mind (whereupon we don’t love, honor, respect and nurture ourselves with our beliefs). If these diseases have been suppressed for some time, we may not even recognize the symptoms as an old disease re-manifesting and wonder what in the world can be happening to us.
Since so many of the medications we take for modern illnesses (including depression and anxiety) only mask the symptoms of the disease, it can be quite shocking if feelings of pain and discomfort arise that are less physical and more emotional in nature. It can feel like watching a movie backwards, with clear eyes.
Etheric Elimination
As the etheric body goes through the eliminative process – off-casting old programs and beliefs, we can also experience old memories and troubles resurface so that we can honor them and let them go. If we look at this healing crisis as a positive thing, we can simply say goodbye to that old way of thinking and feeling, and embrace a new way of thinking we have now made room for.
The healing crisis differs from the dis-ease process, even though it may manifest similarly, as the movement toward health will only temporarily give rise to uncomfortable symptoms followed by a new, improved way of experiencing the world, and a new, uplifted way of feeling the energy coursing through our bodies.
A healing crisis will usually come right after we are feeling our best – due to those aforementioned changes in lifestyle, or when we’ve sought out an alternative healing modality to shake things up. Since our thought patterns, just like a bacterial or viral infection, have likely built up over time through neglect of our psychic and emotional health – it can take a little time – several days to a week or more – to truly recover fully from the process.
You will notice a feeling of well-being that differs from a true sickness during a healing crisis; meaning that deep down inside, it feels okay, while a sickness feels like something is wrong.
Honor the Process
The most important thing to remember is that the healing crisis doesn’t mean that your healing or lifestyle change didn’t work. It is actually a sign that it did work, on a very deep and life-changing level.
Simply honor the process: rest more, relax, continue the practice of eating healthy, getting out in the sun, being in nature, and back to movement and exercise when you are feeling better. A new, and transformed you, just like the ugly duckling morphing into a beautiful swan, awaits the shedding of your old energetic skin. The healing crisis is just helping that process along. It’s better if you let it.