What makes a person a good healer? Someone recently said to me:
“The best healers are those who healed themselves.”
I strongly disagree with that statement. So I need to take a moment and explain exactly why such people are often the worst healers (in my opinion). Yes, the worst. Understanding my points below will help you avoid a lot of mistakes on your road to wellness, so I hope you take the time to read this.
FIRST and foremost, as a knowledge base, our personal experience means nothing. Zero. I include myself in this statement. The experience of one creature has zero significance when compared to the billions of creatures that we can learn from. Personal experience might be good marketing, but it is irrelevant compared to the vast body of scientific knowledge, anecdotal evidence of the masses, and intuition.
SECOND, personal experience creates huge bias, and tricks the individual healer into thinking they have special knowledge. They don’t. They simply discovered something that worked for them – as a unique individual in a unique circumstance at a unique moment in time. There is a good chance that they cannot even heal themselves a 2nd time. Of course, there are certainly many events in history where an individual discovered something profound; however, these are very rare occurrences. A shaman did not become a shaman because he healed himself, but because he learned to tap into the wisdom of his ancestors, nature, and his own intuition.
THIRD, putting inordinate weight into personal experience tends to create a god complex, and that is dangerous for everyone. I’m sure you’ve heard the expression by Lord Action:
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”
This is exactly why we have endless gurus emerging every day that hurt more people than they heal. Those ‘gurus’ are not healers at all, but are just businessmen (or women) seeking fame, fortune, or both.
It is a sad reality that people are drawn to the personal experience. I have lots, but that is not why you should choose me to be your healer. The great shamans, doctors, and other healers of the world are not great because of their personal experience. They are great because of empathy, intent, intuition, and because if they did have personal experience… they learned from it without becoming arrogant.
Certainly experience is helpful, but in truth, the only true knowledge is within… which means intuition is your most powerful tool of all. Learn to tap into that, and then you will know for yourself if a healer is right for you 😉 I could ramble on about that endlessly, quoting Einstein, mathematicians, etc… and more recently, Anna Breytenbach in my recent Patron Q&A with her. I hope other accidental, aspiring, and veteran healers can understand what I am saying here.
