Time:

January 2001

Context:

In July 2000, my dad was stricken by a series of strokes and was paralyzed from the neck down. From a comatose state in the hospital, where the doctors and family members indicated that he wouldn’t go back home, he staged a series of miraculous recoveries, and did go back home, to full time care with a 24×7 live-in nurse and other dedicated family members. He couldn’t move his limbs, and had lost everything from neck down including speech. In the 5-6 months that followed, his condition was deteriorating, spastic paralysis had set in as limbs curled up and caused him unbearable pain. Doctors couldn’t administer painkillers under the bedridden situation he was in. The situation was getting desperate and family members and friends started researching alternatives to alleviate his pain. My own research took me to this Japanese healing system called Reiki. From my initial research, it seemed like many people had reported incredible healings, and it seemed like it was worth a try.

I relayed my findings about Reiki to my family in Bangalore, India where my dad was being cared for. We were desperate for finding some help for my dad. I planned to travel back to India to be with my dad for a short visit, during which we were going to invite a well-known Reiki Master in Bangalore to our home to do some healing work for my dad. Arriving in Bangalore in early January 2001, I met Reiki Master, Dr. Susan Verghis, in our home. One thing led to another and I asked her if she would teach me this method of Reiki. She agreed, took off the next day from her work, and hosted me at her home for a full Reiki Level 1 training. After a lackluster training session that did not satisfy my rational mind, I arrived at home in Bangalore that evening. And this happened …

The Experience:

I sat at the dining table to relax and contemplate what had happened that day in my Reiki class. The chair was an open back chair with an arching steel frame for back support. When I sat down, I felt something wet and slithery underneath my butt. I panicked. Big time! I yelled. Arms flailing, I leaped out of the chair from the sitting position. The chair went flying backwards and crashed some distance away.

The sound of yelping brought me the awareness that I hadn’t sat on a snake, which is what I was freaking out about, but the wet snout and tongue of my brother’s new collie puppy dog, Zeus, who had stuck his face underneath my butt without my knowledge. Geez! That felt foolish!

As I calmed down, I felt a deep stinging sensation in my left hand. I glanced over to find a deep gash on the back of my left hand, where the skin had come off, ready to bleed. The dining table had a 100% glass top, and my stupid flailing had dragged my left arm underneath the table and over the edges of it and torn off this skin.

“Crap! Now I have to go wash the wound off and put some antiseptic cream and perhaps a bandage”, I thought to myself. And then I got this insight, this intuition from within, “Hey! You just learned this healing method today. Why don’t you use it? Maybe it will work!” Unquestioningly, I followed that insight.

It was getting dark, and I told my mom that I would step out into the balcony, close the door behind me, and would need to be left totally undisturbed for a while until I come back in. My mom agreed to keep the door closed and disturbances away. I stepped out and followed Susan’s instruction to start a healing session and placed my right palm over the injured area of the left palm. And I kept my attention on the sensation in that area, and in as close to a state of stillness as I could muster at that time, eyes closed. Sometime later, I opened my eyes. It was pitch-dark. And the mosquitoes were having a great feast on my delicious sweet blood!

I stepped into the home, into the light of the kitchen, and glanced over at my left hand, and was totally shocked to see no gash, no wounds, no signs whatsoever of the stinging hurt and peeling skin that I had seen just a few minutes before that. It was as if someone had hit the “Undo” button and reversed the wound.

“What the f&^%! Just what the heck happened here?” screamed my mind! I wasn’t delusional. I was injured. I saw it just few minutes before, and now it is gone! And all I did was what Susan told me to do.

My left brain insisted that this is ridiculous and that I shouldn’t make a fool of myself by talking about this to anyone. So I decided to simply carry on with the rest of the night, but knew that something amazing had just occurred. My wound was spontaneously healed. I made a deep commitment to myself, that I would practice the hands-on healing for 1 1/2 hours each day for 21 days, and practice a bit more daily thereafter. After all, if this kind of miracle can happen on day-1, what might happen with practice!

That first healing miracle on the same evening of my first Reiki level 1 class, triggered by Zeus the puppy collie, and the commitment I made to my practice are among the reasons why I’m here, sharing what I am on this blog about the wonderful journey to healing and Awakening and the wisdom that flowed on that path.

A more detailed version of this story was published on IHReiki.com, as part of a series of 5 articles: The Secret of Many Blessings, Part 1 of 5, The First Miracles.

See Also

Sundar Kadayam

My First Healing Experience