The following post is an article written by a woman who wishes to remain anonymous. Her story, supported by LDS doctrine, on the subject of energy healing, is something I thought was worth sharing here on To Lift and Inspire.

I hope her personal story and example of searching will help you in your own quest to understand healing, the Priesthood, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and to understand some of what The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has to say about some alternative modes of healing. I would encourage anyone who is seeking for further understanding on this issue, if after reading this article, to please counsel with their priesthood leaders. The purpose of this article is to share truth, as understood by this person, with regards to how Priesthood and healing are to be used within the bounds the Lord has set, and to provide some insights to those who are searching for answers and explanations that have not been satisfactory in their search to understand energy healing practices. Additional resources are cited at the end of this post.

This article is not meant to undermine or diminish the care and concern that individuals have for each other and efforts that have been made to help in trials. We should always strive to lift each other’s burdens. However, this article is meant to point us in a direction to use our spiritual gifts, personal revelation and our love and concern for others in a direction that points toward our Savior and remains within the laws, order, humility, and proper channels He has prescribed through His Holy Priesthood.  

She writes: 

I’ve always considered myself to be an open person. Open to new ideas and new ways. I believe in many alternative ways of healing. But I am extremely alarmed by the exposure I have had to “Christ-centered Healing.” After many months of research and prayer, I have come to the knowledge that it is not for LDS members. I feel a burning need to warn people about the incredibly deceptive teachings of the “new age” or the “new spiritualism” and more specifically “Christ-centered” healing.

I am a suburban mom, a returned missionary, and I currently teach the gospel doctrine class. I have always been taught to seek learning and knowledge. (D&C 109:7) I am always looking to improve in my life.

I realize that Satan wants to deceive even the very elect, and will do that by any means possible. What I did not realize, is that he would do that through something that seems so wonderful and spiritual.

“Satan has shown himself to be an accomplished strategist and a skillful imitator; the most deplorable of his victories are due to his simulation of good, whereby the undiscerning have been led captive. Let no one be deluded with the thought that any act, the immediate result of which appears to be benign, is necessarily productive of permanent good. It may serve the dark purposes of Satan to play upon the human sense of goodness, even to the extent of healing the body and apparently of thwarting death.” (“We Believe: Doctrines and Principles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints“, Elder James E. Talmage)

Even healing the body!

How I Was Taught Energy Healing

I was introduced to energy healing concepts while attending a small study group. Each week, more and more information was given, until I was curious and wanted to know more. The friend who introduced the alternative healing insisted that I attend a $400 seminar. Looking back I find it strange that she wouldn’t just teach us herself. In the seminars that I attended, the teachers are wonderful LDS active woman who serve diligently in their Wards. Many of the women had husbands who served in church callings as Bishops, High Councilman and Stake Presidents. I was convinced this was the path that Heavenly Father wanted me to take. At the seminars, I thought I was feeling The Holy Ghost. I now recognize that I was feeling the influence of false spirits.

The Prophet Joseph Smith said, “Nothing is a greater injury to the children of men than to be under the influence of a false spirit when they think they have the Spirit of God.”

One thing that was a “red flag” for me was that during my sessions with energy healing the feelings were strong and intense. In contrast, when my husband proposed to me, it was a quiet assurance that it was right. No rushing wind, or bolts of lightening. A sweet assurance that it was right. It was different, and much more subdued. How could that be? I had less of a spiritual manifestation with the most important decision I was making in my life, than I was having in an energy healing session?

Let me explain what I was taught:

I was taught that your spirit knows perfectly what you need to make it whole and healthy. And that you can tap into the body’s energy to find answers for yourself or for others. Muscle testing was taught as the way you get those answers. For a “yes” answer your fingers will release, and for a “no” the fingers will not release. I found this works amazingly well. If you get really good, like the teachers, you just know the answers in your cranial chakra or feel them through your throat chakras.

1. You begin a session by centering yourself with the Savior, Heavenly Father and the Holy Ghost. Then you ask your client if there are any problems they would like you to address or heal? Then you ask questions through muscle testing (this can be done for yourself). The question is asked if the problem stems from emotional, physical, spiritual or other?

2. Through muscle testing you determine the answer. Then you determine the best way to clear or heal that person. Most often it is through emotions that are trapped in your body, that manifest a problem, physically, spiritually or emotionally.

3. Then you proceed to clear the emotions that are trapped. There are many ways a person can clear an emotion. Some ways to clear emotions are: a water grid, a power ball, a scripture, tapping, numbers, crystals, frequencies, essential oils, a script, swirling chakras, And many more…

During these seminars, lots of quotes are given from General Authorities that “validate” their practices. Prayer begins and ends each session. Scriptures are quoted and teachings of the gospel are mixed in. I left feeling good. But I also had a few red flags.

I was invited to attend another $400 seminar. This was going to include a Native American sweat lodge ceremony and a walking on fire event. Something just didn’t sit right. I began to ask Heavenly Father in prayer, was all of this necessary? When I questioned the activities, I was told that it would bring me closer to God. The part I find concerning is that those involved with energy healing have such a strong conviction that this is from God.

Then I had a “light bulb” moment. The person who introduced me to energy healing announced to me that she was going to start taking clients and charge for healing sessions. I began to wonder, was I a friend or a client? If I went over to visit as a friend, would she charge me? Then came the final blow, this friend claimed she was supported by our Stake leaders, and it was ok to charge money.

Isn’t this Priestcraft, I wondered?

“…ministers claim but do not possess the priesthood; when they set themselves up as lights to their congregations, but do not preach the pure and full gospel, when their interest is in gaining personal popularity and financial gain, rather than in caring for the poor and ministering to the wants and needs of their fellow man—they are engaged, in a greater or lesser degree, in the practice of priestcrafts.” (Elder Bruce R. McConkie)

It took me several months of praying and researching before I allowed the Spirit to teach me that this practice was not of God. Let me explain my objections to the process:

Problems With Muscle Testing and Clearing Emotions

Red Flag #1:

I was taught in the seminar to begin each healing session with a prayer and “centering” yourself with Christ. Red flag: I was paying money, and I was inviting the Savior to take part in a healing session.

When you tell someone you are going to heal them, you are setting yourself up as a light unto that person. The Priesthood is by passed altogether. Energy healing can be done without the Priesthood. During one of the seminars, the question was asked, “how does the Priesthood work with this?” The teacher became agitated and said the Priesthood has nothing to do with this. No truer words were spoken at that seminar! God’s power on earth is the definition of Priesthood.

“We can accept nothing as authoritative but that which comes directly through the appointed channel, the constituted organizations of the Priesthood, which is the channel that God has appointed through which to make known His mind and will to the world. … And the moment that individuals look to any other source, that moment they throw themselves open to the seductive influences of Satan, and render themselves liable to become servants of the devil; they lose sight of the true order through which the blessings of the Priesthood are to be enjoyed; they step outside of the pale of the kingdom of God, and are on dangerous ground. Whenever you see a man rise up claiming to have received direct revelation from the Lord to the Church, independent of the order and channel of the Priesthood, you may set him down as an imposter” (President Joseph F. Smith)

Elder Dallin H. Oaks explains:

“Some members or former members of our church fail to recognize the importance of the priesthood line. They underestimate the importance of the Church and its leaders and its programs. Relying entirely on the personal line, they go their own way, purporting to define doctrine and to direct competing organizations contrary to the teachings of prophet-leaders… When visions, dreams, tongues, prophecy, impressions or any extraordinary gift or inspiration convey something out of harmony with the accepted revelations of the Church or contrary to the decisions of its constituted authorities, Latter-day Saints may know that it is not of God, no matter how plausible it may appear.” (Elder Dallin H. Oaks, “Two Lines of Communication”).

Red Flag #2:

Muscle testing gives you yes and no answers, much like an Ouija board. You ask questions, and your hand moves around the board to different letters spelling out an answer. What power is moving your hands around that board? What power is used while muscle testing? I would argue it is the same. Just because you pray for help in using muscle testing, does not make it from God.

George J. Goodheart invented applied kinesiology or muscle testing in 1964. He combined elements of psychic philosophy, Chinese Taoism, and ancient Eastern practices with D.D. Palmer’s chiropractic theory. He combined the concept of ‘innate intelligence’ with the Eastern religious concept of energy, chi’s, and the concept that muscles can indicate the condition of body organs via the chi’s meridians.

Muscle testing is a philosophy of man. And “Christ Centered “ healing is “a philosophy of man mingled with scripture.”

How do you know if the answers are coming from the Spirit, or from a “familiar spirit?” The answer is: You don’t always know. When the Priesthood line of authority is used, you know that you are invoking the powers of God, and not the adversary.

Muscle testing is not taught in the Church. If this is such a special gift from God, why aren’t all members taught to use this method?

Energy healers believe that you can access the energy of the universe. But Elder Holland said this:

“There is no neutral ground in the Universe, every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan.” (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, “Sanctify Yourselves”)

NO neutral energy from which we can tap into. It is either from God or it is from Satan. If it is from God, then it will be done with His power and His authority. Our God is a God of order.

Why is muscle testing necessary when we have the ability to receive answers to direct our lives through personal prayer?

Sincere prayer is more powerful than any form of energy healing! Prayer is the communication between you and Heavenly Father through the Holy Ghost. There is no need to test your muscles. It is important and vital that you pray often, and that you learn how to get answers through the Holy Ghost. This takes effort, patience and practice.

Muscle testing gives you immediate answers. Muscle testing eliminates the process and the lessons that could have been learned through that process.

Energy healers believe the process is quick and easy. But I have come to know that the greatest lessons in our lives come “line upon line, precept upon precept.” And it is not always easy.

“In the school of mortality, the tutor is often pain and tribulation, but the lessons are meant to refine and bless us and strengthen us…” (Elder Robert D. Hales, “Faith Through Tribulation Brings Peace and Joy”)

Red Flag #3:

Clearing emotions. Big red flag! One way of clearing emotions is called the water grid method. This method uses imagination of pulling water up from the toes of the person all the way up to the head until you feel the emotion has been washed away. Another way of clearing involves an imaginary ball of energy that you imagine is in your hand. Then you push that energy ball into the person’s body, which then clears the emotion. Other ways of clearing involve chanting numbers saying “12 times infinity”. And that somehow magically clears emotions from some unknown universal equation.

Then there is a script that can be recited. Here is a portion of that script: Does this trouble you?

“In the name of Jesus Christ…Spirit, Super-conscious, Subconscious, Conscious, Higher Self, Heart, Mind, Will Nervous System-Brain, Original intelligence, RNA, DNA, and every genetic anomaly out of alignment with my pattern of perfection…. Come forward through all generations of time & eternity healing every event…It is done!… Thank you all for coming to my aid & working together to help me…”(Karol Truman “Feelings Buried Alive Never Die”)

With that script, you are invoking the name of Jesus Christ to heal you. And then you are charged money for that healing.

Then there are the crystals, wands, Chakras, essential oils. All of which are suppose to clear negative emotions.

When I prayed and asked for clarity, the answer came over and over again that, none of this was necessary! The Lord’s way is simple and energy healing is complicated, and most of the time does not make sense. The true process and the true doctrines are changed to fit this process.

“We as members of the Church tend to emphasize marvelous and dramatic spiritual manifestations so much that we may fail to appreciate and may even overlook the customary pattern by which the Holy Ghost accomplishes His work. The very “simpleness of the way” (1 Nephi 17:41) of receiving small and incremental spiritual impressions that over time and in totality constitute a desired answer or the direction we need may cause us to look “beyond the mark.” (Jacob 4:14) (Elder David A. Bednar “The Spirit Of Revelation”)

What are The Lord’s Ways of Healing?

Elder Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught that:

Our gratitude for the Resurrection can affect how we perceive the negative experiences of life: “The gift of immortality to all mankind through the reality of the Resurrection is so powerful a promise that our rejoicing in these great and generous gifts should drown out any sorrow, assuage any grief, conquer any mood, dissolve any despair, and tame any tragedy” (“All Hell Is Moved” Brigham Young University devotional, Nov. 8, 1977)

There is healing power in gratitude! There is power in positive affirmations.

“The adversary does have power to hedge up the way…. he cannot conquer if we will it otherwise.” (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, “Remember How You Felt“)

We are cleansed with water at baptism. And we can become cleansed each week as we partake of the sacrament. No need for an imaginary water grid. Or an imaginary ball of energy. We have the power of the Atonement!

There is power in the Book of Mormon if we are willing to put the time and energy into daily scripture study.

Reciting a script may sound good, but true clearing of emotions that have been trapped for generations, can all be erased in the selfless service given in our temples. We are a covenant making people.

We should be asking ourselves, are we using and applying the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives? Is our faith strong enough to rely on the Lord and not the arm of the flesh?

Energy Healing Is Not Of God

I have come to know that no matter how you “sugar coat” the message or the method, no matter how awesome the person performing the service, energy healing is not of God.

The Great Apostasy was brought about by two things. 1) There was persecution from outside the church; and 2) There was corruption within the church. When well -intentioned members began to find “new ways” of thinking and “new ways” of applying gospel principles. Or “new ways” of healing through Christ, the true doctrines of the gospel became corrupt bit by bit.

In the last days we will not have another great apostasy. But many of the saints will apostatize from the Church. This is why I am sharing my experience in hopes that it will help someone avoid the pitfalls of personal apostasy.

“Satan is the great deceiver and the father of lies, but he will also tell the truth when it suits his purposes. Satan’s most effective lies are half-truths or lies accompanied by truth. A lie is most effective when it can travel incognito in good company or when it can be so intermarried with the truth that we cannot determine its lineage. Satan can use truth to promote his purposes. Truth can be used unrighteously. Severed from their context, true facts can convey an erroneous impression.” (Elder Dallin H. Oaks “Gospel Teachings About Lying”)

Brother Millet a BYU professor tells this story:

“One Saturday morning, Brother Millet said, he received a call from Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve. Elder Maxwell was concerned about a book that had received a lot of attention and had gained somewhat of a cult following. He asked Brother Millet if he knew about it and what he thought about it. Brother Millet said, “Elder Maxwell, frankly, it has a lot of doctrinal problems. Elder Maxwell said, “It never ceases to amaze me how gullible the Latter-day Saints can be. Our lack of doctrinal sophistication makes us an easy prey for such fads.” Brother Millet then explained that Latter-day Saints ought to pour over the scriptures constantly to learn the doctrines, lest they be deceived.” (“Five Ways to Detect and Avoid Doctrinal Deception”)

Stay within the mainstream of the Church. Watch out for new interpretations of scripture or people claiming that following something outside the mainstream of the Church brings deeper spirituality. It does not.

“People run from one new idea to the next, hoping to find something that will answer the burning questions of their souls. They attend seminars and buy books, CDs, and other products. They get caught up in the excitement of looking for something new. But inevitably, the flame of each new theory fades, only to be replaced by another “new and improved” solution that promises to do what the others before could not. ..It’s not that these worldly options don’t contain elements of truth— many of them do. Nevertheless, they all fall short of the lasting change we seek in our lives. After the excitement wears off, the hollowness remains as we look for the next new idea to unlock the secrets of happiness.” (President Dieter F. Uchtdorf “The Way of The Disciple”)

I was told that if I became involved with energy healing, my spirituality would increase. I would discover spiritual gifts and learn the mysteries of God. Energy healing does not do any of this. It is through, my efforts, my study, my diligence, my personal prayers, that the Holy Ghost can work through me. This is where I find the gifts that God has for me. And this is where true healing takes place.

The Church Handbook cautions members against groups, organizations and programs that purport to increase spirituality…

“Church members are also warned that some of these groups advocate concepts and use methods that can be harmful. In addition, many such groups charge exorbitant fees and encourage long-term commitments. Some intermingle worldly concepts with gospel principles in ways that can undermine spirituality and faith… These groups tend to promise quick solutions to problems that normally require time and personal effort to resolve. Although participants may experience temporary emotional relief or exhilaration, old problems often return, leading to added disappointment and despair.” (Handbook 2 21.3.9)

Conclusion

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to accept what is true.” (Soren Kierkegaard)

My hope and desire is to help anyone who seeks after truth, to find it.

– Anonymous

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Additional Resources that may help you in your study of healing: 

Looking Beyond The Mark by Quentin L. Cook

Avoid Distractions by Focusing on Christ

The Keys and Authority of the Priesthood by Dallin H. Oaks

Healing the Sick by Dallin H. Oaks

Jacob 4:14 

Other related posts: 

When You Have The Spirit vs. When You Don’t Have The Spirit

Prayers, Miracles, The Lord’s Timing and Benson

October 2017 General Conference
From “The Trek Continues” by Elder M. Russell Ballard: 

“In some places, too many of our people are looking beyond the mark and seeking secret knowledge in expensive and questionable practices to provide healing and support.

An official Church statement, issued one year ago, states: “We urge Church members to be cautious about participating in any group that promises—in exchange for money—miraculous healings or that claims to have special methods for accessing healing power outside of properly ordained priesthood holders.”

The Church Handbook counsels: “Members should not use medical or health practices that are ethically or legally questionable. Local leaders should advise members who have health problems to consult with competent professional practitioners who are licensed in the countries where they practice.”

Brothers and sisters, be wise and aware that such practices may be emotionally appealing but may ultimately prove to be spiritually and physically harmful.

 

UPDATE: DECEMBER, 2020 – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints General Handbook – s. 38.7.8: 

“Church members are discouraged from seeking miraculous or supernatural healing from an individual or group that claims to have special methods for accessing healing power outside of prayer and properly performed priesthood blessings. These practices are often referred to as “energy healing.” Other names are also used. Such promises for healing are often given in exchange for money.“