#2236: Gene Shafer

Gene Shafer is a Buddhist and a massage therapist with “an extensive background in and understanding of holistic healing”. His specialty is something called Spiritually Guided Surgery, which is supposed to be an alternative kind of surgery without all the blood and sharp scalpels. How does it work? Well, Shafer’s answer to that question isn’t really an answer, but here we go: “Spiritually Guided Surgery is a holistic form of healing that works on bringing the body into balance,” whatever that might mean (Shafer doesn’t say much about what it means or what you should be looking for to determine whether a body is “in balance”), and is “best be summed up as: Healing from Spirit, through Spirit, to Spirit.” That claim requires an idiosyncratic interpretation of “best”, but OK: “Unlike other modalities of healing, where energy is generally transferred through the practitioner to the client, Spiritually Guided Surgery involves surgery in the 5th auric level, which is commonly called the Etheric Template. The Etheric Template then becomes the Etheric Aura, which in turn becomes the physical body.” Saying that X involvesY isn’t explaining what X is, but the purported explanation has greater problems than merely failing to really explain anything. Perhaps we are just struggling to tell the auric levels apart?

Apparently Shafer began his healing work after reading the book “Jin Shin Do The Acupressure Way to Health” and quickly ascended to becoming a Reiki practitioner at level two and ultimately a Reiki Master. In 1989 he also apparently became a Certified Massage Therapist in the USA. Who wouldn’t want a massage therapist who has read a self-help book on woo perform surgery on you (even if it’s on your aura)? Well, if you have concerns, Shafer can reassure you he doesn’t work alone, but that the spirits will help him out: The “Spirit entities” are “beings that are very interested in helping the human race at this time. Many are seeking to be able to help their Host humans as well as other humans through the Spiritually Guided Surgery Practitioner.” You can learn more about “who the Spirit Surgeons are” by paying for a “Spiritually Guided Surgery Workshop,” but he reveals some details to the rest of us for free: “The Spirit Surgeons appear to me as people.” (That, if true, should not exactly be trust-inducing.) “They work at the 5th level of the aura which is about 450 millimeters from your body. It is called the Etheric Template. A template is used to ‘help shape something accurately’ (Collins Concise Dictionary). The Surgeons create the template of what your body can become in order for you to be in balance. The Template then becomes the Etheric Aura. The Etheric Aura is that which is closest to your body. Which then becomes you. With the Spiritual Surgeons/Healers they work on your entire body.” He admits that he doesn’t completely understand what they are doing, however, but knows that “[t]he Spiritually Guided Surgeons themselves are continually learning how to improve their techniques.” And they can do almost anything: “The Spirit Surgeons can perform actual operations as would normally be performed in a hospital. With Spirit Surgeons doing the surgery there is: No Pain, No blood loss, No recovery time, most often instant results,” and they do so by “helping to bring organs, bones, joints to equilibrium. For instance a person with any of the following ailments, Thyroid problems, Cancers, Arthritis Aching joints, Migraines, low back pain, Knee pain can all get some to total relief.”

Also, if it doesn’t work, it is really because you didn’t try hard enough in the right way (as defined by Shafer based on whether the treatment worked or not).

Diagnosis: If you fall for this, there was probably little that exposure to critical thinking could have done for you in the first place. Probably harmless.

Hat-tip: Respectful Insolence, The second sight