Wednesday, April 24, 2013

#522: Barbara Brennan


Barbara Ann Brennan is an author and intuitive healer who works in the field of “energy healing”. According to the Watkins Review she was the 94th most spiritually influential person in the world in 2011. Brennan has pretty much adopted every conceivable form of imaginary woo, from Wilhelm Reich’s Orgone energy to chakras and astral healing, as well as most other typical crank baggage, such as promoting herself as a doctor of philosophy (Greenwich University) and doctor of theology (C. Norman Shealy’s Holos University), both from unaccredited diploma mills.

Brennan’s first book, Hands of Light: A Guide to Healing Through the Human Energy Field, is still viewed as a classic among the reality impaired. In writing it Brennan claimed to “receive intuitive information about her clients during sessions, and to see repetitive patterns in the energy fields of her clients indicating common roots underlying their difficulties”, and the whole thing is a mess of auras, “energy fields” that interact with each other, and promotion of “the seven-layermodel of the energy field, each layer being structured of differing frequencies and kinds of energy and performing different functions.” The chakras are supposedly transformers that receive and process universal energy. It is hard to believe that Brennan actually believes any of the bullshit she’s spewing.

According to Wikipedia Brennan “is best known for taking a methodical, scientific approach to energy healing,” but – suffice to say – it is doubtful that anyone taking Brennan seriously has the faintest clue about what a scientific approach implies (hint: “let anecdotal evidence take you where you want to go” is not a scientific approach).

As mentioned Brennan has developed “energy healing techniques” (she calls them “full spectrum healing”) to work on the seven layers of the human energy field or auras, including what she calls “spiritual surgery” applied to the “fifth level” using the power of a spirit surgeon. It really is all about energy, and neither Brennan nor her adherents understand what energy actually is (hint: energy is not a buzzing, glowing, luminescent. magical cloud surrounding objects that one can tap into by the right means – even if focusing one’s will were “the right means”).

In 1982, she established the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, designed to train professional healers in Florida, which has come to be known as one of the epitomes of New Age healing. It is licensed by the State of Florida Commission for Independent Education (i.e., it is unaccredited) and listed here. She herself has moved to Austria to open more branches of the school (there are branches in Austria, Germany, and Japan).

Brennan has a listing in Quackwatch’s helpful Dictionary of Metaphysical Healthcare, Alternative Medicine, Paranormal Healing, and Related Methods.

Diagnosis: The epitome of New Age healing, few people do woo more thoroughly than Barbara Brennan. She’s had a lot of influence and must be considered a dangerous enemy of reason and reality.

20 comments:

  1. Are you for real? Obviously you have ZERO depth or any concept of how energy works. Go to Peru and drink some Ayahuasca and I guarantee you will change your mind.

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    1. Ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic drug. Hallucinations are NOT REAL

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  2. For someone who uses just initials for a name and has a completely blank profile you must be terribly afraid of the truth in spiritual work that's being done by these spiritual teachers. To go to all this trouble to write such extensive bio's on each is proof of this fear!

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  3. Hah. As if you have really looked into it.

    Guess the "scientific method" is about reading pathetic Quackwatch and, uh, maybe nothing else?

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  4. Hah. As if you really looked into it.

    I guess in your case being "scientific" means, uh, reading pathetic Quackwatch, and then, hmm, not much else.

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  5. She comes from a background as an physicist who work for NASA before she decided to work with energy healing. This is a rather a significant scientific background.

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  6. Would love to hear from a graduate of the school and how their healing practice is thriving - would also love to hear from a successful practitioners' clients as to their experience in receiving such energy healing - placebo effect aside !

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    1. I worked with a few Barbara Brennan trained healers and while I am not sure I like all of the methods it's not for lack of effectiveness. In fact some were in a way too effective and created some serious stress in my life.

      I was not all that healthy a while back and there were some not so healthy trends in my life. While I did many things to get healthier, I can say for sure that, wow, that Barbara Brennan stuff is powerful. Now I am ridiculously healthy.

      I'll add this too. If you are going work with an energy healer, you better know what you are getting into. You need to be mentally prepared, and have some understanding of how these things work and how things could unfold. I didn't at first and went through some wild experiences for which I was not really prepared. Fortunately I had the help of someone who could explain some of it to me. Even so that was some wild stuff, I can tell you, pain, vomiting, weeping, among other things. Holy smokes.

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  7. idk what happened to my previous post, google sign-in must have erased it. to be quick:
    i go to the school, i have experienced perception of "energy" through my training, and although there is some "airy-fairyness", the teachers exhibit clear perception of information not gathered by the 5 senses regularly, and more than that the main benefit of the school is personal growth and increased presence moment to moment, which then opens the doors to other strange experiences.

    and not every graduate opens a practice, i know a graduate that moved on to work as an crime investigation intuitive, and assist in finding missing people and bodies. she works now, in new mexico or arizona i forget

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  8. It never ceases to amaze me how closed minded and ignorant people can be about things they know nothing about or never have experienced firsthand. It will suffice to say that it's never too late to learn and grow and experience oneself in the great mystery that awaits us. Be open to a changed mind and there you will find freedom.

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  9. I hope Master Zebulon opens his mind to not insulting others

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  10. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  11. I slipped on the steps of the train station on the way to visit my wife at the Barbara Brennan school,I smashed my knee on the corner of a step and was in pain for the 3hr train ride.My knee looked like a grapefruit when I arrived.I am not one who easily gives in to what I don't understand,that being said several healers spent time on the injury the next day there was significant improvement the day after was almost completely normal. The proof is in the pudding.

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    1. "I am not one who easily gives in to what I don't understand," you say, and then promptly contradicts that claim. (And what were you doing visiting the Barbara Brennan school in the first place if you are not?)

      Interesting that you should mention a knee injury. I remember hurting my own knee myself when I was out running last year. It was pretty ridiculously swollen. I did nothing at all with it, and two days later it was completely fine. Funny that.

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  12. Some people like to walk through life with blinkers on and ignore the possibility that there is more to life than what can be scientifically measured by today's tools. I believe there are plenty of very important things going on in our lives that we can't percieve without training and focus. It is possible that future scientific instruments will be able to detect some of these things. The attitude of this blog reminds me of the people who named the disease "malaria" because they thought bad air caused it, and had no idea of how parasites and mosquitoes were involved.

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  13. The author(s)of this blog like to go through life with blinkers on. There are always things going on in life that aren't detectable by current scientific equipment. I have seen plenty of evidence that energy that I can't see is quite real and impacts us at all levels. With some training and meditation, I can sometimes become aware of its action. I feel it is stupid to take what our senses and equipment can detect and say that's all there is. Remember, people used to call the disease "malaria", because they thought bad (mal) air caused it. They couldn't see the parasites!

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  14. A person who believes life exists without a spiritual energy source is the actual lunatic. Brennan's work and many other styles and traditions of energy healing are very effective, with successful use of energy based methods existing for thousands of years. These healing methods have been studied empirically and documented as effective using scientific methods. There are thousands of studies of acupuncture and acupressure, for example, that confirm its benefits. Healing hands methods are studied more widely in the scientific context outside the USA since American medicine is so thoroughly corrupted by efforts to suppress whatever might compete with the pharmaceutical business interests.

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  15. America is the Home and breeding ground” of “pastors” ( “I can feel the spirit with us tonight!, can you feel it people!?” What you Gonna say; “nope” ? “ and america is also the home of “get rich quick” & “how to influence people and gain Friends”. The Only thing you have to do is “believe” and invest. And that is why all the people addicted to alcohol, chrystal meth, starsigns, alt right, trump, tv and/Or spirituality, have two words in common; Coping Strategy. In Which other industry ( than the guru panhandling ) exept for pyramid or ponzy schemes, is iT the norm, that a “pupil” can become a “mentor”, for a couple of thousand...
    The only “secret” is that you Will never know how much “enlightenment” is going to cost you. At least with the Company called Scientology, you know. A fool and his money are easily parted. What if, all these “healers” had to work the streets ( bums, hobo’s, pro’s etc ) for 2 years after “graduating, be-fore they could set up shop? Wonder how Many enlightened “altruists” would remain standing...

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  16. For almost twenty years, she lived away from the eyes of the world because she wanted to hide that her health was rapidly declining. Obviously, the reason for her death is also hidden. Does anyone know what she was suffering from?

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