Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/1174218
belong to us or a client? Certainly, there are already a lot of psychological and intelligent sources of wisdom answering this question. I'm going to add an energetic perspective. THE ENERGY OF ATTRACTION Energy is information that moves, and everything is made of it. That statement applies to objects, bodies, thoughts, and feelings. There are two major types of energy, however: physical and subtle. Physical Energy Physical energy is tangible and measurable. As a massage therapist, you're mainly concerned with physical energy. Bottom line, your job involves relieving pain and tension through physical interactions. The ethics of attraction most frequently focuses on physical energy. Don't look, touch, or act. Period. As professionals, we know that attraction is a physical phenomenon. Depending on our life experiences, psychological profile, genetic programming, and other factors, our chemistry stirs around certain types of individuals. Setting rigorous behavioral strictures allows us to manage our responses, whether they be cues coming from inside ourselves or from a client. Subtle Energy Although we know we must uphold the concrete laws of decency, there is another bailiwick of energy we must contend with as well—subtle energy. As compared to physical energy, subtle energy is ineffable and immeasurable. Often called "psychic," "intuitive," and "spiritual" energy, it is comparable to quanta, the subatomic particles that defy logic. Nonlocal, subtle energy can't be put in a box. Subtle energy simultaneously links us to the past, parallel realities, and possible futures. Becoming aware of the subtle energy involved in attraction can assist with preventing or coping with situations that develop, but our subtle self holds its own set of reasons for attraction, including: • Past life connections. Many energetic experts, including myself, believe an individual's soul has experienced previous lifetimes. My clients frequently report instant magnetism or repulsion to an individual they don't know very well—or at all—only to later discover that the roots of the reaction lie in a relationship from a different lifetime. In other words, that inexplicable attraction might be grounded in the long-ago past. • Ancestral memories. A newly emerging discipline called "epigenetics" is showing that genes can store up to 14 generations of our ancestors' memories. 2 What does this mean for the "attraction syndrome?" An attraction toward another might stem from the love-stricken desires of an ancestor rather than one's own heart. • Energy programming. Our subtle energies are organized by our subtle energy anatomy. This complex set of structures consists of energy organs, channels, and fields that store the determinants of our attitudes, feelings, physical health, intuitive abilities, heart's wishes, and sexual desires. Few of us know what seductive programs lie latent within our own, or a client's, subtle anatomy. These desires can spring up without Ta k e 5 a n d t r y A B M P F i v e - M i n u t e M u s c l e s a t w w w. a b m p . c o m / f i v e - m i n u t e - m u s c l e s . 99 warning, overtaking and dominating the brain and normal sensibilities. • Others' energies. Although much of our energetic coding is specific to our own personality and soul, we can also absorb— and become governed by—energies and needs that aren't our own. I believe this is a common problem in the attraction department. For instance, imagine that you have been working with a client and have always felt sexually neutral toward them. Out of the blue, you feel attracted. The energetic field is quite spongy, which means that this sudden allure could actually belong to your client, and you're simply picking up on it. • A sense of destiny. More frequently than I can recount, clients assure me that they can't—and shouldn't have to—control their yearnings because the object of their affection is a "soul mate" or "twin flame." I've nothing against kismet connections under the right circumstances, except that they don't belong in an office. Besides that, they often don't work out. Think of two souls meeting in heaven before birth and agreeing that they will find and marry each other. Then these souls are born—and life takes over, in its special and twisty-turning ways. You can imagine how these partnerships could be problematic. What makes sense in the heavens doesn't usually work on earth. Defined by an overwhelming passion, these soul bonds are certainly enflaming, but too much so. Basically, they burn out. • Kundalini awakening. "Kundalini" is a Hindu term describing a flammable life energy that is said to rise from the genitals and up the spine. Once this fire reaches the pineal gland, enlightenment follows. At one level, kundalini is a basic electrical energy, necessary for our neurological functioning. From an esoteric point of view, kundalini activates our troublesome How exactly can we deal with the feelings of attraction, whether they belong to us or a client?