Strange but True

by a skeptic from Ireland,
Eoin Montgomery

I'm very pleased to say that I attended Barbara McGregor's Rei-ki I seminar October 22-24 1999 in London. Needless to say I've been meaning to write about some very interesting results, which I'm sure you too will find interesting, not to mention dramatic.

My mother had completed Rei-ki I and Rei-ki II by February of 1999. The poor deluded woman believed in energy channelling. Of course, I knew better. Better, that was, until June 1999, when I broke the metacarpal-philangial ligament in my right thumb. The m.c.p injury is considered the worst small-scale injury a person can do to themselves. It has the potential to cripple the dominant hand. It requires emergency surgery, involves a generous quantity of pain and a three-month side-order physiotherapy to follow.

Suddenly - at my request - my mother finds herself doing rei-ki on the injury every night for a month. It was suggested on a number of occasions that I should take the course myself, an idea that had already crossed my mind - if it worked, of course.

I completed physiotherapy in three-quarters of the normal time. Also, in defiance of medical expectations, I got 100% motion back in my thumb. The m.c.p. injury typically deprives the erstwhile sufferer of the ability to do the thumb-tuck, a motion which involves tucking the thumb tightly into the palm. Such was not my fate and I was pretty happy about it. The label of 'crackpot' that I had stuck on my mother was perhaps a little harsh, on second thoughts. The bottom line being that I ended up - better judgment perfectly intact - taking the Rei-ki I course.

A brief interlude here to let me explain some of my (other) circumstances. Circumstances, by the way, that never occurred to me at the time of taking the course: In this day and age being born 11 weeks premature is really no big deal. However, it was a big deal in 1973 when I made an accelerated entry into the world. I always tell people that I was very young when I was born. In my case, this proves to be more than usual. There are at least a thousand occasions on which I would have changed it, given the option.

My left knee was out of alignment with the rest of my leg, end result being that I couldn't walk on it without putting my toe down before my heel. Not a desirable situation, I'm told that it looked 'clumsy', or shall we say 'ungainly'. That's the polite version. It was commented on more times that I care to remember, and I've been cursed with an extremely good memory. Cut short, if you can imagine any type of insulting comment made about it then I can tell you I heard them all and then some.

So as I'm growing up it becomes like a low-grade hobby of mine to seek the help of different experts for their 'expert' opinion. The world is a densely populated place after all; someone must have something nice to tell me.

Wrong!

Name them all, I saw them. Doctors, physiotherapists, surgeons. I would have talked to a snake charmer, if it had looked hopeful and they had been in regular practice in Northern Ireland. Needless to say I went to see many different people and the diagnosis was always, always different. 'You're flat-footed on one side, kid' 'There's a tendon out of place at the back of your heel'', 'Your knee's out of place due to tendon damage'. Again you name it, I heard it. All I knew was that my knee sat wrong, and I had a hip that clicked when I sat too long in one position.

However I was stuck in a situation which was bad, but not bad enough for anyone to take action about: nothing invasive for fear of doing worse damage, nothing easy, resulting in no progress. Last piece of advice given was that I should do physio exercises every hour of the day that I was awake, i.e. 16 times a day for a year, and hope for some progress. 'I have to work, and I study part time' I said. 'Your choice' I was told.

The recommendation was not carried out for long. The end result was always the same 'Kid, you've got a functional leg there; not pretty, but you can walk on it, so shut your yap, many people aren't so lucky. Go out and live a productive life and you won't have time for it to bother you.' End of story. There wasn't even a witch doctor or medicine man to consult, to break the tedium.

So, in the name of my newly functioning thumb and with some vague ideas about helping people out, I do Rei-ki I. Admittedly, I'm surrounded by a bunch of lunatics, however they're a friendly and harmless bunch and the anatomy lesson I get is interesting. I also hear stories of miracles with explanations. Kids healed of leukaemia against the odds, people healed of cancer. It doesn't really matter; miracles happen to other people in far away places. Anyway, I'll never have to suffer from petty injuries like paper cuts or small burns again. Good deal. 'Band-Aid' rei-ki, sounds just great to me. That's why I'm here. No doubt about that one.

An enjoyable and interesting three days. I have a sensitive tooth. The nerve needs treatment by a dentist. I don't want to, firstly it means pain, but secondly and more importantly, I can't afford the money to get the job done. I put my hand on it for ten minutes. No more pain. A loss to the dentistry profession: score one Mr Montgomery.

Monday at noon after the course I was in Virgin Mega-Stores in the Tottenham Court Road, waiting to meet a friend who works in London. I hadn't seen him in six months so we had plenty to talk about. Some things you don't forget about quickly and what happened next is one of those events: Without warning my body lit up like a Christmas Tree. I'm on fire. High Grade. Long Burning. Every pore in my body from the top of my head to the tips of my toes pumps sweat. In my personal universe of heat, I've re-discovered fire and Prometheus wasn't consulted this time.

People surround me and there's music blaring over the in-store speakers but I can't hear a thing. There is silence and there is heat. So much heat that there's obviously no room in the world for anything else. I feel a hand on my shoulder; my friend has arrived. His lips move but I can't hear him. I can lip-read him saying 'You look hot!' I wipe a sheet of sweat from my forehead, which is immediately replaced with another one of equal ferocity. I pulled off my jacket and shirt within about three seconds and put them in my bag. I'm wearing a t-shirt, I don't know how the impromptu striptease went down with the people all around me, but also I didn't care: I put my palm up to my friend, two inches from his cheek; he cursed and later told me that I had roasted him by proxy.

My friend had to conduct a one-sided conversation for a few minutes, while my hearing came back and the temperature, mercifully, dropped a few degrees. So I was still decidedly warm, but it was more bearable. We went to Hamley's toyshop and I remember things I saw, but not much of what I heard for the most part of the hour we were there. I went into Borders, a large bookshop, and found a place where no-one was looking at books and collapsed into a heat-induced heap.

After that, I felt well enough to go into a pub, where I drank much beer -quickly. These are not the actions of someone seeking pleasure; rather the actions of a person seeking something cool. In fact I drank so quickly I felt nauseated. I'm no masochist, but it was quite a pleasant sensation after the way my morning had gone. More relaxed and slightly cooler, something occurred to me: 'I wonder if what happened is that insane thing that Barbara was talking about yesterday'; the 'insane thing' being a healing crisis. My heat addled brain hadn't been able to deal with anything as complex as thinking prior to that point: 4pm.

Heathrow airport wasn't exactly a barrel of laughs from then until 8pm, when I took my flight home but the heat was nowhere as extreme as it had been. By 10.30pm when I arrived home, the heat had subsided apart from palms. Later it occurred to me (for the very first time) in a conversation with my mother, that perhaps I could Rei-ki my knee to get it back into alignment. It might take a year but it would be worth it in the end, if it worked. So I lay down (read collapsed) on the sofa and decided to Re-ki the creases of my legs, for want of anything better to do. I did it for an hour simply because I didn't have the energy to get up.

I went to the fridge, and bent over the door looking for a piece of cheese, which was not forthcoming. I straightened up and heard a massive 'crack' from inside my left hip; no pain but my brother heard it across the room. My old friend the heat attack returned. I went to bed not with any hope of going to sleep, just to lie down for the night. I counted stars out my window until the dawn. Then I listened to the birds sing, until they finished. Just as everyone was starting to get up in the morning, in boredom and exhaustion, I fell asleep. I slept well.

Here's the punchline, and I can't even explain it properly. I woke up and felt just fine. Better in fact than I can remember feeling since whenever you care to name. However, the sensation was strange.

I had fallen asleep in one body. The body I woke up in did not belong to me. No lie, no exaggerations. It wasn't mine. It weighed differently and the centre of balance was all wrong. I sat stunned for a long time. It's a fairly singular feeling, let me tell you.

I looked down at my knee, which looked wrong. It looked 'wrong' because, without the use of pressure, it was sitting, in the right place, perfectly. So I wiggled my toes for fun. I could do that before of course, but it took a bit of effort. My toes wiggled and did what they felt like,without my even thinking about it. Pretty amazing stuff, that toe-wiggling. I watched it for a long time.

I stood up and twisted a muscle in my lower left back. Painful. Let's not do that again. I took a step forward. The weight was different. Different because it was correct. Yet I twisted my back again in the same place. Pain all over again. I'll certainly not do that any more. I took another step forward. Why is all this pain happening in my back when I don't want it there? It suddenly makes sense. I wasn't twisting any muscle; I was just using one that hadn't been used before. Of course, as you've probably guessed, it was one that everyone else who walks normally uses, but it was completely new to me.

I could stand perfectly straight without putting any pressure on the back of my knee. A pretty good arch had magically appeared in my left foot, where there certainly hadn't been one before. I popped back down on the bed. There was something I still hadn't figured out yet. Got it. There had been a complete change in my skeletal structure. My hipbone seemed to have rotated at an angle appearing to me to be close to 180 degrees. It was sitting snug and tight in the socket, where it had never been before. It felt good. Comfortable, even though I hadn't realised it was uncomfortable before, hindsight is a wonderful thing, after all. None of these so-called 'experts' in my past had discovered anything wrong with my hip. I twisted and turned it in every which direction. It obstinately refused to click. Sitting perfectly now. Pleased is a large understatement at this juncture.

I strolled down stairs and proceeded to stun everyone who would listen to what had taken place. Slightly taller, noticeably better posture not to mention a longer stride. The perfect Christmas present, preferable in fact, to a lottery win and it was still only October. By my somewhat shoddy mathematics, I calculate the time taken for the complete and total change to take place was 90 hours. 90 hours from when I strolled into the first seminar session on the Friday at 5pm to when I woke up on the Tuesday at midday walking perfectly. The most productive and worthwhile time-space I had the surprise and ultimate pleasure to live through. I think you'll agree: not a bad result.

I had actually planned to sign up for Rei-ki II, for no other reason than that it sounded interesting, needless to say it was done in the next four days. I was stunned at the change for two whole days and I didn't do anything but walk around. I had exams to study for and suddenly, didn't care how they turned out.

Do I believe in miracles? One word: No.

A miracle refers to something that happens without explanation. I have a completely satisfactory explanation for what took place. Admittedly, a doctor, physiotherapist, or surgeon might not believe it, but I don't feel inclined to care what they think. These 'expert' people offered limited or no assistance in the past. The truth is that I'll take assistance wherever I can find it, regardless of the need for demonstrable scientific proof.

Do I have proof of what happened? It just so happens that I do. I bought myself a new pair of shoes the day after, to check for wear on the soles, and alongside the ones I wore to the Rei-ki course, there is no comparison between them. In short: a very definite change.

I'm looking forward with baited breath to taking the Rei-ki II course with Barbara McGregor in London in April. I intend to bring both my pairs of shoes along and hopefully the entire world will see and understand what a wonderful, and in fact priceless, ability Rei-ki brings to those who practise persistence.

Soon enough, a great many more people will understand the ability of Rei-ki in an ever-changing and hopefully more understanding world.

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