working with angels and integrated energy therapy

eighty people gathered in lyndon state college's stannard gymnasium wednesday morning to learn about integrated energy therapy.

stevan thayer, the creator and master-instructor of the holistic healing system, commented that the workshop constituted the largest class in the system's history. integrated energy therapy revolves around working with people's energy and attunement to their spiritual selves, and also utilizes what thayer calls "angelic energy." thayer himself was not always in the holistic healing profession. he holds a master's degree from columbia university in electrical engineering and worked for bell labs in new jersey.

after working for bell labs for many years, thayer started to suffer from free floating anger and panic attacks.

"i used to dread going to work every day," said thayer. he entered therapy, where he had a life-changing experience.

after talking with the therapist for a half-hour, the therapist declared she knew what was wrong and told thayer he was sad.

"i thought i hadn't known sadness in my life. and then she holds out her hand, and says, `give me your sadness.' i was ready to leave, when suddenly i just started sobbing uncontrollably. i don't know where it came from, but this grief started pouring out of me."

after 15 minutes, the therapist told him he had done enough and put down her hand, "and i suddenly stopped crying. just like that. and i felt better than i ever had in my life," said thayer..

feeling that whatever the therapist had done had worked, "i had to find out how she did what she did, so i could share it with other people." plus, being an engineer, he said he had an innate desire to know how it worked.

thayer eventually quit his job. and opened up his own holistic healing practice in new jersey. in his work, he started to discover correlations between the emotions people were feeling and certain parts of the body.

"for instance, i discovered that if people were feeling guilt, and i worked with the energy at the top of their heads, the guilt started to dissolve itself." he took extensive notes and then developed the integration energy therapy system from those notes. he discovered nine key points in the body that reacted in' predictable ways towards emotions.

then, four years ago, thayer had a shift in his logical paradigm. a client with graves disease came in for treatment because she wanted to try holistic methods before the chemical treatments her doctors were recommending.

while working on her throat area, "i started to feel this sensation of someone standing behind me," said thayer. he kept looking behind him, but no one was in the room besides himself and the client. he then felt like the room temperature had increased and he started perspiring. finally, "i felt like 'l was being hugged from behind and was enveloped in grace," said thayer. he started crying with joy and his hands were vibrating.

"my client was, of course, very, very puzzled."

he then felt someone talking in his head. after repeatedly asking the voice who he or she was, the voice finally replied that its vibrations could be equated with the name "ariel."

"i wasn't sure if i had lost it or not," joked thayer. after relaying to his client what had happened, they made a pact to not mention the incident to anyone, "so we wouldn't get locked up in a padded room..

in engineering, there is something called an "existence 'proof." if an engineer can prove, in even just once instance, that something exists, then the thing becomes real. a couple of weeks after the incident with his client, "i had my existence proof," said thayer.

a psychic friend came in to visit him and informed him that an eight-foot tall angel was standing in the waiting room of his office.

"you have to appreciate how ludicrous this was," joked thayer. the psychic then gave him his "existence proof' by informing him that the angel's name was ariel, and that the angel would be there to assist thayer in his healing processes.

thayer and his friend spent the next two years in an extended dialogue with the angel, which they eventually published as the book "'interview with an angel." through that book, and a freak coincidence, thayer became involved with the annual american society of dowsers conference.

a man in new jersey called him and said that he had been on vacation in vermont, had found thayer's book at the asd's bookstore in danville, and wanted to come in for some healing work.

thayer called the bookstore to thank them for carrying the book. "at that time, almost no one had it. now it's in bathes and nobles," said thayer.

the society asked him to come and speak on his book at their conference in three weeks. thayer agreed. "i was nervous because it was the only non-dowsing workshop being offered that year. i thought no one would show up. it ended up being a success. something like 150 people showed up. to me, it was angelic intervention, showing me that i was meant to do this."

at wednesday's workshop, the attendees were broken up into groups, each with a master-instructor. the first thing everyone needed .to do was "attune themselves to the energies," said thayer. he gave a warning before they began.

"anyone who doesn't want their life to change should leave now. these energies have a mind of their own and accelerate the process of taking you to where you're meant to be."

nobody left.

"now, we have two goals here," said thayer. "one, i want this to be fun. if it's not fun, we're not teaching it right. and two, i want each person to heal something in themselves. after all, that's the whole point of this system - to heal yourself, and then share that with other people.

the great part of this system is that it cannot be done wrong; the energy flows according to intent, so you don't have to be precisely touching the particular body part needed."

this differs from most eastern holistic healing systems, in that they are highly regimented with a specific order of events, actions, and bodily parts.