The Metaphysical Roots of Esoteric Healing

By Dr. Barbara J. Briner, D.O.

Truth has always been, but has not always been available to the conscious mind of humanity. In Atlantis the higher Truths were known. But as the ataclysms
continued there for several thousand years, mass emigrations occurred throughout the world, especially to Egypt and Central and South America. So the metaphysical Truths were spread even as Atlantis graduallyended. (Shure.)

In ancient Hindustan (India) the Rishis knew the highest Truth through their meditations. As the spiritual light dimmedoutwardly, the Truths were ever present in the spiritual realms, accessible in meditation.

But the Truths continued in India and Tibet and gradually spread via enlightened teachers elsewhere in the world, especially to Persia, Chaldea, and Greece. So the metaphysical Truths spread, but only to the few who would hear. (Shure.) And the west was preoccupied for ages with Christianity as its focus; so the highest Truths were embedded in religious fervor and literal, external translation.

In 1831 in Russia (now the Ukraine), Helena Petrovna (later to become Blavatsky) was born of wealthy parents. Her early life was one of genius, musical talent, and penchant for travel. She traveled frequently to Europe, the United States (later becoming a U.S. citizen), India, and Tibet. She lived for years in India, becoming very learned in Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sanskrit. In 1851, when she was a young woman, a teacher whom she called Mahatma came to her. He told her “he needs her participation in the work he is to undertake, and she will need to live in Tibet for three years to prepare for this important mission.” In 1868 she began her three years in Tibet, staying at several monasteries. In 1873 she moved to the United States where she met Col. Henry Olcott, an attorney, American buddhist, and spiritualist. In 1875 together they established the Theosophical Society. Col. Olcott served as the first President and Blavatsky as the first Secretary. They soon traveled to India and established the headquarters of the Theosophical Society in Adjar, Madras, India. Eventually Blavatsky returned to London. She died on May 8, 1891.

The Theosophical Society was the focus of Blavatsky’s life’s work. She was aided in it’s beginnings by two Mahatmas-Master El Morya and Master Kuthumi. Master Kuthumi was the Mahatma who had come to her years earlier requesting her help. The name “Theosophical” is derived from Thea, meaning God, and Sophia, meaning wisdom. She felt that the name was a continuation of the work of Greek and Alexandrian philosophers and referred to the divine wisdom of inner enlightenment. The Theosophical Society’s motto is “There is no realization higher than Truth.” The theosophical discipline includes the practice
of study, meditation, and service (the 3-legged stool of the INEII).

The Theosophical Society represented the landmark culmination of Blavatsky’s life. She wrote a number of books dealing with metaphysical truths, but is best known for THE SECRET DOCTRINE. She described this book as the accumulated wisdom of the ages.

Her work brought new metaphysical concepts to the west-ascended masters; the monad; causal body; atmic, buddhic, manasic levels; the subtle bodies of the etheric, astral, and mental bodies; the 7 Rays; and the Spiritual Hierarchy. Her monumental teachings directly influenced Helena Roerich (founder of Agni Yoga), Elizabeth Clare and Mark Prophet (The Summit Lighthouse), Gary Ballard (The I . AM DISCOURSES and I Am Society), and Alice Bailey (Lucis Trust and the Arcane School). The seeds of metaphysical thought in the west as well as in India were greatly advanced by the teachings of Blavatsky. She is the mother of metaphysical thought and philosophy for the west.

Blavatsky is the mother of metaphysical thought and philosophy for the west.

As so often happens, an overlap was occurring. In 1880 in England, Alice A. Bailey (married name) was born. She was born to wealthy parents and raised as a member of the Anglican Church. She had problems finding her way in life and by the age of 15 had tried to commit suicide on three occasions, but gave up because even that was not working. Shortly after, a distinguished man appeared to her (later determined to be Master Kuthumi) and told her that she needed self control to do the work that was planned for her to do.

She married in her early 20s, had three children, and moved to the United States. There she divorced her husband and worked hard to support her children. In 1915 she discovered and joined the Theosophical Society. It was in the Society’s meditation room that she recognized the picture of Master Kuthumi as the man who had appeared to her years before. In 1919 an oriental man appeared to her in her living room and told her he wanted to work with her to continue the work. She told him she would have to ask her guru, Master Kuthumi, who gave his permission for her to work with the Tibetan. (The Tibetan was
later identified as the Master Djwhal Khul.) Djwhal Khul (D.K.) telepathically communicated information to Alice Bailey for 30 years and they created 24 books. While working in the Theosophical Society she met her future husband, Foster Bailey, who was the National Secretary to the Theosophical Society.

The Theosophical Society published her first book INITIATION, HUMAN AND SOLAR but stopped further publication of her other books due to her disagreements with the second President of the Theosophical Society, Annie Besant. Bailey objected to the “neo-theosophy” of Annie Besant and
wanted the Theosophical Society to return more to the Blavatsky teachings. Because of their views, Bailey and her husband subsequently were dismissed from their positions within the Theosophical Society.

Bailey saw her task as the continuation and further development of Blavatsky’’s teachings. She and Foster Bailey went on to develop the Lucis Trust in 1922 to publish and protect the 24 books written by Bailey with D.K. on esoteric philosophy. In 1923 the Baileys founded the Arcane School, a correspondence school that teaches the Bailey material. Bailey’s work is based on the theosophical work of Blavatsky, but develops karma, reincarnation, ascended masters, divine plan, the constitution of man, Esoteric Healing, the 7 Rays, esoteric astrology, humanity’s divine status, as well as the metaphysical metaphor of Christ’s life.

Bailey died in 1949, but Foster Bailey continued her work until his passing in Both the Lucis Trust and the Arcane School are healthy and continually growing
in influence in today’s metaphysical development in society by sparking the development of a number of Bailey-based organizations, including the University of the Seven Rays (Michael Robbins, founder), Psychosynthesis (Robert Assagioli), and Frontiers of Health (Dr. Christine Page).

In the early 1960’s a British woman, Brenda Selby Johnston, who had been studying with the Arcane School for nine years, met a British scientist, Rex Riant, who had been working on developing radar during World War II. Dr. Riant discovered that he would see points of light over the physical bodies of people and that, if he held various points of light with a finger from each hand, the person would feel better, especially if one had symptoms e.g., headache, joint pain,
stomach upset, etc. He taught Johnston how to locate and hold these very specific points. As a Bailey student she recognized that the points of light that Dr. Riant saw and used were, in fact, the same energy points, minors, and centers as described in Bailey’s ESOTERIC HEALING. Up to this time there was no practical method to use the information in Bailey’s book. Dr. Riant had no understanding of Bailey’s metaphysical principles. He just knew that if he held the energy points, the symptoms people had were alleviated. Thus a new system of healing, Esoteric Healing, was born, based on the metaphysical principles first set forth by Blavatsky and later developed by Bailey.

Johnston had good success with this method of healing and developed a healing clinic in her home. She began showing this method to those who had been helped by it. Two to three practitioners, “the healing team,” would work together in Johnston’s home clinic. In 1973, a metaphysical teacher and M.D., Dr. Douglas Baker, invited Johnston to talk and teach this method of healing at a “Festival,” i.e., conference. She was reluctant to do so, so she meditated about the invitation and received the inner direction: “You have to go, you are all we’ve got!” So she went, taught, and demonstrated this method of Esoteric Healing—and her teaching career was launched.

In 1975 Johnston’s students wrote a brief book, NEw AGE HEALING, and listed her as the author. She continued her healing clinics, developed her classes, and began teaching others to teach Esoteric Healing. Some of the first teachers were Dinah Lawson, Netta Wells, Anne Higgins, Helen Franklin, and Alan
Hopking. The group of Esoteric Healers was growing and more classes were being taught. It was time to organize. The original group, formed in 1984, was named the International Health Research Network. (IHRN).

In the early 1980’s, Johnston began teaching Esoteric Healing to a small group in Dallas, Texas, at the invitation of Clarice Baureis. In 1986, Dr. Barbara Briner was given a copy of Johnston’s book, NEW AGE HEALING, and shortly thereafter invited Johnston (who brought Netta Wells) to teach Esoteric Healing in Lansing, Michigan. Johnston returned with Dinah Lawson to teach Esoteric Healing, Part 2, in Subsequent classes in Lansing were taught by Dinah Lawson and Anne Higgins. From 1989 through the present, Esoteric Healing has been taught by Dr. Briner in Lansing. Other United States teachers have been trained and the work continues to grow.

In 1993 the English group had to change the name from IHRN to the International Network of Esoteric Healing (INEH) so that the English practitioners could receive government reimbursement for their healing sessions. At this time, classes were being taught by teachers other than Johnston and by teacher-trainees in England, Germany, Holland, Italy, Poland, Greece, the United States, Canada, Australia, and Zimbabwe (South Africa). The original courses as designed and taught by Johnston were Parts 1, 2, and 3. In 1991, the teaching group, with Johnston’s approval, designed the Part 4 course, The work was slowly growing worldwide.

In the United States many students were taking the INEH courses. However, there was no organization that students and practitioners could join. The professional world in the United States was changing in that certification or accreditation was becoming increasingly necessary to use Esoteric Healing in the workplace. But neither certification nor accreditation was available. And so the Esoteric Healing training for hundreds of practitioners remained esoteric, i.e. hidden, and the practitioners were scattered with no organization to which they could belong.

In 2006-2007 a small group of Esoteric Healing practitioners organized the National Association for Esoteric Healing (NAEH). The NAEH is an organization for Esoteric Healing students and practitioners to join and be part of and build a group energy. It is an organization in which esoteric healers teach themselves by application of the same metaphysical principles they have learned. These principles were first elucidated by Blavatsky, developed by Bailey, nd taught by Johnston and the INEH teachers. Esoteric healers use the principles daily in their meditations, esoteric healing work, personal philosophy, and teaching of friends and family. Their work is like the banyan tree. Deep metaphysical roots in Tibet, India, a strong trunk of the metaphysical developed by Blavatsky, and its continuation and development by Bailey and the application of Christ’s life and teachings.

Esoteric Healing is like a banyan tree, with deep metaphysical roots and branches forming for each new student-practitioner.

For each student-practitioner a branch is formed. It grows outward, sends down air roots to touch the earth, receive the nutritional food of spirit, and stabilize the growth of the tree. Each branch has leaves of all the lives the practitioner influences by her own life. The tree grows taller, broader, more stable, and upported by the air roots of metaphysical belief and practice of the soteric Healing practitioners. Eventually the tree attracts others because of its size, beauty, stability, and protective shade.

Thus, the Esoteric Healer’s metaphysical heritage extends directly to Blavatsky. Her life was a synthesis of all the ancient wisdom teachings of India and Tibet. She brought it to the west for our understanding and application. Bailey continued and further developed the principles brought forth by Blavatsky, adding the metaphysical principles of Christ’s life and teaching to her work. Johnston, the Arcane student, combined the practical work of Dr. Riant to
develop the form of Esoteric Healing in its metaphysical principles and practice that esoteric healers use every day. Each esoteric healer touches the lives of others by who she is and her Esoteric Healing work. Esoteric Healers are growing a tall, strong tree in the world forest of life that anchors the Ancient
Wisdom Teachings. “By their fruit ye shall know them.”

The mission of the NAEH is to foster and support an environment of aspiration, integrity and right practice related to the field of Esoteric Healing, as well as to provide a membership organization that upholds standardizing the art, science and practice of the understanding of Esoteric Healing in the United States and abroad, and to contribute to the healing and spiritual advancement of humanity.

Mantra of Unification
All people are one and I am one with them.
IT seek to love, not Late;
I seek to serve and not exact due service;
I seek to heal, not hurt.
Let pain bring due reward of light and love.
Let the soul control the outer form
And life and all events,
And bring to light the love
Which underlies the happenings of the time.
Let vision come and insight.
Let the future stand revealed.
Let inner union demonstrate and outer
cleavages be gone.
Let love prevail.
Let all people love.Mantram of Unification is from Alice A. Bailey’s

Discipleship in the New Age, Vol. II (p. 146–7), © Lucis Publishing Co., 120 Wall St., 24th Floor, New York, NY 10005

The Gandhi Prayer
I offer you peace, I offer you friendship,
I offer you love,
I hear your needs, I see your beauty,
I acknowledge your feelings,
Our wisdom comes from a Higher Source
I acknowledge that Source in you
Let us work together.

Footnotes

1 Matt. 7. 20.
2 Quote from Barbara Linkner’s quilt,
Naples, FL.

Resources

Bailey, A.A. (1953). Esoteric Healing. New York: Lucis Publishing Company.
Bailey A.A. (1951). Initiation, Human and Solar. New York: Lucis Publishing Company.
Ballard, G.W. (1940). I Am Discourses. St. Germain Press.
Blavatsky, H.P. (1888). The Secret Doctrine. Wheaton, IL: Versa Press.
Johnston, B.S. (1975). New Age Healing (1 s t Ed.) Havant, Hants, England: I.H.R.N.
Shure, E. (1991). From Sphinx to Christ: An Occult History. Kessinger Publishing.
The King James Bible (2003).
Wikipedia: Alice A. Bailey.
Wikipedia: Arcane School.Wikipedia: Helena P. Blavatsky.
Wikipedia: Lucis Trust.
Wikipedia: The Theosophical Society.