Interview
I remember quite well my first trip to California, in 1994. It began with a “sign” that I received in front of the Cathedral of Aachen, Germany, where I was visiting a friend - an “omen,” as we were used to call them among Castaneda’s fans. What a few moments earlier was only one of my many fantasies, one of my numerous projects bound to dissipate in thin air, became in a second a clear and definitive decision, without any space left for doubts or mumbling.
I remember the deep emotion I felt landing in San Francisco, at night, tired and a bit confused by the 15 hours flight, but happy and excited like a child who is brought the first time to the circus. I can still see the long walks through the city, taking pictures with my mental camera at every street corner, and later the big car that I rent after asking for the smallest one ("This is the smallest we have” was the answer). I explored the surroundings and later on I began my adventure driving down the coast towards Los Angeles.
During the whole trip, I had the inexplicable impression that those places were waiting for me. And feeling them familiar and yet thouroughly different from all what I had seen before, at least in the waking part of my life. . . .
Right in the L.A. area I knew there were people around I had been dreaming of meeting for a long time, but I did not know I was actually bound to meet someone who was going to change the course of my life.
Just short before flying back to Europe, with a pretty naive kind of action, I came in contact with some of the people collaborating in the work of Carlos Castaneda - the famous writer who unfortunately died a short time ago. They gave me precious information and showed me how to take part in the forthcoming workshops on the magic movements of the ancient Mexican shamans.
Just because of one of these workshops I was again in Los Angeles in May 1995, and among the other things to do and to see in the area, I had the address (from my friend in Aachen) of a Chinese expert in acupuncture and martial arts - his name was Howard Lee - whom some sources were referring to as the Kung Fu teacher of Carlos Castaneda for several years. A dedication to him was also to be seen in the book “The Fire from Within."
This of course was more than enough to stimulate my curiosity, and once I heard that he was accepting new patients for his treatments based on a new kind of healing energy, I just walked to his office in Santa Monica.
What followed was the classic “love at first glance,” that kind of affection felt by the still unripe and unsure pupil in recognizing his possible teacher. Not only the elegance of his ways, the friendliness, the penetrating and yet gentle glance, but as well the sensation that a very peculiar kind of energy was emanating from him; all of this had a strong and sudden impact on me. The way I felt the morning after the first treatment . . . made the rest.
To complete my bewilderment, during a successive visit a few days later, Howard invited me to lunch, and during our talk he told me about the workshops he had just started giving every few months. They were called “The Induction of Energy,” and were meant to give anyone interested access to that very same type of energy he was using in the treatments.
The first chance I had to take part in one of these workshops was December of the same year. I knew it could not possibly be any bad for me, but I did not know yet how deep that energy was going to enter into my life and my being. From that day forward - which I won’t describe here, but that everyone can experience by himself - I have always kept in touch with Howard. I have been in some other of his seminars lately, and after I heard he was going to appear next in England and in Italy, I just asked him to give me an interview - which he did in his usual natural and quiet way - and which I hope can give an overview of his activity and of the possibilities he is offering to anyone who wishes to experience them.
You’ve been working in the Los Angeles area for some time and now you are going to go to Europe to offer some workshops. Would you like to explain in a few words the kind of work with healing you have been doing and what kind of workshop you are going to offer in Europe?
I use energy for healing, energetic healing, this is what I’ve been doing for many years. I’ve been in practice for close to thirty years. I’ve always used energy, and in the early days I used it in conjunction with acupuncture. But I no longer use instruments, herbs, or anything else; I just use energy.
The Induction of Energy Workshop is where I enable people to access this very energy. It is a one day workshop and both definitive and complete in itself. After the workshop a person is able to access this energy and they don’t have to take another class again as far as learning how to receive this energy. It lasts a lifetime.
For people who have never had a chance to meet you or to know you, is this kind of energy you’re working with and giving people in the workshop Induction of Energy, is it more for physical health, psychic balance, or for people who are engaged in seeking some kind of spiritual development?
I would say all of the above. In terms of my private practice, people usually come because they have a physical problem that bothers them. Otherwise, most people don’t know what I do, so they come only when they have something urgent and distressing. But usually that’s just the way to bring them here. Most the time there are deeper reasons, causes, that need to be addressed. So when people want to receive a healing, I address any number of things they bring, meaning I work on the physical, emotional, and creative matters. The most powerful aspect of this energy is in its transformative nature, because ultimately healing, whether physical, emotional or of a psychic nature, requires transformation.
We try to address it from an energetic point of view, from the deepest level, to get to the real, deeper, underlying causes of various problems and diseases, that are affecting a person.
You said the people coming to the workshop, the Induction of Energy, get access to this kind of energy for their whole life. Shall we understand that someone who comes to you for treatment and gets the energy from you or through you, if they do the workshop, they have access for their whole life to the same kind of energy they would receive from visiting you?
Yes, the very same energy. Now, the question that people ask is whether that means they will never need help again? No, because first of all it is not as easy to work on yourself as on somebody else. Secondly, they have access to the energy, but there is also the matter of how much power they have. To the degree that a person continues to practice receiving the energy daily on their own, they will gradually remove, or clear, a lot of the energetic debris or negative patterns that they have, oftentimes debilitating, that impede the creative flow. So as they immerse themselves in the energy on a daily basis, a lot of these things will dissipate and they will become healthier and in fact be able to inhabit more of the energy, be able to bring through more energy and be able to use it more effectively.
Naturally, they are not going to have the same degree of power I have, but ultimately of course there’s no end to it, as a person clears their negative patterns. They could even start treating people. After the workshop, many people immediately have more power than a lot of professionals.
So talking about professional healers, I know there are a lot of people in Europe doing healing or calling themselves healers. Can you recommend your healing energy also to people who are already engaged in some other kind of mind/body energy work?
Sure. No problem in terms of people who are already practicing a different modality. In fact, accessing this energy will enhance whatever ability they have. If they are currently using another energetic method, then of course it is important that they make the effort to keep them separate in their daily practice. Actually, if they maintain clear intent in their daily practice, they develop the habit, so that during the professional practice it will be automatic, they will be able to use whichever energetic method they choose. My process, as far as my own philosophy and the energy itself, is nonsectarian and we don’t dictate any religious or philosophical doctrine.
I know that most people in Europe like to put things in relation with each other, so many people will be asking or wondering which tradition or philosophical system or teaching is behind your healing work or healing energy?
This energy is unique in terms of its origin. I don’t know of anybody else who is teaching and practicing with it other than me and those who have learned from me. As far as my background, for instance, this whole system of healing and energetic healing is something I have remembered, if you will. I have never studied with anybody. It has been a process of reawakening through many years of gradual remembering and practicing what I intuited and remembered. I have always had the energy. I’ve used the energy. I was aware of my energy a long time before I used it in my professional practice. Earlier, when I was younger, I did not know the exact nature, because since I did not learn it from anybody, there was no name, no tradition. Only as years have gone by, as I started incorporating it into my acupuncture practice and Kung Fu, then I started to discern its true nature.
In time, I finally was able to remember how to induct others into this energy. That is when I fully realized the uniqueness of it. I have a countless number of patterns, these are energy patterns that weave the Light of Life energy into a particular prescription to address different conditions, whether it be a chakra, a physical or emotional condition, or blocked creativity. So it is truly energetic medicine. So rather than a formula of herbs, these are sets of energetic patterns.
I have no connection with any of the current religious or philosophical traditions. My own philosophy is just to be kind to each other. That takes care of all the other standards that people live by. This energy is truly benevolent. Many people, the first time they experience it, have said something to the effect that this is like love. This is a powerful, benevolent, loving energy and as I’ve always said, the binding force of the universe is love.
Today we see everywhere more and various styles of gurus, teachers, spiritual guides, everyone selling some kind of truth or path for spiritual development, or at least better health, better life. What do you think about this all? Do you think that some of them are really giving good tools for spiritual development or do you think that people should try to avoid them?
I believe in freedom of choice and free will, so people are free to choose whatever they like to pursue. My personal inclination is that I do not require anybody to confer on me the title of guru or master. I’m willing to share this process with whoever is interested. And as far as my teaching, accessing the energy, my promise is one workshop and you have it. You don’t have to keep coming endlessly to take more lessons in order to get more energy. So I just give it to people and I don’t need to run their lives, I don’t want to tell them how to run their lives. I hope they’ll be guided by the energy and live well and happily and that’s all there is to it.
So people can then rely on themselves and do not necessarily need to see you again and again. They already have got what they need in order to move on and progress.
I would say so. Both by my own inclination as well as I think dictated by the knowledge itself. It helps enable people to open their awareness and to connect with their higher self or their intuitive aspect, so they are able to access the spiritual wisdom, rather than having someone tell them what it is, and how it is. That’s the way I would like to run my life, and so naturally I like everybody else to have the same opportunity and the same approach. Live and let live. I think there is entirely too much giving away one’s own power in this world. We already see that things are changing in terms of people becoming more aware and raising the consciousness, and this energy will help immensely.
In terms of spiritual pursuit, there’s no spiritual advancement without physical, emotional, psychic healing and the transformation and integration of one’s emotional and mental body, if you will. Without that, it is like someone who wants to run before they are able to stand up or walk. I think it is very important that we recognize the difference between a state of mind and a state of being. Often there’s a lot of intellectual chatter, but there’s really no true understanding or inhabiting of those principles. It takes energy to open one’s awareness and this process helps to give people that, too. But not because I’m going to tell them what the truth is. It will help them get it themselves.
You said this energy is something new and has no link with other teachings. Do you know whether there has been in the past anything similar coming into our earthly realm, or is it something that is coming just in this time as a first chance for humanity?
When I say new, in terms of its availability on this plane of existence at this present time, it seems that for some mysterious reason I am the one who is bringing it in. But it is not a new energy. The whole universe is energy. In terms of this process, I know intuitively, of course, that it has been around in previous times. I’ve had some people who’ve experienced the energy and they independently told me this energy hasn’t been around since the times of Atlantis.
But of course I don’t know if that’s anything significant in the sense that many people don’t even believe that there was such a thing as Atlantis. But nonetheless, in terms of this plane of existence, I’m sure it has been around before, but my own intuition, and past-life recall, is that I remember practicing it in other realms of existence.
I certainly have also remembered that I’ve done healing in other times on this earth, but I don’t know if I was using this particular energy in those times. Many of my students, after they have done the induction, remember that they have studied with me in previous times. Without prodding, they volunteer on their own. Anyway, I wouldn’t want to make any categorical statement, because there is no way for us to prove that this knowledge was available at certain times.
So far as I know, I’m the only one who is teaching this process right now. I don’t know if anybody else possesses this energy, but certainly they are not teaching the process. Not that I know of. I do not come from a tradition of hundred or thousands of years of handing down a lineage. It starts from me. I have experienced its affects on my life and that is why I am using it in my practices and in my teaching. Also, because it starts with me, there hasn’t been the chance for people to add anything superfluous or change anything, so it is absolutely clear and precise. One of the things that people who have previous experiences with energetic healing or processes say about it after the workshop is that this is so clear, so much clearer and more powerful than anything else they have experienced. There’s no infusion of any unnecessary material into the process.
Compared to many other teachings, it is much simpler, because we don’t have to learn anything complicated. We don’t have to read a lot of books before we get access. We only have to come to one of your Induction of Energy workshops and then we know what it is about. Do you think that there would be a simple way for someone who has not come in contact with this energy to imagine what’s going to happen when they do the Induction of Energy with you? Or the only way is just to come and try?
For people who simply want to experience the energy, I would suggest attending a group healing session. For the Induction of Energy, they would have to attend the workshop, because the unique thing about this process is that it is done on the higher plane of existence, on an energetic level, bypassing the rational, intellectual mind, which oftentimes hinders. So that’s why it is so absolutely clear and definitive. Everybody gets it. The process involves establishing a powerful energy field and involving every participant--you can say the teaching is done energetically. We have a conversation with energy, if you will. I do what we call the induction process. The participants have it very easy. All they have to do is sit and watch or close their eyes if they want. They don’t have to do anything during the induction process, because it is transmitted energetically on the higher plane of existence. There is no need to master a discipline. Later, we do learn a short routine of physical movements. The physical movements are a third dimensional reflection of the energetic component. It lasts no more than half a minute, or even less. It is very simple. A person can even do it in a wheelchair or lying down on a bed. So it is not exhausting. It does not require a lot of muscular activity. It’s about energy, subtle energy. I give you a light switch and you just turn on the light. If someone observes the physical part of it, the movement, and copies it, doesn’t matter, they will not have the energy. The physical movement itself is only . . . it does matter in the sense that it involves the physical body so you’re not running around doing other things, distracting yourself, so yes, a person, all they have to do is come attend the workshop and they get it. It is that easy. You don’t need to read any books or do elaborate meditations. Actually, for many people who have never been able to meditate, as soon as they are inducted, they are already able to immediately go into a meditative state, just by invoking the energy.
Are you planning to write a book of any kind, let’s say, an instruction manual?
I think at some point I will. Sometimes during my workshops, people ask, “If it only takes a half an hour to do the induction, then how come the workshop lasts the whole day? Well, people still want explanations and talk, so we spend the rest of the time placating the rational mind.
I know that many people have asked you before, but many people in Europe who know your name are coming because of Carlos Castaneda and you being his martial arts teacher. Would you like to say anything about the relation you have had with Mr. Castaneda?
I guess you could say that we go back a long ways. I first met him in 1974 when he came for healing and he had health problems and I helped him recover. As he and his comrades acknowledged, I saved his life. Then afterwards he stayed and studied martial arts and some healing, acupuncture, and stuff like that.
For many years, I didn’t know who he was. When he acknowledged me in the book The Fire from Within, I didn’t realize it until about a year later, even though they told me that they were going to give me acknowledgment for my help. But I didn’t know who he was at that time. It seems a little strange for some people, but I do not usually inquire into people’s private affairs and life and as long as they are good students and good friends and good people, that’s all that matters. He was a good friend, and I liked and respected him immensely. I never read any of his books until probably 1986, maybe. I forget when The Fire from Within was released. Yes, about a year after that was published. They are great books. But as far as their workshops and what they are doing now, I have no idea. I have no association with it. Like other people, they used to benefit from my presence and bathe in the Light of Life energy, but Carlos never did learn how to access it, because he left shortly before I started to remember how to induct other people. I did not see him again until five, six years later, when he reappeared and came to my office to visit and for healing. At that time I had just started the Induction of Energy workshops. They hadn’t started teaching the Tensegrity workshops yet. In subsequent years I didn’t see much of him, even though he was pretty close by.
With regards to the healing energy, I have read accounts of the difficulty of becoming a healer, the many obstacles that can be in the way, and so on. Des this description fit your own healing system as well?
Of course, there’s much work to be done, but my process is a little different in the sense that since I give them access to this energy---this powerful energy--and as soon as people take the Induction of Energy workshop, they already have more power than many practitioners already. The cautionary advice I give them is to use it only to heal themselves and their immediate loved ones, and not go out and work on other people unless they are already practicing professionals. Not that it doesn’t work, but the problem is that you open yourself to picking up other people’s energetic stuff that you do not need or want. So my contention is that the difficulty is not so much in getting access to healing ability, the time-consuming part of learning to be a healer is in strengthening and transforming yourself, your physical body, the clearing of your emotional body, and clearing as much of the energetic debris as possible, so that you become able to treat other people without having to be contaminated. That is the test. So as far as my process of healing, the healing system, the energy does a great deal of the healing. Of course there are other things that one must learn in order to address specific situations, contingencies. But the energy itself is awareness, is healing, and so it is transformative.
Throughout the ages, there have been many people born with fantastic healing ability that has been documented or legendary. But none of them seem to have been able to impart a great deal of their knowledge or ability to their disciples. My feeling is that it is because they were not able to transmit the power, the energy. They teach techniques, forms, and ceremonies, but this is energetic healing, and the ability to transmit the energy without the interference of ego, that’s the most crucial.
There are some processes that require years and years of training in order to fully open one to the energy by approaching from the mental and physical plane. Well, again, we’re in the twenty-first century here and we no longer want or can afford to indulge in that kind of time-consuming effort. This process I’m making available to people is much faster. I am able to give them access to the energy, just like that.
I want to reiterate the fact that in order to be a professional, it is more than just having energy. One needs a more well-rounded knowledge of the physical-emotional nature of a person, or the human body. But most important is to be able to protect yourself. Otherwise, you’re no good to anybody. Not only that you will get sick. I’ve been called the healer’s healer. Many people I treat here are professionals and come to see me because they have been overloaded and burned out, picked up too much negative stuff from the patients.
You do not want to be contaminated by your patient’s energy, but you also don’t want to be a contaminant yourself or transmit energetic contamination from one to another. This is the aspect that requires time and diligence. To access the energy is easy. You just come to the Induction and get it. Absolutely.
For many years you have been working quietly, offering your healing treatments and then the workshops for the Induction of Energy, but now in the last few months you have started doing workshops for people who are interested in becoming healers. How did you decide to move on and instruct people in this way?
It’s nothing new, I’m just starting it now. It has always been on my mind, both the process of enabling people to heal themselves as well as training others so that they can perform on a professional level. On that score, I have high standards and I wanted to make sure that people were not just out there treating people after a weekend workshop like we sometimes see happening today. It takes a certain length of time to sort things out, how to go about it, since there’s no precedence for what I’m doing.
I need to not only teach people how to be professionals, but to consider the general public, to enable those people who want access to the energy. It also enables me to gradually teach more people on every level and have some freedom to get out of my daily practice. I can only see so many people a day, but if I train others who are competent, more people will be helped. And each individual, if they access the energy themselves on a daily basis,will see that they are healthier. Again, it is a powerful transformative tool. They will see their life change positively.
People have already proven that when they do it while they are going through a stressful situation, it helps them, if nothing else, to be calmer and deal with the issues at hand much more effectively. Since it takes so little time, less than a minute, a person can initiate the process during a coffee break and be much more peaceful and relaxed and able to enjoy themselves. And when they return to work it helps to enhance their creativity, the creative flow. As a matter of fact, before they get home to greet their family (chuckling), if they access the energy they will be much nicer to their family members.
For these reasons and more, it is imperative that I make myself available. Before I remembered how to induct people in the energy, I did my own practice and kept to myself and saw no reason to go about. I’m not interested in exposure for its own sake, just to be getting my name and face out there for no reason other than that. But now I have a process that people can benefit from and I’m willing to share it with whoever wants to access the energy.
As far as I know, this is the first time you are going to present your teachings outside the United States. Do you expect a different people, a different kind of public? Are you worried about presenting your unique system in a such a somehow traditionalist country as Italy?
No, not at all. First of all, I have great respect for all the different cultures in the world. This process does not intrude upon individual belief systems. My model always has been that when people are ready for me I’m ready for them and vice versa. This has always been the way I approach my practice. It is a process that helps to raise awareness and consciousness, so I think at least to some extent there will be some meeting of the minds. Even though people may not have intellectual, rational reasons, or understanding of what it is, when they come to participate, it is usually because they have intuitively made the decision that it is the right thing to do.
Perhaps as a conclusion now, is there is anything you would wish to tell the people in Europe who are going to be attending your seminars, perhaps some advice, how to prepare themselves?
There’s no preparation needed. I just hope they come with an open mind, no preconceived notions. Once the process is instilled it is predicated on whether the person wants to practice or not, make it available to themselves or not. It is about personal freedom, knowledge. I give it and you have it in your grasp and like any tool you can employ it or you can just stow it away. But this process is definitive, totally benevolent. No harm can come to anybody from it.
Once you access it it is yours for a lifetime. It is like a light. If you don’t want to turn it on, then it is your prerogative, but it is always there. Anytime in the future if you want to start utilizing it, it is always there. All you need is one workshop. No need to repeat it, or keep coming. So in that way I think we’re quite unique. I am unconditional in my approach and feeling of sharing the knowledge. You have it and I hope you make use of it. It will change and help you make the changes necessary to make your life better. Nobody is going to force you, you do it at your own pace. Nobody is going to run your life. This is the new paradigm, the way I understand it.
Copyright 1999 Mario Porati. For permission to publish, contact Mr. Porati at Prtmra@aol.com
