The Reconnection and Dr Eric Pearl

In my last blog posting, I mentioned the rather circuitous journey that brought me to the book The Reconnection: Heal Others, Heal Yourself by Dr. Eric Pearl. In this post, I’d like to share a little about the book and my thoughts on Dr Pearl’s reconnection movement.

I found the book a fascinating and compelling read. Pearl, who maintained a thriving practice as a Los Angeles chiropractor for over a decade before becoming a practitioner and advocate of energy healing, begins the book with his own story: of a rather ordinary childhood and young adulthood punctuated with some extraordinary, inexplicable moments. His journey to figure out why these “odd” things occurred led him to some strange and unusual people and places, and ultimately transformed his understanding and appreciation of life, the universe, and everything[i]. A natural sceptic and entertaining raconteur, Pearl’s “you’ve got to be kidding me” response to many of these “woo woo” events and people had me laughing out loud, and at the same time appreciating his sense of bewilderment, wonder, frustration, and insight.

In the middle section of the book, Pearl takes on quantum physics, string theory, the multi-dimensional universe, matter vs. energy, the nature of vibration, and genetic coding, and how all of this applies to energy healing as he understands it. (Don’t worry—you don’t have to be a brain box to get the gist.) The final section of the book deals with the actual practice of energy healing, not only how he does it and what happens, but how anyone can do it, or learn to do it. Pearl explains that as human beings we’re not actually “doing” the healing, we’re simply acting as a channel for the healing energy to move through. At the end of the book, Pearl presents several easy exercises for developing one’s own energy at the vibrational level of healing, and offers suggestions for working with clients.

The book as a whole is easy to read, enjoyable, and inspiring, and Pearl seems down-to-earth and thoughtful with his suggestions and analysis. He wrote the book ten years ago (© 2001). I am less impressed with Eric Pearl’s current presence on the web. His website at www.thereconnection.com shows him to be not just a healer but a whole industry offering seminars, trainings, conferences, CDs and DVDs, all claiming to be part of the process of “reconnection”, the rediscovery of our connection to universal forces, the elevation of human energy to a higher frequency, and the restructuring and transformation of our DNA. Even kids and pets are targeted in a sort of “This is so wonderful, why wouldn’t you want it?” online advertorial. It all seems rather “cultish” to me, and I’m not nearly so comfortable with that.

When—in the book—Pearl starts talking about channelings from Kryon (“a loving angelic entity” www.kryon.com) via Lee Carroll to help him understand what is happening with the healings, I start feeling like I’ve truly gone down the rabbit hole. Still, I’ll keep an open mind here. I DO have some experience playing with energy myself, and I DO believe that energy healing happens. Whether this guy is the new Messiah, I have my doubts. (Not that he claims to be, it just sort of looks that way.)  Still, he’s written an interesting and thought-provoking book that’s also remarkably entertaining and occasionally moving. Recommended, if you’re into this sort of thing.

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[i] Okay, alright. This is also the title of the third book in Douglas Adams “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and the answer is 42. But that’s another story...