Welcome back to Unit 11 of the Modern Order of Essenes course! If you are new to the course, it starts out here with Unit 1. And in order to see all the course-related posts on one page, click here.
+++ Important Update: I have published a list of potential attunement dates, and need to know your preferences by Sunday July 20th. Please reply asap. Thanks! +++
In this unit, there are still some new things to learn, but we’re slowly but surely reaching the point where you will (hopefully!) comfortably settle into the work, and where it’s not so much about learning new things anymore, but about consistently applying what you have learned so far.
By now, you should have established a working routine to integrate the MOE practices into your schedule. How this looks like will be highly personal, of course – but please feel free to share and discuss any related issues or ideas, successes and failures in the comment section!
But for now, there are still some more things to learn and to study…
Before we dive into the coursework, though, some housekepeing:
This is Unit 11. There will be one more unit to cover the Apprentice material (Unit 12 on Sunday July 20th). Two weeks after it (on Aug 3rd), there will be another course post in preparation for the Apprentice attunement, before we then dive straight into the Healer material yet another fortnight later.
I will at some point soon publish a separate post to schedule Apprentice attunements. If you are on my mailing list for the MOE-related emails, you will get an email notifying you about this scheduling post. If not, please do check in every few days to make sure you reply to it in time – or sign up for the mailing list for now to be notified (you can easily unsubcribe again after the attunement, with no hard feelings from me!).
And now… on we go with Unit 11! ๐
Coursework
- To Study – “The Essence of Deity”
Study the section “The Essence of Deity” (it’s very short, just three paragraphs). As usual, you’re not expected to blindly accept this as dogma, but to understand it and to develop your own opinion about these topics.
Online Version (only the section “The Essence of Deity”)
PDF Version (section “The Essence of Deity” on page 30) - To Practice – Essene Healing Breath: Step 6
Expand your daily Healing Breath meditation to include Step 6.
Online Version (Section “Phase Two: Step Six – Watch, listen to and feel your breathing”)
PDF Version (Section “Phase Two: Step Six – Watch, listen to and feel your breathing” on page 20) - To Practice – Blessing Walk: continue as before
Continue to practice the daily Blessing Walk, and continue to more and more incoporate the Blessing Walk into your life.
Online Version
PDF Version (pages 11 to 14) - To Study and Practice – Foot Reflexology: Using it on others
Continue giving yourself a daily foot reflexology treatment, as introduced in Unit 8.
In addition, study the section “Using Essene Foot Reflexology for Others”. If possible, treat at least one other person (e.g. a family member) to a foot reflexology massage during this unit.
Online Version (Section “Using Essene Foot Reflexology for Others”.)
PDF Version (Section “Using Essene Foot Reflexology for Others” on pages 43 and 44.) - To Study and Practice – Healing Hands: Essene Healing Hands Technique
The study text below is an overview of the Healing Hands technique. Since you have now practiced Healing Hands for a while, use this section to recapitulate, and to double-check your technique to make sure no mistakes or inaccuracies have crept into your practice.
Please note that the images for Earth and Air show very short “tails”. These should be longer – follow the instructions in the written text with regards to this, and not the graphics!
Apart from re-studying the details of the Healing Hands, also continue to activate them each morning, and to use them at least once per day.
Online Version (section “Essene Healing Hands Technique”)
PDF Version (section “Essene Healing Hands Technique” on pages 35 – 37, plus the corresponding images on pages 32 and 32) - To Practice – Muscle Testing: Body Posture Technique
There is another muscle testing technique which I find worthwhile and have thus included into this course, even though it’s not covered in the material. The instructions are below, in the Commentary section.
Reflection Question
While you do the work of Unit 10, take some time to reflect on the following question:
How would it be if you’d be fully healed?
Meditation Topics
If you need fodder for your discursive meditations beyond what you have found in this unit’s texts, the following topics should give you something to work with:
- Is there a “right” way to do things? Why or why not?
- Why do practices change over time?
- In which ways can you feel your breath?
- How does your body map onto your feet, and why?
- How does your body map onto other structures?
- What is the difference between treating yourself and treating others?
- What is the difference between healing yourself and healing others?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of performing a dedicated Blessing Walk?
- What is the essence of deity?
- What is your own essence?
- What is the essence of other people?
- Does healing depend on the Divine, and how?
- What does it mean to help others heal themselves?
And if you have enough ideas on your own and don’t need any from this list, that’s even better!
Commentary
Phew. After last unit’s huge pile of commentary, this section is mercifully slim this time! ๐
Muscle Testing: Body Posture Technique
This technique isn’t covered in the official MOE material (and I totally made up the name right now! ๐ It might have an “official” name e.g. in kinesiology, though, although I’m not aware of it).
I learned this technique from somebody else way back when, and it has helped me a lot over the years. In fact, it’s my personal go-to technique for muscle testing, for several reasons:
It works well for me. (Remember that this is a higly personal thing, and your mileage may vary!) It’s simple and easy. With a little experience, it can be done in any position, i.e. standing, sitting, lying down, …. It’s totally inconspicious – nobody will notice you’re even moving a muscle, unless they are a very keen observer of body postures.
In order to practice this technique, begin comfortably sitting or standing. Start by focusing on your body, and on how it feels: Where are you tight, and where are you loose? Are there any sensations, which ones and where? How does your overall posture feel to you? What is your posture, e.g. where are your arms and legs, in which position, how do you hold your head, your tummy, your back, …?
Do not judge yourself, your body or your position, and do not correct anything! Just register how things are, that’s all.
What you’re doing is getting a feeling for your “baseline” – how does your body feel in a neutral position?
Now think (or say) “yes”, very strongly and firmly, over and over again – and keep a close eye on your body while you do this. Notice any changes and shifts. E.g. are you more upright? Pulled in a certain direction? Do any body parts feel different? Are there any new sensations? Is anything less or more tight than before? Etc etc.
Then return to neutral (it might help if you clearly and firmly think or say something like “neutral position” or so).
Then do the same thing for “no”: Think or say it very clearly and firmly, over and over again, and notice how your body and your bodily sensations change.
I’m calling this technique the “Body Posture Technique”, because for me the Yes and No manifest mostly in subtle shifts in my body posture – but again, your mileage may vary. ๐ E.g. for you, the changes could mostly manifest in sensations (tingling, itching, pain, …), or in whatever else. There is no right or wrong here, and that’s not the point.
This is also not intended to correct your posture or help you relax. It does not matter if you’re sitting upright! All that matters is that you can identify the Yes and the No signals of your body.
You might have to do this a few times to get a clear handle on the differences between yes, no and neutral. If you can’t get a handle on them at all, try a different posture to begin with, i.e. if you so far did it standing, try seated, or vice versa.
At the beginning, it’s best to use this technique with the same starting position, e.g. always seated. Once you have a bit of experience with how your body signals the Yes and the No, it should be easy to notice the responses also in different positions and circumstances.
For me, the Yes and No always feel the same. However, before I do a test, I always ask my body for a general “Yes” and a general “No” first (i.e. as you did above when you tested for them the first time).
This is not so much to confirm how they feel like (by now, I really know the feelings well), but mostly to prime myself and my body for the upcoming muscle test. Again, your mileage with this may vary, but I’d suggest that for starters, you handle it the same… ๐
So this is it. This technique might work well for you, or it might not, just like any of the others. But with its subtlety and flexibility, it’s certainly worth practicing, so give it a try while you work on this unit!
Healing Hands: Recap and Correction
In theory, you should well be able to activate and apply your Healing Hands by now. However, I have deliberately kept this overview of the technique for one of the last units:
Whenever we practice something like the Healing Hands, chances are good that small mistakes, inaccuracies or variations will creep in. Either right away, from misunderstanding or misreading the instructions, or over time.
Some of these variations might not hurt much. Some might hinder a bit. Some might even be helpful and worth keeping. And some might be a major hindrance or issue.
Either way, it’s worth re-checking the material from time to time to make sure you’re still on the right track. (And yes, this holds for all of the techniques, not just for the Healing Hands…) The Overview over the Healing Hands which is part of this unit will help you with this.
(And if you should have come across any variation which you deem worth keeping, please do share it with us in the comments!)
Foot Reflexology: Treating Others
I’m really not going to go into ethical or legal issues of treating others again – we’ve covered them ad nauseam in earlier units. Please make sure you comply with any such restrictions and regulations, and also use your common sense and your sense of ethics and morals before treating others.
For foot reflexology in particular, the process of treating others is pretty much the same as for treating yourself, minus having to contort yourself for reaching all areas of your feet.
Just make sure both of you are sitting comfortably (or lying, if this works better for the person you treat) – it wouldn’t do for you to massage away e.g. a tensed up back of a family member, only to then end up with a tensed up back yourself!
I find it easiest to sit vis-ร -vis the other person, and to take their foot into my lap (put a towel under to protect clothes if necessary), but you can try other positions. Be prepared to be flexible e.g. for elderly people or others who have trouble with certain positions.
Generally speaking, though, foot massages are a very welcome thing. I’ve yet to find somebody who doesn’t enjoy getting one! Thus even if you don’t treat others for specific medical outcomes, but simply give them a nice, relaxing foot rub, I guarantee you won’t have a problem finding people to practice on… ๐
Further Resources
In this section, I only cover resources which are immediately relevant to any new content/material from Unit 11. Since you continue to practice a great deal of things which have been covered in earlier units, please refer back to them if you are looking for any additional resources! ๐
Also, I usually haven’t pointed them out separately, but when you read the MOE material online on JMG’s dreamwidth site, there are comment sections below each entry, and some comments are well worth reading.
You’re already aware of John Gilbert’s audio files.
The audio file AE-intro.mp3 contains both the “Essene Gnostic Beliefs” (covered in Unit 9) and “The Essence of Deity”, narrated by John Gilbert. “The Essence of Deity” starts at roughly 5:50 minutes in.
The audio file breath.mp3 covers phase 1 and phase 2 of the Healing Breath meditation, i.e. everything up to Step 6 which you start to practice in this current unit. It’s narrated in a meditative style, and if this appeals to you, you can now work with the whole file.
Funnily enough, even though the official material doesn’t introduce the “Body Posture Technique” of muscle testing, there is a video available on youtube in which John Gilbert instructs somebody else in this technique, although he calls it “Lean Technique”. You can access this video here.
(I don’t call this technique “Lean Technique”, because for me it’s more a matter of changes in body posture than an actual leaning.)
Finally, there is, as usual, our own comment section from Unit 10 as a valuable resource. (Still fairly empty at the time of me writing this, but the comment sections of the course usually fill up over time…)
Outlook
Unit 12, the final unit of the Apprentice material, will go live on Sunday, July 20th, 2025.
Until then, I’m looking forward to your comments and your feedback, and I hope you enjoy the Healing Hands! ๐
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