Healing Theater?

Today I experienced something new: I participated in something called Taga, A type of healing ceremony. It’s difficult to explain what happened, but I’ll try. Before it started, the leader tried to explain what she was doing and what it was all about, but I’m afraid it didn’t mean a whole lot to me. The explanation did make somewhat more sense after we were done.

The session had a leader, a client and participators. The participators were chosen and assigned roles during the ceremony. As I understand it, the ceremony used symbols as surrogates for things like Holy Spirit, love and grace, but, for the most part, no one but the leader knew what each symbol meant until we were done.

I don’t know if the leader and client talked a head of time or not. I would think so, but I didn’t notice them talking before we started. However, the leader seemed to have some idea what the client was after and moved us through a kind of play that seemed to uncover and explore the issues the client was dealing with.

Each of the participants were assigned roles by the client. I was Ease (or flow) another was Anger and another was the client. Were were told to move as we pleased, except when directed by the leader. Often we were asked our impressions or feelings, and those were used to guide the leader. As things went on, the leader used various objects (stuffed animals, pillows, scarfs, blankets) to hold various intentions. We were not told what the intensions were, we were just given the objects, or they were placed on or around us, and then we were asked how that made us feel. At different times I was hot, cold, balanced and dizzy. At one point, the leader placed something on my left hand and my left ear began to ring, loudly. Later, she gave me a stuffed animal and had me hold to my chest. That caused me discomfort, bordering on pain, in my pectoral muscles. When I told her that, she brought over another animal and tucked it behind the first. Then the discomfort eased up considerably.

Early on, my torso was very hot and my hands and calves and feet were cold. Near the end of the ceremony the leader removed the stuffed animals from my chest and all my discomfort disappeared. I actually felt very open and light. At the same time the temperature evened out over my entire body, my torso cooler and the arms and legs warmer.

At another point, the leader placed two pillows on the floor behind the person representing the client. The person then backed up until she was behind the pillows, because that’s where she felt “safe.” The leader then told us that the pillows represented Mother and Father, and the client’s position represented being “before birth.” Later, I found myself standing between those pillows for a time, and that was very uncomfortable. I felt like I was being squeezed. The feeling left me as soon as I was able to step away from the pillows. Almost like being born.

After a while, things seemed to reach a kind of resolution. Then the leader explained what was going on to the client. I’m not sure if I followed everything, but it seemed to mean a lot to the client. I hope she got what she wanted.

I’ve only covered a few of my impressions here. It seemed to me that is was a way to use group consciousness to bring to light information in the client’s subconscious in a way that can lead for healing. It clearly requires intuition and/or guidance on the part of the leader. I think it was pretty cool that the leader was able to generate and manipulate our actions without telling us what the stimulus was. We were just given an anonymous object and told to react. We had no idea what the object represented, and yet we responded in appropriate and informative ways.

I can see how this could have been a form of “sacred theater.” Were people were able to heal each other by working together, learning about each other and bonding in the process. To me, it seems a better way than simply having someone “fix” you while you do nothing, or just watching a healer do all the work.

I never would have known something like this existed if I didn’t randomly pick things and show up. Someone said that 90% of life is just showing up. I think it’s time for me to “show up” in more places.