Navigating the Ethics and Boundaries of Healing Without Consent

I was discussing the topic of permissions with a woman (let’s call her Jane) who’d recently done a class on the importance of asking a person or animal’s permission before you did Reiki healing on them, or even before you communicated with them. Jane said, “You can’t offer healing to someone without their permission because it’s invasive.” I agreed with her in principle, but at the same time I discussed the practice of surrogate tapping in EFT or my Lazer Tapping program.

For acupressure tapping – which is an integrated mind/body/soul therapy – I can tap on behalf of anyone. My dog, the crying baby on a plane, my father, etc. The premise is that if the being does not want the healing, they will just block it at an energetic level and not let it in. When I did my practitioner training for EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) we learned that the client did not need to believe in acupressure tapping, but they had to be open to it. The inference was that if they outright didn’t believe in it, their energy/belief would block it from working.

Surrogate tapping for Cobra

When I surrogate tap for someone, I do not tap on their body, nor do I visualize tapping on their body. I tap (or visualize tapping) on my own body, after energetically linking with their body. I can feel whether the person wants this assistance, or not. If I feel they don’t want it, then why bother? I don’t need to ask them in person/physically for permission.

I was once on a train in London and god/spirit directed my attention to a man across the aisle and a few seats down. God said, “His marriage is ending and he needs some help.” I did not go up to the man and ask his permission to send him healing. I simply visualized God’s healing love and light flowing into him. Often I will visualize this coming to the person via their guardian angel. As the light flowed into him, he straightened in his seat, his face cleared, and his whole body became lighter – like he’d just dropped a few hundred pounds of heavy weight off his shoulders. I didn’t say a word to him.

Was this invasive? Should I have gone up to him and verbally asked his permission?

Jane also insisted that you had to ask the person or animal, in person. Obviously, if you’re communicating in this way with an animal, it’s going to be telepathic (energetic communication). So why would you need to be physically present? On the flip side, if you are physically present with the animal, and they are locked into a room or arena with you, then blocking your energy will take a lot of their energy – due to your physical proximity. That’s not good.

In my podcast with animal/soul communicator Ginny Jablonski, she tells a story of a gathering where a woman prepared to give a dog some energy healing. But Ginny could ‘hear’ the dog and knew that he did not want the healing, because he was dealing with some complex issues and he needed other stuff resolved first. When Ginny questioned her and asked if she had asked the dog whether he wanted healing, the woman replied, “Oh on my way here, I told all the dogs that I was going to give them healing today.” Ginny persisted, “Yes, but did you ask him?” The dog had been brought by his owner and was now in a room with a closed door. Had this dog been given a chance to say, “No”?

If the woman had made her announcement and the door was open to the backyard – where the dogs could ground and be supported by the earth – then any dogs who did not want healing could have left the room and gone outside. The dogs who stayed would be signalling their desire to receive healing.

What if the person giving/channeling the healing was not a clear conduit? What if they were ego-based, or had energy/entity attachments they didn’t know about, so the energy coming through them was manky-skank? Animals would be able to see/perceive this immediately, while the humans in the room would likely remain clueless.

A family member once plunked her newborn baby in my arms and left the room. I had never felt a being (still alive) with such low lifeforce energy. As I held the baby, I asked if this was their pathway/karma in life? Or did they want healing?

“YES! Give me healing!” was the reply. This is a baby, so I cannot verbally ask for permission, I had to do it telepathically. But baby was physically present with me and also unable to walk away, so getting clear permission was important.

I once went to flow healing to one of my horses and she stopped me cold, “You think I can’t heal myself?” she asked. Well alrighty then! I didn’t ask her permission first, but I was open and listening, and we are in an intimate relationship, with free-flowing communication.

Another time, my wild horse Makah-Mahpee – who doesn’t allow anyone to touch him – started choking on his vitamin/alfalfa pellets. I looked at him and asked, “What the heck are you doing?!” He gestured to my barn help and said, “Natalie. Show her how to heal me.”

Makah-Mahpee (Earth-Sky in Sioux)

Did he ask Natalie’s permission before putting her in this stressful, high-pressure situation? Nope.

I had literally minutes to teach her pranic healing – which she picked up almost immediately and cleared his choke from 4 feet away. Makah you crafty bugger. He obviously knew that Natalie already had this skill from another life and just needed it re-activated. If I had tried to help Natalie do the healing, Makah would have blocked me.

Now let’s look at this from another angle. Is prayer healing? Can people be healed or events affected through prayer? And when you pray for someone, do you get their permission first?

During World War II when Hitler was about to march on England, hundreds of intercessory prayer chains sprang into action across the continent. Praying night and day. For some unknown reason, Hitler halted his push towards the UK for three years, which gave them enough time to get ready and develop their weapons. So was the prayer agenda-driven? Of course. Did they ask Hitler’s permission to pray? Of course not.

Does burdock ask my permission to blanket my ranch? Does the cottonwood tree ask my permission to fall on my fence? Does the coyote ask my permission to eat my cat, does he ask the cat’s permission?

When I used to tap for my kids, I would say, “I didn’t ask their permission to fuck them up, so I sure as hell don’t need their permission to heal it.” And of course, always holding the intention that if they don’t want the healing, they can just block it. In fact, every time I have done a surrogate tapping session for someone, whether it is human or animal, I can instantly feel whether the being wants that session or not. Obviously, if their higher self doesn’t want it, I don’t waste my time by proceeding.

I totally understand the value of permissions in the conscious world. For example, not giving someone psychic information unless they ask for it, or unless you ask their permission first. But we are dealing with the energetic and the subconscious/higher self here. I just do not see where official, verbal permissions are necessary in this realm.

Now let’s say I decide to do a tapping session for Bill Gates, film it and put it up on YouTube. Our culture holds that once someone becomes a public figure, you no longer need to ask for permissions, as they are in the public domain. Oh and here’s another application of that: If someone writes a book and publishes it for public consumption, I do not need to ask their permission to write a review of their book. There is a certain permission granted as soon as you make something publicly available.

People write about me all the time and never ask my permission, and it doesn’t bother me at all. I consider it their right to express their own experience and opinion about my work or my offerings that are in the public domain. However, if someone emails me their feedback, they have not put that in the public domain, so I will ask their permission before I publish their comment. But if they post their comment on Facebook, I do not ask their permission to republish it on Instagram, because their permission is inherent in the fact that they have already made their comment public.

So would I film and publish a tapping session for Bill Gates? Nope. Energetically, that feels icky because it is very similar to shaming. As soon as I name someone, we’re back in the conscious/physical world. The dogs are trapped in the room. Physical permissions are required.

Permissions… such an interesting topic. I look forward to hearing your thoughts/experiences on this one!