Barbara Brennan
Encyclopedia
Barbara Ann Brennan is an American author
, spiritual healer
, businesswoman and teacher working in the field of energy healing
. In 2011, she was listed by the Watkins Review as the 94th most spiritually influential person in the world.
degree in Physics
in 1962 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison
, and two years later received her Masters in Atmospheric Physics
from the same institution. She then worked as a research scientist at NASA
's Goddard Space Flight Center
. From 1970, she researched and worked with the "human energy field
". She completed a two–year program in Therapeutic Counselling at the Community of the Whole Person in Washington, D.C.
, followed by a three-year program in Core Energetics at the Institute for Core Energetics in New York, New York in 1978 and a five-year program in Spiritual Healership at the Phoenicia Pathwork Center in Phoenicia, New York in 1979. She was strongly influenced by Eva and John Pierrakos, who founded a system for self-transformation called the Pathwork, drawing on the ideas of Wilhelm Reich
and Alexander Lowen
. Brennan worked with the Pierrakos, and became a Pathwork Helper and Core Energetics therapist. Brennan also took seminars with and was influenced by Rev. Rosalyn L. Bruyere. She developed her own private healing practice in 1977 and then established a training programme to teach others. Brennan claims Ph.D.
s in philosophy
from Greenwich University
and theology
from Holos University, both earned in 2001. These universities are unaccredited.
and energy fields, and descriptions of how human energy fields interact with each other. She has popularized a seven-layer model of the energy field, each layer being structured of differing frequencies and kinds of energy and performing different functions. Brennan views the chakras as transformers that receive and process universal energy, as well as enabling expression and healthy functioning of the individual's own consciousness and psycho-physical make-up. She is best known for taking a methodical, scientific approach to energy healing.
Brennen has created a type of energy healing techniques that she calls "full spectrum healing" to work on the seven layers of the human energy field or auras
.. One of these techniques she calls spiritual surgery works on the fifth level of the human energy field using the power of a spirit surgeon.
, and is licensed by the State of Florida Commission for Independent Education. In 2003, Brennan opened the "Barbara Brennan School of Healing Europe", originally in Mondsee, Austria which then moved to Bad Neuenahr near Bonn
, Germany
in 2006 and moved back to Austria to the small town of Bad Ischl
in 2008. In 2007, a new branch opened in Tokyo
, Japan
. Barbara Brennan School of Healing is a nonaccredited school.
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, spiritual healer
Faith healing
Faith healing is healing through spiritual means. The healing of a person is brought about by religious faith through prayer and/or rituals that, according to adherents, stimulate a divine presence and power toward correcting disease and disability. Belief in divine intervention in illness or...
, businesswoman and teacher working in the field of energy healing
Energy medicine
Energy medicine is one of five domains of "complementary and alternative medicine" identified by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States...
. In 2011, she was listed by the Watkins Review as the 94th most spiritually influential person in the world.
Scientific training and early career
Brennan received a Bachelor of ScienceBachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
degree in Physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
in 1962 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
, and two years later received her Masters in Atmospheric Physics
Atmospheric physics
Atmospheric physics is the application of physics to the study of the atmosphere. Atmospheric physicists attempt to model Earth's atmosphere and the atmospheres of the other planets using fluid flow equations, chemical models, radiation balancing, and energy transfer processes in the atmosphere...
from the same institution. She then worked as a research scientist at NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's Goddard Space Flight Center
Goddard Space Flight Center
The Goddard Space Flight Center is a major NASA space research laboratory established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center. GSFC employs approximately 10,000 civil servants and contractors, and is located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, USA. GSFC,...
. From 1970, she researched and worked with the "human energy field
Energy field disturbance
Energy field disturbance is a nursing diagnosis listed by NANDA that is rooted in energy medicine and alternative medicine.- Definition :...
". She completed a two–year program in Therapeutic Counselling at the Community of the Whole Person in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, followed by a three-year program in Core Energetics at the Institute for Core Energetics in New York, New York in 1978 and a five-year program in Spiritual Healership at the Phoenicia Pathwork Center in Phoenicia, New York in 1979. She was strongly influenced by Eva and John Pierrakos, who founded a system for self-transformation called the Pathwork, drawing on the ideas of Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, known as one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry...
and Alexander Lowen
Alexander Lowen
Dr. Alexander Lowen was an American psychotherapist. A student of Wilhelm Reich in the 1940s and early 1950s in New York, he developed Bioenergetic Analysis, a form of mind-body psychotherapy, with his then-colleague, John Pierrakos...
. Brennan worked with the Pierrakos, and became a Pathwork Helper and Core Energetics therapist. Brennan also took seminars with and was influenced by Rev. Rosalyn L. Bruyere. She developed her own private healing practice in 1977 and then established a training programme to teach others. Brennan claims Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
s in philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
from Greenwich University
Greenwich University
Greenwich University is a controversial distance learning institution, originally founded in 1972 in Missouri , trading from 1990 to 2003 in Hawaii--1998 to 2003 under separate ownership--and from 1998 to 2002 in Norfolk Island...
and theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
from Holos University, both earned in 2001. These universities are unaccredited.
Ideas and theories
Her first book, Hands of Light: A Guide to Healing Through the Human Energy Field, is considered a "classic" in the field of spiritual healing, with reputedly over one million copies in print in 22 languages. Brennan claims to receive intuitive information about her clients during sessions, and to see repetitive patterns in the energy fields of her clients indicating common roots underlying their difficulties. Brennan's books contain drawings of aurasAura (paranormal)
In parapsychology and many forms of spiritual practice, an aura is a field of subtle, luminous radiation surrounding a person or object . The depiction of such an aura often connotes a person of particular power or holiness. Sometimes, however, it is said that all living things and all objects...
and energy fields, and descriptions of how human energy fields interact with each other. She has popularized a seven-layer model of the energy field, each layer being structured of differing frequencies and kinds of energy and performing different functions. Brennan views the chakras as transformers that receive and process universal energy, as well as enabling expression and healthy functioning of the individual's own consciousness and psycho-physical make-up. She is best known for taking a methodical, scientific approach to energy healing.
Brennen has created a type of energy healing techniques that she calls "full spectrum healing" to work on the seven layers of the human energy field or auras
Aura (paranormal)
In parapsychology and many forms of spiritual practice, an aura is a field of subtle, luminous radiation surrounding a person or object . The depiction of such an aura often connotes a person of particular power or holiness. Sometimes, however, it is said that all living things and all objects...
.. One of these techniques she calls spiritual surgery works on the fifth level of the human energy field using the power of a spirit surgeon.
Barbara Brennan School of Healing
In 1982, she closed her private practice in New York City and established the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, designed to train professional healers. The school is now located in FloridaFlorida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, and is licensed by the State of Florida Commission for Independent Education. In 2003, Brennan opened the "Barbara Brennan School of Healing Europe", originally in Mondsee, Austria which then moved to Bad Neuenahr near Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in 2006 and moved back to Austria to the small town of Bad Ischl
Bad Ischl
Bad Ischl is a spa town in Austria. It lies in the southern part of Upper Austria, at the Traun River in the centre of the Salzkammergut region. The town consists of the Katastralgemeinden Ahorn, Bad Ischl, Haiden, Jainzen, Kaltenbach, Lauffen, Lindau, Pfandl, Perneck, Reiterndorf and Rettenbach...
in 2008. In 2007, a new branch opened in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. Barbara Brennan School of Healing is a nonaccredited school.
Publications
- Hands of Light: A Guide to Healing through the Human Energy Field, Bantam, 1987. ISBN 9780553345391
- Light Emerging: The Journey of Personal Healing, Bantam, 1993. ISBN 0553354566
See also
- Index of topics in alternative medicine
- Terms and concepts in alternative medicine
- Body psychotherapyBody PsychotherapyBody psychotherapy, also referred to as body-oriented psychotherapy and somatic psychology, is a significant branch of psychotherapy, with origins in the work of Pierre Janet, Sigmund Freud and particularly Wilhelm Reich....
- ChannellingChannelling (mediumistic)In spirituality, channelling or channeling is the belief that communication of information occurs by or through a person , from a deity, spirit or other paranormal entity outside the mind of the channel...
- Energy (esotericism)
- Energy medicineEnergy medicineEnergy medicine is one of five domains of "complementary and alternative medicine" identified by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States...
- Energy field disturbanceEnergy field disturbanceEnergy field disturbance is a nursing diagnosis listed by NANDA that is rooted in energy medicine and alternative medicine.- Definition :...
- Mental bodyMental bodyThe mental body is one of the subtle bodies in esoteric philosophies, in some religious teachings and in New Age thought. It is understood as a sort of body made up of thoughts, just as the emotional body consists of emotions and the physical body is made up of matter...
- Therapeutic touchTherapeutic touchTherapeutic touch , also known as Non-Contact Therapeutic Touch , is an energy therapy which practitioners claim promotes healing and reduces pain and anxiety. Practitioners of therapeutic touch state that by placing their hands on, or near, a patient, they are able to detect and manipulate the...
- BioenergeticsBioenergeticsBioenergetics is the subject of a field of biochemistry that concerns energy flow through living systems. This is an active area of biological research that includes the study of thousands of different cellular processes such as cellular respiration and the many other metabolic processes that can...