If you’re game for some really sideways health, listen up.

A word of warning first for the fainthearted: if the whole concept of “channelling” freaks you out, turn away now.

Seth is what is described as a “non-physical personality essence” who was “channelled” by Jane Roberts in her New York apartment in years up to her death in 1984.

The extraordinary thing about Seth is how all-seeing, all-knowing and apparently all-understanding he was on so many subjects and aspects of life, death and even health.

The Way Toward Health makes the following very familiar points to supporters of sideways treatments:

1. Why medicine and therapy often perpetuate illness.
2. How the practice of naming diseases can work against us.
3. The influence of religion in creating disease.
4. How children’s health is influenced by parents’ beliefs.
5. Humour as an effective factor in healing.

There’s not much there that any self-respecting alternative therapist would disagree with, except, perhaps, the use of the word “therapy”.

If this rings your bell, the book is available at Amazon and other good bookstores.

How effective is energy healing?

A lot of people swear by it, some deride it. Let’s take a look at a new case study.

Riverdance star Michael Flatley recently spoke in the press about how energy healing has saved his career.

In 2006 the dancer was struck by a strange virus that doctors had been unable to pin down, which left him exhausted and suffering from acute joint and muscular pain. He approached Irish complementary therapy practitioner, Michael O’Doherty for help with his condition when conventional medicine failed him.

O’Doherty, who pioneered the Plexus Bio-Energy system that has reportedly worked wonders for Flatley, has praised Flatley’s positive character and commitment to his own healing, using words such as ‘charismatic’ and ‘inspiring’ to describe his client.

Plexus practitioners detect energy blockages within a client’s energy system and remove these with a selection of hand movements, allowing life energy to flow freely. O’Doherty’s website claims that the technique unlocks the healing ability lying dormant within every cell of the body.

The Plexus system also encourages clients to take ownership of their own life and health through self empowerment and an increased awareness of the need for a harmonious existence. O’Doherty believes that developing our psychic abilities is key if we are to move out of the current discordant consciousness of world crisis:

“Unfolding our extrasensory or psychic potential is the gateway for humanity to mature out of its present ecological and spiritual crisis into a species which is capable of living at peace with itself and in harmony with the Earth and Universe,” he says.