For years I have been intrigued with alternative methods of healing and have long recommended them with the same conviction with which I'd prescribe a drug or surgical procedure. After all, every society through the ages has had effective healers of the body, mind, and spirit. The modern medical curriculum, on the other hand, has been around less than 100 years.

Modern medicine is extremely good at treating acute illness and accidents but remarkably poor at treating the whole person, including their vibrational field. In my experience, you can use all the drugs and surgery you want to heal your physical body or relieve your symptoms, but until you address your emotional, mental, and spiritual patterns-all of which make up your vibrational body-you won't be truly healed.

Since it's often hard to identify and heal our own emotional and physical patterns, it can be very helpful to work with a healer who can lend a hand-or a telepathic tuning fork in the case of Deena Zalkind Spear.

Violin Maker and Energy Healer

I was introduced to the healing work of Deena Zalkind Spear earlier this year when a friend sent me the manuscript for her new book and a note telling me how effectively Deena had helped heal her sick dog. Deena is a professional violin maker, energy healer, and author of Ears of the Angels: Healing the Sounds-Heard and Unheard-of Violins, Humans and Animals (Singing Woods Press, 2002), the highly engaging and humorous story of how she came to do the work she now does.

Following undergraduate education in neurobiology at Cornell and a few years of work in the field of analytical chemistry, Deena felt moved to become a violin maker and acoustical researcher, eventually marrying her husband, also a luthier. Their work brings them into contact with top violinists, violists, and cellists throughout the United States.

In addition, Deena was intrigued by metaphysical phenomena. In 1997, she was graduated from the four-year Barbara Brennan School of Healing. This training, along with additional input from other healers and the innovative acoustical work she had done for years, led her to the ability to alter and improve sound vibrations in both musical instruments and sentient beings-first in person, then as she became more confident in her skills, at a distance. Deena's ability to effect positive change in the sound of violins and cellos is obvious to the numerous musicians with whom she works, even though they don't understand how she does it. In fact, most of Deena's regular string player clientele have learned not to discuss their secret with skeptical colleagues.

Given her scientific background, Deena also has been interested in measuring the outcomes of her adjustments using advanced techniques in acoustical engineering. And yes, it has been found that the healing energy she sends stringed instruments really does change the physical oscillations of the instruments.

The same is true for humans who are ready to receive the healing energy she sends. Though we don't yet have instruments advanced enough to measure changes in the vibration of humans or animals, it is very clear that these changes do take place and that they can have a significant impact on health. Ears of the Angels is full of wonderful stories that document this. I've also sent enough people to Deena to know that it works, and I've had several tune-ups myself.

How to Satisfy Your Left Hemisphere's Need for Proof

In her work with clients, Deena spends a lot of time dealing with the intellectual resistance people have to the whole idea of healing at a distance. This isn't surprising. We've been brought up in a culture that promotes the belief "if you can't measure it, it doesn't exist." There's something about the very structure of our brains that seems to automatically discount information that our intellects aren't wired to receive. We're perfectly willing to believe everything we hear on the evening news even though we know it's biased for ratings, but we're not accustomed to believing that we can actually change the world through the way we're vibrating!

What we don't readily appreciate is that we humans are born with the ability to perceive many things that science can't yet measure. Sadly, most of us get talked out of these abilities early on because they're not culturally approved. For example, children can often read the energy fields of people and will naturally avoid those they don't like. Well-meaning parents may discount this reaction by urging them to "Go on, dear, give your uncle a kiss." This forces the child to participate in a relationship that doesn't feel good in order to win family acceptance.

Deena understands this problem, and explains that she, too, had to overcome some initial surprise. "�[To] accept that the sound of an instrument is changing, when no one is physically present to change it, is quite a mental and emotional leap for most musicians-even for the ones who have experienced and believe in hands-on energy work," she writes. "How could I expect any different? I, myself, had a bit of a belief gap. Frankly, if I weren't doing this all the time, I'm not sure I would consider it possible."

During the last 20 years or so, I've had many experiences that are outside what most people consider normal. This includes my exposure to the medical intuition of Mona Lisa Schulz, which is extraordinarily accurate, despite the fact that Mona Lisa needs only a person's name, age, and permission to read their energy field in great detail. Mona Lisa's gift of sight is so much a part of my life that I no longer find it unusual. I do realize, however, that most of you don't hang out with a friend who can see the truth about almost any situation.

Despite the reluctance of our left brains to accept the reality of the human energy field and vibrational healing, there is, in fact, a great deal of scientific evidence that documents the effectiveness of healing at a distance through modalities that are variously referred to as "distant intentionality," "applied mental effort," "prayer," or "spiritual healing." Dr. Larry Dossey, an expert on science and prayer, points out that there are more than 130 rigorous studies that document the efficacy of these modalities. They are mostly ignored by mainstream medicine, however.

What Deena Does

Using the techniques of distant healing, or "tuning," that she first developed to adjust the sound of violins, Deena tunes the human body or the body of a pet that she connects with while its owner is thinking about it. Deena works over the phone, which has to be a conventional, plugged-in phone-not a portable or cell phone. (The vibrations of wireless phones feel too inharmonious and unpleasant to her.) She then asks you to count to five and may have you sing a couple notes as well. Then she puts you on hold and does her tuning thing. After that, you repeat the count and the notes. I heard and felt the difference in my voice immediately. It became deeper and more resonant. And if you have a health problem, it will often (but not always-it depends on the intention and readiness of the recipient to allow stuck energy/emotions/beliefs to resume natural flow) improve as well, sometimes immediately.

One of my patients arose one morning with dizziness and a headache. This was very unusual and it frightened her. Knowing that modern medicine is not very good at pinpointing the causes of dizziness, I suggested that she call Deena for a healing. During her session, my patient experienced shaking in her legs and heat in the soles of her feet. This quickly passed, and so did the dizziness and headache. Another patient was having trouble with insomnia. She experienced a great deal of relief after just one "tuning."

I have also referred people who were undergoing various surgical procedures or chemotherapy. Deena is able to help patients "detoxify" anesthetic or chemo and thus receive more benefit with fewer side effects.

Deena even assists people who are having organ transplants by helping infuse the energy of the recipient into the organ, which automatically clears the energy of the donor. This has resulted in the organ recipient having to use less immunosuppressant drugs than they might otherwise have had to. It is sometimes even possible to have a healing powerful enough to avoid the transplant in the first place.

Working with a variety of medical intuitives, Deena is also able to help people address the emotional patterns that are commonly associated with their illnesses. She points out that the root cause of almost all illness is the inability to love ourselves unconditionally. That's why it's so difficult to heal ourselves. It's often far easier to love others more than ourselves. I agree completely. Part of this is because our society hasn't yet figured out the distinction between narcissism as a personality disorder and true self-love.

Getting Real About Death and Dying

But healing isn't all Deena does. Sometimes the energy she sends is used by the recipient to die, because, as she writes, "it takes energy to die." The aspect of Deena's work I like most is her honesty about this whole area. She writes: "No matter how much energy a healer attempts to send, there are times when nothing, or little, changes. In the case of one cat with heart problems, I ignored my [inner] guidance and kept trying to get the energy into the cat for about an hour. The cat's human was so distraught, and I empathized with her feelings so much I just kept sending energy, even though I felt little progress and possibly resistance�Eventually the cat's field budged-slightly. I called Louise Cook [an intuitive] for assistance. She translated�: �The cat doesn't give a damn.' The [next] day, the cat lay down in front of the refrigerator and peacefully died. It was her plan all along."

Deena has also learned much from her own animal companions about death. In one case she writes,"We had a wonderful frog, �Gerard,' who lived in a small man-made pond outside our front door in Maryland. This was a very unusual frog, with obvious personality. He appeared to be a very confident, happy being who allowed me to approach and sit next to him. One unusually cold winter, the entire tiny pond became a block of ice. I discovered Gerard's frozen, lifeless form. Devastated, I phoned Marlene [another intuitive with whom she works], who had communicated with him in the past. Gerard, perfectly happy as always, was right there when she tuned in. �We don't have your neurotic attachment to death,' he said." Amen, Gerard.

I urge you to get a copy of Deena's book to read about the medicine of the future. If you're a string player, you'll discover a whole new way to enhance the sound of your instrument. Even if you're not, her book will awaken you to your essence-sound and vibration-which can be more beautifully tuned. Through energy work, your chances for true healing (not just squelching symptoms temporarily) increase greatly. Quite frankly, I think people are going to look back 100 or 200 years from now and shake their heads at how barbaric some of our medical treatments seem by comparison to the integrated, energy-based techniques that will be accepted practice in the future.

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