Just because someone has asked for a healing circle does not obligate you to conduct one. Check into the inquirer's motives carefully. You not only have the right to feel comfortable with the inquirer, you actually need to establish some sort of rapport to help ensure the success of the session.

Do not force a session down the throat of a person whose fear level is too high. If you do, you probably won't get very far because that inquirer will be in a state of heavy denial.

Preparing for the Session

Next, choose a place to conduct the session. The stereotypical seance is held at night, in a small, closed room that has little or no light and plenty of dark corners to hide the special effects apparatus. You know: the faked floating horns, thumping tables, and disembodied moaning and groaning. It is possible, however, to conduct a healing circle at high noon in the middle of a field--if that is what will make the inquirer most comfortable.

It's probably easiest to locate the session in the living room of a house. During the session, keep the curtains open. If the session is at night, the lights remain on but not glaringly bright.

Arrange enough chairs in a small circle to accommodate all participants. Put a box of tissues on the floor in the middle of the circle. They are always in demand after (and many times during) a session to mop up those healing tears.

The person who issues instructions and keeps the healing circle on track is called the conductor. The conductor invites the remaining participants, who should show up out of love and a desire to be of service to others, not to be paid for their time.

Let's face it: among the general public, the seance has a terrible reputation. Some people erroneously regard a healing circle as a form of devil worship, which it most emphatically is not. A lot of people have faked phenomena during seances to prey upon others' emotional vulnerability and bilk them out of lots of money. Avoid this issue simply by never charging for healing circles, instead offering them for free as a community service.

The conductor encourages the inquirer to bring a trusted friend or relative if the inquirer so desires. The best size group for a healing circle is between four and eight people total. As stated earlier, participants need have no formal training in using the soul or psychic senses. Make every effort to include people who've never had any instruction in using their intuition (psychic/soul senses) because they bring fewer expectations to the session and thus often are more open to what does come through.

Ask for Protection

The best candidates are loving and open-minded. Don't make the session more difficult by using it to try to prove something to that friend who thinks your interest in this stuff means you've gone off your rocker at last. Skepticism is fine. Denial, however, will hamstring the session by blocking the information flow.

One important point: the less information about the soul in question and the inquirer that the conductor and other participants possess the better. This helps assure the inquirer that participants received their information only from the soul in question and not from some other source.

The inquirer always sits exactly opposite the conductor, who decides where everyone else will sit. Again, use your soul senses to get an overall impression of the different soul energies of the participants. Then try to alternate a more masculine energy with a more feminine.

This doesn't mean always alternate men and women. Some males have a very gentle energy, while some women's energy is strong, more push than pull. The mix of the two helps balance the energy flow around the circle.

Seat the inquirer's companion immediately to the inquirer's left, so that this person may send loving support to the inquirer. Put the participant with the strongest energy to the conductor's left, so that
this person may strengthen the conductor during the session. Instead of placing participants around a table, leave the circle open and put the chairs close to each other.

After seating participants, ask them to join hands, their right palms covering the left palms of the person to their right. Make sure they are comfortable, as they may spend almost an hour in this position.

The conductor then directs all present to close their eyes and focus on their breathing. Basic biofeedback techniques for slowing down the breath rate are helpful and an excellent way to calm everyone down and
clear the mind for what's next.

Once participants have relaxed, the conductor asks them to send out love from their hearts, down their right arms toward the person on their right until the love flows all the way around the circle. Ask them to use their soul senses to visualize that love or feel its vibration, to be aware that it is there or simply to understand that it is present.

It is this love, which is magnified considerably by group energy and which includes the special love of the inquirer, that will draw the soul to the circle and help keep it there.

Now, conductor, you can skip almost everything else written so far. But heed this at least, even if you think it sounds silly and won't make any difference anyway.

ALWAYS ASK ALOUD FOR PROTECTION.

You may call this protection spirit guides, or guardian angels, or a different preferred label. Whatever you call them is just dandy so long as you call on them. They respect free will and cannot act on your behalf without a request. So please please please, conductor, always be sure to ask aloud for each healing circle participant's protectors to stand just outside the circle and allow in only the soul sought by the inquirer. They'll be delighted to comply.

What's the point of this exercise? For starters, it eliminates completely the kind of spook bully that scared the bejeezus out of Tammy and friend. Ask for protection and you and your companions can be about your healing mission in peace and complete safety.