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About Blessingway Healing
& Reiki Master Ela Stansberry
It all began with a simple faith-based idea fueled by a deep passion to learn how to heal in the same way of the greatest Master Healer, Jesus Christ, as well as renown profound Masters through the ages. Blessingway Healing, in partnership with North Carolina Reiki Confluence, offers access to once lost spiritual traditions of healing in a practical comfortable manner. Our approach is rooted in wisdom teachings from humanity's past, inseparable from sacredness and innate divine integrity, ensuring that every session reflects our commitment to higher good for all.
When it comes to "why," asking that question was where Master Ela Stansberry began this unusual unique journey into healing. What causes a person to seek to learn about what a human being can do to be able to heal in an energetic spiritual manner? Is it even possible? In Christianity, there are the accounts of Jesus Christ the Master Healer, as well as his disciples, who could bring health in a touch or the laying on of hands. So that is where this started. The idea that it is possible to heal spontaneously. Perhaps even the concept of this takes developing faith or open-mindedness in the idea that human beings are more than just physical bodies in a material world. There are also accounts of Great Masters throughout the ages who were considered healers in this same manner. And the biggest question is simply how does one learn to do such things in modern times? From the moment the possibility came to mind, Master Ela Stansberry began delving deeper into spiritual and religious studies, and the path opened itself. At some point, she states that she began feeling heat rise from her hands during prayer. And as time passed, she began inquiries into any known techniques of healing. Almost immediately, answers were forthcoming, when she was told by a friend about Reiki.
While researching what Reiki was in metaphysical bookstores in 1993, she learned more about Reiki and began looking for a master to teach her. In early 1994, she finally found a respected local Holistic Healing Institution that was offering Reiki 1st and 2nd degree classes. Immediately, she signed up! But the classes were canceled the week before they were scheduled to happen. Sometimes things happen the way they are meant to happen, especially on the path of healing. As disappointed as she was, Ela was living in an apartment at the time and she had to regularly haul her clothes to the laundry mat just around the corner. While sitting there on the day the Reiki Classes were originally supposed to happen, she met a beautiful older lady with long silver hair. While sitting waiting on clothes to wash, they began having a friendly conversation. When Ela mentioned that she was supposed to take a Reiki class that very weekend, the lady just stopped and looked her in the face and said calmly, "That class will be held at my home next weekend." Surprise! It was meant to be. That mysterious lady turned out to also be a Reiki Therapist, and it was her Master who was the teacher for all those classes. Sometimes the divine will lead one exactly where you need to be the most for highest good. And that is how it began. The path showed the way directly. And according to Master Ela, those Reiki Classes and traditional attunements she received have been the most blessed moment and circumstance in her life. She says it gave her life a profound spiritual foundation to build upon.
Before receiving the attunement in her first degree class, Master Ela thought "Either this will be something or it won't." And with that first attunement, Master Ela states that life changed in a way that cannot truly be given the significant honor it deserves through mere words. It was a mystical shift into a different way of life. She said it felt as if a whole different world opened up to her and she could feel it and sense it all around her all at once. And now over 30 years later, as a Reiki Master, with many years of diverse experience of what healing means, she has only followed the path forward, learning and growing as a human being, while discovering the miraculous aspects of humanity that so few are able to recognize in their own person or in this world. There is so much more to our physical existence when we seek to heal on deeper levels.
Master Ela Stansberry's spiritual path has led her to intense study with a Swami in the self-realization Shaktipat tradition, brought her to study Christianity comprehensively, and even briefly led her to enter a cloistered Catholic Monastery, where she became life-long friends with several lovely monks from Gethsemane Monastery. These were brothers to the renown Thomas Merton. She studied Sufism and Taoism, and made lifelong friends, one who went on to become a Tao Master. And then began studies for over 24 years with revered Tibetan Rinpoches of the Nyingma School. She credits the growth of her abilities to the process of healing oneself through the normal every day practices of introspection, mantra, prayer, holistic nutrition and compassionate intent.
Recently, she decided to begin teaching Reiki Classes again because she feels it is so needed in our tumultuous world as it is. So, in regard to classes she will offer this blessingway service again if people are interested in small personalized classes, which are certified through North Carolina Reiki Confluence, an offshoot of her own Reiki Master's Tennessee Reiki Confluence. And that lineage Master Ela Stansberry offers her students is only seven down from the revered founder, Master Mikao Usui, who rediscovered Reiki from a Chinese/Japanese source of ancient Buddhist Sutras. This lineage is carried through a handful of his original students, to Ela Stansberry's own Master and then to herself. And as far as Reiki Therapy Sessions, although a lot of her healing sessions in the past have been for the sake of non profit volunteer work with hospice and hospitals, she is again taking clients through the week. Since her time is limited, Master Ela Stansberry looks to specialize with people who really need help healing, specifically those with cancer, debilitating chronic problems, injuries that are not healing fast enough or are causing discomfort, and those with problems such as PTSD or needing options with pain management.
Please feel free to reach out to Blessingway Healing, and let us know your needs. We will work with you however we can.
Healing is a natural process in life. Physical healing can often open the doors to aspects in our life that bring meaning and revelational shifts into better viewpoint and a happier life. And all of us need help with such matters. We make life better for one another in the most wonderful ways when we just decide to heal ourselves and be a light for others. Everyone has a blessing to give.
(Also, please note: The classes have a set cost as they do in all traditional Reiki Usui Ryoho. However, the Reiki Sessions are offered at an affordable cost, considered to be "donation based" because the funds go to support Equine Rescue. Equine rescue and all aspects of equestrian care has always been Master Ela Stansberry's passion, and a part of her life. So the sessions fund raise to support this cause.)
Scroll down to read more about the "History of Reiki" below....
The History of Reiki
Reiki is a Japanese word that is defined as the life energy within us all. In Japan this word is used in daily life as we would use the word soul or spirit. When taken apart, “Rei” means the universal spirit or God and “Ki” is life force. The name Reiki was adapted to typify this natural method of healing when it was first brought to America.
The history of Reiki came about through Dr. Mikao Usui, who founded the natural healing method known as Reiki in 1922. And, it was his student, Hawayo Takata, who brought Reiki to America in 1940, when she returned from Japan to her home in Hawaii.
Dr. Mikao Usui lived from 1865 to 1926, as a dean of a Christian boys’ school in Japan. The founder of Reiki began his quest for a spiritual method of healing when approached by an inquiring student. His student asked him if he believed that Jesus could heal. After Dr. Usui stated that he did believe that to be true, the student mentioned the passage in Christian scripture where Jesus states, “You can do anything I can do and more.” The boy proceeded to ask Dr. Usui “how” to heal like Jesus. Because Dr. Mikao Usui was not able to answer the child, he spent the next eight years searching for information on healing. Over the course of those years he traveled to America, but found no answers. His travels eventually took him to a monastery in Japan, where an ancient sutra had recently been discovered, containing accounts of a system of healing.
Upon examination, the sacred sutra did indeed contain a method of healing. However, after studying these documents for two years Dr. Usui realized he had no way to implement them. A spiritual master at the monastery suggested that he fasted and prayed. So, Dr. Usui went onto a near-by mountaintop and fasted for twenty-one days. On the last day he had a vision and experienced a mystical transmission of information on how to use the healing technique he had rediscovered, as well as how to transmit the ability to heal.
In the modern world today, most Western Reiki has gained popularity globally. With so much time since being rediscovered, some Western Reiki Practitioners have more diverse adapted methods that naturally metamorphosized with time. Since 1940, there are long lineages through countless Reiki Masters passing on this method of healing. Some have their own techniques that were not originally taught, but may have come from other modalities of energetic healing, such as Healing Touch.
However, as with Blessingway Healing & North Carolina Reiki Confluence, there are still a few remaining Reiki Master Therapists very close to the original founder, Master Mikao Usui, who can teach, such as Ela Stansberry, who maintains traditional methods of Usui Reiki Ryoho as they were taught to her from her Reiki Master Jaya Seeley. Master Jaya Seeley's lineage comes down through Master Hawayo Takata, and is sixth down from Master Mikao Usui. Just by the factor of time and how many generations of people have come and gone, it certainly makes it more difficult to find master teachers who are closer to the original founder in the path of lineages. Yet that does not mean that there are no longer amazing Reiki Therapist available in America. To say that would be a disservice to the powerful blessing this form of healing really is.
Reiki will withstand the test of time once again, as long as we do not forget this profoundly beautiful gift of healing exists. If humanity forgets again, it would be such a tremendous loss. With that, it is good to keep the lineage alive, and support the Reiki Masters who are able to teach it to others. As this story goes, this is exactly why the original ancient Buddhist method was lost to humanity long ago, except for being written down on the pages of sacred Sutras. When tracing back the probable source of where the Sutras where found that held the healing practice we came to know as Reiki, it is very possibly from Japanese Esoteric Buddhism known as Shingon. Comparatively, Shingon is a Japanese Buddhism perhaps more similar to Mahayana or Vajrayana Buddhism rather than the Theravada traditions.
Most American Reiki Therapists trace back to well-loved Reiki Master Hawayo Takata, who was mentioned earlier. In 1940, Master Takata's students were the primary source of Usui Reiki Ryoho that eventually spread across America up until present day. Mastership in the early era of Master Mikao Usui and his master students took many years of apprenticeship and training. Master Hawayo Takata, herself, sold everything she owned in order to be able to train with Master Chujiro Hayashi in Tokyo, Japan, so she could become a Reiki Master and bring the Reiki technique of healing back to the United States via Hawaii. Among American students, the process on learning Reiki and even becoming a master is far more available and much less demanding and time consuming than it was for the original students to learn. It depends on a Reiki student's viewpoint and level of dedication when it comes to how we look at Reiki Usui Ryoho in modern times, and how much reverent value we may give it. Even in our present age, Reiki should still be given the honor and respect it is due, no matter what manner a person is able to receive this gift or use it.
In Japan, practitioners still uphold and teach traditional Japanese Reiki methods, such as Jikiden Reiki. Jikiden Reiki is the lineage that comes from Master Mikao Usui's student Master Chujiro Hayashi, who was one of twenty-one original master students trained by Master Usui. Master Chujiro Hayashi taught Master Chiyoko Yamaguchi and her son Master Tadao Yamaguchi, who revived Jikiden Reiki that is still popular today in Japan. The Jikiden Reiki Institute in Kyoto, Japan, serves as a prominent example of a center preserving and teaching a traditional Japanese Reiki style. These traditional forms emphasize cultivating sensitivity of hands and may differ in structure and emphasis compared to Western styles.
