The Temenos Touch

Evelyn's life journey is remarkable by any standards. After studying economics at Glasgow and Stanford, she embarked on a successful 20-year career as an economist, financial TV journalist and corporate communications executive a result which she wrote her first book in 2004 entitled Corporate Bitch to Shaman - uncovering the links between 21st-century science, consciousness and the ancient healing practices. The reader knows they are in for an interesting ride with the dedications listed even before the contents page is including Peruvian shamans, craniosacral therapy, rebirthing, psycho synthesis, Reiki, Tantra, deep memory process, constellations therapy, and five rhythms dance and movement meditation. Very few of us have such a wide range of experience to draw on. The book itself is divided into three sections: science, art and a shorter one of experiences and case studies. The two major scientific and medical influences are Ervin Laszlo and Larry Dossey with his framework of three medical eras - mechanical, psychosomatic and nonlocal.

For those unfamiliar with her earlier work, Evelyn retells her story in the first chapter and the turning point represented by a workshop on remote viewing, which shattered her materialistic understanding of life. She lived a double track existence with a full-time job between that time and 2010, when she embarked on a seven-month initiatic journey to Peru, India, Thailand and Laos. When she returned, she felt ready to embark on her new life as a shamanic practitioner, energy healer and bodyworker with first-hand experience of what she calls the omnipresent inforealm. Right from the beginning, she emphasises choice and responsibility. She gives a clear explanation of the science of the inforealm, drawing also on the work of Rupert Sheldrake before moving on to neurobiology and the nature of the mind-body connection with respect to stress and trauma. Her well-informed discussion of holonomic brain draws on the work of Iain McGilchrist among others known challenges the readers not to get stuck in old belief patterns but rather to take responsibility for learning, evolving and growing.

The second part enables only learn to apply some of these theories to the body in a practical and therapeutic way so that one comes to appreciate the relationship between the accumulated experience and blockages in the body. This sometimes involves communicating with parts of the body where pain is trapped; sometimes this is related to sexuality. Real healing may involve work with the shadow and accessing core wounds, not a comfortable process. The therapeutic space - or temenos of the title - needs to be one of intention, attention and empathy - being really open to whatever comes up in working deeply with the energy field.

There are then separate chapters on Reiki, shamanic healing, past life regression, working with ancestors through constellations therapy, and the importance of ceremony and ritual. The case histories bring the ideas to life and one realises the nonlocal importance of one's own quality of thought, especially when directed towards others. Evelyn clearly has remarkable intuitive and energetic capacity in getting to the root of her clients' issues and it is clear that she has managed to integrate insights from many of the traditions that she has studied. It is important to identify the right level or kind of treatment as well as identifying the source of the challenge. There are a number of rituals that we can profitably do in our everyday lives in order to reconcile ourselves with the past and move clearly into the future. The detailed case histories reinforce the reader's understanding of various complementary interventions and the outcome of the book is an encouragement to the reader to embark on our own healing work, shedding our limiting beliefs and connecting with our true potential. The book is an inspiration to do just that.