Welcome to The Gift ? a simple pattern that is both ancient as well as modern, with a thousand and one uses, that can make the world a different place for you, for the people you love, for the people you don't love, and for those who you haven't even met yet.

It may be that the act of giving The Gift can make changes at a far wider level too; as more and more minds become involved in this wonderful process, we might well have the opportunity to permanently influence matters on a profound plane of reality.

Having worked professionally with Energy Therapies for many years, I am very aware that we receive far more information and insight about the nature of reality around us than we could consciously ever understand, or evaluate, or even respond to.

Much of this information is invisible ? but you can still feel it and it certainly has the power to make you happy and bright, or to bring you down; it is this information or knowledge that makes the hair on your neck rise on entering specific buildings; that gives you a strange feeling in the pit of your stomach before the telephone has even rang, and that accounts for "gut level responses" to people, situations, proposals and ideas.

When you are engaged with another in any kind of healing relationship, and this could be both as a professional therapist or just listening to a friend who is in trouble and you are trying to help them somehow, both you and I have the power to help in a most profound way ? if only we knew how to transfer our invisible and unspoken understandings into action in some way.

The Gift is the bridge over which your deep and unspoken understanding and your knowing about how to help can travel to the other person. It is easy to give, any human alive can do this ? children are especially good at it - and you will know that a change has occurred when you have given The Gift.

What exactly happens when you give The Gift is a mystery. It has been suggested that you could be making a healing adjustment to the other's energy system, or maybe that you adjust the flow of the meridians through their bodies, or perhaps align a chakra or two in just the right way. I'm not sure what happens, only that something happens, that it feels wonderful and right, and that it creates positive change both for the giver and for the receiver.

I invite you to try it for yourself. It's a simple thing yet endlessly applicable in its very simplicity and profoundly useful and helpful in many situations.

How To Give The Gift

Very simply, we are going to ask for a metaphorical representation of our unique contribution to the person to whom we are going to give The Gift.

The name metaphor means a container ? and in the case of The Gift, our metaphor will "contain" whatever the person needs from us at this precise moment in time and space. It could be an understanding, a special vibration of love, something that might remove a certain negative energy, something that could unblock something, or provide nourishment in some way, support, an embrace, a space of silence or perhaps sanctuary or sustenance.

We do not need to consciously understand what it is that we are giving; and I am saying "consciously understand" because when you have given The Gift, you will have a different kind of understanding ? you will know that it was the right thing to give, because it "feels right". You might not be able to explain in words how it was the right thing ? but then, metaphor and intuition are from the unspeakable realms, where what exists is beyond words, and that's just fine.

So, for a moment, consider a person to whom you might like to give The Gift.

Allow yourself to consider them in all ways, and beyond the face they may be wearing, beyond their social status and clothes, beyond their problems and successes, beyond any love or jealousy you might have for them.

Consider them and then ask yourself this question:

At this time, at this moment, I ask what gift I can give to this person.

Relax and let an idea or image bubble up in your mind. This image, sound, feeling or idea is the container that will carry your unique gift to the other.

Here are some examples of gifts that appeared when the question was asked:

Earth.

Now, take your time to consider the person and find a gift for them. Don't argue with your choice and accept whatever springs to mind; your conscious mind doesn't know enough to know what would be the perfect gift but your unconscious mind does, and that is the place from where the metaphor arises.

Most people more than readily can think of something. Should your mind go blank, you can either leave the request to keep working on it and send it to you as a "flash of insight" at any time within the next few days; or you may consider which colour might be good for this person, and then just imagine a gift box with a matching ribbon on top in that colour and trust that your perfect gift will be inside that box.

Now, imagine the person and imagine offering the gift to them. This part of the pattern creates the transfer from you to them and represents your intention to be of help.

That is all you have to do. From then on, whatever happens next, will happen under its own processes as the interaction unfolds and the changes are made.

Some things you might notice or come across when you give The Gift are as follows:

Sometimes when you think of the person, they appear very different to what they normally look like ? they may appear older, younger, may be dressed differently than in "real life", or may be expressing emotions through their body postures that you are not normally aware of. This is perfectly normal and it is a sign that you are seeing who they really are.

Often, you might experience strong emotions yourself when The Gift has come to your mind. Again, this is in a way the correct reaction to this process and it tells you that it is working. Emotions and energetic states are inextricably linked in a single system.

So far, every person who was offered a gift received it most gratefully ? some with tears, some with astonishment and gratitude and some with childlike delight. It is conceivable however that a gift might be rejected. Should this happen, you could ask what they would prefer to have from you instead ? there is something that is absolutely unique to you for them, that they cannot get from anyone or anywhere else. If you feel you can fill the request, go ahead; but you also have the right to not fill it if it seems inappropriate or feels less than good to you.

Pay attention to your self when sending The Gift. It is often as profound an experience to give it as it is to receive it.

It is not necessary to tell people about the Gift, although with good friends it adds another dimension to the process and if you can discuss the nature of these gifts, gain tremendous insights into many things.

You can give The Gift just while talking to someone and without them knowing anything about it. Briefly focus on a place beyond their physical body, and you may be able to imagine an astral copy of the person to whom you will give the gift. When you do this, pay attention to how the other person responds when The Gift is given. Some people lose their train of thought, some look over their shoulder; they are aware that something has happened which, indeed, it has. Note also how after a giving of The Gift the nature of the whole interaction seems to change for the better.

Remember that The Gift represents an energetic exchange, in spite of the often seemingly simple or mundane metaphorical object that carries your intention across. Energetic exchanges are felt not heard or measured with a Geiger counter; pay close attention to your feelings and your emotions when give The Gift because that is how you will know that you have done something important.

The original pattern of The Gift was developed for healers and therapists who were suffering from extreme overwhelm when faced with deeply unhappy, physically and mentally scarred people who were suffering from a lifetime of neglect, terrible trauma and lovelesness.

The Gift creates a straightforward method for their unique healing energies and intentions to go the right places for that individual, and most importantly, helped them to no longer feel overwhelmed and helpless. The negative emotions of helplessness and conscious overwhelm disappear when you use The Gift to help others, and in so doing, are a gift to you.

A Gift For You

Interestingly, sometimes it happens that a person to whom you have given The Gift, will offer one in return to you ? and I don't mean people who you have told about having sent them a gift and who will nearly always reciprocate likewise automatically, but those you imagined offering a gift to.

Needless to say, please receive it in gratitude. As we have said before, this is an energetic exchange and energy needs to flow freely both from you to them, and from them to you.

You can also give yourself a gift in the same way as you would to another person.

This is an interesting exercise on many levels and it is intrinsically very different from other people's gifts as it will be your own energy you are using instead of a different flavour which comes from another person.

You may consider gifts for "past selves" ? perhaps there was a time in your life that was very traumatic, or you "used to be a different person" which usually means, a worse person. To give those parts of yourself gifts can help to re-align them, ease their suffering and to help them grow and heal. It is possible that there are certain "past you's" that cannot be healed by anyone other than you yourself.

The Mirror Gift

As it is the case that people pop up in our lives in order to be a mirror to us and our own problems, and as it is also the case that my sister-in-law always gives me presents she would liked to have received, you might consider when you have given a few gifts to your loved ones, which one of those gifts you would like to have received as well, and give yourself the same one, too.

Gifts For Strangers

As my intuition increases, I used to find it harder and harder to travel on public transport or be in crowded places, simply because of the general unhappiness, loneliness and suffering that was emanating from the people around me.

For example, I saw an Indian lady with many heavy bags at a train station. Although I helped her carry the bags onto the train, there was so much sadness and physical suffering around her like a dark grey fog that she hardly seemed to notice me. I gave her a tropical garden, and she took a deep, deep breath and seemed to become alive and aware of her surroundings.

I then went through all the passengers of the train compartment, one by one and felt myself getting lighter and more comfortable with each gift given and hungrily received.

I received a number of gifts in return also and left the train full of energy and brighter than I had been in years.

What I believe is that The Gift is a stepping stone, a learning process that will allow us to do this type of work automatically and without us having to even give attention to it once we are fully familiar with its workings.

I would invite you to try it for yourself, and note what difference it makes to you and your individual dealings with strangers and passers by.

Gifts For Animals

Animals (wild animals and domesticated animals) are extremely aware of energetic shifts of all kinds, and they too can receive The Gift. Further, their feedback to receiving the gift is immediate and clearly visible in their physiology, their body postures and their subsequent behaviour. Here are a few examples of gifts for animals:

- a gift bow (for a dog which later turned out to have been "an unwanted gift");

- a foal (for a mare who was highly strung ? as soon as the owner thought of the foal the mare stopped dead, relaxed right out and stood very quietly, with her head drooping);

- a blue green blanket (for a dog who then came into the room for "no good reason" lay down, at full stretch, exactly in the spot the blanket "had appeared" to the owner).

A Gift For The World

If you remember, the original gift pattern was designed to help with overwhelm.

What can be more overwhelming than global issues such as world pollution, world hunger, the suffering of all the children, all the animals, global warming, wars and famines, and so forth?

What causes depression and overwhelm is the thought "There is nothing I can do".

With The Gift, there is something you can do now beside recycling and donating to charity, and I believe that every one of us who addresses such issues at the energetic level in this way actually does make a difference.

As The Gift pattern does not require much meditation, time or effort other than conscious volition to do it now it is a perfect beginning to start to use our abilities to make changes at the energetic level on global issues too.

What gift will you give to the world today? To The Children? To Humanity? Whatever you have to contribute, know that it is uniquely yours to contribute ? no-one else in the world can give this gift the way you do ? and that it will make a difference.

Feedback

Here are some stories received about using The Gift in practise. I would very much like to hear your experience with The Gift, too. Please mail me at the address at the end of this article to contribute.

"A friend came to visit me who is in a very unhappy relationship. I listened to her for a long while but began to feel more and more uncomfortable in the face of her anger and couldn't think of what to do other than to just go along with it and hope she'd tire of it soon. I remembered The Gift from the newslist, and focussed on what I could be giving her. As soon as I thought of it, a white dove appeared before me. It was carrying a long flowy red ribbon in its beak, and fluttered in midair. I stared in awe. After I got over my surprise, I *gave* it to my friend, mentally released it to her. Instantly, she stopped talking. The entire mood of the room calmed, and she tied up a few loose ends and left, calm and confident."

"This metaphorical gift giving solves a huge dilemma I have had weighing on my heart. I recently spent time with some very old friends and was quite disturbed by the way they are treating their children, and by their troubled 13 year old son. These are not people I can confront or help right now, and their kids live across the country from me so I can't establish a relationship and help that way. But I CAN go inside myself everytime I think of it, and send whatever seems appropriate at that moment. It has been a wonderful relief to me."

"I heard that a dear friends father had died suddenly. I wanted to do/say something to help but was in a spin, couldn't find the right words, so I settled myself down and pictured my friend and his father, immediately I knew that the 'gift' was a very special poem about laughter. Later on I was tapping for my friend but it just didn't feel right, I couldn't find the right thing to tap on....until your mail arrived. It was so obvious I couldn't see it. Now I know that the greatest gift that I can energetically send at this time is laughter. Thank you for putting into words what I knew but couldn't see."

"I have been troubled by feeling very negative ? hateful ? towards a certain person recently. When I got the message about the gift, it occurred to me to try it on that person to see if it would make any difference. Immediately, a huge black raven sprang to mind. I was worried that it might be something bad and hesitated, but it looked very beautiful and powerful so I decided to trust my unconscious mind and send it anyway. I felt better immediately as I "saw" the raven flying away all purposefully and actually found it hard to get back those feelings of negativity about the person. Later, someone told me this: "The raven on the Shamanic Medicine Wheel is the guardian of in absentia healing and it's medicine is considered needed to bridge the Void, to reach the collective unknown." I had no idea of that but WOW. What a gift ? and just what that person must have needed. And what I needed to do to regain balance in my mind."

"The gift I gave to a friend I did give to myself too and quite a few spooky things have happened to me since including: a change of attitude to food: frequently I am "energised " by some "energy " which leaps out of me; feeling at peace and "full " of self-love and kindness. I also I had a weird experience to find out I share a past life memory with a friend!"

"Today, a friend stopped by. He was tripping out, exploding with ideas, and I began to feel overwhelmed with his energy. I thought of The Gift, and a small speckled egg appeared in front of me. It was a lovely greenish bluish greyish color, with brownish spots. I just stared at it for a moment, sort of cherishing it. Then I released it to him. I was watching his face as I gave him this egg. He stopped in mid word and just stared at me, and asked me what he'd been saying. He said, "Something just happened. everything is different." so I told him about the egg. he teased me about having *egged* him. Then he said that the sensation he was experiencing was a sort of encapsulation. about a half hour later, he was again escalating his thought process, and my attention drifted back to the egg. I replayed it in my mind, and as I did so, he again stopped, looked at me, and asked if I'd egged him again. I hadn't meant to! We laughed about it. Now I can't wait to use this with my kids, and my ex when he stops by & begins to attack me. This is truly the simplest thing I've ever done, and the results are remarkable."

"I was in this doctor's office with a replacement doctor because the regular one was on holiday. This was a woman of about 50. She spent the first ten minutes apologising to me that she wasn't the real doctor and kept asking me if I wanted to wait until the real doctor was back again. I thought of The Gift and what came to mind was a single red rose. Whilst she was still apologising, I imagined a ghost shape of me giving the rose to a ghost shape of her, it took it and said quite loudly in a tearful voice, "No-one has ever given me one of these before." At that moment, the real woman stopped talking and looked over her shoulder, in the same direction where I was seeing the ghost shape. She took a deep breath and seemed confused for a bit, then she smiled at me and said, "Well, lets find out how can I help you".

"The morning after I received The Gift on the list, I was out walking and saw a woman shouting and screaming at her dog in the park. For some reason I wondered if I could give a gift to the poor dog and I thought of a big red ribbon, like a gift bow. I send it to the dog and then went on to say hello to the woman and stop her somehow. She was very angry at first but calmed down, and then told me that dog had been "an unwanted gift". I nearly burst out into tears on the spot."

"One of my best and oldest friends is dying. I lay in bed and couldn't sleep for tears although I kept telling myself it was all for the best and that he was going home. I was exhausted and at 3am, I called up an image of my friend and began to give him all sorts of gifts, dozens of them, until he smiled and stopped me and gave me a gift instead ? it was a big white Indian blanket with symbols painted on it which he wrapped about me. I don't know what happened or how but I felt really warm all of a sudden. I stopped crying and went to sleep. Thinking about it now, I think the gift was always about me."

Further Information

Working with metaphor to heal, solve problems, or even just to have fun with finding out what your imagination and intuition can do for you, is both one of the most ancient human endeavours as well as being now at the absolute cutting edge of mind-body technologies.

This is a vastly under-rated, underestimated and underexplored domain of virtually limitless potential that is easy to access and comes naturally to most people.

If you would like to learn more about this amazing undiscovered country, we recommend Silvia Hartmann's "Project Sanctuary" which can be found at http://ProjectSanctuary.com