Sketchbook entry

Eye pain communicated by phone

by Fletcher Kovich

Yesterday I was phoned by one of my patients to cancel a session. When I put the phone down, I realized I had adopted a pain over my left eye, which was reflecting her energy; she has a long history of migraines. I’m now so familiar with this process that there was no doubt in my mind that the pain I felt was hers; it was not a pain I would normally experience, and I’m now so used to my body reflecting the symptoms of patients I’m treating that there was no doubt my body was reflecting the energy of this patient who had phoned me. What I was struck by was that this had happened over the phone, from a distance (the patient travels from another city to see me, which is about an hour’s drive away). So, I wondered, how was her symptom transferred to me, from such a great distance. (The symptom lasted for about half an hour in me, and then moved on, which is the usual pattern when I pick up these sensations from patients in clinic; except that in clinic the symptoms usually pass from me in a matter of minutes, or even seconds.)

Here are the possibilities that occur to me:

1. It was listening to the sound of her voice that caused my body to adopt her “energetic pattern”. When listening to a person’s voice, it is often possible to diagnose their “disharmony”. For instance, a person with a loud voice, who seems to be shouting when they are only speaking, will usually have a “liver disharmony”. So, in some way, a person’s tone of voice reflects the way their body’s energy works, and perhaps this is how my own body managed to reflect this patient’s energy, which then expressed itself as a pain in my left eye?

2. When I heard her voice, and thought about her personality, I remembered, on some level, how her energy works; I remembered the experience of being in her presence, and it was this that caused my body to reflect that energy.

3. It was the “synchronicity mechanism” that transferred her symptoms to me. There are energetic connections between all people, even those you have never met. With people you have met, and formed some sort of relationship with, these connections are stronger, or perhaps: more clearly defined. And since we were talking on the phone, this energetic connection between us became active, or we both became aware of it to a higher degree than usual, and it was this that communicated her symptoms to me.

Whatever the mechanism, this was striking because it happened remotely, and yet was a clearly defined example of this sort of transfer. The pain in my left eye was pronounced. If I remember, I will ask her if she was experiencing a pain in that exact spot when she phoned me.

10 December 2009