BBSH In Touch
In 1996 I graduated from the Barbara Brennan School of Healing. People often wonder about that, because I have a ritzier intellectual pedigree than I deserve–Yale BA and Columbia MFA–considering what an American mutt I am. Considering that my mother was a high school drop-out and my grandmother was an itinerant crop picker who didn’t make it past third grade. And I went after traditional learning with an unholy passion.
But my mother cherished education. She got up every morning before 5:00 to read, and still does. She went back to obtain an equivalency degree. She did Lifelong Learning work and amassed a number of college credits. My grandmother read the newspapers every day and kept abreast of everything; she was one of the shrewdest people I ever met. She was also a font of folk wisdom, which she had pre-sifted in her mind to separate the chaff from the wheat. She would make some claim… about cod liver oil, or how healthy beans were, or UFO’s, or how it meant something when geese flew a certain way… and my mother and I would roll our eyes at her. A year later, Granny Bee would turn out to be right. Five years after her death, my mother and I are still discovering the truth in some of her outlandish claims.
This is all by way of saying, the BBSH is the Ivy League of healing schools. Admittedly, there aren’t a vast number of healing schools out there. Hands-on or spiritual healing is still a niche field. That is slowly changing; there are Brennan schools now in Japan and Europe, as well as the US.
What makes the BBSH so great is that it is well-organized (with military precision, if a Navy brat says so). There is a close attention to both detail and purpose, and there is an unswerving and radiant intention for integrity. It’s a mystery school with a left brain twist for the modern age, a crucible, a psycho-spiritual boot camp. Not that it’s a perfect institution. I have some serious criticisms of the school, perhaps for another post. But then, neither Yale nor Columbia were perfect, either. But all three were great.
All three institutions gave me something, some core part of myself that I wouldn’t have experienced if I hadn’t passed through their doors. I am grateful.
And to any BBSH healers who might read this: Salve, welcome.