zen and the art of....healing?

i've picked up an elective. and i'm not dropping it, because we all need something entertaining in our lives, and anatomy just doesn't cut it.

the name of it is "healer's art". it was described to me as basically being a one credit class where all you have to do is show up and talk about yourself...almost like therapy or something. the topics were things like "dealing with grief", "wholeness", etc...

my friends decided to join, i thought i would jump in the bandwagon.

the first class was thursday night. our assignment was two things: bring an object that "represents" you, and bring an open mind and heart.

we showed up to the large group session at 6:30, put on nametags, and sat down. a lady started talking, a little bit of housekeeping. then she picked up a metal bowl and a candlestick. which she then informed us was a tibetan gong thing....which she was going to bang to help guide us in our relaxation exercise.

at the gong, we were to "listen to the silence" while her calm, soothing voice told us to focus on a memory where we felt truly whole and loved, and focus on that. then we were given paper and crayons in order to express what that memory meant...i think.

i think by this point you can already tell that this is a little different than what i expected. and i'm just getting started. we had a speaker, a physician, who showed us photographs of abstract sculptures with a word like balance or happiness or collaboration above it, then described how that applied to the field of medicine....still in the strange smooth voice the other lady used.

after he spoke we broke up into our assigned small groups and went to separate classrooms. our facilitator started setting up the room. he put an overturned box in the middle of a circle of chairs, then put a prayer shawl over it, with a candle and another bowl and candlestick combination. he dimmed the lights and turned on a cd of mood music. we all placed our objects on the... altar?...and waited for him to let us know what could possibly come next.

i was wondering exactly what cult i had signed up for.

for the most part, the small group stuff was pretty painless. we each described why we brought in what we did (i brought the journal pete gave me for christmas last year) and the pictures that we drew. then came the closing...ummm....ceremony?

we stood up in the circle as our leader held the bowl. after each gong one person in the group said their name, while the rest of us sent positive thought and energy and/or prayers to them for thirty seconds, then came the next gong. it was pretty weird, but at least personally i don't feel odd about praying...so it could have been worse. after our little ritual, the leader said, "blessing and peace to you all." i was, of course, holding in the, "and also with you." or, "and with your spirit," as my anglican church up here prefers.

after class, which got out at around 9:15, my friends got together and laughed about all the craziness as we made dinner together (which is a whole other story....we ended up eating around midnight).

i don't particularly mind what they did...charles river church softened me up a bit, with the art during church and the lectio divina at simple supper...but this was med school, not church. i'm going to end up describing this class in an interview one day, i know it.