How The Big Island Facilitates Growth in Consciousness (Part II)

The Big Island is known as the "Healing Island," hence the origin of the name of this health-oriented column. Several months ago I wrote a column examining the reasons why Hawai'i might have acquired this name. That column inspired such a great response that I thought I would follow up by asking three of the health practitioner advertisers in Hawaii Island Journal why they came to the Big Island and what their experiences have been.

Angela Longo, Ph.D., L.Ac., living on the Island for 21 years, is an acupuncturist practicing and teaching in Waimea. She is also the founder of the Traditional Chinese Medicine College of Hawaii, also located in Waimea. She was teaching at San Francisco State when she started exploring her consciousness in terms of what was important to her and the direction she wanted to follow in her life. She came to the realization that her path was to live the dream of the Garden of Eden -- to live in an idyllic location of beauty, without duality, without judgement. She found that the Big Island fulfilled this dream, at least in terms of physical surroundings.

Dr. Longo says that the Big Island has a special "enlivening" energy that forces people to expand their awareness and awakens them to their higher purpose. The Island opens people up so that the sense of the oneness of creation is a real, tangible experience. Practitioners of the healing arts who undergo this process then realize that they have a responsibility to share this expanded awareness -- to help other people awaken by supporting them unconditionally. This support awakens in other healers their ability to heal themselves and others. Thus, healers are drawn to the Big Island to work with health practitioners who are in tune with this transformative process.

Kathleen Golden, M.A., is a counselor, meditation teacher, healer and Reiki practitioner living and practicing in Volcano. She and her husband, Peter, have been living on the Big Island for 10 years, and run Volcano Rainforest Retreat, a bed and breakfast retreat. Before moving here, Kathleen and Peter were vacationing on the Island and were deeply moved by the power of the land, especially the native rainforest. They felt their own healing processes accelerated by the beauty and energy of the emanating from the land. When Peter asked her what she thought about relocating to the Big Island, the answer was obvious.