By Steve Long, Usui Shiki Ryoho Reiki Master Teacher

Years ago, while becoming a traditional Usui Reiki Master Teacher, I studied Barbara Brennan’s foundational work Hands of Light. I was deeply moved by her theory of “The Original Injury,” in which she posits that all of us who have chosen the path of a Healer had at some time earlier in life endured an injury that transformed our lives. This transformation led to a journey that culminated with becoming a Healer.

I knew instantly this was true for myself!

When I was three, I was hit by a car going 40 miles per hour. I was broken very badly. The subsequent near-death experience I had while lying in the street was indecipherable at that age. Growing up, I was drawn to the paranormal and was blessed that my parents had various paranormal, science fiction, and cutting-edge science literature in our home. I was drawn to the martial arts, and though I never took classes, I took unofficial lessons from my cousin who became a black belt in karate by his freshman year in high school. I was fascinated with the concepts of concentrating energy for power, while focusing the mind for peace.

In college I learned that, using the energy in my palms, I could make knee and headaches go away with putting my hands on that location and feeling the pain go away. Before my reawakening, in my late twenties, I lived a hedonistic lifestyle occluding my gifts within. My reawakening occurred after seeing a Learning Channel program The Qi Gong Masters of the Orient, which included a segment featuring Reiki. Eureka! I knew what that was—I found a name for what I had known how to do all these years! My journey of becoming a healer was launched.

My Healing Journey

Shortly after becoming a traditional Usui Reiki Master Teacher, I began having extreme pain in my lower back, although not for the first time in my life. This time my left leg started giving out. In preparation for my emergency spinal fusion surgery, I remembered the Light Being I encountered at the Crystal City during my childhood near-death experience—who told me “You will not die of this now nor later. You made a promise; now return.”

The promise was to help people, to become a healer, which is what I was in the process of becoming. As hard as it was to recover from that surgery, it gifted me much knowledge in recognizing similar pain in others. I delved deeply into my own healing, creating an educational opportunity that would serve a great purpose for the rest of my life. And, in the process, I acquired many wonderful “teachers,” for whom I have huge gratitude: my Usui Reiki Master, Dr. Mary Mooney; my first chiropractor, Dr. Carol Christianson; my cranial sacral therapist/deep muscle and tissue masseuse, Michele Moss (in God’s love now) and my orthopedic spinal surgeon Dr. W.F. Lestini (who supported my alternative therapies). These wonderful healers helped save my life and kept my journey alive.

My journey to becoming a Usui Reiki Master Teacher was one of the most important in my life! Not only did I acquire knowledge and skills that helped me recover from my spinal fusion surgery and help my clients find their own healing paths, but I met my future wife Nancy. My fellow Reiki Master student Vicki held open reiki sessions at her home, it was there that I met Nancy. We discovered we shared a passion for healing and wanting to open a Health Center.

Nancy and I were married several years later, and shortly after that we purchased the iconic Harmony Farms Natural Food Store in north Raleigh. None of this would have been possible without my having become a Reiki Master, trusting my intuition that this was the journey for which I was born.

Owning Harmony Farms with Nancy was hard work—yet extremely rewarding. Every day we helped people heal; every day was a learning and soul-expanding experience. We grew Harmony Farms into a trusted essential store in our community. We were very blessed! I could write five books on all the journeys within those 20 years of owning Harmony Farms! In 2023, retirement dreams for Nancy arrived and, in December 2023, new ownership took over Harmony Farms. A bittersweet day, yet we were ecstatic for the next phase of our lives.

My healing journey has now allowed me to focus on my healing practice, which had been on sabbatical for many years as Harmony Farms was so blessedly busy. I began setting up my practice in 2024, and the relaunch has now occurred! All those journeys prepared me for this one. I am very grateful to be able to utilize various trusted modalities to help people on their own healing paths to find health, joy, passion, and success! Sharing my journey is an honor.

Your journey into well-being and harmony begins here!