THE RISING STAR...
Finding A New Path Through Healing

By Bernadette Luckett

Recently, my cousin asked me what my Five-Year-Plan was. I burst into laughter. Not amused, she stared at me blankly. So, I decided to share an old joke with her. "You want to make God laugh? Tell Him your plans." She didn't crack a smile.

Five years ago, when I was working as a writer/producer on a national TV show, perhaps I wouldn't have laughed at that joke either. Little did I know that five years from then, I'd be facilitating healing sessions instead of writing witty banter for sitcom characters.

How does one go from being a sitcom writer to doing energy work? It started when someone emailed me a flyer for a workshop in LA. It featured an Irish Master Healer and Spiritual teacher named Derek O'Neill. His face filled most of the flyer. It was kind, gentle, loving, and the eyes were mesmerizing. I put the flyer on my desk, and after a week, I threw it away.

Three months later, I went to New York to visit a good friend who is also a well-respected psychic. When I walked into her home, there on her mantle was a photo of that same Irish guy. "Who is that?!" I asked. "Oh, that's Derek O'Neill," she answered. "He's the real deal!"

That was all I needed. I registered for his week-long June workshop in Ireland thinking that if I didn't like it, I'd just leave. Not only did I like it, I've attended every one of his incredible Ireland workshops ever since and have become a practitioner and teacher of the Rising Star Healing System; a powerful Source to Source healing modality channeled by Derek during one of his New York workshops.

Like Reiki, which wasn't widely known twenty years ago, the Rising Star Healing System is now expanding steadily into people's consciousness. There are a growing number of Rising Star Healing practitioners in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area who are bringing forth this beautiful modality of love and light. Coming from diverse backgrounds, these practitioners were attracted to the Rising Star Healing System, not only as an incredible healing tool, but for its life-changing impact on themselves.

Thomas Gallegos, a retired San Francisco Firefighter, saw his life change unexpectedly after attending a Derek O'Neill workshop. Soon after, he became a Rising Star practitioner, then teacher. "I was initiated and trained, not so much to practice, but as a means of connecting more deeply with my own spirituality. It's changed me for the better, and it's increased my understanding, on a deeper level, of some of the situations I encountered while working as a firefighter."

The Rising Star is simple, yet powerful. During a session, the client lies comfortably and fully clothed on a treatment table, while the practitioner facilitates the channeling of Divine energy into the client's seven main chakras. You don't have to have faith, follow a specific religion, or believe in it for it to be effective. Oakland's Mary Gaetjens became a Rising Star practitioner after having studied various healing modalities with teachers from Haiti, Brazil, India and Mexico. "I've been present when Derek has done healings, and I've been personally healed by him. When the opportunity arose to become a Rising Star Practitioner, there was no question about whether or not I would take it."

Shawn Gardner grew up surrounded by alternative healing therapies at her father's Holistic Healing Center in Salinas, CA. She likes that Rising Star healings can be done in person, or remotely with the same powerful results. "I called a client after a long distance healing," she recalls, "She was crying tears of joy saying how everything that was not love was taken out of her."

"I know that the purpose of this work," shared Berkeley artist and Rising Star teacher/practitioner Yasmin Jill Kaplan, "is to lift humanity from darkness and separation to the light and oneness of Source, so that we may all have the uninterrupted experience of Divine Love. Of course, for most of us, there are many veils that cover our light. The Rising Star lifts the veils one at a time."

Indeed, lifting those veils creates change. Change creates unpredictability. Unpredictability leads to surrender. Surrender allows one to go with the flow, find acceptance, and become more conscious of the presence of Love and a Divine plan. I've come to realize that although my Five-Year-Plan may be unknown, through the grace of the Rising Star Healing System, my path is clearer than ever.

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