By: Janet Bray AttwoodStephen Co is a senior disciple and personal student of Grandmaster Choa Kok Sui, the founder of Pranic Healing. Today, Master Co oversees all the Pranic Healing practitioners and instructors in the United States. Master Co and his wife, Daphne, started the first Pranic Healing center outside of the Philippines, the American Institute of Asian Studies, in Chino, California, to promote and teach Pranic Healing in the United States.
He is an internationally renowned lecturer, trainer and practitioner of Pranic Healing, who has taught the art of healing and human energy studies to thousands of students in the United States. His introductory lectures are thought provoking, often compelling individuals who are not health practitioners to embark on learning Pranic Healing techniques to improve their lives. His students include hundreds of physicians, nurses, dentists, acupuncturists, chiropractors, social workers, psychologists and alternative healthcare practitioners.
Over the past ten years Master Co has introduced Pranic Healing into the medical community through his students who have offered classes at medical teaching centers, while he himself has taught Pranic Healing at numerous hospitals, including Kaiser Permanente and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. His prowess as a healer and teacher has garnered him appearances on “Hard Copy,” local radio and television shows in Los Angeles, and now, the cover of Healthy Wealthy nWise.
His unique expertise comes from his experience as an engineer, successful businessman, lecturer, healer and parent, as well as through his practice of Arhatic Yoga and martial arts.
While Master Co and Janet will do a brief rundown of what Pranic Healing is as they chat, if you’re unfamiliar with the concept, you might want to read the following overview before going to the interview.
If you already know the basics, just skip ahead to the interview portion of the article.
What is Pranic Healing?
Pranic Healing is a highly developed and tested system of energy medicine that utilizes “prana” to balance, harmonize and transform the body’s energy processes. “Prana” is a Sanskrit word that means “life-force.” This invisible bio-energy or vital energy keeps the body alive and maintains a state of good health. In acupuncture, the Chinese refer to this subtle energy as “Chi.” It is also called “Ruah” or the “Breath of Life” in the Old Testament.
Pranic Healing is a simple yet powerful and effective system of no-touch energy healing originated and developed by Grandmaster Choa Kok Sui. It is based on the fundamental principle that the body is a “self-repairing” living entity that possesses the innate ability to heal itself. Pranic Healing works on the principle that increasing the life force or vital energy of the affected part of the physical body accelerates the healing process.
Pranic Healing is applied on the bio-electromagnetic field known as the aura, or energy body, which is a mold or blueprint that surrounds and interpenetrates the physical body. This energy body absorbs life energy and distributes it throughout the physical body, to the muscles, organs, glands, etc. The reason Pranic Healing works on the energy body is that physical ailments first appear as energetic disruptions in the aura before manifesting as problems in the physical body.
What is the Aura (or “The Invisible Energy Body”)?
Scientific evidence provides tangible proof of the existence of the energy body and its relation to the health and well being of the physical body. This has been termed as the “bioplasmic body” from the word “bio,” meaning life, and “plasma,” the fourth state of matter after solids, liquids and gases.
Scientific experiments conducted by the eminent Russian scientist, Semyon Kirilian, using ultra sensitive photographic processes showed a colorful, radiant energy field surrounding the physical bodies of humans, animals and plants. This energy field, or aura, interpenetrates the visible physical body, extending about 4 to 5 inches from the skin’s surface. Experiments in Kirilian photography have also revealed that diseased energies appear first in the energy body before manifesting as a physical ailment.
With that background, let’s talk to Master Co and see what attracted him to Pranic Healing.
Janet Attwood: Master Co, who has been the most influential person in your life – the one who has most shaped your outlook on health, wealth, and spirituality?
Stephen Co: My most important teacher has been my Master, Choa Kok Sui who is the founding father of what is now called Pranic Healing. He changed my outlook on basically every area of my life?on healing, on how to become healthier and stronger, on how to learn these techniques to be able to help other people. He also made me realize that spiritual wealth has to be balanced by material wealth?that together they allow us to earn more, make more, and more importantly, to share more. Life is really nothing more than learning to balance these two things so we may be happier, healthier, and at the same time, wealthier – both spiritually and materially.
Janet Attwood: So how did your meet your Master and what were you doing before you met him?
Stephen Co: In college I studied engineering, and just like any other kid, had no direction in life. I had difficulty focusing and had a lot of problems in life – I was trying a lot of different things and nothing was really working well.
I did finally get married though.
At one point my wife Daphne fell about 14 feet and broke her hipbone. The doctors said it would take three and a half months before she could start to learn how to walk again.
In a desperate attempt to help her out I began to look for a way to make the whole thing go faster. A friend directed me to this teacher, a Chinese Master named Choa Kok Sui. I took the classes he offered and started doing the healing I learned on my wife every day. In one month and one week she was running!
Janet Attwood: Wow! 1 month and 1 week?!?
Stephen Co: 1 month and 1 week!
Janet Attwood: That is AMAZING!
Stephen Co: I have studied with my Master now for the last 15 years. And it is through that study and practice that everything changed for me.
Janet Attwood: No wonder, with an experience like that, you had to realize this was “it” for you.
Stephen Co: You know at first I was very skeptical and not open-minded at all. You see as a kid I was brought up as a Catholic and later on I converted to become a Southern Baptist. When I started Pranic Healing I was an engineer and a strict Southern Baptist at the same time. You can imagine how conflicted my mind was dealing with energies and all these types of things……
But when Daphne was running after a little over a month – I just couldn’t continue to deny it.
Janet Attwood: That’s for sure.
Stephen Co: And I’ve since learned how to be a Pranic Healer trained as an engineer, and a Southern Baptist all at the same time.
Janet Attwood: So when you first met Grandmaster Choa Kok Sui did you know that you were going to spend the next 15 years studying under him?
Stephen Co: I knew he was amazing and that I was really interested in him and that’s all I cared about. I didn’t realize how much I would get into this, but I knew he was a very special person. He has profoundly influenced every area of my life, but I had no clue back then.
I’ve now realized what I’ve learned from my Master is what I want everyone to learn, and that’s why I do what I do.
Janet Attwood: You’re the head of Pranic Healing for the United States, right?
Stephen Co: Yes.
Janet Attwood: Did he give you any indication when you first met of what you would be doing?
Stephen Co: He never told me specifically what to do. He just said go the United States and spread the teachings. And I just went and ran with it. And from there, as people got better and my serving transformed he basically told me OK, you’re in charge of the matter in the United States.
Janet Attwood: So it was about 15 years ago when you came over as a Pranic Healer – and there was no Pranic Healing in the US at that time right?
Stephen Co: There was no Pranic Healing at all. I came over here and there were people all over the place who were Reiki Masters, Shamans, energy healers, who practiced all sorts of healing modalities, and I talked to these people and they’d never heard of it.
I could understand why, because Pranic Healing as it is today was only given to the world in 1987, so when we came in, in 1988, no one knew about it. I started having classes and all of these professionals and practitioners of other modalities came and learned Pranic Healing. They have realized it really compliments what they do.
Janet Attwood: So do people mix Pranic Healing with other modalities?
Stephen Co: Well it compliments other modalities and can be used by traditional medical professionals. I don’t like to use the term “mixed” so much as it really “fills in the gaps” of what they’re missing.
Janet Attwood: I want to talk about the work you’re doing with health professionals and traditional medicine because that’s just so fascinating, but first let’s cover what are the main benefits people achieve through Pranic Healing.
Stephen Co: The first thing they learn is how to control their energy. By clearing their energy field and the energy channels in their body they are more easily able to get out of their ruts, to flush out their fears, flush out their negative thoughts, and their negative emotions.
Pranic Healing is like taking a huge powerful shower that washes the dirty negative “stuff” out. From there the person can truly exercise their will and intentions to change their life.
Janet Attwood: Can anyone learn how to do it?
Stephen Co: Oh Yeah! If someone like me who was so skeptical can be who I am today – everyone has a chance.
Janet Attwood: Tell me about some of the work you’ve done with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) patients.
Stephen Co: What we do is we go through the different exercises and techniques and engage them as we change their energy fields. Patients are then actually able to focus throughout the class. We teach them the techniques to use on themselves and they get results.
I have a niece who couldn’t focus one a single page of math homework by herself. I worked with her and taught her mom how to use the techniques on her every night and within just a few months she was able to finish 10 pages of math by herself.
You see people don’t realize that their outer environment is a direct reflection of their internal energy environment.
We change the internal energy environment. A lot of people try to change the effects, but they need to be going to the cause. In Pranic Healing that’s what we do – we change the cause.
Everything that happens in your life gets started as energy, including your finances, your relationships, your physical health, your spirituality. Everything is started in the invisible energy world before it is manifested.
Janet Attwood: Can you explain a little more how energy affects everything and how we can work with it?
Stephen Co: Sure. This energy is what is called “prana,” “life force,” or “Chi,” in different cultures. Now this prana or life force is the basis for all existence.
As we breathe in and out we have energy centers in our bodies that affect us spiritually, emotionally, physically, and even financially.
Different areas of our lives where we have more “good” or “clean” energy tend to be more successful, and areas where our energy is more chaotic or “dirty,” or where there’s not much energy to begin with, we have a tendency to fail.
So what we try to do with Pranic Healing is change the energy body through cleansing and meditation. We find that as we’re clearer we’re able to approach life better.
That’s generally what I would say to someone who has not had much background in energy work.
Janet Attwood: You know where I see this most clearly is in the lives of very enlightened saints. It seems they don’t have to go out and seek for anything. It just comes to them. There’s a saying in India, “Means collect around Satwa.” Satwa is purity. Would you agree that, this is simply the same thing?
Stephen Co: Yes, and in addition I would say whatever we have in our energy system is what we attract into our lives – so if you don’t clean out your energy body, if you don’t put in the good energy you want, then you attract what you DON’T want. A lot of people don’t realize that if they don’t control their thoughts, their words, and their emotions, whatever is in their energy field is what they will attract in their life.
Janet Attwood: Can you give us an example of that?
Stephen Co: Yes, people who are always negative tend to attract bad luck. People who are more positive have the tendency to attract more good things in their life.
Janet Attwood: So how would negative jabbing or making fun of other people have an effect on their environment?
Stephen Co: There’s always cause and effect. Anything we say, think, or do, will always have an effect on either other people or ourselves.
So in Pranic Healing we always try to be very careful with our words. We don’t joke around about being broke, we don’t joke around about people failing in their lives, because even in just joking about those things you set up an energy pattern. After a while the pattern can fill out and the “joke” will manifest.
Janet Attwood: So you’re saying with Pranic Healing, you are able to transform people’s energetic bodies so their energy patterns change and shift?
Stephen Co: That’s the idea – and more than anything, we teach people how to do this themselves.
That’s a very important thing.
As people learn to do Pranic Healing for themselves they can do it for their loved ones and friends and it becomes a trickle down effect.
Janet Attwood: When you look at a person can you actually see their energetic body? What do you see when you’re healing them?
Stephen Co: No Janet, a person is taught how to assess their own energy field and that of another person by the use of their hands. You start by learning how to feel the life force between your hands, and once your hands become sensitized you can use them to check your own life force and energy, and that of other people.
Janet Attwood: I see. So what was your most significant case of healing someone? What was the most difficult case that you ever had to handle?
Stephen Co: There are two that come to mind. One of them was complete blindness in one eye. The person was actually the daughter of a major TV producer in Hollywood and she came in for healing. I didn’t really expect to do anything. I told her we’d never worked with anything like this before and we’d just give it our best shot. 45 minutes later she could see.
Janet Attwood: Wow! How long had she been blind?
Stephen Co: It had been 4 years and her blindness was the result of a blood clot.
Janet Attwood: And after a 45 minute session she was cured?!?
Stephen Co: Yes, she could see – its AMAZING, this work.
The other one was my friend’s mother. She had a heart block. At 73 years old, she had a 72% survival rate if she were to go through surgery, but they told her she had to have the surgery or she would very probably die. We did 4 sessions. I forgot about it, but my wife called me saying when they went in and did an angiogram they found there were no more blocks.
You know I just want to emphasize – as often as it happens it still surprises me that someone like me who didn’t know anything about energy when I started could do these things.
This is accessible to EVERYBODY.
Janet Attwood: Now you’ve also taught traditional doctors. Can you talk a little about the hospitals that are using Pranic Healing?
Stephen Co: I’ve taught in Kaiser Permanente hospital here in LA, I’ve taught in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, and I’ve worked with many individual doctors.
What’s important is that we approach the doctors and teach them in a way they understand and makes sense to them. When I approached Dr. Eric Robins and asked him to co-author a book on Pranic Healing with me he was happy to do it. He’s been using this work very successfully in his life also.
Janet Attwood: What’s the name of your book?
Stephen Co: Its called Your Hands Can Heal You: Pranic Healing Energy Remedies to Boost Vitality and Speed Recovery from Common Health Problems, by myself and Dr. Eric Robins.
Janet Attwood: Fantastic. So Master Co what would you say are the three main things that you know now you wish you had known earlier in life?
Stephen Co: The first would be to give to others what I want in my life – to share with others, what I want for myself.
The second would be to learn to forgive, because as we forgive we are able to live – we are able to have inner peace.
The third would be to learn how to control thought, words, and emotions, so we can have full, happy, prosperous, and healthy lives.
Janet Attwood: If you could give our readers one piece of advice on how to move toward more balanced abundance in their lives what would it be?
Stephen Co: Repeated wholesome actions manifest virtues.
As we keep this in our minds all the time, and before we do something we always watch our thoughts and our words, we see how it affects our actions. If we do the right thing as often as possible it becomes a virtue that guides our lives, for the rest of our lives.
Really learn how to regulate your thoughts and emotions to be able to do everything you want to do. Always be wholesome and uplifting to other people, and when others make mistakes learn how to forgive them. And I’ve also found as we focus our goals, simultaneously it is easier to attain balance in every area of our lives.
Janet Attwood: What’s the single most important piece of advice you’d like to leave our readers with that we haven’t already discussed?
Stephen Co: Learn to give and share – that’s really the biggest thing there is.
I just want people to realize the power to heal is within them, all they have to do is learn to use it.
Janet Attwood: Wonderful! And how can people find out more about your classes in Pranic Healing?
Stephen Co: They can go to the website www.YourHandsCanHealYou.com or call 1-888-9-HEALYOU.
Janet Attwood: Thank you so much Master Co, it’s been a pleasure.
Stephen Co: Thank you Janet.