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Although I was born Catholic - being Portuguese offered no other option - I grew up in a spiritually eclectic environment. My dad leaned more towards Catholocism but his mother who was of Russian-Jew and Dutch descent, was psychic and read tea leaves for a living, so he pretty much 'played it safe' by sitting on the fence. My mother - also born and raised Catholic - was more alternative in her beliefs, practiced yoga, transcendental meditation, believed in reincarnation etc and was the proverbial black sheep of the family but gave us a Catholic start so we went to convents, my brothers were altar boys and we did the whole Communion thing and then around age 11 she basically told us we were on our own so to speak and could decide what to (or not to) follow.
My oldest brother Luiz, like my father,
leans toward religion but is more intuitive than he realises or gives himself
credit for. My middle brother Lionel, is a highly evolved being and has been the spiritual compass I’ve looked up to since I can remember. For most of
my younger life, however being fully engrossed on the external aspects of living, - a rebel
without a clue – I didn’t know or understand what “it” was that inherently made Lionel everyone’s ‘guru’ and nicknamed him as such.
I do not follow any particular religion or philosophy but rather I'm a great believer that one's spiritual belief is as unique as our fingerprints. Although I have deepest respect for other people's beliefs, and refrain from trying to convert them to mine, from my experience religions have too many guilt based man-made rules that are illogical at best, and therefore it’s my own experience of God, The Divine, Universe, Spirit that I draw from and incorporate into my work and everyday life rather than what someone else tells me I should or should not believe. By the same token, I don't adhere to any set rules to define my spirituality - if I needed rules to follow I'd join a religion or cult as they have plenty to choose from.
My faith lies in my reverence for a higher, loving all-encompassing infinite Divine intelligence of being that none of us on Earth can even begin to comprehend - search and question though we may.
I endeavour to
live my life as consciously, intuitively, compassionately and with kindness as much as I
possibly can but also accept and allow myself to be human with all my flaws
and idiosyncrasies (idiot-cyncrasies as I prefer to call
them) knowing that God as I experience Him/Her isn’t going to strike me
down with lightening or turn His/Her back on me if and when I go off the rails, because this is what my
understanding of a spiritual being having a human experience is all about -
balancing physical/spiritual every moment of every day. Grateful… though alas not always gracious…
It was while living in Los Angeles in the late 80’s that I really started my spiritual exploration. South Africa at the time was very closeted to all things esoteric but in LA (fondly termed as la-la land because of it’s New Age movement) I found myself like a kid in a candy store and began what I call my phase of gathering, reading exploring and so forth and little by little integrating what felt “right” for me into my personal “belief system” but at the time I had no desire or intention to become a therapist and healer sometime in the future and it took a further 10 years or so for me to even begin walking the talk as I was very much a seeker absorbing as much as possible but not truly applying most of the knowledge.
It was only when I came back to South
Africa years later and moved to St Francis Bay in 1994 (where I resided and
then practiced until I moved to PE in Dec 2009) that I started learning to walk the
talk, after joining a small 8 week group dove-tailing fundamental spiritual
principals and basic Life Line counseling skills run by Laura Curtis who
subsequently became my teacher and mentor. A couple of weeks into the group
during our tea break Laura informed me that I was an ordained healer and I
nearly fell off my chair laughing but when she asked me to facilitate future
groups I agreed and it was from that point onward that synchronicity took over
and led me to begin channeling my Spirit Guides and began working really hard
on myself and healing my own demons. I also felt drawn to Angel cards and
started doing readings and counseling for family and friends and became aware that if
someone was in pain and I held the area long enough it was eased somehow and so
the seed to do healing on others was planted. By this time Laura was an ordained
minister of the Assoc. of Creative Thought and reminded me about our discussion
8 years previously. Wanting to understand this energy and how to apply it
correctly, Reiki seemed the obvious choice and in 2002 Rita Marr, an Usui Reiki teacher from the UK came to live in St Francis Bay and I studied and qualified in Reiki I, II and then Mastery in
2004.
At age of 18 I was diagnosed with a calcification
of the bone disease which is very rare in women and especially young ones and
from there on I was on a daily anti-inflammatory regime to control the pain and
just simply accepted it as a condition I would have to live with for the rest of
my life that would escalate with age. In a session with a trance-medium who knew
nothing about me except my first name, I was informed that my bone condition
was in fact connected to a past life and that I should seek out a past life
regression therapist. I had no idea there was such a thing as past life
regression therapy or where to find it so gave it no more thought until about 6
months later when quite by “chance” I met a PLR therapist. That session and all
the information and insight I gained regarding not only my condition but also
many other issues changed the course of my life and after a great deal of work
on my part, with the help of some amazing healers, I ultimately healed the
condition and now if I experience any pain I know its merely a trigger for
something I need to work on, and once I’ve dealt with it the pain goes away.
A year after completing Reiki Mastery and because of my own experience, I felt I that past life regression therapy was something I really wanted to incorporate into my work, and seemed the natural next step. Once again through synchronistic events I discovered that my Rita, my Reiki teacher who had since moved to Cape Town was also a PLR teacher and would be spending 10 days in St Francis (the exact time required to complete the Hypnosis, Hypnotherapy and Past Life Regression course) and as with Reiki Mastery she preferred carrying out this intensive course one-on-one. To my surprise and delight the technique I was being taught was far more effective than the one done on me, because it’s all-rounded and includes the actual healing aspect that took me 10 years to figure out on my own. After being certified she informed me that I that was the first practitioner in South Africa to have been trained in said technique which was developed at The Sothic Centre, in the UK and registered with the American Board of Hypnotherapy, therefore my Over the years as many therapists do, I continuously incorporate and develop some of my own intuitive techniques to all aspects of my work as almost every session brings with it new knowledge and some sort of gift to enhance my work, and my own soul development continues to be a work in progress too.
Just as I landed in a "comfort zone" of how my work aught to present itself, I found myself being guided in yet another direction when my well laid plans seemed to have somehow been derailed. After about a week of questioning why everything had fallen into place in perfect synchronicity of events only to be thrown a curve ball, leaving me standing at another crossroad, and being somewhat miffed with God, I came to realise that the plan had not changed at all but rather I needed to develop yet another area in order for my work to progress so I went and did a Therapeutic Deep Tissue Massage course with Diane Lang, a wonderful teacher and practitioner in Port Elizabeth, and she graciously taught me Swedish and Indian Head Massage too, and I have now successfully integrated Reiki into all of the techniques making my work with clients limitless... well for now at any rate, until I get gently shoved in yet another direction. Oh well, as they say... all in perfect Divine order.
I don't claim to be the voice of authority or an expert about things spiritual and my truth is based on my personal experiences of the Divine and the information my Guides and Angels channel to me, as well as my work with clients and what they have and continue to experienced from it. I stumble and fall along life's bumpy road just like everyone else and still take a ride on the "Doubting Dotty Roller-coaster" more often than I care to admit, and thank God I'm not perfect because having to live up to that standard would be harder than all the inner work and exploration I have done and still do. My sacred journey has been, and continues to be, paved with the love, guidance
and support of family, friends, healers, light-workers, therapists and earth
angels as well as my own Guides, and an army of other Spirit helpers all of
which never fail to show up at just the right Divine time, and for that I feel truly blessed.
Ceritifations: Reiki I, Reiki II, Reiki III (Mastery), Hypnosis, Hypnotherapy, Past Life Regression Healing, Therapeutic Massage
Reik I
Reiki II
Reiki Master
Hypnotherapy
Past Life Regression Healing
Certification: Massage Therapies
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