Merlin's
Touch by Clare Tyrrell
IT FEELS LIKE I've entered a Paulo
Coelho novel. Twelve of us sit in a circle in a blacked-out office
above Hollywood Road. We are holding hands, our eyes are closed
and a voice is telling us to visualize yellow rods streaming down
from the soles of our feet. Like a banyan tree's roots, I see
them shoot down the 10 stories of the building, under the pavement
of the SoHo night crawlers, through the Earth's crust to connect
with a great crystal quartz ball at the core. ''Now imagine another
rod stretching into the sky. White light is pouring down it and
filling you.''
The voice stops. I struggle to keep my mind focused on my breathing.
I sense him approach the woman on my right, and can feel the tension
slipping out of her hand. Then he appears at my neck. I feel a
heat being emitted like sunlight, but more intense. It is thick,
like liquid, and golden, unlike any energy I have ever felt. By
the time he has moved on, I feel grounded, comforted and amazingly
energized.
This is a shock. I arrived at Anup's Merlin Trinity Healing Circle
feeling stressed and skeptical. The British, Bangkok-based healer
(passport name: Mark Karlsson) had just flown into Hong Kong to
spend this week sharing and teaching the Merlin Trinity System:
a new form of energy work similar to Reiki. Except instead of
being a 200-year-old system, this is just three years young. And
Karlsson invented it. But he is not claiming ownership of the
healing system: he says it has been channeled through him, from
Merlin, the legendary seer of King Arthur's day.
After two hours in the man's presence, witnessing the absolute
turnaround of 12 people's energy levels - from subdued and stressed,
to pulsing and spry - it becomes clear that Karlsson is indeed
blessed with the ability to heal. Merlin may or may not be involved,
but the message seems to be a good one.
Tonight's event was an introduction to a one-day Merlin Trinity
Healing System workshop, in which Karlsson will pass on the keys
for tapping into the delicious ''universal energy of love'', that
I felt pouring into my back.
Over a cup of peppermint tea, the Middlesborough native stresses
this is not black magic, and he is not a cult leader. ''It's from
the highest realm, this is 100 per cent from the angelic source,
from love,'' he says slowly and softly. ''It's a high vibration
- we're putting pure chi in the body, which is what we need. Without
chi we'd die. Chi comes from trees and the sea. In a city like
this, you're not getting chi, you're not getting life force. So
using something like this - or doing yoga, tai chi or qi gong
- is vital.''
There are no airs about him - he is humble and earthy, with a
gentle presence that is immediately calming. However, things haven't
always been so relaxed. Karlsson had worked as an instrument technician
for chemical factories until 15 years ago, when he found himself
down and out in Sydney.
''My life was rock bottom, I had major problems with addiction
and was heavily into drugs and alcohol,'' he says. A personal
empowerment seminar literally changed his life overnight: ''Until
then I didn't realize that my thought created reality. I thought
life was circumstantial.''
In 1993 he arrived in Hong Kong, a new man and ready to ''get
rich''. Yet, instead of finding a career, Karlsson was diverted
into an alternative track: he met a continual stream of healers.
One guru led him to an Indian ashram, which gave him the name
Anup (''a nickname that I've kept''). He returned to Hong Kong
and became a Reiki master, then six years ago Merlin materialized.
''I went to a few sessions with a channeler and he channeled
Merlin. He said, 'I'm King Arthur's Merlin'. I was Mr. Skeptical
at first. But that evening I felt so much love, and the whole
air became pink. Something was really happening.''
Five years later, the magician's presence returned, but this
time there was a message.
''I was doing a Reiki attunement on somebody. I went into a deep
space, which is quite normal when doing an attunement, and I saw
a symbol.''
He pulls a chain from under his shirt with a silver triangle:
the trinity. He explains that two more symbols appeared to him,
and he found that by drawing these symbols in the air and visualizing
them with the help of crystals, he began to have access to a new
form of energy.
''It seems more powerful than Reiki, which I still teach and
am not condemning at all, but this just seems more in line with
what people need today. It deals with things very, very quickly.
It gets in, pulls stuff and gets it out. It's a transformational
energy.''
Karlsson admits that at first he was scared by what was happening.
''I convinced myself through lack of self-worth, that I had made
it all up, so I stopped doing it . . . but it came back, more
powerfully than before.''
For the past three years he has been using the method for healing
people and topping up his energy levels and awareness. He now
travels the world sharing its secrets. He has created 10 masters
and 30 teachers from London to Tokyo. The testimonies for those
who have sampled the system are positive and after a two-hour
workshop, every face is beaming.
Conversing with the body through energy, is an overlooked and
incredibly powerful transformational tool.
''We're a race of unfeeling people,'' says Karlsson. ''If we
go into the body, we know we'll have to face some painful emotions
that we've repressed. So we take our attention to our heads and
create a fantasy - so we don't have to look at the feelings. People
avoid their feelings in many different ways: drugs, alcohol, food,
people, places.
''We are much more than just our name and our career, there's
universal love inside of all of us and this energy wakes you up
to that.''
