I met John on one of his Crystal Day, it was very interesting. I walked in not knowing anything and learned lots it was a truly fascinating. John was an excellent teacher both professional and approachable.

 

 

I found John at Braintree Market and wanting to further my learning in Reiki and Crystal knowledge, after talking with him for a considerable length of time I decided I would like him to be my teacher. He is very professional and has a considerable amount of knowledge that he is more than willing to pass on. He is always very helpful and supportive and I would have no hesitation in recommending him.

 

 

 

Usui Reiki Ryoho Course Shoden Level one

"I met John at his crystal stall in Colchester and I very quickly decided it was him that I wanted to help me begin my journey into Reiki.  

The Reiki 1 attunement was a very special 2 days.  John was very friendly and put me at ease very quickly.  He made time throughout the course of the two days for breaks during which we would chat over a nice cup of tea too.In the weeks and months post the Reiki attunement John has been extremely helpful in providing follow up support, guidance and answering my probably stupid questions with both understanding and compassion (not once has John made me feel stupid!).  John clearly has a lot of knowledge and seems comfortable sharing it with you, if you wish to learn.All in all in really would not hesitate to recommend John as a Reiki teacher." 

 Phil M    July 2009

 

 Usui Reiki Ryoho Course Shinpiden Level 3 (Master/ Teacher)

I have recently completed My Reiki Masters which i did with John Spillman.  It was the most enlightening and amazing 3 days of my life.  The difference with doing this with John is that he is so true to this ancient form of healing and hasn't brought along any of the 20th century clutter to his teaching.  For me it was like stepping back in time and the outside world for 3 days didn't exist.I would recommend anyone thinking of Starting on the Reiki path to go to John for an amazing spiritual journey.

 Kim G 2009

 

Soul and spirit Magazine July 2009 by Angela Kennedy

 “Feeling euphoric, I found

I’ve always been partial to a bit of bling, so naturally crystals have always caught my eye

– I love the colours, the shimmer and the feel of them in my hand. But like most people, I didn’t giveit much more thought; they were just pretty objects. That is until one sunny weekend in the middle of my usual Saturday sprint around the shops, when I notice a new stand next to the farmers’ market. Full of glittering crystals, its sparkling contents draw me towards it and I stand mesmerised by the radiance.“Can you feel the energy of the crystals?” asks the man running the stall. I immediately shake myhead, and furtively glance around to check no one I know is nearby to overhear this craziness. But truthfully, I have often experienced odd sensations while holding crystals – and instantly dismissedthem, of course. I momentarily think about scurrying away but, instead, I get talking to the stallholder,John Spillman.

It turns out that he also has a shop in Colchester, called Astral Gems (astral gems. co.uk), and is a crystal healer and reiki master. I end up buying far more of these little jewels than I’d intended – although it has to be said the quality of John’s stones is high and his prices are very reasonable – but, more surprisingly, at the end of our conversation I also find myself booked on his crystal attunement course. “Crystals are living beings of pure energy,” he says. “They vibrate at a higher frequency than we do and, with a little knowledge, you can use them to heal yourself,” he adds. I have no idea what to expect, but in order to preserve a semblance of sanity; I am really hoping it won’t involve talking to the crystals...

Finding your energy

Arriving at John’s house for the course, some weeks later, I meet the four other novices, and get ready for a seven-hour crystal marathon. Luckily, we don’t need to bring anything to the session as John provides all the crystals for use during the course and picks out the ones best suited to us, so no enormous crystal collection is needed. The first thing that he teaches us is how to cleanse our crystals; he says it’s important to rid them of all residual energy both good and bad, so their full power is focused on healing us and there’s nothing remaining from the last person who touched them. Now, the cleansing rituals I’m familiar with involve leaving crystals out in moonlight or holding them under running water until your arm aches. But John says it can be much simpler than that. “Cleanse your crystals by holding them in your intuitive left hand, blow on them and ask the universe to cleanse them, sending all energies good and bad down to Mother Earth where they can be absorbed to harm none.

Then ask that the crystal be dedicated to work for your higher good,” he advises. We begin by attempting to feel the different energies emitted by various crystals, holding them in our intuitive left hand. I have to concentrate quite hard and am slightly worried that everyone else seems to be sensing things very easily, but as I relax into the exercise, I start to feel odd vibrations from the crystals in the palm of my hand. We hold clear quartz and suddenly it feels very icy. No matter how long I hold it for it remains freezing cold, whereas when I clutch a chunk of carnelian it feels warmer.John says this is because they operate on different vibrational frequencies. Our next exercise is to get in touch with our energy fields to see how crystal vibrations can affect it. We split into teams of two and take it in turns to find the layers of etheric body around each other.

This might sound complex but we just place our hands around the person, about a metre away from their body, moving towards them until we can feel some energetic resistance. I struggle to find it but eventually, bingo! I stumble across a point where there seems to be a slight resistance. It feels like pressing on a bouncy soap bubble or balloon, and it’s strange to feel how this resistance alters when a different crystal is held. The energy feels somehow warmer with carnelian but tourmaline makes the bubble feel like armour, almost as if I’m being shoved away. According to John, this demonstrates carnelian’s warming, fiery qualities, and tourmaline’s protective ones.

Meeting angelic beings

So now we’ve all discovered our etheric body, we proceed to give them a bit of a spring clean. Twopeople trace figures of eight around another person with a piece of sodalite, which is supposed to have a balancing a effect on emotions. The idea is to clear out negative energy and to make us more receptive to crystal healing. I feel very calm and serene while I am both giving and receiving the crystal cleansing.Next, John gives us two quartz points, which are large tube-like chunks of the crystal with a pointyend. He tells us to angle one in our left hand, inwards to draw in good energy, and the other in our right hand, facing out to get rid of bad energy – this one constantly feels like ice, while the other feels warmer. While we are doing this, John observes our auras. He says my physical one is zooming far out,another person’s is a mass of spiralling energy, but the others’ are apparently too tight. We then move onto attune ourselves to the vibrations of the crystals, which, along with receiving healing, is the point of the course. He introduces us to Apophyllite – little, clear crystals, which naturally form as pyramids and which he says are very intense and will help us access higher vibrations.

I sit on a chair while two people place apophyllites around me and build up an energy field by raising their hands with the apophyllites in the centre until they feel the ‘bubble’ as before. Then they ask the etheric crystal to be present and offer me healing. John tells us: “The etheric crystal is a multi-dimensional living crystal. When you connect to it, it will move from the etheric to the physical realm and join with your solid crystals to raise your vibration, cleansing you at a cellular level.” I close my eyes and feel lulled into relaxation by the soft music playing in the background. Suddenly I see vivid streams of gold and blue light. I feel as if my head is being pulled up – not in a stretching your- neck sense – but in an uplifting, very pleasant way.

Also, it feels as if someone is lightly stroking the top of my head, when in fact four of the five people in the room witness that nobody was even stood near me. Spookily, John later says he saw a being bathed in white light standing behind me, channelling healing into my crown chakra. He explains that I was receiving etheric healing from a being of pure energy. I feel incredibly euphoric and light-headed, as if I’d consumed a couple of glasses of champagne, yet all I’d actually been doing was sitting on a chair with a bunch of crystals around me – very mysterious. My throat area feels relaxed and I have an odd feeling of release across my heart area.

The blue Buddha

During the lunch break, John shares the story with of how he became a crystal therapist. “My spiritual journey began when I met my guides during mediation. In this vision, I found myself in a garden with angelic beings who told me they had been waiting for me to arrive, and I was enveloped in a great feeling of love. My guides told me I should be working with crystals, so I started to train to be a crystal healer. One significant part of my training occurred when I went to stay with a friend Nepal. His brother, who was a yoga master, invited me to meditate with him.

During this meditation, I found myself next to a man, sitting in the lotus position whose skin was totally blue. He looked at me, and a lotus flower which was hovering over his head, suddenly flew into me. I was puzzled by this experience until I found a picture of the man from my dream – he was the Vajradhara blue Buddha, aspiritual guide who is linked to healing. I went on to train with Master Yu Tian Jian, who is revered as aliving Buddha in his home country of China. And I have trained in Prajna Akasagarbha, meaning ‘wisdomhidden in space’, which is a Buddhist healing dharma practice. I now belong to the Reiki Federation as a master teacher, and am a registered practitioner with the Affiliation of Crystal Healers,” he says.

Feel the power

The afternoon session begins with dowsing, something I’ve never tried before. John tells us that we can use a dowser, which is a crystal suspended on a chain, to get clarification on issues and to help us make choices. But the questions we ask have to be for our higher good – so it’s no good asking whether we are going to win the lottery this week! I choose a smoky quartz but don’t have much luckas it doesn’t seem to be moving, whereas everyone else’s dowsers are swinging like crazy. John suggests I try another crystal and I pick up a carnelian, which seems to work much better for me. John explains that we respond more to the crystals that can help us as and when we need them – another day, smoky quartz might be the right choice. He also suggests that our dowsers need to become attuned to our energy for the best results, so we should sleep with them under our pillows. We attempt to diagnose which of our chakras are out of sync by observing whether the dowser moves too fast or too slowly when we hold it over a chakra.

The next part of the session involves my deepest fears being realised, when John says: “Now we are going to talk to the crystals and share their messages with each other.” Oh dear! He selects a crystal for each of us, and leads us through a meditation. We visualise going inside the stone and looking around, then we mentally ask it, ‘What can I do to increase my spirituality?’ To my utter surprise, before I’ve even finished asking the question, a loud, clear voicebooms in my brain, saying, ‘Be more open!’ I’m in shock. John explains that this advice might mean to explore spiritual avenues that I’d not considered before. Other people receive messages like, ‘Be healed’ and ‘Let your sadness go’. The final activity of the day is to lie on the ground while another person arranges Herkimer diamonds in a grid formation around me, at key energy points: the crown, feet, sacral, shoulders and knees. John says this will build up a healing energy field. Unfortunately, my stomach is gurgling, courtesy of the sandwich I’d consumed at lunch, so I find it much harder to let go and drift off than I had done for the seated meditation. But after a couple of minutes of feeling nothing, John places a crystal on the third eye area of my forehead, and things go crazy! Suddenly, it feels like the room is falling away from me and I’m soaring up high in the sky – it’s such a vivid, euphoric and very physical experience. The people watching me report later that I was smiling and laughing, but I have no recollection of this.

I can hardly stand when the others wake me up; I feel amazing! Experiences during this healing vary, with one person describing in great detail a past life from thousands of years ago, another reporting flying in the sky like me, only she was riding on a dragon! Another lady says she experienced intense pain and was crying, so much so that she almost broke the meditation andleft the room. But she gritted her teeth and awoke to find a chronic pain she’d suffered from hadvanished. Another person just experienced a deep and healing sleep, awaking refreshed and revitalised.

The verdict

What surprised me at first, was how quickly the time seemed to shoot by; I was struggling to imagine how we would fill an entire day talking about crystals. But, in fact, there’s so much to learn about these stones that the time just seems to fly – quite literally in some cases! I can’t explain the sensations I had during this course; they were so corporeal and mid-blowing. And I discovered I have the potential to experience spirituality so vividly, and I certainly left on a high. I learned lots but I think the challenge now will be to get into the habit of using crystals regularly. I feel more aware of them and how they can work. Most of all, I have woken up to their enormous potential, but I don’t know whether I’m totally ‘in tune’ with them. However, I am a definite crystal convert, although I will do my best to keep my feet firmly on the ground, when possible!