On the record with Ed Collins

From the Sunday, August 17, 2008 edition of the Northwest Herald:

On the record with ... Ed Collins

By day, Ed Collins spends his time preserving natural habitats as natural resources manager at the McHenry County Conservation District. His passion for the outdoors stems from his childhood. Although he grew up in Chicago’ Humboldt Park neighborhood, he frequently camped and spent as much time as possible outdoors.

His passion for nature extends beyond biology. Collins has had a longtime interest in alternative healing, specifically hypnotism and Reiki. He believes a direct connection exists between someone’s mental and spiritual well-being and their environment. Through his alternative healing work, Collins has helped hundreds learn to relax, quit smoking, or achieve other personal goals, he said.
Collins spoke with Northwest Herald reporter Diana Sroka about his work at the District and with alternative healing.

Sroka: Why did you get interested in working at the District?
Collins: I’ve always liked the outdoors, all my life, and I started in outdoor education. The district being a major open space agency, it was a good opportunity to match my skills with the open space that they had protected.

Sroka: You said you are also a hypnotist. Tell me a little about that.
Collins: I work in several forms of alternative healing. And one modality often leads to another, so I work in a modality called Reiki. It’s an oriental form of energy work used in alternative healing. My work in that led me directly to hypnotism. So I often use the two very much together.

Sroka: So, I’ve never seen any hypnotism or heard of Reiki. Can you detail it more for someone who is completely unfamiliar?
Collins: Reiki is a form of energy movement within the body. We as human beings possess physical and mental and spiritual centers that are all interrelated. If you’re not feeling good in your body, oftentimes that’s reflected in how you feel mentally, your outlook. If you’re not happy with what you’re doing in life, that may be reflected in how you feel spiritually. Reiki looks at the places in the body, called chakras, where those things all come together. Reiki works by moving energy in and out of those centers to help them get moving again. Hypnotism: People have an odd concept of hypnotism I think because they go and see stage shows. Hypnotism is actually a very focused form of concentration and you do it all the time. When you drive somewhere and you suddenly get to that place and you don’t remember driving the last couple of miles, that’s a light state of hypnotism. So you can get to deeper levels, and that’s what the hypnotist helps you with. All hypnotism is really self-hypnotism. Basically what the hypnotherapist does is help you get relaxed, help you focus and concentrate your thoughts, and then work on whatever might be bothering you.

Sroka: When somebody comes to you and says they’re very stressed, they need to relax, what do you tell them? How does it work?
Collins: We’ll sit down and I’ll explain Reiki and hypnotism, and then we’ll sit down and talk about what they’d like to accomplish. In both cases, there’s often a misconception if a person is working with someone in alternative healing, that somehow they’re doing it to the person. But it’s like anything else in life. The doctor may set the bone if it’s broken, but you’re body is doing the healing. It’s very much self-directed.

Sroka: What’s the biggest challenge you face as a hypnotist?
Collins: I think in both cases [Reiki and hypnotism] it’s that people are not familiar with the modality. You have to understand it. This is not supposed to be a replacement for going to the doctor – it’s an augmentation for what you’re already doing. I’m not a doctor.

Sroka: Do you see a relationship between what you do at the district and your work with alternative healing?
Collins: I do. Although it’s very hard to put into words. In the Natural Resource Management Department, our function is to improve the ecological health of natural land. I think there’s a direct correlation between having beautiful surroundings and accessible open space and how a person feels inside.

Collins lowdown
Who is he? The Natural Resources Manager at the McHenry County Conservation District.
Family: His wife of 30 years, Denise; daughter, Aimee; son, Ed Jr.
Favorite meal: My wife makes a really wonderful pepper steak.
Favorite Movie: “What the Bleep Do We Know?!” a movie about quantum physics.