From Actor to Healer: Alan Rickman's New Life as a Spirit Guide, Book 1

Chapter 18 - The Risk Taker

Recovering from Truly, Madly, Deeply took me a couple days. At that point, I didn't want to pick movies randomly anymore, so I asked my guide to make selections for me.

Alan obliged and said, "Watch Mesmer next. You'll like that one."

I agreed to stream the 1994 film the following week. Once I learned about the story a few minutes into the movie, my heart raced and I nearly fell off the couch.

Alan's character Franz Anton Mesmer was conversing with a skeptical doctor in front of a mentally ill woman who was lying in bed. Mesmer instructed the doctor to run his hands down the patient's torso and taught him how to channel an invisible force he called "animal magnetism." Then he grabbed the doctor's hands, transferred the energy to him, and slowly guided the man's hand over the woman's abdomen. As soon as the energy passed through her, her back arched off the bed.

"I don't believe it!" I shouted. "He's doing Reiki!" Mesmer had given the doctor a rudimentary "Reiki attunement"!

Although Mesmer wasn't performing Reiki proper, the analogy was obvious. I assumed that animal magnetism was Mesmer's term for life force energy, which is commonly known as prana in Sanskrit, chi in Chinese, and ki in Japanese. Reiki is a combination of two Japanese words, rei and ki, which together mean "spiritually guided life force energy." Before going into the light, Alan was inadvertently siphoning my life force energy instead of Reiki.

While Alan's character in Mesmer failed to demonstrate the validity of his healing method, Reiki and other forms of energy work in use today are enjoyed worldwide for their relaxation and healing benefits.

After Mesmer, Alan said, "Watch Rasputin next. You'll like that one too."

I streamed Rasputin the following weekend. To my chagrin, I didn't know the story of the historical Rasputin before watching this 1996 film. Alan portrayed yet another eccentric healer. That wasn't a coincidence.

Clearly, the actor had been willing to take on provocative, challenging roles. He hadn't been afraid of subjects like death and spiritual healing. Obviously, Alan guided me to these films first because he knew I'd relate to them.

"You have quite a sense of humor," I told him.

"By showing you these films," he said, "I wanted you to know that I approve of what you're doing. I wasn't a spiritual healer in this life, of course, but the subject is a fascinating one. You've taken risks as a healer while I'd taken risks as an actor. You help people as a Reiki Master, and I helped people in my own way, using my own means. I respect you for your efforts."

"Thank you for showing me these films," I said. "I respect what you did too."

* * * * *

When I watched the classic 1988 action flick Die Hard in the summer of 2016, something happened that I wasn't expecting. Late in the film, Bruce Willis' character John McClane, bloody and tired after knocking off nearly a dozen bad guys, finally confronted Alan's character, the villain Hans Gruber.

Suddenly, Alan tapped my right arm. Since I didn't know the story, I didn't know what was next.

After a few tense moments, McClane shot Gruber, forcing the villain to fall out the window. Then down he went in slow motion! I had no idea that Alan would alert me to his "big scene."

In many of the interviews I'd watched on the Internet, Alan discussed his role in Die Hard. He was asked about that movie as recently as 2015, the year before his death. An action film had been outside his comfort zone as a longtime theater actor at that point in his career. He spoke often in interviews about his final scene where he was dropped twenty-five feet. Given that Alan wasn't a stuntman, the move was daring. He demonstrated that he wasn't afraid to take risks. It paid off because Die Hard launched his international movie career. And I doubt I would have met him otherwise.