The Soul Purpose – Ameenah Thobani’s Spiritual Journey

Born in Karachi, Pakistan, reiki master Ameenah Thobani learned the amazing benefits of meditation very early on in life—with her parents waking her to practice at 4 a.m every morning as a child.

This daily practice served as a guide, showing her the way, and facilitating her journey into mental and spiritual healing. This path would eventually lead to her present career as an alternative medicine practitioner, who practises reiki and a variety of other healing disciplines.

At 18, Thobani had a life changing experience—she caught a “past life glimpse” of herself while meditating. “It was definitely horrifying, scary, and confusing, but at the same time, a quest of what is. Then the journey began for me.” While pursuing her calling, she veered away from traditional religion on her search for answers. She studied hypnotherapy with a teacher in Pakistan for three years before realising she had more to learn—

“I won’t say that I understood the concept of the spirituality aspect. I was diving into the mental aspect of things, like the law of attraction, how you can visualize things, and how you can manifest physical and material stuff. I was still on that level.”

She then explored the Silva Method—a meditation program based around rigorous training and strengthening the mind’s subconscious. It was this training that saw Thobani walk on fire, not once but twice—first in 2003, and again in 2007. She says these experiences gave her profound confidence, adding –

“I can walk on fire, I can do anything.”

Despite this amazing feat and her years of training, Thobani wasn’t satisfied and felt she was focusing solely on the scientific aspects of healing rather than opening herself up to the spiritual side—

“I was always looking for scientific reasons, but I was not going deeper, diving deeper into the spiritual world. I did have a glimpse when I first started, but I didn’t pay attention to it. I was just thinking it’s the mind, and it’s my DNA that is carrying the memory of my past—science has proved that your DNA carries information through seven generations.”

Thobani had thought she was set in her path, but everything changed when Thobani’s mother passed away in 2005. She found herself taking a new direction that added a spiritual dimension to her practice—

“When my mom passed away, I got the chance to look into that dimension. I felt my mom’s energy around me. It was a very different kind of experience and I realized that I’m a clairsentient. I can feel people’s energy. It was always there, but I had never paid attention to it.”

Just as a clairvoyant sees things intuitively, a clairsentient is someone who feels intuitively. “I usually know by looking at people—by coming into their energy, I somehow know about them. I started paying attention to that power,” says Thobani.

After ‘reading’ her friends and acquaintances, and getting positive feedback, Thobani knew she should pursue this new path. She started studying reiki in 2005 and began applying her combined skills and therapies, and creating a unique mode of treatment her clients described as “freeing”. “When I combine mental strength therapies with spiritual therapies like energy, I get wonderful results,” Thobani says.

In 2011 she became a reiki master—a mode she says is not so much a status or certification, but a state of being. She says truly becoming a master practitioner on a spiritual level takes experience, knowledge, and gratitude. 

Thobani teaches these lessons in her home, as well as her working. She urges her three children to practice thoughtfulness, and openness and says, “We are open to all, and that is the best part and the beauty when you are teaching children about oneness and humanity.”

Thobani now practices in Vancouver, B.C., where she works from her home studio and also does online therapy sessions. “Vancouver is rich with all the natural forces. When there is a combination of mountains, forest and water, it gives you a tremendous amount of energy that elevates you spiritually.” 

She continues to learn and enrich herself as an alternative health practitioner, recently adding rapid transformational therapy to her practice—a unique treatment combining energy cleansing, chakra cleansing, hypnotherapy, reiki, and spiritual coaching.

“I have experienced and lived all kinds of life, where I would say that all levels have been satisfied. Then comes the self-actualization, where you don’t run after material stuff, you just settle down for the soul purpose.”

These days, Thobani’s soul purpose is to just be—be human, raise good humans, and help others.

“We all are human and we are all together in this, and imperfection is perfection. Only God or the divine is perfect. We all are learning differently in every step we are taking.”

Stacy Thomas

Writer

Stacy Thomas was born and raised among the orchards of the Okanagan Valley. She studied journalism in Vancouver, B.C., and has worked as a reporter in places such as Germany, Ukraine, Northern B.C. and rural Alberta. Passionate about nature, she now lives in Squamish with her partner Nicki and her rescue dog Harley. She is currently a student of creative writing at the University of British Columbia, where she draws comics and writes poetry.