You don’t even have to come face to face with Gene Egidio to feel better. He may be able to help you over the phone or by looking at your picture. And he might be able to cure your pet, too.

Gene Egidio hops from coast to coast and country to country to heal what ails people.

by MAIR DOWNING

NO DOUBT some people roll their eyes at what Gene Egidio does for a living. Or dismiss him as another New Age quack making money off people's hopes. But there’s something in the way he talks, in his rich but gentle New York twang of an accent that entices you to believe.

I’ve been there myself,” says Egidio, an energy healer, about the disbelieving public. "They ain’t telling me nothing new."

Egidio knows about this non-believing stuff first-hand. The first time he healed someone he was young. A pre-teen kid. His neighbor accidentally sliced himself with a knife and instinctively Egidio placed his hands around the wound and just held it. When he removed his hands, the slice was gone. The neighbor thought Egidio was the devil. His parents, who were strict Catholics, thought he was possessed and immediately took him to a priest for exorcism. When that didn’t work, Egidio underwent electroshock therapy. He was 12.

Egidio's life didn’t get much better. At 14, he died on the operating table twice, once from appendicitis, once from peritonitis. He was clinically dead both times, but managed to fight back. As his life went on, he forgot about his "demonic gift." He joined the Navy, fought in Korea, got married, and had a family. Once he returned from the war, the bottom dropped out.

"In one week, everything fell apart. I moved out to California, got divorced, my business went bankrupt and I got into a car accident," Egidio recalls. "I didn’t want to leave the house."

Everyone was knocking at his door. The Power Company, the Phone Company, the Water Company. They all wanted him to pay. He couldn’t. The last knock, the one he didn’t want to answer, was fate. It was a friend of his, a woman, and she was covered head to toe in herpes blisters. She was babbling about a dream. Egidio just looked at her, thinking she’d toked up on something pretty powerful before she arrived. But the woman was determined. She marched him into the kitchen and acted out her dream sequence, putting his hand on her shoulder. After about a minute, her head dropped. She was asleep. Awkward and unsure, he tried to remove his hand, but it was stuck like glue. He sat there, frozen, for about 20 minutes until she woke up, thanked him and left, quite glib. The next day, she showed up at this door. Her skin was “clean as the driven snow” and Egidio was in shock. There were no blisters, no scars.

After his friend left, Egidio flopped down into his chair and fell asleep, a Rip Van Winkle rest that lasted for three days. Once he awoke, he felt like a different person. Not human anymore. Different.

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"I could feel the roots of the avocado tree outside my window. Its roots. Its veins. I could feel the wind but there was no breeze. I still feel that way today," says Egidio.

This is testimony of Gene Egidio. It’s in his book Whose Hands are These?. He’s been featured on 48 Hours and is the personal healer to numerous Hollywood celebrities. All this has not made him haughty. He doesn’t think he’s a prophet or a Jim Baker-esque savior. He’s a regular Joe who has a gift

"I’m just fortunate to help these people who are in the spotlight," says Egidio. "But they go out for pizzas just like everyone else. They’re just people."

Penny Peed, a massage therapist in Hampton Roads, swears he’s the "real deal." She’s seen a lot of healers in her time, but no one made her feel the way Egidio did. Energized was the key word. When attending his Healing Light Seminar in 1998 at the Heritage Center in Virginia Beach, she was inspired.

"I felt him look at me and I felt this intense energy all around me. I just shut my eyes and went with it. The next day I went back for a personal healing, but after the first experience, I almost felt like I didn’t need it. I was so energized already."

The seminars begin just like any other. Chairs are lined up in rows, all facing Egidio, who is on stage. One by one, he concentrates and looks at the audience. Depending on who you are, you could have a variety of sensations. Some say there’s a brilliant aura or circle of light that surrounds him, others say their vision clouds like drying contacts, other says his face actually changes, taking on different shapes. Regardless of the exact experience, everyone comes out of the seminar with a reaction.

"You really feel the energy go through you," says Mary Emma Peterson. "It’s a warmth. And there was this beautiful golden aura around him. Even those who didn’t believe were moved."

That’s the secret. Energy. Apparently Egidio is a regular power plant, with ample energy stored up. Those who are sick, addicted, or mentally drained are running a few quarts low. Egidio hands off a bolt or two, puts them in balance, so their bodies can heal themselves quicker. For $80, he will do a phone or a photo healing. He’ll even heal your pet.

Egidio never promises people will be cured. "It’s something I just do automatically. But I can’t say to someone, ‘Yes, it’s going to work for you and yes, you’ll be healed.’ That’s too much responsibility. The reward is seeing them walk out of the door smiling when they couldn’t smile before because of the pain."

At the present time, Egidio, who refuses to say his age, maintains a kamikaze schedule, darting back and forth from seminar dates all over the world. In mid-September, he was in Germany, then in Hampton Roads, then off to who-knows-where. People stop him everywhere. "Hey!" they ask. "Aren’t you the guy from 48 Hours?" He just laughs. To him, this is retirement.

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