Energy Healing in a Nutshell

By PeaceWarriorX with much help from the internet

 

INTRO

Energy healing is a very widely used term for any form of healing, which balances, rejuvenates, or restores the levels of energy in the body. The principles of energy healing are rooted in the belief that in addition to biological and bio-chemical systems, the human body consists of a system of subtle energies. Most often referred to in the West as universal life energy or bio-energy it is referred to as various names among other cultures; in India it is known as prana, the Japanese know it as qi; in Hebrew it is called ruah, the Chinese refer to it as ki, in Hawaii it is referred to as mana or ti.  There is nothing new about this wave of energy healing sweeping the nation as various techniques have been around for at least 6000 years.

 

Energy healers believe that this universal energy flows through the body in recognizable patterns. This energy extends beyond the surface of the body and creates an energy field, also known as an aura or bio-field. When an individual’s energy patterns are balanced and free flowing, a healthy life can be enjoyed. When the energy field becomes disrupted, weakened or blocked, however, the symptoms of physical and emotional damage can occur. Prolonged disturbances in an individual’s energy field can lead to chronic pain, disease and emotional disturbances.

Many mainstream health systems have employed the life energy principle within their healing methods. Well known healing techniques such as chiropractic healing, shiatsu massage, acupuncture, osteopathy, acupressure, naturopathy, reiki, touch therapy and several others, employ various forms of energy field or life force principles in the treatment and diagnosis of patients. Traditional health care providers increasingly offer these healing techniques as a compliment to orthodox medical care.

 

Experiments on bacteria

The medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine published a review of clinical trials concerning various types of alternative healing methods. Energy healing was found to be the most effective practice, producing statistically significant results in 65 percent of the test subjects.
To put this finding into perspective, many drugs in use today fail to achieve a response rate higher than 50 percent in clinical trials.

One of the most complete studies of research showing the effectiveness of energy healing comes from psychiatrist, Dr. Daniel J. Benor. Dr. Benor surveyed all such research and studies made prior to 1990. They consisted of research performed on, cells, yeasts, bacteria, enzymes, plants, animals and humans. Of the 131 controlled experiments on spiritual, psychic, prayer or psi healing, over 50% showed statistically significant results. In 56 of the studies performed, there was less than a 1 in a 100 possibility that positive results were due to chance.

Reference: http://www.wholistichealingresearch.com/

 

A thirteen years long series of experiments demonstrated the human ability to mentally influence biological systems regardless of distance or isolation of the subjects from all conventional and energetic influences. Many controls were implemented to rule out error or extraneous influences. Through intention, focused attention and visualization of desired outcomes, subjects were able to influence another person's "electrodermal activity, blood pressure, and muscular activity; the spatial orientation of fish; the locomotor activity of small mammals; and the rate of hemolysis of human red blood cells." The experiments have been considered laboratory analogs of mental healing. (Braud and Schlitz)

 

Healing effects on plant growth

In a controlled study in the 1960’s, Bernard Grad used saline solutions to water barley seeds. (Salt is a known inhibitor of plant growth.) Oskar Estebany, a healer, “treated” a flask of salt water. After several weeks, the barley seeds that had been watered with healer-treated saline sprouted more frequently and produced taller, leafier plants with higher levels of chlorophyll, at statistically significant levels.

Grad later used the same protocol with magnetically-treated water, which had even more vigorous growth-stimulating effects than the healer-treated water. This indicated some similarity between energy healing effects and magnetic effects.

Using the same protocol, he asked depressed patients from a psychiatric hospital to “treat” bottles of saline. This water depressed the growth of plants. Except for one depressed patient, who asked why Grad wanted her to hold the bottle of salt water. When told the purpose of the experiment, she “became elated… and cradled it in her arms as if it were a newborn baby.” Her water produced accelerated seed germination and plant growth compared to the untreated control, indicating that intentionality may affect results. (Gerber, 370-3)

 

Effects of intention at the Cellular Level

Benor cites several well-designed studies which explore the effects of thought and/or healing intention on the cellular level. Pleass and Dey (1985) found that participants could effect the motility of algae in test tube culture, with highly significant results. Nash (1982) tested whether subjects not known to be psychically gifted could accelerate or decelerate bacterial growth; growth was greater in promoted tubes than in control or inhibited tubes (p<.05); and greater in promoted than inhibited (p<.001). Braud et al (1979) attempted to decrease the rate of hemolysis of human red blood cells that were being stressed by being placed in dilute saline. He “imagined” them intact and resistant to the saline. Results were highly significant (p<.00096), indicating that the cell membranes of the red blood cell may be strengthened by healing. (Benor)

 

Influencing Electrodermal Activity

Braud & Shlitz (1983,1985,1989) produced a study where the target sits in an isolated room where spontaneous skin resistance responses (SRR’s) are monitored by a computer system.  These SRR’s reflect the degree of activation of the subject’s sympathetic autonomous nervous system.  In a separate distant room (typically 20 meters away), the experimenter is stationed with the ”influencer” who takes the role of healer.  The influencer watches the polygraph as he/she attempts to exert a remote mental influence upon the distant subject.  Influence attempts are made during ten 30-second periods; these are randomly interspersed among ten 30-second control or baseline periods during which no influence is attempted.  While the target is unaware of the nature, timing, and scheduling of these periods, the influencer is to either calm, activate, or not influence the distant subject according to a prearranged randomized schedule.  With 323 sessions with 271 different subjects, 62 influencers, and 4 experimenters.  Thirteen of the fifteen studies yielded results indicating that the influencer affected the target.  40 percent were independently significant statistically.  The series as a whole yields a combined (Stouffer) z score of 4.08 with an associated p=.000023 with odds against chance of approximately 50,000 to 1.

http://www.integral-inquiry.com/docs/649/empirical.pdf

 

Does Prayer work?

If prayer really works, can it be measured, and have experiments been done that eliminate the receivers knowledge of the prayer?  Joyce Weldon (1965) designed a careful double-blind clinical trial to test the efficacy of prayer.  38 patients received their normal medical treatments with careful double blinds to assure that no one knew which group was receiving the prayer.  The study was conducted for between 8-18 months.  Only six of the patients with poor prognosis improved, five of these patients were in the prayer group.

 

Collipp (1969) did a similar study with 18 leukemic children patients with triple blind control conditions.  After 15 months of the 10 leukemic children in the prayer condition, 7 were still alive.  In the control group with 8 leukemic children only 2 were alive.

 

But the most convincing study on prayer was done by cardiologist Randolph Byrd, M.D. (1988) in the peer reviewed Southern Medical Journal.  Using randomized, double-blind protocols to study prayer in 393 CCU patients.  The study was conducted over ten months with 192 patients in the prayer group while 201 patients were in the control group.  Prayer was provided by participating Christians outside the hospital.  Neither patients or evaluating physicians were aware of which patients were receiving prayer.  It was found that although patients were well matched at entry, the prayer patients showed significantly superior recovery compared to controls (p < 0.0001).  The prayed-for patients were 5 times less likely to require antibiotics and 3 times less likely to develop pulmonary edema.  None of the prayed for patients required endotracheal intubation, whereas 12 of the controls required such mechanical ventilatory support.  Fewer prayed –for than control patients died, but the difference in this area was not statistically significant.  The design and the results of the Byrd study are impressive, and even skeptical commentators seem to agree on the significance of the findings.

http://www.integral-inquiry.com/docs/649/empirical.pdf

 

Meta Analysis on Healing studies

Daniel Benor, MD.  Benor did a meta-analysis of healing studies in the June 6, 2000 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, assessing the effects of distant healing (prayer, non-contact Therapeutic Touch, and other types of distant healing) in a series of studies (Astin et al). Literature reviews revealed 100 studies. Strict inclusion criteria required random assignment of study participants; placebo, sham, or otherwise “patient-blindable” or adequate control interventions; publication in peer-reviewed journals; clinical rather than experimental studies; and that the study be on human subjects with any medical condition. Of the 23 studies that met their inclusion criteria (including 2774 participants), 13 (57 percent) demonstrated positive treatment effects, 9 (39 percent) showed no effect, and 1 (4 percent) had a negative effect. (Benor, 375)

 

How come it doesn’t always work?

If prayer and distant healing works so well why are there not more studies like these?  There are inherent problems with doing these types of studies with the proper controls.  The problem we are dealing with is that if we accept the premise that thought can affect the study then thought can also interfere with the studies.  There are a number of studies that are very repeatable in certain labs, but when brought to another lab or to a lab of very skeptical people, to the surprise of those who were able to so consistently show a positive result, the repeatable pattern suddenly stops.  If we accept the premise that the mind or thought can affect things, or biological entities, then we must also assume that strong negative feelings, strong expectations of a negative result, or that there is fraud involved will certainly have an effect on the study.  In order to do a proper blind study we also have ethical problems of not informing patients that prayer or other healing is being directed toward them.  In addition, most professional healers believe that it is improper to attempt healing on those who did not give their consent, and that there could be karmic penalties for doing so.  In addition, it is believed by metaphysicians that only people who really want to be healed, can be.  In an example, a very powerful healer Dr. Eric Pearl who routinely does healings all over the world was called in to heal a group of people with a particular arthritic condition.  After the first day of treatment he was amazed that few if any were seeing any improvement.  After the second day of healing still little to no improvement, which was very disturbing to him as he was accustomed to very successful treatments on a regular basis.  He began to theorize that his method of healing must not work with that particular type of ailment.  On the third day he came in dreading the result and as expected almost no one felt relief.  He left the three-day session quite disturbed as he had been doing this type of healing for years and had never seen so many people get so little improvement.  He later found out that he had been called in as a last resort because a lawsuit was being sought against a company who was accused of causing that particular arthritic ailment on these people.  Each of the patients he had worked on were set to make a lot of money if his treatment failed, which it of course, did.  So it appears that consciously or unconsciously, the desires of the patient can have a strong effect on the success of energy healing treatments.

 

Kirlian Photography experiments

Kirlian photography is a special camera that some claim photographs auras.  The Kirlian camera uses electron cascades to make visible the electro-magnetic field that surrounds us in a similar way that iron filings can make magnetic fields around magnets visible. Due to the abundance of nerve endings in the fingers our electro-magnetic field is particularly strong around the hands. Because of this it is possible to get meaningful information about you from a Kirlian photograph taken of the energy fields around your hands.  These discharges can be affected by temperature, moisture, pressure, or other environmental factors. Several Kirlian techniques have been developed, but the basic ones generally employ a Tesla coil connected to a metal plate. The process is similar to the one which occurs in nature, when electrical conditions in the atmosphere produce luminescence’s, auras, such as St. Elmo's fire.  Many of those who claim the clairvoyant ability to see auras also claim that Kirlian Photography is an accurate representation of what they see.

 

Many studies have been conducted that have resulted in verification of the power of healing energy. Some of these experiments rule out the power of suggestion and placebo effects by objectively measuring various aspects of the electromagnetic fields in healing situations. Kirlian observation of healing sessions has revealed that the observable energy of healers is smaller after a healing session, while the patient's energy is enhanced, indicating a transfer of energy. (Tompkins and Bird, 209)

http://www.kajama.com/archives/981012/981012F1g.htm

 

Herbs and Kirlian

Dr. Mitchell May began using Kirlian photography, photomicrography and polarized light fields to produce energy field images of these natural substances. He found that life force energy manifested as specific patterns and structures. Those plants with the brightest, most intricate and most well-balanced energy, such as particular herbs, enzymes, algae, mushrooms and sprouts, were the same botanicals used by traditional healers. Their unusually radiant and harmonic patterns seemed to be valuable reservoirs of pure life force energy. It became clear to Dr. May that when these healing foods are expertly grown, harvested, prepared and blended together, they transfer their inherent patterns into our energetic fields and greatly enhance our health and well-being.

http://www.synergy-co.com/pages/kirlianphotos.html#healing%20hand

 

Light and the body

Fritz Albert Popp a theoretical biophysicist at the University of Marburg in Germany had been fascinated with light and was fascinated by the effects various wavelengths had on biological tissues.  He discovered that benzo[a]pyrene a deadly compound had a crazy optical property.  It absorbed UV light but then re-emitted it at a completely different frequency.  In effect, it was scrambling the light frequencies.  Popp did the test on benzo[e]pyrene, virtually identical except for a tiny alteration in it’s molecular makeup.  With this chemical, light passed right through the substance unaltered.  What is also interesting is that this very slight difference causes the chemical to be totally harmless to humans.  Popp tested 37 other chemicals some carcinogenic some not.  In every case the carcinogenic chemicals took the UV light, and scrambled it.  The non cancer-causing chemicals did not.  Toward the end of the test he could predict which chemicals were dangerous and which were not by weather the light was scrambled or not.  Another interesting piece of information was that the only wavelength that the carcinogens reacted to was 380 nanometers.

 

Interested in understanging why this was occurring, he then read about a phenomenon called ‘photo-repair’.  It is well known from biological lab experiments that you can blast a cell with UV light until 99 percent of the cell including DNA is destroyed.  You can almost entirely repair the damage in a single day by illuminating the cell with 380 nanometer wavelength UV light with very weak intensity.  To this day conventional scientists don’t understand this phenomenon, but nobody has disputed it.  Popp also knew that patients with a skin condition called xeroderma pigmentosum eventually die of skin cancer, because their photo-repair system doesn’t work and so doesn’t repair solar damage.  Popp was shocked to learn that photo-repair works most efficiently at 380 nanometers.

 

Popp then theorized that if the carcinogens only react to this wavelength , it must somehow be linked to photo repair.  If so, this would mean that there must be some light in the body responsible for photo-repair.  A cancerous compound must cause cancer by scrambling it, so photo-repair can’t work anymore.  Popp wrote a paper that was published in a prestigious scientific journal.  The work was impressive and he was invited to speak before fifteen of the world’s leading cancer specialists.  His work and his science was unassailable except for one detail.  It assumed a UV light of 380 nanometers was being emitted from somewhere in the body.  The basic attitude he got from the group of researchers was, “Don’t you think if there were light in the body, somebody, somewhere would have noticed it by now?”.

 

Popp returned to the University determined to prove that light eminated from the body.  He was approached by a student, Bernhard Ruth, who wanted Popp to supervise his PhD dissertation.  Popp said to him, “Prove to me that light emminates from the body and I’ll give you your PhD.”  The student returned with “That’s impossible, light doesn’t emit from the body”.  “OK”, Popp said, “Prove to me it doesn’t”.  Bernard Ruth spent two years building one of the most sensitive light detecting pieces of equipment ever created using a photomultiplier that to this day is still one best pieces of equipment in it’s field.

 

In 1976 they were ready for their first test.  They placed cucumber seedlings into the machine.  The photomultiplier picked up that photons of surprisingly high intensity were being emitted from the plants.  Both Popp and Ruth were suspicious.  Maybe the plant was storing the photons from the process of photosynthesis.  The next test they decided would rule out this possibility.  They used potatoes that had never seen light.  The potatoes registered even more light than the seedlings.

 

As the testing went on they determined that depending on the organism’s position on the evolutionary scale, the more complex the organism, the fewer photons being emitted.  Rudimentary animals or plants tended o emit 100 photons per square ventimetre per second at a wavelength of 200 to 800 nanometers, whereas humans would emit only 10 photons in the same area/ time/frequency.

Book: The Field, the quest for the secret force of the Universe, Lynne McTaggart

http://www.lighttravels.com/thefield.htm

Is it possible that this light that emanates from the body may be the source of this healing energy?

 

Detecting the Energy Field around the Body

The main reason for the change in outlook is that sensitive instruments have  been developed that can detect the minute energy fields around the human body. Of particular importance is the SQUID magnetometer (1) which is capable of detecting tiny biomagnetic fields associated with physiological activities in the body. (Figure 1) This is the same field that sensitive individuals have been describing for thousands of years, but that scientists have ignored because there was no objective way to measure it.

To summarize the discoveries that have been made, the editors of a new international journal commissioned a review of the concept of "healing energy" (2). While we have been researching this topic for some 15 years, the preparation of an in-depth review led to a thorough reexamination of the subject, with some unexpected conclusions.

The heart creates a strong pulsating magnetic field that spreads out in front of and behind the body, and instruments are now available that can detect the field of the heart 15 feet away from the body. (Oschman, 29-30)

It has long been known that activities of cells and tissues generate electrical fields that can be detected on the skin surface. But the laws of physics demand that any electrical current generates a corresponding magnetic field in the surrounding space. Since these fields were too tiny to detect, biologists assumed they could have no physiological significance.

This picture began to change in 1963. Gerhard Baule and Richard McFee of the Department of Electrical Engineering, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY detected the biomagnetic field projected from the human heart. They used two coils, each with 2 million turns of wire, connected to a sensitive amplifier.

In 1970, David Cohen of MIT, using a SQUID magnetometer, confirmed the heart measurements. By 1972, Cohen had improved the sensitivity of his instrument, enabling him to measure magnetic fields around the head produced by brain activities.

Subsequently, it has been discovered that all tissues and organs produce specific magnetic pulsations, which have come to be known as biomagnetic fields. The traditional electrical recordings, such as the electrocardiogram and electroencephalogram, are now being complemented by biomagnetic recordings, called magnetocardiograms and magnetoencephalograms. For various reasons, mapping the magnetic fields in the space around the body often provides a more accurate indication of physiology and pathology than traditional electrical measurements.

Pathology alters the biomagnetic field

In the 1920’s and 1930’s, a distinguished researcher at Yale University School of Medicine, Harold Saxon Burr, suggested that diseases could be detected in the energy field of the body before physical symptoms appear. Moreover, Burr was convinced that diseases could be prevented by altering the energy field.

These concepts were ahead of their time, but are now being confirmed in medical research laboratories around the world. Scientists are using SQUID instruments to map the ways diseases alter biomagnetic fields around the body. Others are applying pulsating magnetic fields to stimulate healing. Again, sensitive individuals have been describing these phenomena for a long time, but there was no logical explanation of how it could happen.

Projection of energy from the hands of healers.

In the early 1980’s, Dr. John Zimmerman began a series of important studies on therapeutic touch, using a SQUID magnetometer at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver. Zimmerman discovered that a huge pulsating biomagnetic field emanated from the hands of a TT practitioner. The frequency of the pulsations is not steady, but "sweeps" up and down, from 0.3 to 30 Hz (cycles per second), with most of the activity in the range of 7-8 Hz (Figure 2). The biomagnetic pulsations from the hands are in the same frequency range as brain waves and scientific studies of the frequencies necessary for healing indicate that they naturally sweep back and forth through the full range of therapeutic frequencies, thus being able to stimulate healing in any part of the body.

Confirmation of Zimmerman’s findings came in 1992, when Seto and colleagues, in Japan, studied practitioners of various martial arts and other healing methods. The "Qi emission" from the hands is so strong that they can be detected with a simple magnetometer consisting of two coils, of 80,000 turns of wire. Since then, a number of studies of QiGong practitioners have extended these investigations to the sound, light, and thermal fields emitted by healers. What is particularly interesting is that the pulsation frequency varies from moment to moment. Moreover, medical researchers developing pulsating magnetic field therapies are finding that these same frequencies are effective for ‘ jump starting’ healing in a variety of soft and hard tissues, even in patients unhealed for as long as 40 years. Specific frequencies stimulate the growth of nerves, bones, skin, capillaries, and ligaments. Of course Reiki practitioners and their patients have daily experiences of the healing process being "jump started," and academic medicine is now beginning to accept this therapy as logical and beneficial because of these new scientific findings. In Figure 2 we have bracketed portions of the signal that correspond to the frequencies used in medical devices that stimulate the healing of particular tissues. Individual differences in energy projection and detection.

What do these fields do

“The electric fields produced during movements are widely considered to provide the information that directs the activities of ‘generative’ cells… these are the osteoblasts, myoblasts, perivascular cells, fibroblasts, and other ‘stem’ cells that lay down or resorb collagen and thereby reform tissues so they can adapt to the ways the body is used.” (Oschman, 54)

These repair messages are apparently carried by the perineural cells, connective tissues which encase every nerve fiber in the body and are responsible for overall regulation of the classical nervous system. “Robert Becker, M.D. … demonstrated that the perineural cells, or nerve sheaths, carry a direct current of electricity, prompting the body to grow, heal, or regenerate and repair itself. For this reason, any change in health is always accompanied by electrical changes, both at the site of injury or repair and as an electromagnetic field around the body.” (Cohen, 45)

“The perineural system is a direct current communication system reaching to every innervated tissue… the current of injury is generated at the site of a wound, and continues until repair is complete… [it] attracts the mobile skin cells, white blood cells, and fibroblasts that close and heal the wounds. Finally, the injury current changes as the tissue heals, and therefore feeds back information on the progress of repair to surrounding tissues.” (Oschman, 94) Other bodily tissues are also sheathed in continuous layers of connective tissue, therefore it is possible that “a current of injury will arise in any tissue, epidermal, vascular, muscular, nervous, or bone, that is injured.” (Oschman, 95)

 

Can these fields be replicated synthetically

A modern medical technique called pulsed electromagnetic field therapy (PEMF) is used to treat bone fractures which have failed to heal after several months. A small, battery-operated pulse generator is placed next to the injury for 8-10 hours per day, and produces a magnetic field that induces currents to flow in nearby tissues, and “jumpstarts” a stalled healing process. “The scientific evidence is that PEMF therapy is effective because it conveys ‘information’ that triggers specific repair activities within the body. The currents… mimic the natural electrical activities created within bones during movements. Pulsing magnetic fields initiate a cascade of activities, from the cell membrane to the nucleus and on to the gene level…” (Oschman, 75)

Various electrical frequencies are being tested to determine the types of tissue they affect. Sisken and Walker found that 2 Hz is associated with nerve regeneration, 7 Hz with bone growth, 10 Hz with ligament healing, 15, 20, and 72 Hz with stimulation of capillary formation, and 25 and 50 Hz with synergistic effects with nerve growth factor. (Cited at Oschman, 76 and 86)

 

Can healers produce fields which can be measured?

Electrical and Magnetic Measurements. During qi gong, the electrical conductivity of acupuncture points changes dramatically. (Cohen, 45) Within experimentally designed copper room; qi gong practitioners’ electrical body potential had frequent surges ranging from 4 volts to 221 volts: 10,000 times larger than EKG voltages produced by a human heart. (Cohen, 49)

In the 1980’s, Dr. John Zimmerman used a SQUID detector (designed to study human biomagnetic fields) to study fields produced by a Therapeutic Touch practitioner during a healing session in a magnetically shielded room. A biomagnetic field emanated from the practitioner’s hand, pulsing at a variable frequency, ranging from .3 to 30 Hz, with most of the activity in the range of 7-8 Hz. The field was so strong that it was outside of the calibrated range of the SQUID magnetometer, so signal strength could not be quantified.

A study by Seto in Japan confirmed “a large biomagnetic field emanates from the hands of practitioners of a variety of healing and martial arts techniques, including QiGong, yoga, meditation, Zen, etc. The fields were measured with a simple magnetometer consisting of two 80,000 turn coils and a sensitive amplifier. The fields had a strength of about 10^-3 gauss, which is about 1000 times stronger than the strongest human biomagnetic fields (from the heart)… about 1,000,000 times stronger than the fields produced by the brain… As in Zimmerman’s study, the biomagnetic field pulsed with a variable frequency centered around 8-10 Hz.” (Oschman, 79)

These studies did not document that any clinical healing took place; however, “the evidence shows that practitioners can emit powerful pulsing biomagnetic fields in the same frequency range that biomedical researchers have identified for jump starting healing of soft and hard tissue injuries. This implies that biomagnetism is one form of the elusive Qi...” (Oschman, 80)

Brain wave activity in healers. Robert C. Beck has used EEG recordings to study brain wave activity in ‘healers’ from all over the world: psychics, shamans, faith healers, a Hawaiian kahuna, practitioners of wicca, etc. All these healers produced similar brain wave patterns when they were … performing a healing… all healers registered brain wave activity averaging about 7.8-8.0 cycles/second… Beck performed additional studies on some of the subjects and found that during healing moments their brain waves became phase and frequency synchronized with the earth’s geoelectric micropulsations – the Schumann resonance.” (Oschman, 107)

Temperature:  During energy healing, it is common for the client to describe a sensation of intense heat coming from the practitioner’s hands, even if the practitioner’s hands feel cool to the touch. Therefore, some studies have examined temperature effects. Oschman states that “research shows that masters of the QiGong technique can project measurable amounts of heat from their palms… that increases cell growth, DNA and protein synthesis, and cell respiration. Practitioners can also produce ‘inhibiting’ Qi, in which infrared energy is absorbed from the environment. This kind of Qi slows metabolism.” (Oschman, 82)

In 1988, Ogawa et al used an infrared color thermograph to measure skin temperature of two qigong masters and volunteer recipients. Skin temperatures elevated within 3-4 minutes after the masters began ‘emitting qi’, with temperatures rising as much as 4º C. Occasionally, the skin temperature of the recipient’s palm became higher than that of the master’s fingertips. (Abstract in Cohen, summarized in Benor, page 211) It is possible that this temperature rise is a significant factor in energy healing, it may be a side-effect of subtle energy transmission, or it may merely be a result of dilation of capillaries in the healer and healee.

Pavek wanted to prove that the effects in SHEN therapy were due to something other than heat transfer, so he conducted an experiment where temperature sensors were placed at four points, with 3” thick foam cushions to insulate subject from practitioner. Initially, the temperature of the sending hand raised several degrees (partially due to being placed between two foam insulators.) The temperature then leveled out (time A). Then, after several minutes (at B), the subject released a mild myoclonic jerk and breath rate slowed. Ten seconds later (C), the temperature reading at subject’s stomach began to rise. Finally, fifteen seconds after the temperature rise at her stomach (D), temperature at the receiving hand began to rise rapidly, increasing almost a degree before leveling out. “The most exciting reading was from the third probe… the reading on this gauge never changed, but remained constant throughout the experiment. This proves conclusively that the field effect is some medium other than heat or infrared radiation.” (Pavek, 59)

Infrasonic Sound. Researchers in China report that infrasonic sound may be a factor in healing effects of external qi gong. “Lu Yan Fang… recorded infrasonic sound emitted from the hands of qigong masters during external qi healings. She was able to produce healing effects with synthetic infrasonic sound at similar frequencies, reporting benefits for pain, circulatory disturbances, and depression.” (Benor, 214)  Xin Niu’s 1988 study looked at infrasonic waves emanated from 27 qigong masters when they were emitting qi, and from control subjects. There were statistically significant differences between groups, including exceptionally high-intensity infrasonic emissions from the more seasoned masters. In a 1988 controlled study by Xueyen Peng and Guolong Liu, healthy subjects were exposed to either emitted qi or infrasonic sound. “Intensity of the qi was measured at more than 70 dB, the infrasonic sound instrument could generate sound in the range of 60 dB to 90 dB… In changes similar to those produced by medication, the amplitude of most SEP waves (somatosensory evoked potential) changed significantly (p <.01)… suggests that infrasonic sound produced from the healer may be an active force in bringing about changes in nervous system activity. However, there is no evidence in this study that infrasonic sound in itself is able to bring about changes similar to healing. It would also be of great interest to clarify how the healer emits the infrasonic sound.” (Benor, 214-215)