Essentials of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (June 1999)

Other Studies
Electrodermal response (EDR) is used as a measure of anxiety and tension and is the basis of the lie detector test. In a series of 15 experiments, William Braud and 
colleagues demonstrated that spiritual healing can significantly alter EDR (
48
). Summarizing a series including 323 sessions with 4 experimenters, 62 influencers, and 
271 subjects, they found that of the 15 studies, 6 (i.e., 40%) produced significant results. Of the 323 sessions, 57% showed significant results (p = .000023).
2
Studies on rodents have shown significant effects of healing for accelerating wound healing (
49
); reducing the rate of development of iodine deficient goiters (
50
); 
reducing the rate of development of experimentally induced amyloidosis (
51
); slowing the growth of tumors (
52
); and slowing the progression of malaria (
53
, 
54
). The 
last study is particularly intriguing because it dealt with healing expectations.
In an intriguing experiment using malaria-infected mice, Jerry Solfvin apparently demonstrated that the expectation of healing of illness could produce healing effects 
under double-blind conditions, even when no individual was specifically identified as a healer (
55
). Healing expectancy may be an important variable in healing 
effects.
Studies on plants show that rates of growth may be increased or decreased, according with the intent of the healers (
56
, 
57
, 
58
, 
59
, 
60
 and 
61
). The same is true of 
cultures of bacteria (
1
, 
62
, 
63
) and yeast (
1
, 
64
, 
65
, 
66
 and 
67
). The action of enzymes can be changed with healing interventions (
46
, 
68
, 
69
 and 
70
).
An overall summary of healing research shows that of 155 controlled studies, 64 demonstrate effects at statistically significant levels that could occur by chance only 1 
time in a 100 or less (p < .01); and another 21 at levels that could occur between 2 to 5 times out of 100 (p < .02-.05) (
1
).
THEORETICAL BASIS FOR SPIRITUAL HEALING
Many conventional medical practitioners may find it difficult to understand (within Western scientific thought) how spiritual healing could be more than suggestion, 
placebo, or charlatanism. Healers explain that healing works through multiple, interdigitating levels, including body, emotions, mind, relationships (with other people 

and with the environment), and spirit.
Subtle Energies
Healers address the body through purported energies that surround and interpenetrate the physical body (
24
, 
71
, 
72
 and 
73
). Most people can sense the energy field 
with their hands by holding them about an inch apart and slowly moving them further apart and then back together. These energies are thought to create certain 
sensations in the palms and fingers. The most common sensations people experience with this experiment are described in the following footnote, and the reader is 
invited to try this and write down his or her sensations before reading it.
3
By holding one's hand opposite the hands of different people, distinct differences in sensations are felt with each person. These sensations are assumed to be 
stimulated by the interactions of the biological fields that surround people's hands with the biological fields of those with whom they are interacting. Healers will often 
practice scanning the entire body of healees to develop a diagnostic vocabulary of sensations through which they can identify parts of the body that are out of 
harmony, dis-eased (as in storing tensions or in early states of dysfunction), or diseased on a physical level (
6
, 
37
, 
71
). A recent article in  JAMA claims to have 
refuted this ability, however (86).
Many healers consciously focus on the intent to increase energies available to healees in whom they detect energy deficits, or to draw off excess energies from 
healees where they sense energy congestion. Healers will also focus on enhancing the flows of energy at points at which subtle energy flows appear to be blocked.
Very sensitive people report being able to perceive these energy fields as auras of color surrounding the body (
74
). The colors shift constantly, reflecting the various 
physical, emotional, mental, relational, energy, and spiritual states of the organism. Particularly strong energy centers called  chakras are visible along the midline of 
the body. (Chakra means wheel in Sanskrit, indicating that these energy centers were probably also perceived by sensitive people many centuries ago.) Healers find 
that the changes in the colors of the  chakras reflect states of health and illness in parts of the body near the relevant  chakra, and that projecting healing to a chakra 
that appears abnormal can restore the energy body and improve health (
74
). The perceptions of auras is reported by healers even with their eyes closed. Most 
healers assume that clairvoyance (intuitive perception rather than visual perception) is involved.
Intuitive Perceptions
Some healers report hearing words, sometimes medical diagnoses, when they are tuning in energetically to a healee. Occasionally healers report they can smell 
particular odors or taste odd tastes when they scan a person's body and that these, like the tactile or visual sensations, are associated with disease states. It would 
appear that the mind uses various ordinary sensation modalities in bringing these sensations into conscious awareness and in interpreting them as meaningful 
information (
75
).
The healee's emotional and physical states are reported by many healers as mirrored feelings within themselves, sometimes labeled as  telesomatic reactions. These 
reactions are used by psychics in clairsentient “readings” (
76
). One must not put too great credence in such readings, as Macbeth learned to his detriment. Healers 
may have intuitive impressions of the origins of emotional difficulties in traumas that occurred many years before scanning the healee. Alternatively, spiritual healing 
may awaken awareness of early traumas in healees. Intuitive emotional awareness can be particularly helpful when there are emotional tensions underlying physical 
problems. For example, a healer gave healing to a 40-year-old woman with low back pain. She spontaneously started to recall sexual abuse in her early teenage 
years. Working through this long-buried emotional trauma brought about healing in her back pain, which had been present for many years and unresponsive to 
conventional therapies.
Intuitive diagnostic awareness suggests that healing may be affected by a transfer of information rather than by transfers of energy. This theory is supported by 
reports of healing from great distances, with no apparent diminution of effect as occurs with conventional energies over increasing distances (
28
, 
77
, 
78
 and 
79
).
An overall theory to explain healing may arise out of Einstein's observation that energy and matter are interconvertible. Quantum physics has confirmed that, on a 
microscopic level, what appears to our senses as a solid, material world can be equally well described and defined in terms of energies. Biology and medicine have 
been slow to consider that the body, which they address as matter, may also be addressed as energy (
24
, 
25
 and 
26
).
INDICATIONS FOR TREATMENT
Spiritual healing has been used most often as a last-resort treatment, when all conventional therapies have had little or no affect. This is unfortunate, because healers 
report that when spiritual healing is given early in the course of an illness, it is effective more quickly and profoundly. If there is neither urgency nor a known effective 
conventional medical treatment, healing should be considered as an initial treatment because it has no known harmful effects. Healing can always be used as a 
complement to other therapies. Although no formal studies have been conducted, anecdotal reports indicate that healing can lessen the need for various medications 
and therapies (e.g., antihypertensives, antidiabetics) and that it can reduce side effects of conventional treatments, such as cancer chemotherapy and radiotherapy. 
Although healing may not always improve the physical condition being treated, it often improves a person's ability to deal with his or her conditions. Through its 
relaxation effects, it can contribute to the management of many conditions.
Healing is not recommended as an alternative to medications. Injudicious discontinuation of medications with healing for diabetes, epilepsy, and hypertension, for 
example, has been reported to worsen these conditions (sometimes drastically). Conversely, when given as a complement to medicinal therapies, the attending doctor 
should be alerted that lower doses of medication may be needed. There are reports of diabetics who went into insulin shock after receiving healing when their doctors 
were not advised about it; there are also reports of reduced need for tranquilizers, pain medications, and sleeping pills.
The preventive use of healing has not been explored in a serious way. Casual studies of healing to prevent influenza (
38
); to prevent bovine foot and mouth disease; 
and to ease the course of anticipated difficult pregnancy, labor, and delivery (
80
) suggest it may be a promising preventive treatment for some conditions. More 
research is needed.
Healing may be highly cost-effective. Michael Dixon, a general practitioner (internist) in England, invited a healer to treat 25 patients with a broad range of problems 
for whom he had nothing more to offer but palliative, maintenance medications. In 6 months the healer saved the equivalent of $1,500 in medication costs alone. She 
also reduced the numbers of return visits. His impression was that if healing had been given earlier on in the course of illness, there would have been further savings 
in referrals to specialists (
81
).
Prohibitions against healing practitioners and against cooperation of physicians with healers are common, varying widely from state to state in America and other 
countries. Apart from the need to discipline exploitative charlatans, suppression of healing practices is unreasonable if one considers the research available and the 
apparent lack of harmful effects.
ORGANIZATION
Training
Healing is an art that can be enhanced with training and practice. Most caring people can develop a measure of healing ability through the intent to help and heal, 
through meditation, study under experienced healers, and practice. How good a healer will become with study is similar to the development of any other gift, such as 
playing the piano. There are people who are born with a highly developed gift for spiritual healing and others in whom a great gift develops spontaneously or with 
study. Some achieve excellent or credible results with application and practice, and others remain mediocre despite their best efforts.
Healing is an excellent complement to most other therapies. Many conventional and complementary therapists develop their own healing gifts (
82
). My own 
preference is to combine counseling/psychotherapy with healing, because each complements the other so well. Healing may bring about spontaneous releases of old 
emotional hurts, and then psychotherapy can help people to deal with these. Psychotherapy may raise anxieties and emotional traumas from the past, and healing 
helps to assuage the stresses and hurts of these. Healing also opens spiritual dimensions of awareness, which are helpful to people in dealing with their problems 
(
24
, 
25
, and 
26
, 
28
, 
83
).

The exact nature and format for training in healing varies with the healing model being used. For some, healing is primarily an energetic intervention. Healers provide 
laying on of hands or absent healing alone. Some feel that healing should be left to a higher power, both within and beyond the healee. Despite these differences, 
one may learn the basics of healing in a few hours or days. These basics include:
1. Holding a caring intent to heal in one's awareness (both mind and heart).
2. Centering one's mind and maintaining a focus on Step 1.
3. Developing awareness of and trust in one's intuitions.
4. Opening oneself to connect with a power greater than oneself, and inviting the healee (overtly or quietly) to do the same (
84
, 
85
).
Regardless of theoretical preferences, there are great advantages to programs that organize ongoing mentor and/or peer supervision (
37
). There are endless lessons 
to learn and pitfalls to stumble into, as with psychotherapy. It is prudent to have other professionals to turn to for discussing one's work.
Duration of programs vary from a single weekend to 2 to 4 years. Clearly the longer one studies, the broader and deeper will be one's knowledge.
Certification and Licensure
Certification is given by some, but not all, schools. Among the more responsible schools are the Barbara Brennan School of Healing (P.O. Box 2005, East Hampton, 
NY, 11937), the LeShan Method Consciousness Research and Training Project (315 E. 68 Street, Box 9G, New York, NY, 10021), and the International SHEN 
Therapy Association (3213 West Wheeler Street, No. 202, Seattle, WA, 98199). In several countries (e.g., England, Holland, Norway, South Africa), healers have 
written and subscribed to codes of conduct. There is no licensure for spiritual healing in the Western world. In America, many healers obtain licenses to touch as 
masseurs, chiropractors, or the like. Another alternative has been to offer healing within a religious setting. I have heard of licensure for healers in several East 
European countries but have seen no official documentation on this. Their requirements include courses in basic anatomy and physiology; demonstration of intuitive 
diagnostic abilities to correlate with medical diagnoses; and demonstration of healing abilities with physical problems for which no treatment is being received and in 
which spontaneous improvement is highly unlikely. Licensure is said to be  nonexclusive—that is, those healers who qualify have the distinction and recognition of 
having met the required standards. Those who have not qualified are not prohibited from practice. Because a mother kissing away a child's hurt and children who 
have healing abilities are not uncommon, a nonexclusive licensure appears advisable.
Fees vary but are usually modest. Some healers treat without charge. Others request donations. Beware of healers who charge large fees, especially if they require 
payment in advance for a series of treatments. In England, a growing number of healers work in doctors' offices and hospitals, where they may be paid by the National 
Health Service.
PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE
Prospects for the future of spiritual healing are promising. Much of the reluctance to consider healing derives from lack of knowledge about the research database or 
fear of charlatans and frauds (a fear that, in this author's opinion, is overblown). Healers must form professional organizations if they are to attain greater professional 
acceptance. This has been possible in England and Holland, and is clearly a manageable challenge in other countries. The lack of side effects with healing, combined 
with its potency as a complement to other therapies and probable cost-effectiveness, make it one of the most promising of complementary therapies.
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HAPTER
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Thorsons, 1974.

CHAPTER 22. M
ASSAGE
 T
HERAPY
Essentials of Complementary and Alternative Medicine