Hi this is my first thread here.

I have seen a number of New age healers who perform what they call "energetic healing" and "energy healing" type therapy, which seems to be some sort of "best kept secret" amongst such practitioners ands communities of practitioners.

I have never been able to get any of them to directly tell me what it is that they are doing, as they always skirt around the question when asked and "sleight of mouth" ( ie bullshit with linguistic trickery) thier way around answering truthfully what they do and how it works.

In a typiccal session, the "energy healing" feels like some sort of waves energy directed at my body, usually as I am encouraged to act out some sort of (pre-programmed and pre-taught) idea of emotional cathartic release, which is supposed to resolve all my problems and "release the root cause" of the issues I have presented them with.

In my experience of several years, this has has been with mixed and somewhat limited success compared to what has been over-promised by the therapist.

It seems to be some sort of electronic device or technology that the therapist uses, or charges thier body up with before hand, Im really not sure. I would be very interested if someone here could tell me. I have been wanting to know for several years yet the "energy healers" will never open up about it, or tell me.

It is quite a pleasant and intense experience, that seems to last for a few days afterwards (feeling high and full of energy - much like being on a CNS stimulant such as cocaine, and like cocaine, has kept me "hooked" into coming back again and again for another "hit".

Yet it wears off after a couple of days, and often doesnt really have much lasting or permanent effect of healing or behaviour modification




I have noticed this energy healing technology being used by massage therapists, and emotional-release type therapists alike, and I have a couple of stories that I could tell, yet I will refrain at this time.


Can someone tell me what this is all about? It seems to be some sort of well guarded secret

The closest thing I can think of is a reichian "Orgone Accumulator" type device.


I have read many many threads in this forum, over the last few years, and I feel that this subject should be discussed in some way.

Please let me know if this is an innapropriate subject to post and I will delete it if neccessary

Thank you

Hi Blastmaster,
Kind of an awkward topic, since some people do and some people don't believe in healing energy.
So we are not really talking from a quantifiable scientific study type idea here.
However, I doubt whether any of the people you are talking about are using some kind of machine. I know plenty of people with or without some kind of training, who can warm their hands and release energy. Healing Touch seems to be one of the more respected modalities (I think they don't promise anything beyond relaxation?) Reiki, some types of martial arts,plenty of massage therapists also seem to do it, as you have mentioned yourself.
The reason you probably get wierd answers is because it is one of those things that is hard to explain/and or people don't know how they do it themselves. For example; if you have ever massaged someone, how do you know where the knots are? Can you explain how to do that? Or to shoot a perfect basket in basketball? Or paint a picture so you get the colours just right?

If it is really important to you to understand the phenomenon though, you could probably learn how to do it yourself. Just be careful about what type of religious stuff or obligations you are buying into if you find a class.
Probably even safer, as you mentioned a lot of people who do massage seem to eventually figure it out instinctively. So you could always take a massage class or two and see what happens.
Re someone promising you major improvements with this stuff; seems pretty unethical to me.

From a scientific point of view, I did find a couple of studies;
A Randomized Controlled Single Blind Trial of the Efficiacy of Reiki on Mood and Wellbeing" and "Therapeutic Massage and Healing Touch Improve Symptoms in Cancer" both seem to describe modest improvements in either mood ( first study) or fatigue etc ( in the second study) post chemotherapy.
I haven't really looked in detail at how the studies were designed.

Hi Blastmaster

I'm not so sure that this thread sits within LGATs, but I have a fairly strong view on the efficacy of energy healing so I thought I'd share. I believe that it may have a strong placebo effect, but any effect in addition to that has not been established by fair trials.

This is not to say that energy healing cannot help people – the mind is a powerful thing – it just cannot help people who don’t believe it can help.

Consider this. If energy healing could be proven by fair trials to be more effective than a placebo then there would be many studies to prove this. The James Randi foundation offers a prize of a few million dollars to anyone who can prove that such healing works – this prize has not been claimed. I’d go so far as to say that if energy healing could be proven to work in a fair trial (DOUBLE blind, not single blind) and if this study was peer reviewed then the discoverer of this new way of healing would be awarded the Nobel Prize. It would be that big a deal.

Before placing too much faith in energy healing, it would be prudent to examine some of the psychology behind alternative medicines. If you have a sound grasp of the placebo effect (and what effects it), an appreciation of the scientific method and why it is the only fair way to evaluate a hypothesis, a grasp of selective retention and confirmation bias (we tend to recall only the times when things appear to improve), if you understand how illness cycles (it tends to go up and down even while you may be recovering – these fluctuations may be misinterpreted as “healing”) and if you have a taste for the number of false prophets and fraudsters (and misguided true believers) out there, and how convincing they can be (Read “Tricks of the Mind” by Derren Brown) and if you still believe that energy healing is anything beyond placebo, then at least you’ve made an informed decision.

I apologise if this response is terse, but while it may seem arrogant it’s my firm belief that admitting that my mind is susceptible to being tricked (and therefore relying on medicine/healing for which there is scientific evidence) is being quite humble. In my view the height of arrogance is to say “Despite the fact that double-blind tests have never found this type of healing to hold any merit, I’m going to believe in it because I’ve experienced it and I know it to be true.” Personal experience can be swayed by all of the things mentioned earlier.

DL

Hi Dopamine link;
Some people are comfortable only believing things that have been recognised by a scientist and printed in a peer reviewed journal; others have other ways of deciding on things; all seems ok to me. Don't think that anyone , you or others, are necessarily being arrogant; they are just working out what they believe in a way that makes sense to them.
Whether energy healing is eventually proved to be real or not, I know I certainly wouldn't suggest anyone spend a lot of money on alternative healing when there is plenty of proof that regular medicine works just fine.Medical treatment and advice should be given by Doctors.
The second study below though, did seem to be indicating that some medical professionals feel complementary medicine has a place as an adjunct to medical treatment.

You were interested in double blind studies; did find one
"The effect of complementary healing therapies on post operative pain after surgical removal of impacted third molars"
The study used a randomized, double blind wthin subject crossover design. According to the study, Energy healing reduced pain post operatively (between hours 4 to 9, I think).

Another interesting article, refered to above is"Energy Healing; A complementary Treatment for Orthopaedic and other conditions".
The peer reviewed journal article seemed to feel that "several well designed studies''showed significant advantages to energy healing as a complementary treatment.
From what I am reading though,even the positive studies seem to find it more as a helpful adjunct to dealing with medical treatments than anything else.

(Mo is that rather like massage or aromatherapy; if you enjoy it, and aren't spending too much money on it, or being forced into a belief system that demands you follow someone elses instructions, or make life changes, then probably it is ok. )


But if something is wrong or potentially wrong medically , I would definitely be going to a Doctor. You hear too many stories of healer types misdiagnosing people with illnesses like cancer until it is too late to be treated.

By the way, I also love Derren Brown.I think some of his vidoes should be required watching.
The only thing I disagree with in your comments is your belief in Randy.I'm a little cynical but it seems to me that he has a major vested interest ( a million dollars , major embarassment and the end of his lifes work) in making sure that he never acknowledges anything.
Peer reviewed studies without an obvious vested interest; them I find more interesting.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/2012 08:43AM by yasmin.

I have a friend who is very much into this so I have been hearing quite a bit about it lately. She plans to open her own "healing center."

One thing I have noticed is that while these healers are very careful to state that their treatments do not work 100% of the time they are very reluctant to state exactly how many people they have helped versus how many people they have not been able to help. Contrast that with a doctor who says "we have had a 95% success rate with this treatment." Both are admitting that they can't help everyone, but one is more focused on the fact that they can't help everyone while the other focuses on how many people have been helped.

I asked my friend, "Why would I spend my money going to your center for treatment with no guarantee of help when your traditional counterpart down the road tells me he has been able to help more than 90% of the people who have come to him?" She said, "You are funny!" I may be funny but that does not answer my question.

If this stuff really worked, you would see the pharmaceutical companies going out of business. As it is, I don't think anyone in the traditional medical field needs to worry about being put out of work. That should tell you something right there.