Energy Healing: Measurable Physiological Impact Beyond Placebo

Key Quotes

"Scientists are beginning to measure shifts in physiology, coherence, and brain activity that suggest the body may respond to intention and connection in ways we have not fully understood. These patterns appear across many different settings, from controlled trials to personal accounts where people feel changes that cannot be traced to touch or suggestion."

The author highlights that scientific measurement is beginning to reveal physiological changes in response to intention and connection, extending beyond traditional explanations like touch or suggestion. This suggests that the body's response to healing may involve mechanisms not yet fully understood by science.

"some of the most rigorous lab studies on energy healing suggest that electromagnetic fields may be involved and those two things don't line up easily if healing works across a continent or even the globe it cannot be explained by electromagnetics alone but if labs are detecting electromagnetic changes during energy healing it can't be only information either so that's a paradox this may not just be energy and it may not just be information it may be both or something larger or a confluence of mechanisms we're only beginning to understand"

The author presents a paradox in energy healing research, noting that while some studies suggest electromagnetic fields are involved, this cannot explain long-distance healing. Conversely, if healing is purely informational, it doesn't account for detected electromagnetic changes. This suggests a complex interplay of mechanisms, potentially involving both energy and information, that science is still working to comprehend.

"when we started you were not in resonance with each other you had heart rhythms that were not in synchrony which one would expect but at approximately 45 seconds jill went into resonance and then 47 seconds tim went into resonance his heart rate started to absolutely coincide and beat in the same rhythm as jill's and that persisted almost till the end of the session"

Dr. Leah Lagos explains that during a healing session between Jill Blakeway and Tim Daly, their heart rhythms, initially asynchronous, began to synchronize. This resonance, where their heart rates coincided, persisted for a significant portion of the session, providing measurable data on the connection between the healer and the recipient.

"the biofield therapy significantly had an impact on reducing the growth of cancer in these cancer cells in petri dishes and similarly it had a significant effect on reducing the cancer in mice and it's pretty amazing for a variety of reasons one of the reasons first of all it's amazing that this kind of thing can affect that a healer can affect cancer cells in a petri dish it's incredible and the other reason it's really important from my perspective on sort of understanding these modalities in the bigger picture is a lot of people write these modalities off because they think it's just placebo effect they think it's just the expectation of the recipient and then they convince themselves to feel better"

David Lipsen discusses the significance of research conducted at MD Anderson, where biofield therapy demonstrated a significant impact on reducing the growth of pancreatic cancer cells in both petri dishes and mice. Lipsen emphasizes that this research is crucial because it rules out the placebo effect, as cells and mice cannot have expectations or psychological responses.

"the real distinguishing factor between someone that's alive and a dead body a cadaver is not the molecules it's not the cells it's not the brain or the neurons or whatever it's the flow of energy mitochondria are the source of energy so that we can live and feel and think and you know move and grow and age and die so mitochondria i started to think maybe they're the portal the portal between the subjective states of mind then what whatever we call consciousness and the physical molecular reality of the body"

Dr. Martin Picard proposes that mitochondria, beyond their role as the cell's energy producers, may act as a portal between consciousness and the physical body. Picard suggests that the flow of energy, generated by mitochondria, is the fundamental difference between living and dead matter, and that these organelles might integrate information from various energies, influencing cellular decisions.

"our hunch is it's a confluence of mechanisms that's at work in these different modalities and each one of them is being explored and we're going to know more about how these work in order for a lot of people to really wrap their heads around this there needs to be plausible theories of mechanism the first step is to validate that it does work and there's really good rigorous research happening right now to do that and certainly the stories for thousands of years so that's step one step two is how does it work and it's not clear that it's working in one way so what do people talk about they talk about a placebo effect that there's some sort of you know client patient relationship it's called a therapeutic alliance that's doing the work that's amazing placebo needs to be understood is that part of it probably part of it but clearly the md anderson research is showing that it's not just that there's more is it electromagnetic fields possibly then there's other research happening to understand that as well and then it goes beyond that because some healers appear to be working at a distance and that doesn't make sense then for electromagnetic fields so what's happening with them you have to explore other things"

David Lipsen suggests that energy healing likely involves a combination of mechanisms, with research currently focused on both validating its effectiveness and understanding how it works. Lipsen acknowledges the role of placebo and therapeutic alliance but points to research, like that from MD Anderson, indicating effects beyond these factors, and notes the need to explore other possibilities such as electromagnetic fields and mechanisms that can explain distance healing.