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Abstract

This study explores two conflicting models of how patients experience mind-body therapies; these models frame the design of a clinical trial examining the effects of qigong (a traditional Chinese movement therapy) on the immune systems of former cancer patients. Data consist of ethnographic research and in-depth interviews conducted at the Boston teaching hospital where the trial is to take place. These interviews, with biomedical researchers who designed the trial and with the qigong master responsible for the qigong arm of the trial, reveal two fundamentally different understandings of how qigong is experienced and how that experience may be beneficial. The biomedical team sees qigong as a non-specific therapy which combines relaxation and exercise. The qigong master, on the other hand, sees qigong as using specific movements and visualizations to direct mental attention to specific areas of the body. Thus while the biomedical team frames qigong as a "mind-body" practice, the qigong master frames it as a "mind-in-body" practice. This research suggests that the biomedical notion that mind-body therapies work by eliciting mental relaxation is only one way of thinking about how patients experience modalities like qigong: indeed, characterizations of mind-body therapies which emphasize a mental sense of relaxation may be specific to biomedicine and the cultures which surround it. More broadly, the paper argues that gaps in understanding between researchers and practitioners may be hindering scientific efforts to assess therapies like qigong. It concludes by proposing that clinical trials of traditional and alternative therapies build ethnographic inquiry about practitioner experience into the design process.

Movement-based embodied contemplative practices: definitions and paradigms

“…As pointed out in a seminal article by Kerr (2002) and more recently by Payne and Crane-Godreau (2013), several challenges arise when Western scientists study practices that stem from ancient Eastern traditions. These authors underline the importance of having a thorough understanding of a system in its own terms before attempting to interpret it from a modern scientific perspective.…”

Meditative Movement for Depression and Anxiety

“…The MM instructor, however, thinks of it as a more sophisticated process, in which the awareness of the practitioner is placed in specific regions of the body to make specific changes. This disjunction of views can lead to problems in designing experiments that ask and answer relevant scientific questions (49). …”

“…The practitioner’s awareness is on the kinesthetic sensations of the whole body moving through space; the flow of breath and blood and other visceral sensations; the experience of balance, orientation, and posture; and the felt sense of space – quite different from physical awareness in conventional exercise (51). Kerr (49) has referred to this focus as “mind-in-body,” to distinguish it from the more familiar concept of “mind-body” practices. This way of using the attention is similar to that used in some forms of seated meditation (52); but MM often involves additional specific mental techniques.…”

“…The second category involves difficulties in experimental design specific to the study of MM (21, 49, 127). The study of MM presents issues such as difficulties with blinding and the selection of appropriate sham control activities.…”

A System-of-Systems Framework for Improved Human, Ecologic and Economic Well-Being

“…In medicine, human-mind interactions have been regarded as a given; yet, there are no models demonstrating the structural details of non-physical entities as well as links to the intrinsic causal factors with a call for further research into the subject [16,17]. Other attempts have been made, such as Iyer et al [18] who established frameworks for meditation practices in India, without discussing entities of the mind responsible for achieving this ultimate state of peace and tranquility.…”