A consideration of the Perspectives of Healing Practitioners on Research into Energy Healing

Abstract

Energy healing is a complex intervention with the purpose of enhancing wholeness within the client. Approaches to complex interventions require thoughtful utilization of a wide range of research methods. In order to advance the research in this field, we sought to understand the healing practitioners' point of view by reviewing qualitative literature, research reviews, and commentary written by and about practitioners. Further, we conducted a brief survey among healers, asking their opinions on types and topics of research in this field. Emerging from this inquiry is an overview of the healers' state required for successful healing, the importance of the clients' contribution, the heterogeneity of the process of healing, and the importance of choosing appropriate outcomes to reflect the goal of wholeness. Beyond attending to measurement of these nuanced aspects, we propose utilization of research designs appropriate for complex interventions, more use of qualitative research techniques, consideration of large data registries, and adoption of the perspectives of realist research. An important gap identified was the overall lack of understanding of the clients' experience and contribution to the healing encounter.

Transformational Changes in Health Status: A Qualitative Exploration of Healing Moments

“…Both are academic medical doctors with an interest in healing who have conducted extensive research on healing [15][16][17][18][19][20] . SW is an academic holistic family physician and mixed methods researcher of complex interventions who has trained in Native North and South American healing techniques.…”

Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometric Analysis of Isotopic Abundance of <sup>13</sup>C, <sup>2</sup>H, and <sup>18</sup>O in Biofield Energy Treated p-tertiary Butylphenol (PTBP)

“…In the similar approach, P M+2 can be calculated as follow: The experimental values (Table 3) for the control sample and the above calculated theoretical values suggest that 13 C and 18 O might have major contributions from (C 10 H 14 O) + to m/z 151 and 152, respectively. The percentage change of the isotopic abundance ratios (P M+1 /P M and P M+2 /P M ) in the biofield treated PTBP with respect to the control PTBP is presented in Table 3 and Figure 4.…”

“…Healing practitioner has the ability to harness the energy from the earth, the "universal energy field" and can be transmitted the biofield energy into any living or non-living object(s) around the Globe with the purpose of improving the wholeness within the objects. This is known as biofield energy treatment or energy medicine and is recognized as complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) [18,19]. The Trivedi Effect ® -biofield energy healing has recently drawn attention in the various scientific fields, such as medical science [20], biotechnology [21,22], microbiology [23,24], organic chemistry [25,26], pharmaceutical [27], nutraceutical [28], materials science [29,30], and agricultural [31,32] due to its outstanding applicability to modify the characteristic properties of the living and non-living substances.…”

“…On the other hand, it was reduced in the biofield treated sample at T2 by 1.28% as compared to the control PTBP. Concisely, 13 C, 2 H, and 17 O contributions from (C 10 H 14 O) + to m/z 151 and 18 O contribution from (C 10 H 14 O) + to m/z 152 in the biofield treated PTBP were changed with respect to the control sample and was found to have time dependent effect. The biofield energy treated PTBP might display isotope effects such as different physicochemical and thermal properties, rate of the reaction, selectivity and binding energy due to the changed isotopic abundance ratio as compared to the control sample.…”

Caring and healing in health care: The evidence base

“…The healer embodies a desire to serve others, focuses on repair and rebalancing of the whole person, and has the ability and skills to channel energy for the benefit of the other (Kenny, 2012). Additionally, there are many other types of healers, including spiritual healers, energy healers, Reiki practitioners and others, who believe that healing can be facilitated by intention and energy channelling (Warber et al, 2015).…”