In our reductionistic Western world we are taught that reality is “objective.” We are led to believe that there is a constancy to the world and that it is consistently measurable by reliable scientific instruments. I will address these beliefs from the perspective of more than a dozen years of research in psi healing (commonly termed spiritual, mental, faith, shamanistic, bioenergetic, subtle energy, vibrational, psychic, divine, unconventional or paranormal healing).

First, let me define what I mean by psi healing and add a few words about the obvious confusion in terminology, a clear indication that there has been a lack of clarity in considering these phenomena.

Psi healing is the intentional influence of one or more people upon one or more living systems without utilizing known physical means of intervention. It is commonly practiced in two major ways: 1. With a laying-on of hands – the hands lightly touching or held near to the body, often combined with visualizations; and 2. With meditation, prayer, or other focused intent, again often combined with visualizations. The two are often used simultaneously. I shall use the term healing to mean psi healing, not to be confused with physiological process of healing.

Lawrence LeShan pioneered the investigation of healing, and laid the groundwork for scientific approaches to the study of healing. He points out that a common denominator amongst healers is the visualization of the healer being “one with” the healee and with the “All”. His book, The Medium, the Mystic and the Physicist is highly recommended for a discussion of the second type of healing. Dolores Krieger pioneered the application of laying-on of hands healing, and her books on Therapeutic Touch are also highly recommended. My own books, Healing Research , Volumes I – IV consider these matters through the eyes of research.

I mention all of these because healing is, above all, an individual and subjective phenomenon. It is from the realms of experience we label noetic or ineffable. This means that we can know aspects of healing through inner awarenesses that are clearly perceptible but very difficult to describe in words. This is especially true in Western society, where our language is heavily biased towards the material aspects of experience. From that vantage point, we are led to believe that whatever is not perceivable by the outer senses and measurable with mechanical, electromagnetic or particle physics instruments is considered “non” sense or “im” material.

I shall return to some of these difficulties following further descriptions of what healing is – from clinical and research perspectives.

My personal introduction to healing illustrates the difficulties a Western person can experience in learning about healing. As a medically trained doctor with a Batchelor’s degree in psychology and specialty training in psychiatry, plus research experience, I was most skeptical about healing. I had years of study, omniverous reading and clinical experience in how people can innocently and unconsciously misguide themselves into believing nearly anything – about themselves and each other. When Walter, a new-found friend, asked my opinion about healing in 1980, I told him in no uncertain terms: “I am convinced that healing can be no more than suggestion, placebo or other self-healing effects, defensive denial of unwanted illnesses, wishful thinking, and sometimes even deliberate charlatinism.”

Walter challenged me, “Have you ever personally observed a healer?” I had to admit I had never bothered to study something so obviously attributable to self deception. Somewhat reluctantly, I accepted his invitation to observe Ethel Lombardi, a Reiki healing Master. This challenge changed my life.

Ethel brought about a physical change in a young man that was impossible according to all my medical and psychological understanding of how the body functions. A lump under his nipple started out measuring 1 x 2 centimeters, was rubbery-firm (like an eraser), was more fixed than one would like to see in any lump (suggesting it might be invasive), and was quite tender. Ethel treated him with a laying-on of hands, placing her hands over the chakras — the energy centers on the midline of the body. After only half an hour, during which time the young man cried vigorously — without explaining what he was experiencing (that bothered me as a psychiatrist!) – the lesion had changed. It had shrunk by a centimeter, was soft, freely mobile and not tender.

Fortunately, another physician was there with me and we agreed on our palpation of the lesion before and after the healing. Otherwise I am certain I would have let what we call retrocognitive dissonance convince me that I must have mismeasured or misremembered my perceptions — in order to explain away something that contradicted my expectations and understandings of what can happen with a lump under a young man’s nipple in half an hour.

Tremendously impressed with Ethel’s healing, I went to the literature to see what research had been published. This was the start of a collection of 155 controlled studies of healing that is now published in my book. These include studies of humans, other animals, plants, bacteria, yeasts, cells in laboratory culture, enzymes and more. Some of the studies were with touch healing, some with hands held near the studied organisms, and some were done from distances of several meters to several miles. More than half of these studies demonstrate significant effects.

There can be little doubt that healing works. Let us examine one of the 155 controlled studies.

Distant healing produced significant effects in patients with cardiac problems. Randolph Byrd, M.D. arranged for prayer healing to be sent to 192 patients on a coronary care unit, while another 201 patients served as controls. This was done with a double-blind design, where neither the patients nor the treating or evaluating physicians knew which patients were sent the healing and which were not. The patients were randomly assigned to either of these groups, and no significant differences were noted between the groups on many variables. Highly significant effects were found in the treated group, in which there were lower incidences of intubation/ ventilation, use of antibiotics, cardiopulmonary arrest, congestive heart failure, pneumonia, and the use of diuretics. The study was published in the respected, conventional Southern Medical Journal in 1988.

On the basis of this evidence from the many significant studies, and in view of the absence of negative side effects of healing, I believe that if healing were a medicine it would be on the market.

 

How can we understand healing, which seems to occur through intention and subtle energies?

Albert Einstein pointed out, earlier in this century, that matter and energy are interchangeable. Quantum physics has amply confirmed his theory. Conventional, Newtonian medicine continues to address the body primarily as matter. Healers have been saying for a long time that they are addressing the energy body when they do healings. Allopathic and energy medicine approaches simply represent the two sides of Einstein’s equation, E = mc2.

 

Why is it so hard for conventional medicine and science to accept healing as a valid and potent treatment?

Modern science has gone through a similar process in assimilating the observations and theories of quantum physics.

Some of the observations of quantum physics, that relate to the energy side of the equation, are counter-intuitive to conventional, Newtonian physics, and to “everyday, common sense”. In conventional physics and medicine, linear interactions are the rule. (Note another prejudicial term.) We deal with measurable forces that produce measurable effects in material objects or chemicals.

In quantum physics, it has been shown that non-local effects may occur. An electron may be understood both as a particle and as a wave function. Single electrons may bilocate when passing through two slits. Time may flow backwards as well as forwards. The universe is so intricately interwoven that every element in it is ultimately influenced by every other element. An event may be considered as both occurring and not occurring — until an observer intervenes and determines which is the case. In other words, the observer cannot be separated from the system that is being observed. Much has been made of the similarities between modern physics and psi phenomena in excellent books, such as Fritjof Capra’s The Tao Physics , so I shall not belabour these.

I am fascinated as a psychiatrist and healer to review the psychological and social processes in the assimilation of the new concepts of quantum physics. It took several decades of research before these observations, that run counter to our ordinary experiences of the world, were accepted. A similar process is apparent with psi healing.

There may be greater difficulty with the acceptance of healing, however, as this involves a shift in world views with far more personal consequences than the abstract and highly theoretical shifts with quantum physics. Many people find it threatening to learn that another person might influence them through thoughts or intentions. Rather than examine and deal with their discomforts, they prefer to reject the threatening concepts and to distance themselves from those who propose them. This is analogous to the ancient method of killing the messenger who bears bad news. People who advocate a belief in healing may be discredited and may suffer various discriminations against them.

It took several decades for scientists to accept these counter-inutitive observations of modern physics. The same is happening with healing.

 

The experience of integrating spiritual healing with conventional medicine in England is instructive.

In the mid 1970s British healers formed a healing organization that lobbied the government to allow healers to treat patients in National Health Service hospitals. With one governmental decision, 1,500 hospitals were opened to healers.

In the early 1980s, healers joined in organizations that standardized a code of conduct. The code of conduct was sent to various medical, nursing and midwifery associations for review and was given their approval.

Since 1988, the Doctor-Healer Network has provided a forum for doctors, nurses and other conventional health care professionals to meet with healers, other complementary therapists and clergy to explore how healing can be integrated with conventional medical care.

There are DHN regional groups in England: London; Yorkshire; Lancaster; Bath/Bristol and others. There are General Ppractitioners who have healers working in their offices, and some of the healers are paid under the NHS. Many more doctors are referring patients to healers at the healers’ treatment rooms. Some doctors are developing their own healing gifts. Doctors can obtain postgraduate education allowance credits for learning to develop their healing gifts. Two hospital pain centers, three hospital cancer centers, a rheumatology ward and a cardiac rehabilitation center have healers working there regularly. The Doctor-Healer Network Newsletter shares the experiences of healers and doctors between DHN groups and with interested subscribers around the world.

How has this been possible? Clearly, the National Health Service, with its centralized, governmental management facilitated this process. England is also a country where eccentricities are cultivated, so that an interest in healing may be more tolerated than in the States.

 

Is this transformation possible in the US?

I believe it is.

The research data is crucial to doctors in considering whether they would have anything to do with healing. However, the research alone will not bring about changes. In addition to convincing people at an intellectual level, they must be introduced to healing experientially.

On an individual basis, it is very difficult to change the view of health care professionals. Each individual is afraid of peer censure, that can be brutally vicious. Doctors, nurses and researchers may imperil their professional advancement, research grants and their jobs by advocating something that their employers, supervisors or peers do not accept. (In many ways this is akin to the treatments received by heretics who espoused beliefs that differed from those of their religious compatriots. This has led some to suggest that scientism is the religion of the Western world.)

I do not criticize people who are slow to assimilate new observations and theories. It took me two years after observing Ethel’s healing before I was ready to explore the development of my own healing gifts.

Getting doctors and nurses together in groups helps them to deal with these concerns. When one doctor lets on that he’s seen a good response in a patient from healing, and a second allows that someone in his own family responded well to healing, the ice is broken. Each empowers the others to speak up. Gradually, with several meetings over a number of months, the process of healers rubbing elbows with health care professionals leads to greater mutual understanding and to cross referrals of patients.

On broader fronts there are further approaches that can be fruitful.

Chiropractors have lobbied successfully to obtain recognition for their treatments, with almost no research evidence to support their claims or explanations for treatments.

I believe the public is learning to appreciate healing much more quickly than the health care professionals. One of my favorite cartoons is of a patient standing before the receptionist’s desk, asking: “Does the doctor hug?”

The public, voting with their dollars, are bringing about greater acceptance of complementary therapies. David Eisenberg, M.D. published a study in the New England Journal of Medicine in January, 1993, showing that almost as many dollars were spent in 1990 on complementary therapies as on conventional medical care. It was not long after that numbers of medical schools, including Harvard, introduced courses for medical students on complementary therapies.

In England, money also speaks. A General Practitioner published a study showing that the healer working in his practice saved money by halving the visits of patients with chronic problems and reduced their medication bills.

This has been a popular item in the news media.

The safety of healing is also impressive, with no known serious side effects. Safety can also be measured by malpractice insurance costs. Healers pay under four British pounds annually for roughly the same coverage for which doctors pay over a thousand pounds.

Much of the foregoing related to the material world with which we are familiar. Perhaps even more important is the opening to spirituality that occurs with involvement with healing.

 

Healing opens us to our spirituality.

Spirituality is an awareness that has atrophied in our society. Western culture is something of an aberration when compared to the majority of other cultures, where the spiritual dimensions are experienced and conceptualized as normal parts of existence — not paranormal, mystical, or to be rejected.

Again we must clarify our terminology. When I speak of the spiritual I intend to address those realms or dimensions where awareness can visit without the body, where time future and past are all in the now, and where form and space are mental constructs.

In these dimensions our spirits continue their existence and development between physical lives. There is research evidence for this from a wide range of psi phenomena, including: remote viewing (sometimes called travelling clairvoyance ); out-of-body, near-death and deathbed vision experiences; apparitions (ghosts); channeling and other mediumistic phenomena; and reincarnation research. The research evidence from these diverse fields is, overall, consistent and produces a coherent picture. We haven’t the time to go through this, but it is summarized in Volume III of Healing Research.

Suffice it to say that the spirit appears to be an eternal entity that precedes and survives physical existence. Physical existence upon earth appears to be a lesson that is chosen by our spirit prior to birth. Our consciousness continues after physical death. Should we not get a “passing grade” or learn the lessons needed in one physical lifetime, we may return again until the lessons are learned. Lessons continue on ever increasingly refined levels until we attain dimensions of group consciousness. Eventually, as the mystics say, the sparks from the original fire return to the eternal flame.

From the vantage of the spiritual dimensions, our existence within the material realms of earth is an exploration, or digression, into the very densest levels of energy. The material body is like a garment taken up by the spirit in order to explore particular lessons for the advancement of the soul. In our lessons we are repeatedly present us with choices regarding relationships, attitudes and actions. If we make poor decisions, we may not graduate into the next levels of existence, but might have to repeat the class with other teachers. If we do graduate and leave physical existence, we might choose an elective tutorial, sticking around in our spirit bodies in order to help those still struggling in the physical classrooms. At some point, we move on to further personal spiritual development in universities that we cannot even begin to comprehend from the vantage of our earthly existence and awareness.

Treat VI Conference Keynote Address, Virginia Beach, Virginia, April 30, 1994

Resources on spiritual healing

Benor, Daniel J, Healing Research: Volume I, (Popular edition)
Spiritual Healing: Scientific Validation of a Healing Revolution, Bellmawr, NJ: Wholistic Healing Publications 2007 (Orig. 2001)
   Healers describe their work, research in parapsychology as a context for understanding healing, brief summaries of 191 randomized controlled studies, pilot studies.     

Benor, Daniel J, Healing Research: Volume I, (Professional Supplement)
Spiritual Healing: Scientific Validation of a Healing Revolution , Southfield, MI: Vision Publications, 2001.
  Only the annotated, critiqued 191 randomized controlled studies and the pilot studies – described in much greater detail, including statistical information.     

Resources for exploring messages from your body

WHEE: Whole Health – Easily and Effectively ^®
AKA
Wholistic Hybrid derived from EMDR and EFT
  Potent self-healing method for releasing emotional and physical stress, pains, residues of traumas
  Workbook     WHEE for pain    Articles     

Resources for explaining the mind-body connection

Benor, Daniel J. Healing Research, Volume II: (Professional edition)
Consciousness, Bioenergy and Healing , Bellmawr, NJ: Wholistic Healing Publications 2004. 
  Thorough review of research validating the efficacy of self-healing, wholistic complementary/ alternative medicine (CAM), biological energies, and environmental interactions with bioenergies.
  “Book of the Year” award – The Scientific and Medical Network, UK
 
Benor, Daniel J. Healing Research, Volume II: (Popular edition)
How Can I Heal What Hurts?   Wholistic Healing and Bioenergies,Bellmawr, NJ: Wholistic Healing Publications 2005 
  Popular edition Explains self-healing, wholistic complementary/ alternative medicine (CAM) and bioenergies, and discusses ways in which you can heal yourself.

Develop and deepen your intuition and personal spirituality

Healing Research, V. 3
   Personal Spirituality: Science, Spirit and the Eternal Soul , Bellmawr, NJ: Wholistic Healing Publications (November 2006)
  
  Reaching Higher and Deeper
Workbook for Healing Research, Volume 3 : Personal Spirituality: Bellmawr, NJ: Wholistic Healing Publications 2007

You may quote part or all of this article if you include the following credits and email contact
Copyright © Daniel J. Benor, M.D. 1994. Reprinted with permission of the author, P.O. Box 76 Bellmawr NJ 08099
www.WholisticHealingResearch.com    [email protected]