Authentic Healing: Effects on Recipients and Healers

Abstract

Types of Healing

Indigenous and traditional healing systems as well as religions have their own versions of healing. For example, traditional Chinese medicine includes the practice of external QiGong; a master healer transmits vital energy (Qi) to patients to help restore vitality, harmony, and balance. Reiki and Johrei are similar therapies from Japan. Christian healers practice laying on of hands; these healers typically view themselves as channels of Divine healing power and may use music (hymns, chanting, etc.) and prayer to achieve a healing state.

After closely observing the Christian healer, Kathryn Kuhlman and the Hungarian (later Canadian) lay healer, Colonel Oskar Estebani, Dora Kunz, and Dolores Krieger developed a secular training for nurses called Therapeutic Touch (TT). Other 20th century American healers include Dr. W. Brugh Joy, Rosalyn Bruyere, Janet Mentgen (Healing Touch [HT]), Richard Gordon (Quantum Touch), Michael Bradford, Frank Kinslow, Barbara Brennan, Donna Eden, and others.

Although each practice has its own flavor and some of the personality of each individual who developed it, these diverse healing practices share a common core of compassionate intention, dedication, and the healer's practice of putting self aside to focus on the recipient. Healers extend good will to support the dynamic drive toward order, harmony, vitality, and balance characteristics of health within the recipient. What impact do these different practices have on those who provide them?

Effects on the Healer

In 2010, our research team at Wake Forest Medical Center evaluated the impact of Healing Touch on nurses who began training. The nurses reported significant improvements in their stress, depression, anxiety, relaxation, well-being, and sleep.¹ Similar studies confirm decreased stress levels in nurses who learn and practice Reiki.² These findings confirm earlier studies showing that those who learn and practice TT and other healing techniques tend to become more calm, relaxed, focused, and accepting over time and experience a relaxation response during healing treatments.^3,4 They report feeling less stressed at work, more confident in their ability to help others, and more satisfied with their work.^5,6 Physiologic studies have found significant changes in healers' heart rate patterns (increase in low frequency of the power spectral analysis), EEGs (more fast betas), skin temperatures (warmer), and muscle contractions (more relaxed electromyography, EMG) while other studies have documented increases in spirituality, self-esteem, and job satisfaction.^7

–12

What Do Healers Feel in Their Hands When They Heal?

Healers engaged in healing work usually have a sense of energy, heat, fullness, or tingling in their hands. Sometimes as the hands are passed over a recipient, a healer gets a sense of heat, coolness, sharpness, waves, pulsing, tingling, pins and needles, pressure, bubbling, rhythmicity, fullness, or emptiness that seems to come from the recipient. At times the healer feels that the hands are being drawn to a place where there is difficulty. Sometimes healers will feel the recipient's pain or other symptoms in their own bodies. Those who are more keenly aware visually or more oriented to sound may not feel much in their hands, but rather notice subtle visual or auditory cues. Some have a sense of knowing or non-verbal awareness rather than a bodily sensation.

Does a Healer's Ability to Perceive Subtle Cues in the Recipient Affect Her Effectiveness?

Although sensing something in the recipient can be helpful for the healer to focus a particular treatment, it is not altogether clear that such sensations are necessary for a healing session to be beneficial. I have not been able to find any research evaluating the relationship between what a healer perceives and the impact of the healing session on the healer or the recipient. It is possible that getting caught up in trying to perceive a particular sensation distracts from the central process. On the other hand, having a clearer sense of where and what kind of treatment is needed may help the healer make more informed, intelligent decisions. Many healers report that their intuitions and perceptions improve over time naturally without being forced. Rather than focus on intensifying a particular perception, it is wise for healers to focus on centering, grounding, and extending peace, good will, and positive intentions.

What Do Recipients Feel?

Just as there are differences in healers' perceptions, recipients may feel nothing at all or static electricity, heat, fullness, waves of energy, tingling, and easing of pain, burning, nausea, or itching. Recipients may also sense sounds, music, or visual effects, such as colors, symbols, or light.¹³

One of the best descriptions I've heard from a recipient came from a 7-year-old boy. He said that it felt like he was lying in a bathtub full of Jell-O, and as my hands moved several inches over him, it felt like I was stroking the top of the Jell-O and he could feel it jiggling on his skin.

Another vivid description came from a colleague who suffered from painful sinus congestion. As my fingers slowly swept over her sinuses, she said it felt like a large knot that had been there was gradually untangled and the strands smoothed. Her face relaxed into a smile as the pain subsided and she freely took in several deep breaths through her previously congested nose.

Are There Side Effects?

Yes, but rarely. Actually, side effects may help us appreciate the power of healing. Here are two confessions from my own practice.

When I was a beginning student, I was given the opportunity to practice with a gentleman suffering from Parkinson's disease. He was sitting quite still as I began. Unaccustomed to the practice, I tried very hard to feel his energy field and then to send him energy. Within a few minutes, he began to tremble; the tremble quickly became a pronounced tremor. The harder I tried, the more he shook. Fortunately, Dr. Susan Wager, a physician who was helping teach the class, saw what was happening and came over to help.* Although it looked to me like she was doing the exact same thing I was doing (sweeping hands over his arms and legs), his tremor soon subsided. He didn't want to make me feel bad, but confessed that as I treated him, he felt more uncomfortable and ill at ease. Troubled at this failure, I asked Dr. Wager what I had done “wrong.” She told me, “You didn't do anything wrong. You were just trying too hard. Remember to stay centered and relaxed during the process.”

This is a terribly important lesson. When we try too hard to feel something or forcefully send energy or try to achieve a very specific result, the recipient can feel worse. Too much energy focused on the head can make a recipient feel “spacy” or disoriented. Too much energy over the throat can lead to sore throat or difficulty speaking. Trying too hard can backfire.

Here's another humbling example from my own experience. One day, I was in Boston Children's Hospital seeing a very sick infant who was hooked up to a ventilator (breathing machine) and numerous intravenous drips delivering life-saving medicine and nutrition. Her parents had requested TT, and I was proud to offer it to her. The first couple of days were unremarkable. Then another healer asked to watch me treat her. Wanting to impress a watching colleague, I tried very hard to “do it right.” Within a minute, the baby's oxygen level fell, triggering an alarm. Startled, I pulled away. Her oxygen level rebounded. I took a deep breath, reassured myself that it was a coincidence, and tried harder. Again, her oxygen level dipped as I treated her and improved when I stopped. A few days later I went back to see her without the distraction of trying to impress anyone else, and the session went off without a hitch. As she improved, and I continued to treat her, she relaxed more and more, falling asleep with higher oxygen levels within seconds of starting a session, even if she had been crying vigorously when we started.

Of all the hundreds of patients I have treated over the years, these two impressed me the most. Why? Because they showed that healing can have adverse effects when it is done improperly by someone who is trying too hard or trying to be impressive. Powerful treatments can have serious side effects. Power is a two-edged sword. Seeing the side effects when done incorrectly (not centered, not unattached) helped me see its potential for helping as well.^†

Healing Effects on Recipients

Scientific studies show that the primary benefit of healing is to promote relaxation, calm, ease, and comfort, while reducing stress, with greater improvements for patients treated by more experienced healers.^{14

–23} There are no studies comparing one type of healing treatment with another (spiritual vs. TT vs. Reiki vs. QiGong). The following includes some of the main types of healing practiced in the United States today.

Therapeutic Touch

TT was developed in 1972 by Dolores Krieger, PhD, RN, and Dora Kunz. It has been described by its founders as a mode of “transpersonal healing” that involves “the knowledgeable use of innate therapeutic functions of the body to alleviate pain and combat illness.”^‡ The practitioner consciously directs vital energy to the recipient and assists the recipient in modulating his energy field to correct imbalances that manifest as illness.

Taught in more than 90 countries in addition to the United States, TT is provided in more than 80 medical centers by more than 100,000 trained nurses. Dr. Dolores Krieger notes that the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems (which balance fight/flight with the rest/digest activity) comprise the most sensitive body system to healing; this is followed in sensitivity by the lymphatic and circulatory systems, followed by the muscles, connective tissue, joints, and bones, and the central nervous system.²⁴

The numerous documented benefits of TT for health include relaxation, reduction of pain and stress, alleviation of stress-related illnesses, and ramping up recovery from injuries and surgery.^25
–27 For example, TT has proven effective in lowering anxiety and fatigue in patients with cancer and other serious illnesses^28,29; it can also improve mood and anxiety, and it can reduce restlessness among patients with Alzheimer's.^30,31 Even patients in intensive care are able to relax, feeling more comfortable and peaceful with TT treatment.³² Patients with osteoarthritis have also had significant reductions in pain and distress with TT treatment.^33,34 TT has helped addicts become sober, patients who are manic stabilize, and catatonic patients respond again.^27,35,36 For example, a study from the United Kingdom showed significant improvements in stress, anxiety, depression, relaxation, and ability to cope among 147 clients who had self-identified mental health problems.³⁷ Another study showed less tension, confusion, and anxiety along with improved vigor among women who received TT.³⁸

Healing Touch

HT was developed in the 1990s by Janet Mengten, RN, BSN, as an outgrowth of TT and other biofield techniques, such as those developed by Dr. Brugh Joy, Barbara Brennan, and Rosalyn Bruyere. HT includes several non-invasive techniques to clear, energize, restore, and balance human energy fields. There are five courses within the HT curriculum that lead to certification. A HT practitioner has completed the 120 contact-hour preparation coursework within Levels 1 through 5, received a Certificate of Completion by the Healing Touch Program Director, and been approved by the Healing Touch International Certification Board. More than 150,000 people worldwide have studied HT, and there are more than 2500 certified HT practitioners.

As with TT, studies on HT suggest it can help reduce pain for patients suffering from several conditions including: severe recurrent headaches; post-surgical pain in children; veterans with chronic pain; and patients with cancer.^39

–42 It is also helpful in reducing anxiety and improving physiologic measures of stress (heart rate, blood pressure, skin conductance, and skin temperature in healthy adults).¹⁹

Hospitalized patients, and adults and children with cancer have improved quality of life with HT treatments.⁴³ For example, patients undergoing heart surgery had much less anxiety and shorter hospital stays when they received HT.¹⁸ In a 2010 study, HT treatments were superior to simple relaxation training or usual care for women with cervical cancer in terms of preserving immune function and preventing depression during chemotherapy and radiation, confirming earlier studies showing that HT treatment, especially from experienced clinicians, improves pain, relaxation, stress, and immune function.^44,45 Our study at Wake Forest showed that HT treatments helped pediatric oncology clinic patients, reducing anxiety levels.⁴⁶ Another Wake Forest study showed decreased nausea and improved fatigue among adult oncology patients who received HT.⁴⁷

Reiki and Johrei

Reiki treatments also reduce anxiety and stress hormones, even in healthy people who are not particularly stressed, as well as in patients undergoing surgery (who also experience less pain and use fewer pain medications when they receive Reiki).^48,49 For example, Reiki treatment improved physiologic measures of anxiety among adults who underwent screening colonoscopy.⁵⁰ Similarly, among older adults with pain, anxiety, or depression, Reiki treatment improved relaxation, comfort, mood, and anxiety.⁵¹ Four weekly Reiki treatments significantly improved mental functioning and memory in a small study of older adults.⁵² As with TT and HT, Reiki treatments can also help reduce pain and fatigue, improving the quality of life of patients with cancer.^53,54 As with TT, the autonomic (sympathetic and parasympathetic) nervous system appears to be among the most sensitive of the body's systems in response to Reiki.^49,55

Another Japanese healing practice is Johrei. Although less research has been done on this practice than with Reiki, similar benefits have been noted for the practitioner and the recipient: more emotional well-being and decreased pain and stress.^17,56
–58 Johrei treatments also helped substance abusers in 12-step programs experience less distress and better mood than other inpatients who did not receive Johrei.⁵⁹

QiGong

The ancient Chinese practice of QiGong has developed into numerous schools and techniques.^§ The two main types of practice are internal QiGong, which is a moving meditation to promote healing similar to Tai Chi, and external QiGong, in which a healer emits Qi toward a patient to promote healing. Although QiGong is an ancient practice, it was suppressed during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, and modern scientific research about it did not get underway until the later 1970s and 1980s. Since then, hundreds of studies have documented the benefits of external QiGong for treating patients with a variety of painful conditions.^60

–64

Much of the early research tried to understand the physical force(s) emitted by QiGong healers—patterns of low frequency amplitude modulated infrared radiation, electromagnetic radiation, infrasonic radiation, etc., emitted from master healer's hands. Studies support each of these mechanisms, but a unifying theory remains elusive, particularly for distant (non-local) QiGong healing. Some clinicians believe that QiGong's effects are due to psychological factors (placebo effect), but this does not explain the well-documented impact that QiGong master healers can have on biophysical systems, such as liquid crystal arrays, cell membranes, water, saline, atomic nuclear radioactive decay rates, RNA, DNA, collagen, hemoglobin, and albumin.^{60
¶}

One of the challenges in research on external QiGong is that, unlike other traditions in which healers draw upon universal healing energy, QiGong masters typically draw upon their own personal Qi to heal. This means that, when an experiment is repeated several times in one day,^∥ the healer tires, and effects diminish. This makes it difficult to achieve the large sample sizes and consistent outcomes that characterize compelling biomedical research.

Despite this limitation, studies show that QiGong healers can improve pain and anxiety for patients with severe chronic pain, including premenstrual pain and osteoarthritis.^{61,62,65

–69}

Spiritual Healing, Gentle Touch with Intention, and Healing Prayer

There is a huge body of human experience with many varieties of spiritual healing, laying on of hands, gentle touch, and healing prayer. Results of the scientific studies on these practices have been somewhat mixed, but are generally similar to the results from TT, HT, Reiki, and QiGong in terms of improvements in pain, anxiety, and overall well-being.^{37,70

–76}

Are Benefits Just the Placebo Effect?

Although skeptics might claim that benefits are only due to a placebo effect, this minimalist stance is refuted by studies in test tubes, cell cultures, and animals, which, as far as we know, are not susceptible to placebo effects.^{9,77

–87} For example, studies at the University of Connecticut have shown that TT had a dramatic impact on the growth and metabolism of bone, fibroblast, and tendon cells growing in laboratory cultures; it increased DNA synthesis, differentiation and mineralization, and decreased differentiation and mineralization in osteosarcoma cells.^88,89 Similarly, preliminary studies in tissue cultures and in mice have shown decreases in tumors for mice treated by QiGong masters.^87,90,91 A study on premature infants (who are also unlikely to be affected by placebos), showed improved balance in the autonomic nervous system governing heart rate and breathing among those who received TT.⁹²

In summary, there are many different kinds of healing practices from the world's many different cultures. Despite their obvious differences, these practices have similar benefits for healers and recipients: increased relaxation and well-being, and decreased stress and pain. ■

Footnotes

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