Abstract

Explores the concept of physical energy as it is involved in the therapeutic touch and reports on experiments conducted to examine the "laying on of hands." It is suggested that cultural blinders and prejudices keep more people from functioning as healers. The experiments of a biologist, using wounded mice presented to a healer in a paper bag, yielded evidence of a subtle healing energy. Ss receiving the healing treatment showed significantly faster wound healing. Ss were subsequently subjected to near-freezing temperature overnight; only 14% of controls survived, while 63% of the treated Ss did. When the biologist and healer worked with iv feeding solutions in which baked barley seeds were soaked, seeds soaked in treated solutions had significantly more sprouts, faster and taller seedlings, and plants that weighed more. When the experiment was repeated using a depressed patient rather than the healer, the opposite effects resulted. (6 ref)