What we are basically talking about here after all the mumbo jumbo is removed...is faith healing. Dr. Carroll and I both agree that it is even more amazing that many of these energy healing techniques can be applied at a distance. He points out than many of these techniques go back to Franz Anton Mesmer and his discovery of "animal magnetism. But here is what is really important about therapeutic touch:
Practitioners admit that there has never been any scientific detection of a human energy field. This, they say, is because of the inadequacies of our present technology. One with a trained sense, however, is allegedly able to detect the human energy field and assess its integrity.Go here to read an article which debunks "therapeutic touch".
There is money in therapeutic touch research however. The above picture shows Dr. Karen Priestwood of the Univ. of Connecticut Health Center, recipient of a $1.8 million grant from NIH to discover how touch can heal. She is receiving a Reiki treatment from Libbe Clark, a Reiki Master teacher. WTF?
4 comments:
I completely agree that any kind of energy healing is akin to Schopenhauer's religious "leap of faith". There is no real proof for or against but too much anecdotal evidence to ignore. As a Reiki practitioner with a PhD in classical Western Philosophy I even tell my students that I am not really sure how it works, but I do know from the anecdotal evidence of my response and that of my clients and family that it does work. This is something I wrestle with because I refuse to walk around telling people that I know something to be scientifically true when it's NOT, yet in my experience and that of people around me Reiki is effective.
About 13 years ago I was used as a subject in a Therapeutic Touch experiment when I underwent an abdominal hysterectomy at Temple University Hospital in PA. I received TT before surgery and then immediately in Recovery. My surgeon said that I lost the least blood he'd ever seen and I was up and about so quickly the insurance company wanted to send me home after only 24 hours (my doctor managed to override this decision). This was written up in Advance for Physical Therapists in an article by Susan Ramsey, P.T. (who did the pre-op TT).
Lynda Lippin
http://www.balancenter.net
http://pilatesinparadise.blogspot.com
In your response to my comment you say that the mechanism of action of the NSAIDs is now pretty well known and understood. And you are correct. However, 25 years ago when I was first prescribed Motrin (ibuprofen) and later Naprosyn (naproxyn sodium) the mechanism was NOT known. COX inhibitors were not known. Doctors knew the drugs worked but not exactly how. And that is my point. It's great that 25 years later we have an idea about how these meds work. Perhaps 25 years from now we will understand the mechanism of Reiki.
Lynda Lippin
http://www.balancenter.net
http://piatesinparadse.blogspot.com
The mechanism of action of ibuprofen and naproxyn were both known 25 years ago.
I should also point out that drug companies cannot afford to keep a drug in development without knowing its mechanism of action. The high throughput screening drug companies now use actually rely on the use of "targets" with which drugs interact. Mechanisms of action are further determined using cell cultures and animal disease models. Even before Phase I clinical trials are initiatied, "Proof of concept" trials are done with small numbers of patients. This trial is to validate the understanding of the mechanism of action of the new drug. I'm fairly certain that the FDA requires a reasonable mechanism of action of a new drug be submitted prior to the start of Phase I trials. At least, that is the case for new vaccines.
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