Energy medicine – such as acupuncture, healing sprayer therapy and Reiki – focuses on correcting imbalances in an individual’s energy channels and energy patterns that could signal disease or premature aging. It has long been believed that disturbances of these patterns are early warning indicators for disease development and aging.
Through science research, energy medicine provides us with a deeper insight into the nature and role of natural energies within our bodies. Well-documented scientific research documents these energies, recognizes their effects, and provides therapeutic applications designed to restore energy flow.
Physical
People typically associate energy healing with therapies like acupuncture, chakra balancing, reiki, yoga and qigong that focus on treating the human “energy body.” While conventional medicine embraces an anatomical model of human biology and biochemical processes for healing purposes, ancient and indigenous medical traditions have developed healing approaches rooted in the idea that we humans are energetic beings.
Science behind these techniques is increasingly evident. New research demonstrates how energy medicine addresses biological processes at their energetic bases, improves cell and systemic function and regulates the web of interrelated factors that determine our health. Non-invasive energy medicine techniques may be utilized at home for greater patient-practitioner partnership in healing (practicality); incorporate nonlinear concepts consistent with distant healing, intention, intuition (quantum compatibility); foster holistic orientation of mind, emotions, body, and spirit for enhanced life satisfaction and improved overall wellness (holism).
Energy healing can provide an alternative approach to traditional medical approaches. While energy healing has its place, licensed health professionals should always be sought when managing chronic or serious conditions. Energy healing appears safe when administered by trained practitioners; some methods have even been validated through clinical trials conducted by the National Institutes of Health.
Energy healing’s physical benefits have long been recognized for their ability to alleviate anxiety and induce relaxation, but more recent research indicates it may also increase immune system function and alter electromagnetic fields generated by organs and tissues in the body. Furthermore, some techniques used during energy healing sessions have even shown evidence that they can alter this electromagnetic field generated by the body itself.
Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis by James L. Oschman provides readers with a scientific basis for these techniques, providing a complete understanding of energy healing as an art and science. Oschman also writes two other books on complementary medicine which cover bioelectromagnetism and the Living Matrix as examples of such approaches that work at physiological levels.
Mental
Energy Medicine utilizes techniques drawn from time-honored traditions like acupuncture, yoga, and qi gong as well as those developed by Eden to tap her unique ability to see subtle energy patterns clairvoyantly to treat invisible energies within your body. Both physical health and emotional well-being depend on their proper circulation throughout your system – and by changing impaired energy patterns that contribute to disease it’s possible to normalize physiology by eliminating diseased energy patterns.
Donna Eden has long taught people to recognize aches and pains as signals of energy imbalance, using energy medicine practices contained in this book to restore equilibrium and support their body’s natural healing capacities. Now in this much-awaited new book she addresses specific challenges women may experience such as PMS and menopause as well as high blood pressure and depression.
Energy Medicine encompasses an umbrella term covering natural healing practices like Reiki, Acupressure, Kinesiology, Therapeutic Touch, Sound Therapy and Polarity Therapy. All these practices aim to restore balance in energy fields believed to exist around all living beings; and have been shown to improve measures of autonomic nervous system function, such as heart rate and blood pressure levels.
These energy fields, collectively referred to as biofields, are generated by your cell’s electrical activity and electromagnetic waves generated from your brain, nervous system and heart. Researchers believe these biofields play a crucial role in organizing and controlling cell, tissue and organ growth and repair processes.
Studies have proven that individuals with high spiritual awareness can significantly alter the biofield. Furthermore, evidence points towards strong senses of purpose or individuals who have endured trauma affecting its formation in ways which contribute to improved mental, emotional and physical wellbeing.
Emotional
Our bodies are more than merely physical entities; they also possess an energy field which influences our cells, tissues, organs, and psyche. Energy healing practices help balance out imbalanced energies by changing impaired patterns; changing these can be one of the easiest and least invasive ways to achieve improved health and wellness.
Energy medicine seeks to correct energetic imbalances to restore homeostasis within body systems, encouraging free flow of human energy and adhering to the theory that all illness results from disturbances to our energy patterns, known as human biofield.
Energy medicine includes numerous techniques such as acupuncture, kinesiology and yoga that aim to restore a healthy biofield by unblocking or redirecting energy that has become blocked due to prolonged stress or injury.
Energy therapy may also help you relax, which may reduce cortisol levels and enhance sleep quality. When your energy levels are healthy, your mind and emotions become at ease as well. These emotional benefits may aid you in better managing pain or discomfort more effectively while decreasing feelings of anxiety or depression. Energy therapy may even help with relaxing effects to lower cortisol levels and enhance quality sleep.
Energy medicine‘s scientific foundation rests on quantum physics, which recognizes that matter and light are fundamentally interdependent. This theory explains why electromagnetic frequencies and vibrations can have such an impactful influence on matter that they can be measured using modern devices such as computerized tomography (CT or MRI) scanners.
Acupuncture and reiki are forms of energy medicine, stimulating specific “energy points” on the body using needles or pressure. Acupressure points are believed to be sources of energy which transmit throughout our bodies and affect how we feel and react in our surroundings, while the reiki technique uses touch to transfer healing energies between practitioner and client, aiding their body’s natural healing processes physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Spiritual
Most people think of wellness practices such as acupuncture, chakra balancing, reiki and Qigong when thinking of “energy medicine“. These practices make up part of this category of healing practices commonly referred to as alternative or complementary medicine (ACM).
These healing practices employ an alternative model of the human body than that embraced by Western medicine. Where Western medicine embraces an anatomical, biochemical view of humanity, while Eastern practices such as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Ayurveda and Shamanic traditions have created healing techniques focused around understanding what they term an “energy body.”
Energy medicine recognizes that our bodies are filled with energy, and that by correcting imbalances in our energy patterns we can positively influence physical health. According to energy medicine theory, all diseases result from disturbances within this field known as the human biofield.
Acupuncture is one form of energy medicine with an established scientific basis. Acupuncturists use thin needles to stimulate specific points on the body in order to balance and support energy flows; their scientific basis states that stimulating these energy points may alter bodily systems’ functioning for improved health and well-being.
Reiki, or Rei-ki, is a spiritually-based energy healing technique established in the early 1900s by Mikao Usui, a Japanese Buddhist monk. Studies suggest that this form of energy healing may help ease pain relief while simultaneously improving immune system function due to reduced cortisol levels in bloodstream, decreasing inflammation and stimulating an immune response response.
Studies have demonstrated that patients receiving energy therapy experience reduced anxiety and depression as well as lessened headache intensity. Researchers also have discovered that biofield therapies may induce healing responses by decreasing pain receptor activity within the brain.
Many people find that natural healing modalities are safe when administered under the guidance of a trained practitioner, providing additional support or complementing traditional medical care. If you’re thinking about trying an energy-based healing modality, first consult with your physician.