Energy medicine is founded upon the assumption that invisible healing energies exist. Practitioners of energy healing claim they can sense this energy, rebalance it to promote health, and use their techniques to harness them for good health outcomes.
Jill Blakeway, an acupuncturist in Michigan, finds this theory intriguing yet skeptical: What has research to support it?
Quantum physics
Quantum physics examines energy and matter at their most fundamental levels, studying wave-particle duality at these microscopic scales and leading to the understanding that everything is composed of energy – the foundation of energy healing such as ancient traditions of acupuncture or Ayurveda medicine that work with subtle energies such as ch’i and prana in our bodies.
Understanding energy medicine requires an in-depth knowledge of quantum physics. Many mainstream physicists struggle to explain its esoteric concepts due to its focus on very small particle behavior – something far removed from Newtonian approaches to physics that we all are familiar with.
Classical mechanics provides us with concrete results and equations that exactly describe where particles exist in space, while quantum mechanics takes a probabilistic approach that means we cannot know precisely where any particle will be at any moment – as its energy potentials cannot vary as with larger objects like baseballs moving through air, slowing down, stopping abruptly, landing etc.
Niels Bohr developed this theory further in 1913 by developing the planetary model of an atom – still used today – which provides visual representation of its structure and charged particles. His hypothesis suggested that electrons occupy fixed orbits around their nucleus; when changing orbit, electrons emit or absorb energy that manifests either as light waves if emitted, or electromagnetic radiation when absorbed.
Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle is one of the cornerstones of quantum physics, asserting that it is impossible to know both a particle’s exact position and momentum simultaneously. This is due to a particle’s position being only known to within an acceptable margin while wave speeds and wavelengths cannot be accurately described at once. Additional concepts in quantum physics include Quantum Superposition — where one particle can simultaneously act both as wave and particle — as well as Quantum Entanglement — the idea that two distantly located particles may become interlinked enough so as changes affect both simultaneously.
Electromagnetism
The electromagnetic force, or EMF, is created through interactions between electric charges and magnetic moments, producing fields which may be static or slowly fluctuating before eventually manifesting as waves known as electromagnetic radiation (which includes radio waves on one end and gamma rays on another). EMF powers everything from traffic lights in your street to radio signals on mobile phones as well as being the energy source behind batteries that power our electrical devices – it truly affects everything!
Science’s examination of electricity and magnetism dates back centuries; however, modern scientists made great strides forward. William Gilbert was one such pioneer. Known as a physician and natural philosopher from the 16th century, he first described electromagnetic force as an electrostatic attraction and magnetic pull. Additionally, Gilbert discovered the principles governing electricity and magnetism which later formed the basis of our modern technologies.
No one disputes the importance of electromagnetic fields in our lives, yet little thought has been given to whether there may be an interrelated energy field that lies underneath human bodies and influences disease causation and treatment. If this were indeed the case, modern medicine would experience dramatic advances in disease diagnosis and management.
Medical scientists have dedicated themselves to understanding the human energy field. According to their research, information necessary for growth and healing may be provided via both total electromagnetic (EM) fields as well as more subtle ones that lie underneath physical bodies known as etheric fields which cannot easily be measured with physical instruments.
Energy medicine involves harnessing invisible fields to treat disease and promote health. It has various applications in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), including energy healing, homeopathy, acupuncture, magnet therapy and bioelectromagnetic therapies. Energy medicine may also play an integral part at cellular level – the etheric field provides the template for physical development which in turn guides cell growth, differentiation and healing; furthermore it may act as a mediator of knowledge transfer among living systems; plausible energy-based explanations have also been offered for various unexplained phenomena like Phantom Limb Pain or emotional entrainment among groups or unusually rapid responses to treatments like energy medicine treatments.
Biofields
Biofields are defined as spatially distributed sets of electromagnetic, biophotonic, and other forces which encode information and exert instructive influences upon cells capable of perceiving and being modified by them. Biofields are seen as integral aspects of self-regulation for cells, tissues, organisms as a whole; as well as complementing molecular-based mechanisms.
The concept of a biological field was initially introduced into embryology as an explanation for developmental processes, then later extended to describe morphogenetic fields that appear to orchestrate cell and organism growth and regeneration. More recently, however, this term has come to encompass energy modalities which appear to activate natural biofields or nonphysical energies that interact with them.
There has been an increase in interest for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) modalities that claim to use biofield-based therapy to treat disease and enhance wellbeing, yet clinical studies of such therapies are in their infancy due to limited funding for large-scale randomized controlled trials.
However, some evidence points towards efficacy for some of these modalities. A 2015 review demonstrated that various complementary and alternative medicine energy healing modalities had short-term beneficial outcomes including reduced pain intensity and anxiety among hospitalized populations and less agitated behaviors among dementia patients. Unfortunately, long-term benefits like fatigue management or autonomic nervous system activity remain less clear-cut.
Biofield therapy studies could benefit greatly from taking another promising approach: measuring how its treatments affect physiologic indices of relaxation. This would enable researchers to gain a more complete picture of how biofield therapies affect body regulatory systems than can be gained with traditional molecular-based models alone.
Furthermore, these indices may be more sensitive to biofield effects on cells than traditional molecular-based models and more predictive of long-term effects than treatments like biofield therapy based on molecular models. Therefore, research on its effect on physiological relaxation indices should take a high priority status.
Reconnective healing
Reconnective healing is an energy healing approach utilizing frequencies to promote healing and evolution. It operates under the premise that one’s body’s energy field can connect to an expanded universal field, thus improving overall health and vitality. Studies by prominent scientists such as William Tiller, Gary Schwartz, and Konstantin Korotkov have supported these theories.
People participating in reconnective healing sessions have reported witnessing strange sights, sounds and sensations they have never witnessed before; such as colors, lights and sounds they have never encountered; others reported deep relaxation or relief from pain and other symptoms; still others have reported spiritual experiences such as hearing angels or guides speak directly to them; the energy produced by reconnective healing can even have effects beyond human bodies – scientists have documented its effect on animals, plants and even rocks!
Reconnective healing may seem complex, yet its science is becoming more widely practiced globally. Based on ancient healing practices and studied by some of the top scientists worldwide, reconnective healing has gained increasing recognition worldwide. Most recently, research using SQUID (Superconducting Quantum Interference Device) to measure electromagnetic fields around the body revealed that frequencies used in reconnective healing increased thermodynamic free energy significantly – this significant shift of energy proved effective at treating disease and other conditions.
Jill Blakeway has spent her life exploring energy medicine, witnessing remarkable results among her patients. In her new book Energy Medicine, she takes us on an international journey to discover more of this powerful force. From interviewing experts at Stanford and Princeton who study healing physics to an ancient Chinese Qi Gong master who can heal cancer in mice to physicians using hands on healing to treat breast cancer patients, her book offers the first comprehensive look into this groundbreaking field of energy medicine.
