I'd file this under "Science" but that would just be causing trouble. And we haven't got a section for "Magick" or "Junk Science" so here you go.

It's not traditional medicine but patients love it: an unconventional therapy called the healing touch that is gaining acceptance in some U.S. hospitals.

The technique uses light touch and deep breathing to address energy imbalances, its advocates say. Though research on it is limited, the therapy is practiced at 30 U.S. hospitals and by nearly 2,000 certified therapists, according to Healing Touch International, based in Denver.

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"Pain medication takes the pain out but doesn't make you feel good or calm."
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A healing touch therapist will gently touch or glide his hands through the patient's energy points or affected areas, such as shoulders, feet and forehead. The practitioner concentrates on each point for a few minutes.

Lisa Anselme, executive director at the Denver organization, said the method was not meant to stand alone.

"Healing touch is not intended to replace standard treatment. It's a complementary therapy," said Anselme, a registered nurse and healing touch practitioner.

Jackie Levin, a nurse who coordinates the NYU program, said the treatment works well for people with anxiety, depression and stress associated with surgery and cancer treatments.

Sounds alot like the energy healing i learned. I will not make any claims about the effects of using this technique to cure your problems, but, at the very least, it's very soothing as long as you're not freaked out by the person doing it on you. And so what if it's a placebo effect? If it makes them feel more comfortable, more relaxed, etc etc. and it's used in addition to "real" medical practices, what's the problem? It's the same as fluffing someone's pillows so that they're more comfortable. It's not really doing anything to fix the problem, but if the person feels better, they do have a better chance of improving faster. The negatives would be a) people who think you can use this to replace standard treatment and b) people who take advantage of others and charge lots of money for the magickal, mystical, cure all. This should NOT be thought of as a cure-all magick bullet. It would be seriously irresponsible to portray it in such a way. And imo, this sort of stuff ought to be free (cause who the hell knows if it's doing anything).

If hospitals are starting to include this as part of their complimentary treatment, mebbe someone will start doing some real scientific experiments to either validate or invalidate this technique. Right now, what you get is a bunch of anecdotal evidence which is annoying and of questionable credibility at best.

Most of you prolly think it's all hooey and i wouldn't blame you. It's completely and totally out there. It's crazy talk. But i believe in ghosts and karma, too, so don't look to me for logic.

The scientific tests have been done on this. Complete bullplop.

I think 10 or so years ago a 12 year old did a double blind trial for her SCIENCE FAIR on this and it got published in the journal of the AMA.

Ghosts and karma are bullplop too. FYI.

Bah! Shoot me up with drugs and keep your hands to yourselves! I want some bang for all the money we give to pharmaceutical companies.

i think we need something better than a 12 yr old's science fair experiment.

good lord, is the AMA that desperate that they need write ups by science fair participants to fill their pages?

belief in karma is the only thing keeping me from killing people, i'm pretty sure.

my mom will be sad to know about the ghost thing. she's sure my great grandmother comes by for visits. my great grandmother will prolly be upset, too.

The 12 year old thing is a bit misleading. If I remember correctly, her parents were research scientists or somesuch, and the theory goes had her present the experiment to make the energy touch people look (even more?) stupid.

it was a single-blind trial and she was 9 at the time. the article states that the authors believed the practitioners only agreed to participate because it was a child asking as part of a science fair project. i'm thinking if that's the quality of test subjects they found, it's no wonder they all failed. i guess that's negative #3 - people who just hang up a sign and claim they know what they're doing - considering there's no certification process, it's fairly easy.

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/279/13/1005?ijkey=86d1eb2eaffbf1f36b3dc23ebe4e60338ea0bbff

the mother is an RN and on the board of the National Council Against Health Fraud.

some publications (mainly in nursing journals and the journal of alternative and complementary medicine) have documented clinical trials on the effect of reiki on the autonomic nervous system, a patient's stress levels, and healing time. while the experiments documented changes in the measured parameters, the results aren't considered conclusive due to the small number of participants or unmeasured factors that might have influenced results - basically, they generally weren't very well-performed experiments. all articles stated the hope that more/better studies would be performed.

however, one of the complaints put forth by linda rosa and the NCAHF is that plenty of studies have already been done (including the one done with her daughter) and that practitioners of touch therapy and the like will continue to ask for studies until they get results that are in their favor.

Well, if more studies are done and it turns out that the results keep showing up not in their favor, then they'll wind up digging their own grave.

If people want to prove Reiki exists, they need to do something drastic. Like make a guy's head explode or something.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1ZZa_JFN9s