Psychic Healing - Miracle Cure or Dungeons & Dragons?

Imagine being treated for cancer, burns or high bloodmentioned earlier nor in Guinan's review. It is interesting
pressure without the aid of medication or surgery.that the nay-sayers go to great pains (or not-so-great)
Imagine even being cured of those maladies simply byto debunk the psychic healing myth, stating that there is
someone willing you to be cured. That's the premisevery little supporting it and yet ignore important
behind psychic healing, laying-on-of-hands, therapeuticcontributions to the study of the phenomenon.
touch and/or distant healing.Braud and Schlitz's work on mental imagery is
In my third novel, which is still in the idea stage, thewell-documented using a polygraph to record the
psionic officer Doug possesses psychometabolicelectrodermal activity of the 'receiver' or distant
powers such as are described in D&D's Completesubject. The influencer or 'sender' imagined the distant
Psionic's Handbook (1), including healing, adrenalin controlsubject in appropriate relaxing or activating settings.
and cell adjustment, which means he could healBased on the results of thirteen experiments, the
someone's illness or wounds.phenomenon of this imagery is relatively reliable and
Does such a phenomenon actually exist, opening therobust (5), which seems to support the aspect of
doors to miracles cures? Or is it still firmly confined totelepathy rather than psychic healing. Still, their research
the realm of Dungeons and Dragons?shows that intention alone can affect human
Research on the topic is staggering with nearly asphysiology from a distance (4).
many proponents for as there are debunkers against.In their book "Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron
Even the Catholic Church has entered the fracas,Curtain", Ostrander and Schroeder (9) documented the
taking a firm stance against Therapeutic Touch (2). Inabilities of Colonel Alexei Krivorotov, from the Georgian
his paper to the Catholic Medical Association, P. Guinancapitol of Tblisi, who worked in conjunction with his son,
states that "therapeutic touch" (quotations used bya medical doctor. The authors described how Col.
Guinan) is not a practice employed by the CatholicKrivorotov moves his hands "about five centimeters"
Hospital Pastoral Practice, after an extensive reviewfrom a patient's body. The patients reported feeling
of scientific literature.great heat from the colonel's hands, although tests
While the term "therapeutic touch" is usedshowed no change in temperature in neither
interchangeably with "laying-on-of-hands" throughout hisKrivorotov's hands nor the patients' skin. Ostrander and
article, it appears that research in general has actuallySchroeder, interestingly enough, leave the subject of
been splitting hairs and going in different directions,the colonel at this point in the book without further
producing noticeable gaps between the various idioms.discussing the final results of the patients he attempted
An article in the prestigious Journal of the Americanto cure.
Medical Association (3) reported that therapeutic touchMaher et al (4) did extensive research on 'Healers' and
(TT) "claims are groundless and that further use of TT'Patients' in 1992, who were residents of St.
by health professionals is unjustified." The authors statePetersburg, Russia. The main focus of their research
that TT was renamed as such because the originalwas on the tactile thresholds (sensitivity) of the fingers
name, laying-on-of-hands, was consideredof Healers, Patients, Healer Simulators, and Patient
inappropriate for modern society. Therefore theyControls. Their results "provided significant data that
limited their research to articles that included keywordswere consistent with the introspections of healers."
such as TT or touch therapies.They stated that the tests "provide no more than a
However, a close inspection of the JAMA articlepreliminary indication of the usefulness" of this research
reveals some interesting revelations. The initial point isand suggest "refinements for future rigorous tests"
that the first author listed under the title was asuch as using larger groups of subjects. In other words,
sixth-grade student at Loveland, Colorado at the time,they were not overwhelmed.
and was only 9 years old when she completed herThe famed Russian psychokinetic Ninel Kulagina (aka
first trials. It was she who designed and conducted theNeyla Mikhailova) reportedly could cause third degree
tests cited in the article. The methods she developedburns on her stomach (9). This gives credence to the
were simplistic (i.e. which 'healing' hand is closest to theidea that psychic powers can affect body tissue, as
subject's hand) in relation to the research conductedwell as enzymes. But was the stomach the only place
by advocates for psychic healing, who employed aMs. Kulagina could produce these burns? Were burns
variety of scientific techniques, such asthe only injury she could produce?
electrocardiography (EKG), ultrasound (4) and evenSo as the question was asked in my previous article,
polygraphs (5)."Could Jean Grey Become Storm?" (10), what is being
The second notable aspect of the article is that nearlyaffected here, or what process is the psychic healer
twenty percent of the references cited were doctoralusing to cure? Medical doctors employ thousands of
dissertations or master's theses. As a Ph.D., I knowsurgical procedures and thousands of medicines to
first-hand the intense scrutiny a student's researchcure our ills, aches and pains. Yet very few, if any, of
receives from the faculty group and the advisingthe healers mentioned here had any noted prior
professor. I also am aware of the omnipresent politicsmedical training. So if they do not know the intricacies
and bureaucracy that a student must endure andand complexities of our bodies, how can they cure?
defer to during the journey and hopefully completion ofCould the psychic healers be commanding our bodies
graduate school.own natural resources and defenses to cure us?
The third and most interesting feature is the absenceLooking at the research presented as a whole, it
of articles referencing names ubiquitous to psychicseems that our brain is the main thing that keeps us
healing (as I have found in my research review), suchhealthy and cures us. Whether it is psychic healing, the
as Oskar Estabany, Dr. Bernard Grad, William Braudlaying-on-of-hands, or therapeutic touch, maybe it is
and Marilyn Schlitz.simply the proximity of a caring person that helps
According to the web-site williamjames.com, in 1959 Dr.dissipate our anxieties and fears and allows our brain
Bernard Grad conducted studies on Oskar Estabany,to relax and do its work, believing it will work. There
a former cavalry officer in the Hungarian army.appears to be a growing mistrust of the medical
Estabany was reported to have extraordinary healingprofession, either founded or unfounded, and a move
powers, discovered while treating army horses. Dr.toward alternative treatments. As D. Kraig stated in
Grad's research showed that mice who had a portionLlewellyn Encyclopedia and Glossary (11), "We are
of skin removed were healed significantly faster by Mr.responsible for our own health."
Estabany's treatment than the wounded mice who1. S. Winter, The Complete Psionics Handbook, TSR,
were not treated by him.Inc. 1991.
Further demonstrations of the Hungarian healers'2. P. Guinan, "Therapeutic Touch is not a Catholic
abilities were studied by Smith (6), who discovered theHospital Pastoral Practice" Linacre Quarterly, February
healer's ability to stimulate the activity of the enzyme2004, pp 5-14.
trypsin as measured on a known substrate in vitro.3. L. Rosa, E. Rosa, L. Sarner, S. Barrett, "A Close Look
Statistically significant stimulations of the enzymeat Therapeutic Touch". The Journal of the American
activity were repeated consistently over a period ofMedical Association, Vol. 279, No. 13, April 1, 1999, pp
three weeks.1005-1010.
Dolores Krieger, who developed TT (and subsequently4. M. Maher, I. Vartanian, T. Chernigovskaya, R. Reinsel,
trashed by the JAMA article) studied Estabany using"Physiological Concomitants of the Laying-on-of-Hands:
hemoglobin levels as indicators of his talents (7).Changes in Healers' and Patients' Tactile Sensitivity."
According to Varvoglis, Estabany applied hisParapsychology Association, 1992.
"laying-on-of-hands" (placing one or both hands on or5. W. James, "Psionics - Practical Application of
near the patient's body) to forty-nine people sufferingPsychic Awareness."
from a broad range of unspecified illnesses.6. T. Bunnell, "The Effect of 'Healing with Intent' on
Hemoglobin levels of the 'treated' group werePepsin Enzyme Activity." J Scientific Exploration, Vol.
statistically significantly higher and stayed elevated for13, No. 2, pp. 139-148, 1999.
a full year than for an untreated group of twenty-nine7. M. Varvoglis, "Psychic (Distant) Healing."
patients with similar health problems.Parapsychology Association, June 7, 2000.
Much of Dr. Grad's research and articles with and8. L. Dossey, S. Schwartz, "Therapeutic Intent/Healing
without Mr. Estabany can be found listed by DosseyBibliography of Research."
and Schwartz (8) and Ostrander and Schroeder (9).9. S. Ostrander, L. Schroeder, "Psychic Discoveries
W. Braud and M. Schlitz of the Mind ScienceBehind the Iron Curtain," Prentice-Hall, Inc., NJ, 1970.
Foundation in San Antonio, Texas are also discussed10. A. Scott, "Could Jean Grey Become Storm?,
by M. Maher (4), James (5), Varvoglis (7) and DosseyEzineArticles.
and Schwartz (8), but not in the JAMA article as