The enclosed is a follow up to our Undercover Investigation Of Quantum Theta Energy Healing, a new take on an age old scam known as Therapeutic Touch ( (hereinafter referred to as TT).
Included in this follow up are links to numerous terms utilized in the article. We would like to thank our friends at The Skeptic's Dictionary; http://www.skepdic.com for the links, definitions and explanations.
TT has no scientific basis but it does have a history. It was created by a nurse and a theosophist. Dolores Krieger, Ph.D., R.N., and a faculty member at New York University's Division of Nursing began TT in the early 1970s. She was convinced that the palms are chakras and can channel healing energy. She is the author ofTherapeutic Touch: How to Use Your Hands to Help and to Heal(1979) and several other books on TT. Dora Kunz, president of the Theosophical Society of America, was her mentor and an intuitive healer. Primarily nurses practice TT, though TT is apparently being practiced worldwide by all kinds of “alternative” healers and laypersons.
New Age spiritualism has co-opted some of the language of physics, including the language of quantum mechanics, in its quest to make ancient metaphysics sound like respectable science. The New Age preaches enhancing your vital energy, tapping into the subtle energy of the universe, or manipulating your biofield so that you can be happy, fulfilled, successful, and lovable, and so life can be meaningful, significant, and endless. The New Age promises you the power to heal the sick and create reality according to your will, as if you were a god. 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. Despite the obvious metaphysical basis for this quackery, defenders of TT claim it is scientific because it is based on quantum physics. A grant proposal to study therapeutic touch on burn victims asserts: “Quantum theory states that all of reality is made up of energy fields and that over 99% of the universe is simply space.”
Some pseudoscientific theories explain what non-believers cannot even observe, e.g. Quantum theta energy fields in the body, or chi. Or, if the non-believers make any observations regarding the effects of this alleged energy, their comments regard the psychological mechanisms that lead people to believe in such chimeras.
Chi or qi (pronounced "chee" and henceforth spelled "chi") is the Chinese word used to describe "the natural energy of the Universe." This energy, though called "natural," is spiritual or supernatural, and is part of a metaphysical, not an empirical, belief system. New Agers often refer to this energy as subtle energy. Chi thought to permeate all things, including the human body. Such metaphysical systems are generally referred to as types of vitalism. One of the key concepts related to chi is the concept of harmony. Trouble, whether in the universe or in the body, is a function of disharmony, of things being out of balance and in need of restoration to equilibrium.
faith healing
The wonderful influence of imagination in the cure of diseases is well known. A motion of the hand, or a glance of the eye, will throw a weak and credulous patient into a fit; and a pill made of bread, if taken with sufficient faith, will operate a cure better than all the drugs in the pharmacopœia. --Charles Mackay
The placebo effect and the temporal variability of pain in any painful disease work together to produce a powerful illusion that a faith healer or a quack has effected a 'cure'. --Terence Hines
One woman who we were very close to, suffering from lung cancer, so wanted to believe that she was cured [by Benny Hinn] that she never saw her oncologist again. He heard about her death through us. --Antony Thomas on his HBO documentary – A Question of Miracles*
Vitalism is the metaphysical doctrine that living organisms possess a non-physical inner force or energy that gives them the property of life.
Vitalists believe that the laws of physics and chemistry alone cannot explain life functions and processes. Vitalism is opposed to mechanistic materialism and its thesis that life emerges from a complex combination of organic matter.
The vitalistic principle goes by many names: chi or qi (China)prana (India and therapeutic touch), ki (Japan); Wilhelm Reich's orgone, Mesmer's animal magnetism, Bergson's élan vital (vital force), etc. American advocates much prefer the term energy. Many kinds of alternative therapies or energy medicines are based upon a belief that health is determined by the flow of this alleged energy. For examples, see acupuncture, Ayurvedic medicine, therapeutic touch, reiki, qigong,.
This seems like a non sequitur, but she goes on: “if life is characterized by an interchange of various qualities of energy, it can be assumed that any form of obstruction -- either within the organism or between the organism and the environment -- is contrary to Nature's tendencies and therefore unhealthy.” This seems like an “alternative” logic using an “alternative” science to support an “alternative” therapy.
It might be true that an obstruction within an organism is contrary to Nature's tendencies, if by that we mean such things as: blockage of an air passage is unhealthy or blocked arteries are unhealthy. Yet, most rational patients with such blockages would probably want someone to physically unblock the passageway. A rational person would not think that a mystic waving her hands over one’s energy field would ever remove any such blockage. On the other hand, for most organisms the environment is mostly obstructions. This may not be healthy, but it is certainly natural. In any case, what does it mean to say that it is unhealthy to go contrary to Nature's tendencies? Are the hurricane, the tornado, the volcano, the flood, the lightning bolt and the earthquake contrary to Nature's tendencies? How could they be, since they are part of Nature. Is the lion eating the gazelle contrary to Nature's tendencies?
The TT therapist has powers physicians don't have: secret, mystical powers which only the practitioner can measure. You get a lot of positive feedback. You can’t hurt anyone because you’re not even touching them, much less invading their body with drugs or surgical instruments. You network and those in your network feed off of each other's enthusiasm. There is a great deal ofcommunal reinforcement. Many patients swear they can feel your good work. You feel revitalized, empowered.
See also alternative health practice, aura, chakra, crystal power,and Kirlian photography.further reading
Huston, Peter. "China, Chi, and Chicanery - Examining Traditional Chinese Medicine and Chi Theory," Skeptical Inquirer, Sept/Oct 1995.
Lin, Zixin (editor). Qigong : Chinese Medicine or Pseudoscience?(Prometheus, 2000).
Randi, James. An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural (N.Y.: St. Martin's Press, 1995).
Qigong: Chinese Medicine or Pseudoscience?
by Zixin Lin (Editor), Yu Li, Guo Zhengyi, Shen Zhenyu, Zhang Honglin, Lin Zixin
websites
"Acupuncture, Qigong, and "Chinese Medicine" by Stephen Barrett, M.D.
The Twelve Primary Qi Channels by Yang, Jwing-Ming
SHAOLIN KUNGFU, CHI KUNG AND ZEN
The Chinese Philosophy Page
Su Tzu's Chinese Philosophy of QiGong
