Spiritual and psychic healing can be defined as purposeful intervention by one or more people to help another living being/organism/system improve their condition in a direct way (Jonas & Crawford, 2003). Spiritual healing can also be understood as the personal experience of transcending suffering (Egnew, 2005; Yawar, 2001).
Shamanic healing is a group of techniques utilized by practitioners who access the help of spirits to heal members of their group (Krippner, 2000) and is less ‘direct’ than spiritual or psychic healing, despite homogenous aims or outcomes.
Background
This web resource serves as a selective literature review, highlighting the subtle energies and energy healing modalities that have been evaluated experimentally. This overview presents a brief description of a particular therapeutic modality, including background on the origins of the modality for readers completely unfamiliar with them. The overview also includes a summary of the theories that have been put forth to explain the mechanism of action underlying the purported efficacy of the modality. Additionally, a description of the procedures that healers undergo when administering the treatments are presented in layperson’s language. Finally, results of published scientific reports on the modality are summarized such that readers can get a sense of the current state of the research.
This paper is part of the Mapping the Field of Subtle Energy Healing project sponsored by IONS in 2015. It is intended that this resource will assist patients and health professionals to navigate the vast field of subtle energies and energy healing modalities for use in their personal and professional endeavors. Additionally, the hope is that the collection of overviews will stimulate organization and cooperation among investigators doing research in this field.
