IS ENERGY MEDICINE COMING TO A DOCTOR’S OFFICE NEAR YOU?
“Is it my imagination, or are there more energy healers around these days,” a friend asked me recently.
She’s not seeing things: From shamans to reiki masters and chakra-balancers, energy medicine has never been buzzier. Even Bunim Murray, the producers of Keeping Up With The Kardashiansand Project Runway, are getting in on the act—they recently put out a call for patients willing to be treated by an energy healer as part of a new reality show.
As an energy worker myself, I’m simultaneously grateful that energy medicine is becoming more accessible and worried that this sudden trendiness will turn the field into a sideshow at a time when science is beginning to take the practice much more seriously.
I’m worried that this sudden trendiness will turn [energy medicine] into a sideshow at a time when science is beginning to take the practice much more seriously.
As an acupuncturist, I practice one of the oldest forms of energy medicine in existence—one that also requires a four-year post-graduate degree in traditional Chinese medicine, board certification, and a license. Because of that, publisher Harper Collins has commissioned me to write a book that looks at energy healing in all its forms—and given me the chance to connect with some of the best healers in the world.
I’ve met with a college sociology professor who specializes in energy medicine research; he teaches his students a healing technique that, in the laboratory, has reversed cancer in mice. I’ve spoken with a practitioner of Chinese medicine who conducted a study at Johns Hopkins that showed acupuncture could reverse a serious eye disease and restore vision. I’ve interviewed sound healers, talked with researchers who have studied the power of prayer, taken part in ceremonies with a Peruvian shaman, participated in a Native American sweat lodge, travelled to meet with an 18th generation qi gong master, watched a reiki practitioner treat patients in a hospital, and consulted scientists and medical anthropologists who can explain their work.
Needless to say, it’s a broad field—but all energy healers have one thing in common: We’re accessing the body’s electromagnetic field in a way that prompts self-healing or, to give it the scientific term, restores homeostasis.