Energy Healing: Its Different Facets

Generally, this vital energy, sometimes referred to as qi / chi, ki, or prana, flows throughout our bodies in various pathways called nadis or meridians. These pathways intersect at different points, which are generally the sights of the primary acupoints. Within the body are major nodes where the energy centers meet called chakras.

Healers generally analyse these acupoints and chakras then manipulate the energy so it can flow unobstructed throughout the body. This is the general goal of energy healing.

Energy healing should not be viewed as a single type of healing, but a broad category of related disciplines. Although some healers do exclusively use one healing method (certification is not always cheap), many will combine different styles of energy healing as a part of their arsenal, depending on the type of problems the patients wants fixed.

Acupuncture, reflexology, yoga, aromatherapy, homeopathy, massage, herbal medicine, and mind-body techniques like tai chi, Qi gong, meditation, and mindfulness are just a few examples of the various forms of complementary and alternative medicine.

Furthermore, there are various healing modalities that focus more on the body’s energy fields. These include Healing Touch, a gentle hands-on technique that works on the body’s energy fields; Shamanic Healing, which combines drumming and chanting; and Sound Healing, a relatively recent trend in self-care.

Nevertheless, one of the most popular forms of energy healing is Reiki. The name is a combination or “rei”, which is God’s wisdom, and “ki”, which is our energy. Although it was based upon traditional beliefs in Japan, modern Reiki is usually regarded to have been developed by Mikao Usui in the early twentieth century, and is now practiced all over the world. Practitioners use a set of symbols for the energy flow and attempt to remove blockages of stale or negative energy by bombarding the patient with positive energy. Typically, a patient will lie down on a table while the healer holds their hands a few inches above the body and moves energy around. According to its practitioners, Reiki is typically a safe practice because they are only channelling positive energy instead of absorbing negative energy.

Another energy healing form that has found some traction is Pranic Healing created by Choa Kok Sui. He tried to combine some of his scientific background with his own mystical studies to create this energy healing method. The main goal of Pranic Healing is to help the body use the vital energy to cleanse itself. A typical session is composed of three main steps: scanning for imbalances, cleansing of negative energy, and finally reenergizing with fresh prana to help the body heal. Typically, this is done without touch. This is a holistic and individualistic approach to healing that also utilizes a special type of yoga, Arhatic Yoga.

Although much energy healing is done with the hands or without touch, some methods use physical objects, namely crystals. The thought is that different rocks have different vibrational energies that can have a particular effect on the various areas of the body. This has been widely believed far into antiquity, but much of the modern ideology is based upon the work of researcher Marcel Vogel, who found that quartz has the ability to store our thoughts. Crystals are also thought to have a profound effect on our chakras. There are a few ways to use crystals for energy healing. The easiest is to simply wear one or carry it with you. Also, special healers can use them to cleanse or energize by either holding them above the body or placing the stones at strategic places on the body. It is also encouraged to meditate near a crystal.

Sound Healing is a practice that has been utilized for thousands of years, employing the power of sound and vibration. It is often referred to as vibrational medicine due to the manner in which these instruments, such as Tibetan singing bowls, gongs, tuning forks, and various other sound healing instruments, are played. This creates sound vibrations around the body of the individual. Since people prefer to avoid noise and instead seek out the soothing sounds of nature or music to help them de-stress and achieve a state of calm and ease – a state achieved through exposure to the wide range of frequencies and harmonics that the instruments produce—it is understandable why it has become so popular.

Two of the most popular Energy healing methods are Deepak Chopra’s Quantum Healing and Vianna Stibal’s Theta Healing. The first is based upon a particular interpretation of quantum theory that says that we have the unique ability to change our realities with our brains. This is a holistic approach loosely based on Ayurvedic medicine that utilizes a healthy diet plan, herbs, meditation, and actual energy healing called Quantum Touch to promote health and heal illnesses.

Theta Healing is also based upon the idea that our thoughts can influence reality and generally “the law of attraction” that positive thoughts generate positive outcomes. In a typical session, the patient is scanned for energy issues in the body. Afterwards, the patient is cleansed. Theta healing also has psychotherapy like sessions where a patient is trained to let go of their negative beliefs. It is believed that we physically hold onto negative thought patterns and these can be discovered using a muscle test. Theta healing is claimed to be instantaneous.

Much of the science and ideology of energy healing is based on the work of philosopher Brenda Johnson and her work with radar scientist Rex Riant. They were thought to have found points of light that are proof of an energy field that surrounds our body. Using this imaging, she believed that she could find congested points of energy, and with healers, could clear up this congestion. Unfortunately, there has been little evidence to back up their claims.

In general, proper science relies on repeatable results and though the findings were interesting (and not all together useless as a potential model), it has been argued that this may just be electromagnetic radiation. This has not stopped some healers from arguing that the life force may be electromagnetic radiation and some have even used it for healing purposes.

There have been a few studies that show that even experienced energy healers are not nearly as effective at sensing energy fields as they may say. One very famous example of such a study was actually done by an 11-year old girl, Emily Rosa, for a school science project. It was remarkable, not just because of the age of the scientist (at the time she was the youngest person ever to have had a scientific study published in a journal), but the simplicity of the study. Standing behind an opaque screen, she raised one of her two hands, chosen by a random coin toss, and had the healers attempt to identify which she had raised. According to their theories, these practitioners of energy healing should be able to recognize which hand was being held up due to a sensing of her energy. Unfortunately for the healers, their performance was no better than chance.

A lot of healers in the past have been reluctant to take part in such experiments, potentially because of fear of having similar results, but they may have been complacent due to the age of the researcher.

Updated: July 22, 2024. – This article was originally published on February 2, 2021.