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     WS5 First Annual Research Symposium on “Energetic and Spiritual Processes of Healing”

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12 Developing Tools to Assess Outcomes for Spiritual/Energetic Healing: Pilot Study
Elizabeth Sutherland1,2, Cheryl Ritenbaugh1,2, Susan Kiley3, Nancy Vuckovic1
, 1Center for Health Research, Kaiser Permanente Northwest, 2Helfgott Research Institute, National College of Naturopathic Medicine, Portland, and 3Kaiser Permanente Northwest Pain Management Clinic
Objective: Conventional assessment instruments do not capture the multidimensional outcomes of spiritual/energetic healing. To address this, we elicited descriptions of how subjects themselves describe their healing process. The long-term goal is to develop language that can portray a patient’s healing experience, regardless of healing tradition, and ultimately to deepen our understanding of what actually heals. This work is initially qualitative but can lead to development of Likert-type scales for spiritual/energetic outcomes assessment.
Materials and Methods: Within a pilot study of energy healing for chronic headache, six female patients recruited from Kaiser Permanente Northwest (KPNW) Pain Clinic were given audiotaped interviews for approximately one hour at baseline, post-third treatment, end of treatment, and three months after end of treatment. Initial analysis was conducted by coding interviews for emergent themes, common descriptors, and key events.
Results: Each participant reported profound shifts in self-awareness after three sessions. In each case changes were noted by others (healthcare providers, family members), and four of six showed decreased utilization of KPNW medical resources. Examples of language used to describe this experience included: “Walls that obstructed my creativity have melted”; and “Something locked up inside me since childhood has released, relieving the hold it had on my body.” Potential scalable items from this study will be used in the next pilot.
Conclusion: Patients’ descriptions of their healing process may lead to a systematic way to query patients across healing traditions and provide the basis for spiritual/energetic outcomes assessment scales.
Supported in part by the NCCAM-funded by the Oregon Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and by Kaiser Permanente Northwest.Theory

13 A Complex Adaptive Systems Science Model for Transformational Healing in Homeopathy
Iris R. Bell, MD PhD
, Program in Integrative Medicine, The University of Arizona College of Medicine
Objective. To describe a complex adaptive system (CAS) science model for transformational healing in homeopathy.
Methods. Examined homeopathic case analysis approaches and empirical evidence.
Results. Observationally, 70-90% of homeopathic patients improve; 20% report multidimensional, transformational responses. Treatment choice derives from fixed patterns/themes that permeate the patient’s presentation as a whole, emphasizing mental and general symptoms. A tenet of classical homeopathy is that all disease begins at the spiritual level, manifesting at mental, emotional, and physical levels. Each person needs a single remedy from the earth’s animal, mineral, or plant kingdom that expresses the intensity of a pervasive life theme, e.g., survival and competition (animals), structure (minerals), sensitivity (plants). In a qualitative study, homeopaths reported “unstuckness” from recurrent self-defeating behaviors as signaling transformational change. Change occurs in a hierarchical pattern from within outward, above downward, and in reverse order of time of appearance. Two recent quantitative studies demonstrated nonlinear, dynamical (nonstatic) patterns of responses to homeopathic remedies.
Discussion. Systems science accommodates the convergent clinical and empirical evidence. A person is a CAS, an open evolutionary self-organized system in which many different independent variables interact in interdependent and unpredictable ways. Each person is part of the larger dynamic network of the planet, living out, within a human experience, the challenges/themes of his/her environment’s animal, mineral, or plant components. Correct homeopathic treatment triggers a cascade of sudden change, i.e., self-organized criticality, leading to healthier adaptation throughout the person and network. The model predicts homeopathic treatment of super-connected individuals should markedly improve world-network health.
Supported by NIH K24 AT00057 and P20 AT00774 from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the official views of NCCAM or NIH.

POSTER PRESENTATION ABSTRACTS

A. Physiology

A1 Energy Healing Training and Heart Rate Variability
Katharine O. Burleson, MD1, Kim G. Corely2, BA., and Gary E. Schwartz2, PhD
; 1Program in Integrative Medicine; 2Human Energy Systems Laboratory; The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ.
Objectives: Clinical research studies routinely use heart rate variability (HRV) as a marker of autonomic tone. We examined the effect of a one week intensive training program in energy healing on HRV.
Methods: Self selected individuals (Associated Fellows in the Program in Integrative Medicine) interested in energy healing and research participated in a one week, residential training program in energy healing. HRV was measured in two minute trials, before and after the training period during a baseline condition of mental counting (CC) and during an equal time period of “running energy” (RE) at a gamma detector positioned at three distances. HRV data was analyzed for 13 subjects who completed both data sessions using ANOVAs between the four conditions: counting pre training, running pre training, counting post training, and running post training.
Results: Heart Rate was not significantly different between any of the four conditions. RE resulted in a significant increase in low frequency (LF) HRV compared to CC over all conditions, p = .03. There was a significant interaction between the pre-post training state and the count-running condition, p = .04. For high frequency (HF) HRV, there was a significant decrease during RE compared to CC, p=. 03, and an interaction between the pre-post training and the count-running conditions, p=. 05.
Conclusion: Novice energy healers show a significant decrease in parasympathetic tone based on changes in HRV when running energy. This difference is diminished after a one week training session on energy healing.
Supported in part by NIH grant P20-AT000774 from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of NCCAM or NIH.

A2 Surface Electromyography (EMG) as a Measurement Device for Biofield Research
Mitzi A. Forbes1, Ph.D., R.N., CHTP; Ray Rust2, Ph.D., CHTP, Gerald J. Becker3, CHTP
. 1College of Nursing, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; 2Bell Laboratories - Distinguished Technical Staff (Retired), Holistic Healing Opportunities, Inc.. Midlothian, VA; 3College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Objectives: The objective of this preliminary investigation was to determine if surface EMG is capable of detecting electrical signals that can be used as a measure in biofield research.
Materials and Methods: These preliminary data were collected from one subject (a member of the research team), using the subject as his own control. Resting state data are compared to data collected during Healing Touch (HT) intervention. The setting was in an electromagnetically shielded room at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Data were collected during a resting state, and subsequently during the application of a partial standard HT back sequence. Electrodes were attached to the back of the subject at eight acupoints. A Therapeutics Unlimited Model 544 EMG System (amplifier and electrode assembly) was used to acquire data. The raw data were divided into discrete time segments and converted from the time domain into the frequency domain by performing a fast Fourier transform, (FFT).
Results: An averaged base line, "resting state" frequency spectrum was definable for the subject that was stable with time. When the HT practitioner attuned with the subject, higher frequency components in the spectrum started to increase in amplitude. The higher frequency components continued to change throughout the intervention, ultimately returning to their original amplitude.
Conclusion: The conclusion drawn from these results is that surface EMG has potential as a measurement device for biofield research. Further experimentation using this device for biofield measurement is encouraged.

A3 The Effect of Reiki on the Immune System
Wendy Hodsdon, Elissa Mendenhall, Rebeccas Green, Sara Kates-Chinnoy, Elizabeth Wacker, and Heather Zwickey
; Helfgott Research Institue at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine, Portland, OR, 97201
Objectives: Although energy medicines such as Reiki have been shown to have an overall effect on health, the mechanisms by which energy medicine act are currently unknown. This study examines the effects of Reiki on cellular immunity.
Materials And Methods: Two protocols have been used. The first protocol randomized people subjects into 3 groups: Reiki, relaxation control, or neither Reiki nor relaxation control. Blood was drawn before treatment, immediately following treatment, or 4 hours post treatment. The second protocol exposed each subject to each treatment through the following process: blood draw, relaxation, blood draw, Reiki, blood draw. In both studies, white blood cells were isolated using ficoll blood tubes and stained with markers for CD4 and CD8 T-cells, B-cells, NK-cells and macrophages. All the cells were stained with an early activation marker (CD69) to measure activation. A flow cytometer was used to quantitate amount of activation of each cell type. In the second protocol, heart math was also used to measure general mental-emotional state.
Results: While this study is ongoing, preliminary results indicate an increase in cell activation in the group of each cell type. In the second protocol, heart math was also used to measure general mental-emotional state.
Conclusions: Our study shows a white cell activation (most likely macrophages) in patients receiving Reiki. These results provide the basis for further study of the immunological effects of energy medicine.

A4 The physiological effects of amethyst exposure on humans, a double-blind study using EEG and GDV
D.A. Lewis II1,2, H. Friedman2, L. Mehl-Madrona3,5, G.E. Schwartz1,4,5, S.E. Lewis1,2,3, I.R. Bell1,3,4,5,6,7, A. Scott1,4
1Center for Frontier Medicine in Biofield Science; 2Saybrook Graduate School and Research Institute, San Francisco, CA; 3Program in Integrative Medicine; 4Department of Psychology; 5Department of Surgery; 6College of Medicine; 7College of Public Health; The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ.
Objective: This study is looking to see if there are any biofield effects on people following exposure to amethyst.
Methods: This randomized double-blind two phase study, uses self-report state/trait questionnaires to determine if there are any biopsychosocial mechanisms related to subject’s ability to detect the presence/absence of crystals. Phase one employs a 10 x 10 design in which a subject places his/her hand in one of ten wooden boxes which were preloaded with one of the test conditions (natural amethyst, synthetic amethyst and no stone present). The subject’s are asked to guess which boxes they feel contains a stone. Phase Two employs the use of: electroencephalograph [EEG], electrocardiograph [EKG] and Gas Discharge Visualization [GDV] to measure physiological response to homeopathically prepared amethyst, synthetic amethyst, base solvent and water; which are presented to the subject’s via an olfactory sniff test.
Results: Preliminary results (n=10) indicate 1) the EEG shows an overall increase in relative magnitude pre/post exposure to amethyst 2) the GDV results match the historical record of amethyst, (aids in healing the endocrine, uro-genital, blood-vascular and nervous systems), and 3) that those individuals reporting an affinity for crystals report improved mood scores on the POMS and have a lower trait absorption score.
 

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