SEPTEMBER 2020

Exceptional Healers Pilot Study: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Energy Medicine Modalities

Guest Speaker: Helané Wahbeh, ND, MCR

The basic aims of the study were threefold: 

1. to determine the feasibility and preliminary effects of a study of this type,
2. to evaluate the psychobiological mechanisms by which subtle energy practitioners achieve health outcomes, and
3. to discover the mechanisms by which subtle energy is transmitted from practitioner to receiver.

Study participants received a free 30-minute session from the energy practitioner in residence that week, which took place in the IONS electromagnetically shielded chamber. Immediately after the session, the client again participated in several measures, and then after three weeks they returned to for follow-up measures.

The vast amount of data collected during the study is now being analyzed, but preliminary efforts indicate:

The majority of clients reported a reduction in pain from before to after the session and continued to maintain that pain reduction at the three-week return visit. This demonstrates that this type of study is indeed feasible to pursue on a larger scale!

Overall heart rate and respiration decreased during the session, while heart rate variability and synchrony increased, indicating greater coherence between healer and subject as the session progressed.

One of the most dramatic results was an environmental measurement using the Quantum Number Generator. It recorded significant deviations in background entropy during the healing sessions as compared to control periods, suggesting that the healing sessions caused entropic ripples in spacetime.

Helané Wahbeh, ND, MCR

Helané Wahbeh is the Director of Research at the Institute of Noetic Sciences and an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Neurology at Oregon Health & Science University. Dr. Wahbeh is clinically trained as a naturopathic physician and research trained with a Master of Clinical Research and two post-doctoral research fellowships. She has published on and spoken internationally about her studies on complementary and alternative medicine, mind-body medicine, stress, and posttraumatic stress disorder and their relationships to physiology, health, and healing.

Her VET-MIND study funded by the National Institutes of Health examined the mechanisms of meditation for combat veterans with PTSD. Her current research interests include healing stress and trauma, examining mechanisms of mind-body medicine, and rigorously studying extended human capacities. Dr. Wahbeh’s extensive meditation training includes the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Teacher Training by Jon Kabat-Zinn, a four-year Meditation Teacher Training with CoreLight, and a 16-year regular meditation practice.