Practicing Reiki does not appear to routinely produce high-intensity electromagnetic fields from the heart or hands of Reiki practitioners

An Evaluation of the Subjective Experience of Receiving Reiki: Qualitative Results from a Pragmatic Effectiveness Study

Objectives: The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the subjective experience of Reiki in a large sample. Design: The study design was a single-arm pragmatic effectiveness trial with qualitative questions completed post-Reiki session. Setting: The study took place at private Reiki practices across the United States. Subjects: A total of 99 Reiki practitioners met the inclusion criteria and participated in the study. Reiki practitioners invited each of their Reiki clients to complete a survey before and after the Reiki session. Of the N = 1575 Reiki sessions recorded, N = 1284 qualitative responses were completed (82% of total) and included in the analysis. Interventions: Trained and experienced Reiki masters conducted Reiki sessions in person, with each session lasting between 45 and 90 min. Outcome measures: Participants were asked to describe their experience during the Reiki session. Results: Qualitative analysis revealed eight major themes: (1) deep relaxation and calm (68%), (2) body sensations/somatic experiences (53%), (3) emotions (29%), (4) spiritual or symbolic significance (18%), (5) changes in symptoms (17%), (6) changes in perception (11%), (7) sleep and drowsiness (10%), and (8) changes to breathing (4%). Significantly more males reported feeling relaxed and experiencing time perception changes, whereas more females reported body sensations, emotions, visual perceptions, and spiritual significance. Conclusions: The findings from this study suggest that Reiki can elicit the relaxation response and alter emotions and perception in such a way as to facilitate a transformative subjective healing experience. Future work will analyze these themes as they relate to changes in symptoms and compare the experience of Reiki with other biofield therapies.

Perspectives, Measurability and Effects of Non-Contact Biofield-Based Practices: A Narrative Review of Quantitative Research

Practices such as "Reiki", therapeutic touch, healing touch, and external "Qigong" have been regarded as some form of "energy medicine" or "biofield therapy". The biofield concept has been studied and debated by researchers of distinct areas of expertise, and although the phenomenon was sometimes described as physically related to electromagnetics, other factors such as "subtle energy" and focused intention might be involved. These nonconventional practices integrate contact and non-contact techniques, and those dealing with so-called distant healing interventions are perhaps the most difficult to understand and accept. Practitioners describe these so-called nonlocal interventions as involving intentional factors and particular states of consciousness. With a spiritual mindset and a particular state of awareness, compassion is said to work out as a catalyst to produce physiological and physical changes through mechanisms that are still unknown. At the body level, these vegetative changes might be related to individual self-perception variations as part of the body neurovegetative feedback system of regulation. Further mechanisms are difficult to document and measure, and might be more accessible to research by using physical signal detectors, chemical dynamics methods, detectors using biological materials, detectors using living sensors, and detectors using the human body. The growing interest in these practices and the considerable amount of research exploring their effects and clinical applications encouraged this narrative review, which aims to provide an easy to consult partial overview of the history, theory and findings of quantitative research strategies exploring non-contact biofield-based practices. This work also aims to stimulate the reader's mind with the raised hypotheses, catalyzing further research on the subject to confirm or deny the reported outcomes.

Prospective empirical test suite for energy practitioners

OBJECTIVE

To design a set of measures which were portable and cost-effective that scientists could use to determine competence of Energy Practitioners so that qualified practitioners could be employed in improving ongoing research accuracy.

DESIGN

This was a prospective study with sample of convenience.

SUBJECTS

213 subjects, 185 women and 28 men, were tested in this study.

OUTCOME MEASURES

Empirical outcome measures included Triaxial Extra Low Frequency Magnetic Field meter, Data Logging Multimeter, RF Field Spectrum Analyzer, Acoustimeter, Broadcast Frequency counter, digital pH meter, digital TDS meter, GDV and physiology suite including heart rate variability, galvanic skin response, respiration, EMG, EKG, temperature and blood volume pulse. Additional questions on ethics and body reading were included in the test.

RESULTS

Results suggest a range of tests which could be used to determine practitioner competence. Many of the energy practitioners tested consistently produced changes in the areas being measured past the error rate of the devices being used. Across the 13 measures, practitioner success ranged from 56.8% on the Acoustimeter to 100% on the Broadcast Frequency Counter measures with 95% CI. Tri Axial ELF magnetic field meter showed significance with practitioners producing oscillations of amplitude from the L hand at p< 0.01 with and effect size D of 1.5 and R hand p< 0.001 and an effect size D of 1.6. Practitioners demonstrated the ability to produce a change in pH beyond ±.1pH in 10 minutes at a Mean of 0.5 and a SD of 0.4 at a 95% CI of 0.48-0.58 and changes in TDS beyond+/-2% at a Mean of 36.7 and a SD of 35.2 at a 95% CI of 31.9-41.5. Other measures are discussed in detail.

CONCLUSIONS

This test presents a possible way to demonstrate a level of practitioner competence and improve the selection of energy practitioners for use in scientific studies of energy healing in the areas of full spectrum healing, laying-on-of-hands healing, Reiki, Qi Gong and Tai Chi.

International Cross-Sectional Study on the Effectiveness of Okada Purifying Therapy, a Biofield Therapy, for the Relief of Various Symptoms

Objective: To investigate whether differences exist in the effectiveness/safety of a single session of Okada Purifying Therapy (OPT), a type of biofield therapy, among those from different ethnicity/cultures, and to analyze factors associated with the outcomes in a real-world setting.

Design: Pre–post test design using convenience sampling methods.

Setting: Home setting.

Subjects: A total of 11,303 individuals aged 16 years or older from 14 different countries (>1000 individuals each from Japan, the United States, Thailand, Chile/Peru, and <200 individuals each from Portugal, Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, South Korea, Taiwan, Belgium, and France). More than 50% of the subjects were themselves OPT practitioners, and more than 50% of the treatments were administered in an environment where the practice of OPT was promoted.

Intervention: Participants received a single session of OPT lasting 30 min or longer from the volunteer practitioners. They self-reported the changes in overall symptoms, physical pain, anxiety/depression, and dizziness/palpitation.

Outcome measures: Improvement/exacerbation rates of each symptom and factors associated with symptom improvement were analyzed.

Results: Of the participants, 77.5%, 75.6%, 78.4%, and 73.8% reported an improvement of overall symptoms, physical pain, anxiety/depression, and dizziness/palpitation, respectively. The improvement rates were consistently higher among participants from Chile/Peru than those from Japan, the United States, and Thailand (p < 0.001), and among those who had received a longer therapy (p < 0.001). Spanish/Portuguese speaking countries almost always showed high improvement rates; conversely, Japan showed a lower rate in each symptom. Participants' gender, reasons for participation, previous experience, and location of the session were also associated with the improvement of different symptoms. These findings occurred regardless of the participants' age or presence/absence of illness. In terms of safety, the exacerbation rates of symptoms were 2.8%, 2.5%, 0.8%, and 1.7%, respectively. Of those who expressed symptoms exacerbation, 71.6% recovered in a few hours. None of them needed emergency medical treatment.

Conclusions: In those who were often sympathetic to OPT and/or in an authorized location, OPT was effective and safe across countries with ethnic/cultural differences; however, participants' country of residence and duration of the session were independently associated with the changes in various symptoms. (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03994809).

Could complementary health approaches improve the symptom experience and outcomes of critically ill adults? A systematic review of randomized controlled trials

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this systematic review was to critically evaluate the safety and effectiveness of various complementary health approaches (CHAs) in treating symptoms experienced by critically ill adults.

METHODS

The review was completed using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Statement. Electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Education Resources Information Center, Medline, PsychInfo) were searched for studies published from 1997-2017. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs), in English with terms ICU/critical care, music, Reiki, therapeutic touch, healing touch, aromatherapy, essential oil, reflexology, chronotherapy, or light therapy were eligible for inclusion. Studies conducted outside the ICU, involving multiple CHAs, or enrolling pediatric patients were excluded. Data were extracted and assessed independently by two authors and reviewed by two additional authors. The Cochrane risk of bias tool was used to assess study quality.

RESULTS

Thirty-two RCTs were included involving 2,987 critically ill adults. CHAs evaluated included music (n = 19), nature based sounds (NBSs) (n = 4), aromatherapy (n = 3), light therapy (n = 2), massage (n = 2), and reflexology (n = 2). Half of all studies had a high risk of bias for randomization but had low or unclear biases for other categories. No study-related adverse events or safety-related concerns were reported. There were statistically significant improvements in pain (music, NBSs), anxiety (music, NBSs, aromatherapy, massage, reflexology), agitation (NBSs, reflexology), sleep (music, aromatherapy, reflexology), level of arousal (music, massage), and duration of mechanical ventilation (music, reflexology).

CONCLUSIONS

Evidence suggests CHAs may reduce the symptom burden of critically ill adults.

Biofield-based therapies: a systematic review of physiological effects on practitioners during healing

BACKGROUND

Several recent reviews have reached guardedly positive conclusions about the effectivenessof biofield therapies in healthcare.(1,2) These studies mainly involved randomized controlled trials to determine changes in condition-related outcome measures, but few addressed the biological basis of these effects.

STUDY OBJECTIVE AND RATIONALE

We performed a systematic review of studies designed to examine whether biofield therapists undergo physiological changes as they enter the healing state. If reproducible changes can be identified, they may serve as markers to reveal events that correlate with the healing process.

METHODS

Databases were searched for controlled or non-controlled studies of biofield therapies in which physiological measurements were made on practitioners in a healing state, with or without a healee present. Design and reporting criteria, developed in part to reflect the pilot nature of the included studies, were applied using a yes (1.0), partial (0.5), or no (0) scoring system.

RESULTS

Of 67 identified studies, the inclusion criteria were met by 22, 10 of which involved human healees. Overall, the studies were of moderate to poor quality and many omitted information about the training and experience of the healer. The most frequently measured biomarkers were electroencephalography (EEG) and heart rate variability (HRV). EEG changes were inconsistent and not specific to biofield therapies. HRV results suggest an aroused physiology for Reconnective Healing, Bruyere healing, and Hawaiian healing but no changes were detected for Reiki or Therapeutic Touch.

CONCLUSIONS

Despite a decades-long research interest in identifying healing-related biomarkers in biofield healers, little robust evidence of unique physiological changes has emerged to define the healers׳ state.