ACPEM View of Energy Medicine
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Health and ill health, injury and disease are considered in terms of harmonies, changes, weakening, or blockages of these vibratory energy flows. Energy Medicine based therapies aim to aid healing by correcting deficiencies and imbalances, thus re-establishing the natural healing, energy systems within the patient.
Energy Medicine is exactly what it says it is - the application of energy as medicine. Medicine to restore and maintain the energy systems of body, mind and spirit as a harmonious whole. This is true health.
Physiotherapy has developed around the three core skills of manual and exercise therapies and electro-physical modalities. Many of our mainstream physiotherapy modalities are energy medicine modalities in action:
Electrotherapy is a branch of energy medicine without the philosophy. As yet light (other than laser) and colour are omitted.
Mechanical energy therapies range from conventional massage, to more specialised techniques such as Bowen, Acupressure, Cranio-sacral, Reflextherapy, Shiatsu, Polarity Therapy to deeper myo-fascial and viscero-fascial release techniques, joint manipulation and deep tissue rolfing.
Exercise therapy, especially in the form of shiatsu, yoga, Tai Chi and Chi Kung generate internal energy (chi) shown to enhance resistance to illness and induce mental alertness. This may also occur in 'orthodox' exercise, but as yet has not been explored.
The Body Electric: The body already hums with it's own bioelectric currents and fields.
Cells: Cells can be modelled as 'wet' electronic circuitry devices. Ion pumps separate charge across their membranes to create an emf. Membrane channels stream with intermittent flows of charged ions which induce momentary magnetic fields. Every amino acid, polypeptide, protein filament, and fibre is polarised and dotted with charge at every biochemically active site. Changes in charge patterns causes proteins to twist themselves into configurations in which they can interact with other charged particles. Enzymes fizz with tiny high frequency currents and fields as molecules meet and react upon their templates.
Cells are thought to generate highly coherent frequencies (think laser waves in step) and can be modulated to carry information for reception and decoding by other cells. As highly sensitive wet circuits, cells can tune, receive, amplify generate and transmit frequencies between themselves.
Connective Tissues: collagen molecules are surrounded by a thin layer of water molecules, which if they were aligned, would allow conduction of electrical signals. This could explain why pressure in one part of the body can send currents of electricity throughout the whole.
All body tissues demonstrate a piezo-electric effect, generating electrical fields when mechanically compressed or distorted. Both ho and Oschman theorise that cells acts as 'piezo-electric units' and may function as solid-state systems. Muscle fibres generate large amplitude, low frequency potentials when contracting. The heart emits strong electromagnetic pulses. The whole musculo-skeletal system is a self-regulating, body-wide network of interacting electrical frequencies which can be read by it's cells as command codes.
The central nervous and vascular systems stream and shimmer with impulses, currents, circuits and fields.
The skin is a flexible capacitor maintaining a 75 milli volt pd between the negative outer corneum and the positive subdermal layer. It stores this charge like a battery.
External fields: The electrical and magnetic field frequencies generated by the body electric, especially by the heart and brain, can be detected up to several feet away. When we are standing by/touching someone else, our bioelectric fields interact.
Psycho-neuro-immunology (PNI): This provides powerful evidence for the body as an' informational living matrix.'
With brain and body in ceaseless peptide hormone feedback. Chopra (1989) in his book Quantum Healing, explores cells as centres of intelligence - a property of mind, showing how mind is not just a brain generated function but is body wide. Pert (1997) in her book Molecules of Emotion, explores the dynamic interaction between bodymind and brainmind.
Brain/Mind: Neurophysiology is an explanatory system exploring the workings of the nervous system in terms of cellular physiology and biophysics. Psychology is an explanatory system concerned with the existence and workings of the mind. Neuropsychology links brain and mind function and activity, offering little explanation as to how they interact, only that they do.
Materialism/Vitalism: Materialists believe that mental function is brain function and the mind exists only within the confines of the skull, giving little explanation as to how we feel emotions.
Vitalists believe the world of mind inhabits another dimension of the universe and exists quite independently from matter. It is not confined within the skull, has different properties and lives by different rules.
Parapsychology: From the vitalist explanation, these non physically constrained aspects of mental functioning are grouped under the heading of parapsychology. The psi faculty is not dependent on the normal sensory systems for interaction with other living systems
Healing & Healers: A major and controversial branch of energy medicine. An energy transaction between two living systems, often termed healer and healee/recipient.
Intention to Affect: Healing is an intention to affect something external to yourself in a desired way, be it an object or process. It is hoped that intent will set the psi function into action and convert subjective intention into an objective outcome observable by others.
There is a plethora of psi related literature and studies.
Life Force: A working hypothesis of Energy medicine is that the physical processes of living systems are informed and controlled by a life force which interacts with matter when it is in the right state of responsive sensitivity. Matter is made alive by the energy of the life force. Death is the ground state of matter devoid of life force.
DNA helix: can be considered as the coiled antenna that receives and resonates with the life force, acting as the jump coil that powers the cell through the messenger RNA transcription of it's instructions. The intelligent, organising life force has evolved, culminated and centred on the nervous system, each part becoming an interactive whole.
The bioelectric fields and currents of the body are the guiding and information systems directly responsive to the life force itself. The life force is envisaged as flowing through the body along a meridian grid, linking all to each and receiving energy through the chakra centres and acupoints.
As all biological activity involves vibrations and frequencies, the life force can be considered as an informal and controlling system based upon vibrational energy and frequency codes. This leads us to equate energy medicine with vibrational medicine.
As in all systems communicating through vibratory frequencies, whether mechanical, electromagnetic or 'subtle energy' of the life force itself, NOISE = non resonance and frequency distortion. INFORMATION = frequency resonance.
In energy medicine the concept of tuning (therapist with patient) is essential. or in a healing session, their individual EEG frequency profiles become similar and become mutually entrained to a common beat (in step.) Laslo (1996) 'The Whispering Pond'.
The Maharishi Effect: Numerous studies have shown that the presence of Transcendental Meditation (TM) groups can, according to public records, reduce local crime behaviour during the period of study. Grindberg-Zylberbaum (1992) has suggested that when the brain is in TM induced hemisphere frequency synchrony (between L&R hemispheres) it becomes a coherent frequency system with extra-ordinary properties in which psi type functions predominate, (both local and non local.)
Discussion Points: At this moment in time it is impossible to prove or disprove the existence of a life force, hence it's rejection as an explanatory principle by science.
Reviews of RCT healing trials find a 58% positive outcome regardless of whether the healing is near field or far field, or whether the clients know, or do not know they are clients.
Placebo response plays no apparent role in the positive outcomes of near field RCT's, despite all reasonable expectation to the contrary.
All experimental evidence to date on healers and healees, backs the theory of near field healer/client interaction.
