Korean Job Discussion Forums

[seoulunitarian]

The 1st batch of "evidence", though I don;t like speaking in such dry terms about energy healing, are:

1. Dr. Daniel Benor's Spiritual Healing
2. Dr. James Oschman's Energy Medicine
3. Dr. Kenneth Sancier's "Multifaceted Health Benefits of Medical Qigong"

Peace

[Woland]

For a hilarious, yet serious review of Oschman's Energy Medicine, go here:

http://quackfiles.blogspot.com/2006/01/review-of-energy-medicine-scientific.html

Here's a sample:

"In the foreword, Candace Pert sets a strange tone for a scientific book by describing how Dr. Oschman "pulled" some energy away from her "stagnant" liver. She tells us the body is "a liquid crystal under tension capable of vibrating at a number of frequencies, some in the range of visible light," with "different emotional states, each with a predominant peptide ligand-induced 'tone' as an energetic pattern which propagates throughout the bodymind.." If you are hoping the book will explain what this means, you will be disappointed."

"According to Oschman, "In the past, the most remarkable success stories of complementary therapists (as well as healings in the religious context) were often dismissed because there was no logical explanation." Here he makes two unsupported assumptions: (1) that complementary therapists have had a greater success rate than can be explained by placebo, natural course of disease, and chance; and (2) that dismissal is not simply due to inadequate evidence. He accepts kinds of evidence that most scientists would not. He believes that Mesmer's "animal magnetism" was unjustly maligned, because in the scientific paradigm, "if a phenomenon is difficult to measure or does not fit into any of the emerging disciplines, it is excluded from investigation." This is not true. No phenomenon that is shown to exist is ever excluded from scientific investigation. In the case of Mesmer, no documented phenomenon was there to exclude."

[seoulunitarian]

[seoulunitarian]

Second batch (1sy concerning Judeo-Christian prayer):

1. Author: Randolph C. Byrd, M.D.
Institution: Medical Service, San Francisco General Medical Center, CA.
Source: Southern Medical Journal 1988 Jul; 81(7): 826-9
Abstract: The therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer (IP) to the Judeo-Christian God, one of the oldest forms of therapy, has had little attention in the medical literature. To evaluate the effects of IP in a coronary care unit (CCU) population, a prospective randomized double-blind protocol was followed. Over ten months, 393 patients admitted to the CCU were randomized, after signing informed consent, to an intercessory prayer group (192 patients) or to a control group (201 patients). While hospitalized, the first group received IP by participating Christians praying outside the hospital; the control group did not. At entry, chi-square and stepwise logistic analysis revealed no statistical difference between the groups. After entry, all patients had follow-up for the remainder of the admission. The IP group subsequently had a significantly lower severity score based on the hospital course after entry (P less than .01). Multivariant analysis separated the groups on the basis of the outcome variables (P less than .0001). The control patients required ventilatory assistance, antibiotics, and diuretics more frequently than patients in the IP group. These data suggest that intercessory prayer to the Judeo-Christian God has a beneficial therapeutic effect in patients admitted to a CCU.

2. Dr. Larry Dossey, Healing Words and Prayer is Good Medicine

My take on the postivie effects of certain types of energy healing is not that it is the intervention of some deity, but either the power of the Mind, or some as yet to be proven universal energy work.

Peace

[Woland]

[seoulunitarian]

[laogaiguk]

[seoulunitarian]

Third batch:

1. Dr. Dale Matthews, The Faith Factor
2. Dr. Koenig, "Intercessory Prayer and Cardiac Outcomes" in American Heart Journal 142, 760-797.
3. Dr. Adina Shore, "Long-Term Effect of Energetic Healing on Symptoms pf Psychological Depression and Stress."

[seoulunitarian]

Even Dr. Herbert Benson, the doctor supposedly proving prayer ineffective, cannot make up his mind: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/helthrpt/stories/s13887.htm

This interview is from 1998. The New York Times article is from 2006. What is Dr. Benson's real, scientific opinion? It seems to change every few years.

Peace

[gang ah jee]

[seoulunitarian]

[seoulunitarian]

And from this interview with Dr. Benson (http://hmiworld.org/hmi/issues/Nov_Dec_2004/forum_pf.html) it seems that he simply re-interprets the traditional definitions of prayer to fit with his materialistic mindset, though it is clear that he is a friend of alternative therapies.

Peace

[Rteacher]

Faith is an essential component of wholistic healing, recognizing that we may have spiritual as well as physical diseases. In the pure Ayurvedic system, faith needs to be focused both on the physician and in God for the herbal remedies and other treatments to have maximum effect. http://www.vnn.org/world/WD9901/WD07-2804.htmlhttp://www.healingdaily.com/conditions/ayurveda.htm Yoga also can be therapeutic and requires faith to achieve full benefit. http://www.yogajournal.com/health/1217_1.cfm

[Novernae]

[Privateer]

How on earth can science prove the efficacy of prayer? That's ridiculous.