When you talk with anyone in the science or medical professions about complementary modalities, the first question you hear is “Where is the research?”

This Newsletter is about research that was completed before 1998 and extensively analyzed and reported in “Spiritual Healing - Scientific Validation of A Healing Revolution” by Daniel J. Benor, MD, ©2002
Vision Publications WholisticHealingResearch.com

Spiritual Healing is defined as intuitive, mental, psychic, and faith healing, and as bio-energy therapy.  Specific modalities included  Therapeutic Touch, Healing Touch,  Prayer, Crystals, Reiki, LeShan,  Silva Mind Control, and healers using bio-feedback.

Dr. Benor analyzed and reports on 191 scientific studies of the impact of spiritual healing on humans, cells, enzymes, plants, mice, bacteria, fungus & algae.

He reports on 39 Most Significant Studies that  followed rigorous  scientific design and  indicated statistically significant positive results (could not happen by chance or only be due to the placebo effect). Of these studies, 17 were on humans and included large numbers of subjects.

For example, in a Coronary Care Unit fewer patients in the prayer group required  external breathing assistance, antibiotics or diuretics, had fewer cardiac arrests (heart stoppages), or cases of pneumonia.

The other studies - which included all the modalities listed above - focused on and revealed significant positive improvements on AIDS, self-esteem, anxiety, depression, pain, postoperative pain, human physiology, tension and muscle relaxation, heart beat rate and circulation.

We don’t really need more research, and it is still being done!

Remember, our natural state is health, wellness, vitality, love, joy, peace! We want to be there!

New modalities and products are being continually introduced. Some are revolutionary in their simplicity, approach and impact. I consider Yuen Method Full Spectrum Wellness and Energetic Well Being Process to be on a leading edge.

The Warnings

It is amazing to see the numerous warnings we are hearing, or more accurately, being bombarded with! Numerous experts, research studies, practitioners, and those selling products warn that we can be harmed daily by poor lifestyles; poor quality foods with low nutrient value and that contain antibiotics, growth hormones, harmful colorings. flavorings, and additives; detergents; makeup; plastic containers; electronic devices; dry cleaned clothes, insecticides and herbicides; 80,000 new chemicals being produced each year; first and second-hand cigarette smoke, petrochemicals and exhaust fumes, etc.

An MD Allergist says these cause “cancer, asthma, allergies, skin rashes, chronic fatigue, multiple chemical sensitivities and other health problems.

“We are exposed to these things all day long, most of them without choice. We can do our best to try to avoid most of these things, but we actually can’t avoid them.“

Everyone who is issuing the warnings is doing their best to help increase our awareness and increase our ability to avoid harmful substances. But then, the last phrase from the MD says “we actually can’t avoid them”!

How are we reacting to these warnings?

We’ve learned and been taught in many ways to stay away from things that harm us: Our nervous system, survival instincts, “gut feelings”, beliefs and fears about safety, disease, infection, addiction, and prevention cause us to behave in certain ways (like washing our hands and avoiding harmful things).

For the most part we take the “bumps in life” in stride, make changes in our routines to deal with them, and live in a generally healthy state.

But what happens when our reactions to these warnings become over-reactions, and we:

• start being bothered and worried,
• develop phobias and obsessive-compulsive patterns, and
• increase our levels of anxiety, over-worrying, over-analyzing, over-internalizing, over-guarding, over-protecting, over-mothering and over-nurturing?

A difficulty is that our conscious and unconscious reaction to these “over-protective” thought patterns is that we weaken our energy flows in our body, mind and energy fields.

We are told we cannot avoid exposure, so we are doing what we can to protect others and ourselves. Most of us are not really aware of how much we weaken ourselves in the name of being safe and healthy. It seems we are caught in a cycle of weakening ourselves in order to protect ourselves.

What are the effects of weakening our energy?

Any single weakening thought does not have much of an effect on us. But how many of these thoughts do we have in a day? Four times an hour for our wakening hours is about 23,000 times a year. (Note how many times one of the above warnings or reactions come to mind in the first three hours after you wake up – 23,000 may be a low number.) The repetitive weakening can cause energy blocks, which in turn can cause symptoms.

Many authors have traced the effects of the mind body connection both in negative and in positive ways. What are we to do? Whether the warnings are accurate or not, our belief that “we are at risk” is enough to “cause us to be at risk”!

One writer said, “The deadliest self fulfilling prophecy in our culture is that we degenerate as we age”. A participant at a workshop on aging asked the experts who were conducting the workshop “What’s the best way to go, heart attack or cancer? I know something is going to get me!” This is a prime example of buying into all the warnings, building a belief we are going to get a deadly degenerative disease, and the consequence is that we most likely will.

From an energy perspective we do not degenerate because another year goes by, we degenerate because we do not take care of our symptoms. We have not learned how to understand or deal with the root causes of our symptoms. By and large the experts don’t know, either.

So, what are we to do to effectively deal with all these risks?

There are four suggestions.

First, get better educated. Gain a deeper understanding of how our thoughts and feelings impact us. Possibilities are:

• “Heal Your Body A-Z”, by Louise Hay
• “Feelings Buried Alive Never Die..”, by Karol K. Truman
• “Healer Wisdom – Beliefs by Disease and Trauma”, by Valeria Moore is   for those who want to go into much greater detail – www.healerwisdom.com.

Second, develop a healthy skepticism. Don’t buy into all the warnings.

Realize that numerous people smoke and drink, or get exposed to many different risks, and still live long healthy lives.

In the book “In Defense of Food”, Michael Pollan writes “…American Nutritionists, can’t fathom how a people who enjoy their food as much as the French do, and blithely eat so many nutrients deemed toxic by nutritionists, could have substantially lower rates of heart disease than we do on our elaborately engineered low-fat diets.”

Third, learn how to deal with/eliminate your symptoms. There are an increasing number of modalities that teach how to make symptoms go away. Find those that help you work on yourself as well as others, and that show demonstrable results (rather than having to have treatments for months or years).

Fourth, cultivate a life of positive thoughts and thankfulness. Clinical research demonstrates that laughter stimulates our immune response and helps to keep us healthy. Dr. Bruce Lipton goes in great detail to describe how our beliefs affect us in his book “the Biology of Belief”. Mahatma Gandhi said:

“Your beliefs become your thoughts

Your thoughts become your words

Your words become your actions

Your actions become your habits

Your habits become your values

Your values become your destiny.”

I am encouraged by the increasing number of modalities and products that help people make significant improvements in their lives, and to regain their natural state of health wellness and vitality.

© Energetic Well Being, LeRoy Malouf, West Barnstable 2008.

LeRoy Malouf helps people to quickly eliminate their symptoms working in person and on the phone. He teaches them to do the work for themselves and others, The Yuen Method© Full Spectrum Wellness Workshops and the Positive Power of Being Neutral©. He may be contacted at 508-375-6452. For more information on his up coming workshops see his ad on page xx or visit his web site at ewbp.com.

Published in Spirit of Change Magazine, 2008.